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The sweet potato production cycle begins when sweet potatoes from the previous harvest season are planted in the spring, to produce slips for transplanting.
Crop rotation, cover cropping, and plant and animal-derived materials are used for managing soil fertility when growing organically.
Using organic practices offers certain benefits, including conserving or improving soil quality and reducing the use of some types of pesticides.
Even with good variety selection, bunch grapes still require more effort to produce healthy fruit than muscadines do.
Many of our cool-season vegetables can be planted in September and October.
Muscadines aren’t the only grapes that we see growing in the wild.
Raised beds are helpful where drainage is poor and can be useful even where it isn't, but they're not always without problems.
This article addresses excessive drainage, low nutrients, and herbicide residues.
Join the LSU AgCenter for a series of five classes designed to help you cultivate a thriving garden and healthy lawn.
Scare tactics may deter birds for a limited amount of time, but birds get used to them.
Our growing season is long enough that we can prune blueberries soon after harvest, and the plants will have time to set flower buds for the next year.
Roughly 99% of insects are not “pests.”
A lot of vegetables don’t produce as well when temperatures are very hot, but eggplants can handle our summers.
Tips on staking plants, removing suckers, and avoiding blossom end rot, leaf diseases, and caterpillar damage.
The snap bean is another warm-season vegetable that can be planted relatively early in the year.
April is late enough to avoid most frosts and early enough that plants are unlikely to experience excessively warm temperatures.
Late winter or early spring, around the time plants begin to put out new growth, is one of the best times of year to fertilize fruit trees.
A Louisiana Master Gardener training course is scheduled for Washington Parish on Tuesdays, from August 12 through November 18, 2025.
One of the main perks of growing transplants is that you can choose from a more diverse range of vegetable varieties than those offered locally as transplants.
Yield data was collected from 31 blueberry varieties at the Hammond Research Station in 2024.
For woody plants and palms, waiting is advised.
Here are some gift ideas for gardeners.
Muscadines fruit on shoots that come from the previous season’s growth.
In 2024, we harvested from the end of April till early July.
Rabbiteye blueberries can produce for many years and with relatively little care if a good site is chosen and the soil is prepared well.
Each year, we face situations in which some of our plants could be injured by cold weather.
Garlic and most types of bulb-forming onions need to be exposed to cool temperatures followed by longer days to form bulbs of the desired sizes.
Lettuce is not a very demanding vegetable, but it needs to be grown at the right time of year, and some types are easier to grow in our climate than others.
Composting is a way to take yard, garden, and kitchen “waste” and turn it into something useful.
If you want long-term control of fire ants but also need to get rid of them quickly in one or more spots, you can take a two-step approach.
Sooty mold grows where insects have secreted a sugary substance called honeydew.
The best option will depend on several factors.
Figs are one of our more easy-to-grow fruit plants, although at this time of year, leaf diseases are often observed.
Most of our blackberry and blueberry plants have finished fruiting, so it’s time to think about pruning them and making a final fertilizer application.
The LSU AgCenter has a lot of resources that address a variety of topics.
Plants injured by synthetic auxin herbicides often exhibit distortion of leaves and other plant parts.
Several types of insects make highly noticeable webs in trees.
There are vegetables that tolerate hot weather.
Sweet corn can be planted earlier than many other warm-season vegetables.
Apple trees are usually trained in the central leader form.
Apple varieties recommended for the Florida Parishes area of Louisiana include Anna, Dorsett Golden, and Ein Shemer.
If you wait until March or April to plant a vegetable garden, you will have missed the window for planting some of our cool-season veggies.
A primary criterion for choosing pecan varieties for yards and home orchards is resistance to pecan scab.
Muscadines are well-adapted to our climate.
Plums have many of the same disease and insect problems that peaches have, which is to say a lot.
After planting, the first several weeks are the most important for weed control.
Herbicides, tillage, blocking light from reaching the soil for a sufficiently long time, or a combination of these can be used to kill weeds before planting.
Some heat-tolerant vegetables can still be planted, and it won’t be long before it’s time to plant many cool-season crops.
As of August 24, the US Drought Monitor showed all areas of Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes in severe drought.
Herbicides are important tools in some cases, but they should not be relied upon alone to manage weed problems.
The LSU AgCenter is offering five classes covering a variety of garden- and landscape-related topics in Washington Parish.
It was a bad year for blueberry production, but it was a good year for learning what varieties are more likely to produce in spite of late freezes.
This spring has brought a lot of questions about blossom end rot and bacterial wilt.
May or June beetles feed on many species of plants.
Deer have poor depth perception, and some fence designs take advantage of that.
Southern peas or cowpeas can tolerate the hottest parts of our summers and can be planted between April and early August.
Governor Edwards proclaimed April 2023 Native Plant Month, and I thought I’d write about a few of my favorites.
Individuals in the Louisiana Master Gardener program help the LSU AgCenter provide education about gardening and lawn care.
Contour maps based on numbers of chill hours received between October 1 and February 28, over a 30-year period, are available.
The LSU AgCenter, in partnership with Nielsen’s Pharmacy and Bogalusa Strong, will offer a vegetable and herb gardening class.
This article wraps up a series about plants for moist or wet sites.
Exposure to a sufficient extent of cold temperatures, followed by warm temperatures favorable for growth, is involved determining when a plant "wakes up."
A client contacted me recently about a problem in a turnip field. It wasn’t clear what the primary issue was in the photos, so I made a visit to the field.
“Chewers,” or insects that make holes of various sizes in various plant parts, include caterpillars and beetles.
There are simple ways to differentiate among American chestnut, Chinese chestnut, and Allegheny chinquapin trees.
When aphids have been on a plant, we often see skins (the exoskeletons they shed as they molt) and aphid “mummies,” or parasitized aphid bodies.
If you plan to save seed from your own plants to use in the future, there are a few things to know.
The second half of October is a good time to plant strawberries in our area.
Many of our “root” vegetables are cool-season crops.
Raised beds are often the best option for growing vegetables at home.
Wilting tomatoes are a common complaint. There are several possible causes.
There's a variety of reasons that this can occur.
Fire ant treatment options are similar to those for other locations, but only insecticides labeled for use around vegetables should be used.
With good cultural practices, pest problems can be reduced.
Injury caused by piercing-sucking and rasping-sucking insects often appears as distortion or stippling.
Fruit trees and bushes can be grown in containers on a variety of sunny sites.
Just about any vegetable can be grown in some type of container.
"Warm season” vegetables differ regarding the times of year and temperatures at which they’re best planted.
LSU had a fig breeding program that began in the 1950s.
Figs are among the easier-to-grow tree fruits for southern Louisiana and can be enjoyed fresh, dried, or in preserves.
If you’ve been thinking of planting a new citrus tree or have an older one that needs to be fertilized, February is a time to do these things.
Within the past 30-plus years, plant breeders have released blackberry varieties that lack thorns, have an upright growth habit, and produce large fruit.
Seven individuals in Washington Parish recently advanced from being LMG Trainees to LMG Apprentices.
The blueberry varieties that have traditionally been planted in the Deep South are rabbiteye blueberries, with good reason.
Fall webworms feed on the leaves of many plants, with pecans, persimmons, bald cypresses, and sweetgums among the trees on which they’re most commonly observed.
Greens such as turnips, mustards, collards, and kale can be planted from mid-July through early November and again from late January through early May.
The first half of October is a good time to plant a winter cover crop in Louisiana.
Raised beds are often the best option for growing vegetables at home.
Like we do, plants need certain nutrients to live. It’s important that they have enough of each essential element but not an excessive amount of any one.
