March 29, 2024 • 23 mins
In this episode, we dive into the world of peach production with Dario Chavez, associate professor in the CAES Department of Horticulture. Join us as we explore the intricate relationship between science, agriculture and climate change, uncovering how chill hours impact peach production and discuss the future of peach breeding in the face of shifting climate trends. From innovative breeding techniques to evolving production management strategies, discover how researchers like Chavez collaborate with growers to develop resilient peach varieties and sustainable farming practices. Tune in for a juicy conversation about the peach industry's journey toward a fruitful future.
Resources:
Stories from CAES:
- Weathering Change
- UGA Extension experts celebrated among 2023 Fruit and Vegetable 40 under 40
- Doctoral student at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics uses 3D scanning technology to inform peaches of the future
Produced by Jordan Powers and Emily Davenport
Edited by Jordan Powers
Music and sound effects by Mason McClintock, an Athens-based singer, songwriter and storyteller who creates innovative soul-pop music that transcends traditional genre boundaries. Hailing from small-town Southeast Georgia, Mason's influences range from the purest pop to the most powerful gospel. Mason is a former Georgia 4-H'er and University of Georgia graduate! Listen to his music on Spotify.
Almanac is an annual publication that provides a window into the work being done at CAES to make the world increasingly healthy, equitable and sustainable. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 edition is now available online. Explore stories of science in service of humanity and the environment.
Get social with us!
Follow CAES on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and check out UGA Extension on on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sound Effect (00:00):
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:21):
We are here on the UGA Griffin Campus with
Dario Chavez, AssociateProfessor of Horticulture on the
Griffin Campus, who's also inthe Institute of Plant Breeding,
Genetics and Genomics. Dario,thank you so much for joining us
today.
Dario Chavez (00:34):
Thank you for inviting me.
Jordan Powers (00:35):
Can you share your academic journey with us
and what got you interested inhorticulture specifically?
Dario Chavez (00:40):
Sure. Getting interested in agriculture in
general began with my parents. Iwas raised and basically lived
in a farm since I was probably18 years old, and my dad and my
grandpa farmed for a long, longtime. And during the Andes, in
Ecuador, they had potatoes,corn, carrots, and other things.
They had a dairy and beef cattleas well. I was not really into
(01:01):
it, as any kid, you know, youdon't get interested on the
things that your parents do.
Emily Davenport (01:05):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (01:05):
When I started trying to select what I was
going to do for undergrad, Irealized that I really, really
liked to be outside. And onething that really always
bothered me, at least with thepotatoes when my dad grew them,
is that I always thought youknow, I always hear the cultivar
names and the cultivar names arethe same when I was little to
when I was older. And it's like,I always wondered why there were
(01:27):
not that many new cultivarsthere, at least in Ecuador at
the time. And I started lookinginto what basically how you can
make new cultivars or what isthat. And then in Ecuador, and
South America, there is a veryimportant institution, Zamorano
University in Honduras, thatbasically is probably one of the
highest-ranked in agriculture inSouth America and Latin America.
(01:48):
I started looking into it and myolder brother encouraged me to
apply for it. I got in andstarted studying agronomy. After
that, I still wanted to continuelearning how you create new
cultivars, work with newcultivars. My plan was, well, I
always like to eat what theygrow. What I mean by that is
being outside and if I have thechance to grab a fruit or
something that was kind of myideal crop. So I started
(02:10):
applying for programs. And I wasable to get into a master's in
the blueberry breeding andgenetics program at University
of Florida. And then I stayedthere too for my PhD working
peaches, plums and citrus. OnceI was about to be done, a
position came up here at UGA andI applied and basically I have
been here since 2014.
Jordan Powers (02:29):
Well, advanced congratulations
Dario Chavez (02:30):
Yeah, thank you.
Jordan Powers (02:31):
on 10 years with UGA. That's exciting,
Emily Davenport (02:34):
Mm-hm. Yeah, that's very exciting. So many
crops, including peaches, areaffected by temperature, which
is particularly important toconsider in the face of a
changing climate. And we'veheard a lot about scientists and
growers mentioning chill hours.
Dario Chavez (02:48):
Yeah.
Emily Davenport (02:48):
Can you break down what that means for our
audience?
Dario Chavez (02:50):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So something interesting aboutat least this time of the year,
this is the time of the year,you probably contact Pam Knox at
the Weather Network. And if theywere looking at clicks, the
number of clicks looking at theweather stations for you will
see that there is a lot ofaccess of the data and weather
stations. And this is related tochill hours. Chill hours
basically is just a measure ofhow many hours of temperature we
(03:13):
get between 32 and 45 degrees.
And what happens with respect tothe plant is that, or plants in
early fall, the leaves startdropping and the plants go into
a dormant stage and what theyneed to come out of that is
chill hours. So they need cold.
So somebody came with a way toquantify that meaning that if
(03:33):
you have a cultivar that needsthis many chill hours, and if it
doesn't get that it can affectbloom, growth, and other things.
Growers around this time of theyear, they're always checking
the weather stations to see howmany chill hours we have
received. It's a very goodobservation that allows us to
see how it would be the cropquality wise for bloom fruits.
(03:54):
Because once plants startblooming, and they don't have
enough chill, you can come upwith other issues.
Jordan Powers (04:01):
And we can link to, you mentioned the UGA
Weather Network, which is run byPam Knox. So we will absolutely
link to that in the show notesbecause it's such an extensive
network and a resource that wehave for growers and just a
curious general public.
Dario Chavez (04:14):
As a grower, I can see the impact that can be just
having that information that youcan pull yourself and look into
it. And you know that somebody'sactually making sure that system
is working all the time.
Jordan Powers (04:25):
Well, we know the importance of the chill hours
but we also know that a latefrost combined with less winter
chill hours sounds like it canbe a big blow to the peach
industry's production. What doesthis mean for the future of
peaches in Georgia?
Dario Chavez (04:38):
It's funny because we were just talking about this
and so I am in charge of thepeach session for the
Southeastern Fruit and VegetableConference in Savannah and
talking to the growers lastyear. This year, I decided to
focus on these conversationsbecause we thought it was
important to think about this.
If I'm a grower or researcher Ikeep thinking, well are the late
freezes happening basicallylater and later in the season,
(04:59):
or are they happening early orthe same time? And the funny
thing is that when you plothistorical data of the last
freeze, it's pretty much a flatline. There's some variations,
yes, like sometimes they wouldcome really early. And some
other times will come April. Sothere is a fluctuation in time.
But when you plot thattrendline, it comes to a flat
(05:19):
line meaning that it's not thatthe date is, becomes later or
later. Problem is actually that,you know, we talk about chill
hours and chill hours areaffected by warm weather. So you
know, if for peaches, let's say,they have accumulated chill that
they need, and we get a wave ofheat, and the plants say, well,
I have what I need for blooms.
(05:40):
So I'm just going to go aheadand start blooming. So if we had
a December that's pretty warm,what tends to do is the peaches
in general, and even blueberriesand all the crops, they say,
okay, let's go. So last year,for example, we were two weeks
ahead on bloom, what normallyhappens.
Emily Davenport (05:56):
Okay.
Dario Chavez (05:56):
So if we have had that freeze, that freeze date,
it was not different to otherfreeze dates that we have other
years, what was different isjust the conditions that we had
in December, that made, thatbasically, the plants just start
moving. It basically put thosein very susceptible, tender
stage of development where thefreeze just took us out, because
(06:16):
we were so ahead, and you know,so it's kind of a combo. This
year, for example, if you lookat the winter that we have, it's
very uniform. We haven't reallygotten a hot, hot day, between
the winter. And to get up to the60s is like a day like today
where we have 60s, but it'srain. And so it's not like the
sun is beating on the plants.
Jordan Powers (06:37):
Like telling them, wake up!
Dario Chavez (06:39):
Right. Although they're ready-ready to wake up.
What that means that we get aweek of warm weather, more
likely they will start moving.
But it has been a really nicewinter for accumulation of
chill. And plants basically arejust sitting there waiting. I
prefer this because there's nosurprises. It is something that
the growers can work with. If weget warm weather and then all
the sudden freeze comes out ofnowhere, that's a problem. But
(07:02):
of course, you know, we havethat option to this year. We
hope that because the plants areuniform in the chill
accumulation, hopefully theyjust take better these
fluctuations in weather untiltruly we're there to bloom.
Jordan Powers (07:15):
We know our peaches took a big hit last
year, and we covered that quiteextensively through CAES. So
we'll link to some of thosestories in the show notes as
well. I can't even fathom whatthat looks like for some of
these growers. I mean, I lostproduction on my three household
blueberry plants, but I can'timagine your livelihood
requiring this and to have it bejust hit that hard.
Dario Chavez (07:33):
And every year is different. What was the worry
last year, it may be not thecase this year.
Emily Davenport (07:37):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (07:38):
And so I always say that I have so much respect
because they basically roll withthe punches. And sometimes it is
a perfect season where there'sno problem, there is crop
everywhere. So we're hoping forone of those because having a
95% loss on their crop is a lotand they do have to pay the
bills and keep up with yourresponsibilities. You know, it's
always important to just havesomething that they are
(08:00):
producing, besides the sharemarket of peaches for Georgia is
always important to have some ofthose speeches in the market
just to make sure that we'rehere.
Jordan Powers (08:07):
Absolutely.
Emily Davenport (08:08):
Yeah. That's not for the faint hearted.
Jordan Powers (08:11):
Not at all.
Emily Davenport (08:12):
So along those lines, can you tell us more
about how you're working orworking with growers to develop
peach varieties that might bemore successful in the face of a
changing climate?
Dario Chavez (08:22):
When we think about peach cultivars, and also
production managementtechniques, what we're trying to
do is get something that willhelp us not get affected by
weather as much as we normallydo. As a breeder, we're looking
at evaluating material that wehave been producing for decades.
What I mean by that is that someof the materials before they are
released to the market, theyhave been evaluated for 16, 17
(08:44):
years. And the idea is that youwant to see consistently a crop
and even if you know that therewas a freeze this year, let's
say, and 95% of the commercialproduction is gone you want to
see cultivars that still havefruit on them because, you know,
having fruit and not havingfruit makes a difference. The
idea is that something that evenwhen you have those kinds of
(09:04):
conditions that can break a cropin general, you still have a
cultivar that basically willstill produce them. The same
thing talking about chill. Bywhatever happens weather-wise we
don't get the accumulation ofchill that we need for a plant
to bloom, we want a cultivarthat can take those swings too.
Emily Davenport (09:22):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (09:23):
So adaptation is probably the big term that it
will have a lot of differentconnotations basically for us.
You know, chill accumulation,can it bloom without that many
chill hours, and if a freezecomes, do we have enough flowers
still left that will produce acrop. Because people don't
realize but, you know, a peachtree can have 5000, 6000
(09:43):
flowers, right?
Jordan Powers (09:44):
Wow.
Dario Chavez (09:47):
And I, you don't need all of them.
Emily Davenport (09:48):
No.
Dario Chavez (09:49):
Yeah, you need 300.
Jordan Powers (09:50):
Could you imagine if you had...
Dario Chavez (09:51):
You need 300 good fruit in there. So you're
talking about maybe 10, 20% ofthe crop.
Emily Davenport (09:56):
Okay.
Dario Chavez (09:57):
Of course, the freeze is not going to pick and
choose random, like, veryuniformly in the tree. But
having that opportunity ofevaluating materials throughout
the years is actually somethingwe want to do and hopefully
produce something that thegrowers will have that will help
them. And from the productionside of things, we want to also
see if we're going to have yearsthat we have lack of chill, can
(10:18):
we do something with the treesthat are in the ground that we
know that they're going to beaffected by those conditions?
Can we do something managementwise, like spray a chemical that
will allow them to breakdormancy, or some techniques
that will help them basicallystill bloom and fruit set
normally, and in the case offreezes, the same thing, can we
come up with a technique thatcan help? Everybody that knows
(10:40):
about blueberries has seen,probably, the overhead
irrigation freeze protectionwhere you see all the icicles
and blueberries. Well, you coulddo that in peaches, but in
Georgia is really not feasiblejust because the amount of
acreage and also the soil typethat we have, but you can use
wind machines. So some growersuse wind machines to be able to
bring that heat from the upperlayers of there down and mix it
(11:02):
up and warm up to where theplants are. But we're looking
into new techniques to hopefullyhave something that the growers
can use and we're trying to hitthe problems with different
solutions just to have somedifferent tools that hopefully
will help in the future.
Jordan Powers (11:15):
From the breeding side to the production side to
the management side, there is somuch that's going into that
peach that we're bringing home.
Dario Chavez (11:23):
There is.
Production from the southeast orthe east coast is completely
different to the west coast aswell. What a peach producer does
in the west coast is completelydifferent than the east. We have
so many pests, diseases, andalso environmental factors that
affect peach production in theeast coast and the South as
well. That's why I have so muchrespect for the growers because
they just, it's truly an art togrow a peach tree and other
(11:46):
fruit trees as well, you know,in these conditions.
Jordan Powers (11:50):
Well that was the perfect lead into my next
question here in talking abouthow the work you're doing is
even more important now that theLouisiana and the Texas breeding
programs have shut down. Whatdoes the future look like for
the breeding program in Georgia?
Dario Chavez (12:02):
This breeding program in South Georgia has
been here in Georgia since the90s. And before that, it started
in the 80s in a differentlocation, but we have been in
Attapulgus Research Station for,since the 90s.
Sound Effect (12:14):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (12:16):
The Attapulgus Research and Education Center is
one of eight off-campus researchcenters in the UGA College of
Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences. Established in 1939 on
300 acres near the city ofAttapulgus, Georgia, the center
is located in the extreme lowerpart of Southwest Georgia, just
five miles from the Floridaline. Current research efforts
(12:36):
focus on agronomic row crops andsome orchard crops including
corn, cotton, peanuts, smallgrains, soy beans, and, of
course, peaches.
Sound Effect (12:44):
[chime]
Dario Chavez (12:46):
The interesting thing is that its probably the
only, now, program the UnitedStates with that chill range.
Why it's important for us isbecause we still collaborate a
lot with University of Floridaand also we collaborate with
Middle Georgia, that breedingprogram in there. And you know,
as a breeder, we need to haveaccess to different gene pools.
We are talking of a chillrequirements and chill hours.
(13:08):
Well the way that chill hoursare are coming along if you look
at plot the chill hoursaccumulation for location, the
trend line is actually goingdown. We're functionally losing
chill, you look at it from the70s to now. What it means is
that the chill groups or chillcultivars that we used to grow
are not the same. We have lostfunctional chill groups, and
(13:30):
what I mean by groups is like,let's say you know, middle
Georgia you grow between 650 to850 chill hours and what that
means is that basically a youhave Cultivar X is 650 chill
hours requirement, Cultivar Y is750, and Cultivar C is 850. And
you can grow those withoutproblems in Middle Georgia. Now,
(13:51):
before, you used to be able togrow 950, 1050 chill hours and
that is not the case anymore.
You could grow them, and theplant will grow, but you will
not be able to set a crop which,you know, functionally speaking
tells you that that's notdoable. So for a breeding
perspective, having the accessto those gene pools helped us
because when you cross, let'ssay a high chill cultivar with a
(14:14):
mid chill or a low chillcultivar, what happens is that
the hybrids actually come in themiddle. So for us having
locations different chill areasare important because that
allows us to have the hybrids inthere and be able to collect
pollen of things that we needand then bring the pollen back
to different locations. So wehave basically a kind of a
middle ground. So having thatcollaboration group allows us to
(14:36):
basically look at materials from250, 150 chill hours to up to
800, 900 chill hours. So we canmove germ plasm from down there
to basically up here. It doesrequire time selection, but just
being able to access thoseconditions, you know, our germ
plasm in Attapulgus has beenseeing at least in the Gulf
(14:57):
area, seeing lack of chillissues for decades now, which,
you know, in Middle Georgia,we're starting to see more
often.
Emily Davenport (15:04):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (15:05):
But this is something that we have been
dealing for years now anddecades in South Georgia, which
means that the cultivars that wehave been, or the selections
that we have been producing, hasbeen evaluated for decades for
those conditions, and we havegerm plasm that does well. So we
want to bring those genes tobasically Middle Georgia as
well. So the idea is that thatbreeding program is not just
(15:25):
going to help the Gulf area, butthe idea is that there will be a
gene pool also for the middleGeorgia area, the main
production area, and also a genepool for Florida as well,
because you know, thecollaboration is what helps us
to basically being able to haveprobably one of the only
collaborations where you canhave all these chill ranges and
look at all these materialstogether.
Jordan Powers (15:43):
Quite a collaboration
Dario Chavez (15:45):
Mm-hm.
Jordan Powers (15:45):
with, all with a common goal.
Dario Chavez (15:47):
Yup.
Jordan Powers (15:47):
Helping our growers preserve those peaches.
Dario Chavez (15:49):
Correct.
Emily Davenport (15:50):
What excites you most about the work that
you're doing?
Dario Chavez (15:53):
Another thing that I'm very interested on is from
the breeding perspective isabout training systems and how
we grow trees. Breeders havefocused 100% on the fruit, and I
don't blame them, because that'swhat the consumer wants, and
also the grower wants. How muchfruit is produced, how it tastes
and things like that. But weforgot about the tree. What I
mean by that is that everythingis about efficiency. And I talk
(16:14):
about the labor situation, well,we prune the trees by hand. And
what I think about this is like,well, if I am personally growing
a tree, I am not growing trees,I'm actually growing fruit. What
I mean by that is I want thetree that's the most efficient
as possible in growing and notputting a lot of growth that I
will have to come and prunelater on. So I have a PhD
(16:34):
student at the institute thathas been looking at three
dimensional studies ofarchitecture for peaches, trying
to characterize branching,branching differences, density,
and trying to see if there is agenetic component to it. We do
believe that there is a geneticcomponent.
Sound Effect (16:48):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (16:50):
We wrote a story on Jordan Knapp-Wilson, doctoral
student in the Institute ofplant breeding genetics and
genomics, and how he's using 3-Dscanning technology to inform
peaches of the future. We'llinclude that link in the show
notes for you.
Sound Effect (17:02):
[chime]
Dario Chavez (17:04):
He is about to finish next year, and we're
interested in because he hasopened the door for us to be
able to study the threedimensional aspects of
architecture and we can tie thatto production. So for example,
we have a trial that hasdifferent rootstocks and scions
in there. And we look at thedifferences of branching. Well,
we have MP 29 to restore that isdwarfing and we saw that the
(17:25):
number of branches that thattree is producing is completely
relatively smaller than thestandard tree, which means that
it will save money also, forpruning. If we're trying to
create a niche and focus on aniche that nobody's really
working on, probably it would betree architecture, training
systems in production, and justbasically trying to make a
change in the sense of growingwhat we have available already
for the growers. Can you grow itin a different way? Can you make
(17:47):
it more efficient? The idea is,just efficiency overall.
Jordan Powers (17:50):
All these tools for growers to have,
Dario Chavez (17:52):
Correct.
Jordan Powers (17:53):
Because it is such a variable industry to be
in.
Dario Chavez (17:56):
Mm-hm.
Jordan Powers (17:56):
So if you can create some consistency with at
least those tools that they haveavailable?
Dario Chavez (18:00):
Correct.
Jordan Powers (18:00):
That's really important. So switching topics
slightly, we know that yourwife, Rachel Itle, is another
CAES researcher working withblueberries.
Dario Chavez (18:10):
Yep.
Jordan Powers (18:10):
Which is another important Georgia crop being
impacted by climate change. Whatare dinnertime conversations
like at your house?
Dario Chavez (18:17):
Well, we talk a lot of shop sometimes. But we
have kids now, like little kidsthat they have taken over all
those conversations, which isprobably good. But we do bounce
ideas back and forth. We arecollaborators in several
projects too. We were trainedthe same way, we met in grad
school. So we tend to think verysimilarly, which you know, it's
(18:39):
always nice to have a soundingboard at home that will be 100%
honest with you, and just tellyou basically, if there's a
better way to improve things.
The blueberry industry and thepeach industry are quite
different, in the sense of thepeach industry is a mature
industry. And the blueberryindustry, although it has been
here for a while now, it stillis a changing industry. And
another thing that is differentis that a lot of people don't
(19:00):
know this, but four companieshold about 90% of the acreage of
peaches in Georgia.
Emily Davenport (19:07):
Wow.
Jordan Powers (19:07):
Wow.
Dario Chavez (19:07):
Which means that I can sit down in one room with
all the four companies and justbasically that will be it. But
doing blueberries, you know, youhave hundreds and hundreds of
growers from little to middlesize to big. So it's a different
dynamic. It's nice to talk aboutthe different things that
basically we're doing with theindustries and how we approach
them.
Jordan Powers (19:26):
That's always fascinating to me to think
about, what does that look like?
And now you're raising the nextgeneration.
Emily Davenport (19:32):
That's right.
Dario Chavez (19:33):
Yeah, hopefully, you know, you will never know.
Like I said, when I was a kid Ireally was not into it,
agricultur, and I thought thatalthough I helped in the form,
it really didn't seem like mycalling until I was older, so.
Jordan Powers (19:46):
Until it clicked.
Emily Davenport (19:47):
Yup. You never know. Alright, so the hardest
hitting question we're going toask, what's your favorite way to
eat a peach?
Dario Chavez (19:54):
I actually love to, during evaluation when
ripening season, you cannot beata ripened fruit from the tree.
It's just a completely differentexperience. Once you have that,
it's difficult to go back to thesupermarket to get your fruit.
Emily Davenport (20:10):
I bet.
Dario Chavez (20:11):
It's just different. You know, my kids,
they love it, when you'retalking about consumer
preference, they also worryabout peaches, because
consumption is going down andpeople wonder what's happening.
And when you look at thedemographics, a lot of the
demographic study peaches areolder people.
Emily Davenport (20:26):
Oh, hm. Okay.
Dario Chavez (20:26):
And so they're wondering why younger kids are
not and I think it's justbecause of a smaller fruit is
easier to have in a package. Andif you have a tree ripened
fruit, a good tasty peach, mykids take it any time over
anything else.
Emily Davenport (20:40):
Okay.
Dario Chavez (20:41):
So you know, I think it's just education. I
know that the industry here inGeorgia, and also in the
southeastern US, came up with aproduct a few years ago that it
was in little bags and smallerfruit size, and seems that that
market is going well, it seemsthat people prefer something
that you can grab. And it'sbasically like a Ziploc bag that
has several peaches in there.
And to me, it's actually a goodidea. I believe one of the
(21:03):
brands are called LittleFuzzies, and there's another
one. But you know, last year, Ibelieve they were trying to
focus on that market, becausethey have a lot of orders from
that still.
Jordan Powers (21:16):
And it makes sense. I mean, as a parent of a
little kid, I you know, I givemy three year old a peach and
she wears 98% of it. So I getit, but I do I mean, I still
remember growing up, my mom usedto make peach dumplings,
wrapping a whole peach in thisdough and boiling it.
Dario Chavez (21:29):
Oh!
Jordan Powers (21:29):
Oh my gosh, a little bit of butter and brown
sugar.
Dario Chavez (21:31):
Oh, yum.
Jordan Powers (21:31):
And it was ruining that tree ripened
experience. But we didn't have awhole lot of tree ripened
peaches, where I grew up. I waswaiting for you to say you
actually don't like peaches atall.
Emily Davenport (21:40):
Oh, me too.
Dario Chavez (21:41):
You know, it's funny because sometimes people
develop allergies to them, whichis sad.
Emily Davenport (21:46):
Oh.
Jordan Powers (21:46):
Aw.
Dario Chavez (21:46):
But you know, in my case, you cannot change the
ripened fruit from the fieldcompared with anything else.
Emily Davenport (21:53):
Mm-hm.
Jordan Powers (21:53):
Awesome.
Emily Davenport (21:53):
Yeah, definitely.
Jordan Powers (21:55):
We have covered a lot of ground from the ground
the peaches are growing in, topicking them off the tree. What
have we missed?
Dario Chavez (22:02):
I'm very excited to be here. I have been here for
10 years. And I always like tolook back and say, you know, how
I saw my job at the beginning.
And I always try to look intothe short, medium and long term
goals for my program. And thoseof course change with time. I
think this is an exciting timebecause there is more
opportunities out there. I'mvery excited to see where the
future takes. And it may meanthat it will be a different
(22:24):
production to what we do now.
And it may mean that we aregoing to change the production
systems a lot, but I'm reallylooking forward to what's going
to happen with the industry.
Jordan Powers (22:34):
Well, Dario, thank you so much for taking the
time. I know it's a busy, busylife that you lead. And we're
gearing up toward the start ofpeach season. So we appreciate
you taking the time to come inand talk to us today.
Dario Chavez (22:45):
Thank you. It was a pleasure to talk to you and
let me know if I can help withanything.
Jordan Powers (22:49):
Will do.
Emily Davenport (22:49):
Thank you.
Sound Effect (22:50):
[music]
Emily Davenport (22:51):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our lives,from what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:21):
We are here on the UGA Griffin Campus with
Dario Chavez, AssociateProfessor of Horticulture on the
Griffin Campus, who's also inthe Institute of Plant Breeding,
Genetics and Genomics. Dario,thank you so much for joining us
today.
Dario Chavez (00:34):
Thank you for inviting me.
Jordan Powers (00:35):
Can you share your academic journey with us
and what got you interested inhorticulture specifically?
Dario Chavez (00:40):
Sure. Getting interested in agriculture in
general began with my parents. Iwas raised and basically lived
in a farm since I was probably18 years old, and my dad and my
grandpa farmed for a long, longtime. And during the Andes, in
Ecuador, they had potatoes,corn, carrots, and other things.
They had a dairy and beef cattleas well. I was not really into
(01:01):
it, as any kid, you know, youdon't get interested on the
things that your parents do.
Emily Davenport (01:05):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (01:05):
When I started trying to select what I was
going to do for undergrad, Irealized that I really, really
liked to be outside. And onething that really always
bothered me, at least with thepotatoes when my dad grew them,
is that I always thought youknow, I always hear the cultivar
names and the cultivar names arethe same when I was little to
when I was older. And it's like,I always wondered why there were
(01:27):
not that many new cultivarsthere, at least in Ecuador at
the time. And I started lookinginto what basically how you can
make new cultivars or what isthat. And then in Ecuador, and
South America, there is a veryimportant institution, Zamorano
University in Honduras, thatbasically is probably one of the
highest-ranked in agriculture inSouth America and Latin America.
(01:48):
I started looking into it and myolder brother encouraged me to
apply for it. I got in andstarted studying agronomy. After
that, I still wanted to continuelearning how you create new
cultivars, work with newcultivars. My plan was, well, I
always like to eat what theygrow. What I mean by that is
being outside and if I have thechance to grab a fruit or
something that was kind of myideal crop. So I started
(02:10):
applying for programs. And I wasable to get into a master's in
the blueberry breeding andgenetics program at University
of Florida. And then I stayedthere too for my PhD working
peaches, plums and citrus. OnceI was about to be done, a
position came up here at UGA andI applied and basically I have
been here since 2014.
Jordan Powers (02:29):
Well, advanced congratulations
Dario Chavez (02:30):
Yeah, thank you.
Jordan Powers (02:31):
on 10 years with UGA. That's exciting,
Emily Davenport (02:34):
Mm-hm. Yeah, that's very exciting. So many
crops, including peaches, areaffected by temperature, which
is particularly important toconsider in the face of a
changing climate. And we'veheard a lot about scientists and
growers mentioning chill hours.
Dario Chavez (02:48):
Yeah.
Emily Davenport (02:48):
Can you break down what that means for our
audience?
Dario Chavez (02:50):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So something interesting aboutat least this time of the year,
this is the time of the year,you probably contact Pam Knox at
the Weather Network. And if theywere looking at clicks, the
number of clicks looking at theweather stations for you will
see that there is a lot ofaccess of the data and weather
stations. And this is related tochill hours. Chill hours
basically is just a measure ofhow many hours of temperature we
(03:13):
get between 32 and 45 degrees.
And what happens with respect tothe plant is that, or plants in
early fall, the leaves startdropping and the plants go into
a dormant stage and what theyneed to come out of that is
chill hours. So they need cold.
So somebody came with a way toquantify that meaning that if
(03:33):
you have a cultivar that needsthis many chill hours, and if it
doesn't get that it can affectbloom, growth, and other things.
Growers around this time of theyear, they're always checking
the weather stations to see howmany chill hours we have
received. It's a very goodobservation that allows us to
see how it would be the cropquality wise for bloom fruits.
(03:54):
Because once plants startblooming, and they don't have
enough chill, you can come upwith other issues.
Jordan Powers (04:01):
And we can link to, you mentioned the UGA
Weather Network, which is run byPam Knox. So we will absolutely
link to that in the show notesbecause it's such an extensive
network and a resource that wehave for growers and just a
curious general public.
Dario Chavez (04:14):
As a grower, I can see the impact that can be just
having that information that youcan pull yourself and look into
it. And you know that somebody'sactually making sure that system
is working all the time.
Jordan Powers (04:25):
Well, we know the importance of the chill hours
but we also know that a latefrost combined with less winter
chill hours sounds like it canbe a big blow to the peach
industry's production. What doesthis mean for the future of
peaches in Georgia?
Dario Chavez (04:38):
It's funny because we were just talking about this
and so I am in charge of thepeach session for the
Southeastern Fruit and VegetableConference in Savannah and
talking to the growers lastyear. This year, I decided to
focus on these conversationsbecause we thought it was
important to think about this.
If I'm a grower or researcher Ikeep thinking, well are the late
freezes happening basicallylater and later in the season,
(04:59):
or are they happening early orthe same time? And the funny
thing is that when you plothistorical data of the last
freeze, it's pretty much a flatline. There's some variations,
yes, like sometimes they wouldcome really early. And some
other times will come April. Sothere is a fluctuation in time.
But when you plot thattrendline, it comes to a flat
(05:19):
line meaning that it's not thatthe date is, becomes later or
later. Problem is actually that,you know, we talk about chill
hours and chill hours areaffected by warm weather. So you
know, if for peaches, let's say,they have accumulated chill that
they need, and we get a wave ofheat, and the plants say, well,
I have what I need for blooms.
(05:40):
So I'm just going to go aheadand start blooming. So if we had
a December that's pretty warm,what tends to do is the peaches
in general, and even blueberriesand all the crops, they say,
okay, let's go. So last year,for example, we were two weeks
ahead on bloom, what normallyhappens.
Emily Davenport (05:56):
Okay.
Dario Chavez (05:56):
So if we have had that freeze, that freeze date,
it was not different to otherfreeze dates that we have other
years, what was different isjust the conditions that we had
in December, that made, thatbasically, the plants just start
moving. It basically put thosein very susceptible, tender
stage of development where thefreeze just took us out, because
(06:16):
we were so ahead, and you know,so it's kind of a combo. This
year, for example, if you lookat the winter that we have, it's
very uniform. We haven't reallygotten a hot, hot day, between
the winter. And to get up to the60s is like a day like today
where we have 60s, but it'srain. And so it's not like the
sun is beating on the plants.
Jordan Powers (06:37):
Like telling them, wake up!
Dario Chavez (06:39):
Right. Although they're ready-ready to wake up.
What that means that we get aweek of warm weather, more
likely they will start moving.
But it has been a really nicewinter for accumulation of
chill. And plants basically arejust sitting there waiting. I
prefer this because there's nosurprises. It is something that
the growers can work with. If weget warm weather and then all
the sudden freeze comes out ofnowhere, that's a problem. But
(07:02):
of course, you know, we havethat option to this year. We
hope that because the plants areuniform in the chill
accumulation, hopefully theyjust take better these
fluctuations in weather untiltruly we're there to bloom.
Jordan Powers (07:15):
We know our peaches took a big hit last
year, and we covered that quiteextensively through CAES. So
we'll link to some of thosestories in the show notes as
well. I can't even fathom whatthat looks like for some of
these growers. I mean, I lostproduction on my three household
blueberry plants, but I can'timagine your livelihood
requiring this and to have it bejust hit that hard.
Dario Chavez (07:33):
And every year is different. What was the worry
last year, it may be not thecase this year.
Emily Davenport (07:37):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (07:38):
And so I always say that I have so much respect
because they basically roll withthe punches. And sometimes it is
a perfect season where there'sno problem, there is crop
everywhere. So we're hoping forone of those because having a
95% loss on their crop is a lotand they do have to pay the
bills and keep up with yourresponsibilities. You know, it's
always important to just havesomething that they are
(08:00):
producing, besides the sharemarket of peaches for Georgia is
always important to have some ofthose speeches in the market
just to make sure that we'rehere.
Jordan Powers (08:07):
Absolutely.
Emily Davenport (08:08):
Yeah. That's not for the faint hearted.
Jordan Powers (08:11):
Not at all.
Emily Davenport (08:12):
So along those lines, can you tell us more
about how you're working orworking with growers to develop
peach varieties that might bemore successful in the face of a
changing climate?
Dario Chavez (08:22):
When we think about peach cultivars, and also
production managementtechniques, what we're trying to
do is get something that willhelp us not get affected by
weather as much as we normallydo. As a breeder, we're looking
at evaluating material that wehave been producing for decades.
What I mean by that is that someof the materials before they are
released to the market, theyhave been evaluated for 16, 17
(08:44):
years. And the idea is that youwant to see consistently a crop
and even if you know that therewas a freeze this year, let's
say, and 95% of the commercialproduction is gone you want to
see cultivars that still havefruit on them because, you know,
having fruit and not havingfruit makes a difference. The
idea is that something that evenwhen you have those kinds of
(09:04):
conditions that can break a cropin general, you still have a
cultivar that basically willstill produce them. The same
thing talking about chill. Bywhatever happens weather-wise we
don't get the accumulation ofchill that we need for a plant
to bloom, we want a cultivarthat can take those swings too.
Emily Davenport (09:22):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (09:23):
So adaptation is probably the big term that it
will have a lot of differentconnotations basically for us.
You know, chill accumulation,can it bloom without that many
chill hours, and if a freezecomes, do we have enough flowers
still left that will produce acrop. Because people don't
realize but, you know, a peachtree can have 5000, 6000
(09:43):
flowers, right?
Jordan Powers (09:44):
Wow.
Dario Chavez (09:47):
And I, you don't need all of them.
Emily Davenport (09:48):
No.
Dario Chavez (09:49):
Yeah, you need 300.
Jordan Powers (09:50):
Could you imagine if you had...
Dario Chavez (09:51):
You need 300 good fruit in there. So you're
talking about maybe 10, 20% ofthe crop.
Emily Davenport (09:56):
Okay.
Dario Chavez (09:57):
Of course, the freeze is not going to pick and
choose random, like, veryuniformly in the tree. But
having that opportunity ofevaluating materials throughout
the years is actually somethingwe want to do and hopefully
produce something that thegrowers will have that will help
them. And from the productionside of things, we want to also
see if we're going to have yearsthat we have lack of chill, can
(10:18):
we do something with the treesthat are in the ground that we
know that they're going to beaffected by those conditions?
Can we do something managementwise, like spray a chemical that
will allow them to breakdormancy, or some techniques
that will help them basicallystill bloom and fruit set
normally, and in the case offreezes, the same thing, can we
come up with a technique thatcan help? Everybody that knows
(10:40):
about blueberries has seen,probably, the overhead
irrigation freeze protectionwhere you see all the icicles
and blueberries. Well, you coulddo that in peaches, but in
Georgia is really not feasiblejust because the amount of
acreage and also the soil typethat we have, but you can use
wind machines. So some growersuse wind machines to be able to
bring that heat from the upperlayers of there down and mix it
(11:02):
up and warm up to where theplants are. But we're looking
into new techniques to hopefullyhave something that the growers
can use and we're trying to hitthe problems with different
solutions just to have somedifferent tools that hopefully
will help in the future.
Jordan Powers (11:15):
From the breeding side to the production side to
the management side, there is somuch that's going into that
peach that we're bringing home.
Dario Chavez (11:23):
There is.
Production from the southeast orthe east coast is completely
different to the west coast aswell. What a peach producer does
in the west coast is completelydifferent than the east. We have
so many pests, diseases, andalso environmental factors that
affect peach production in theeast coast and the South as
well. That's why I have so muchrespect for the growers because
they just, it's truly an art togrow a peach tree and other
(11:46):
fruit trees as well, you know,in these conditions.
Jordan Powers (11:50):
Well that was the perfect lead into my next
question here in talking abouthow the work you're doing is
even more important now that theLouisiana and the Texas breeding
programs have shut down. Whatdoes the future look like for
the breeding program in Georgia?
Dario Chavez (12:02):
This breeding program in South Georgia has
been here in Georgia since the90s. And before that, it started
in the 80s in a differentlocation, but we have been in
Attapulgus Research Station for,since the 90s.
Sound Effect (12:14):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (12:16):
The Attapulgus Research and Education Center is
one of eight off-campus researchcenters in the UGA College of
Agricultural and EnvironmentalSciences. Established in 1939 on
300 acres near the city ofAttapulgus, Georgia, the center
is located in the extreme lowerpart of Southwest Georgia, just
five miles from the Floridaline. Current research efforts
(12:36):
focus on agronomic row crops andsome orchard crops including
corn, cotton, peanuts, smallgrains, soy beans, and, of
course, peaches.
Sound Effect (12:44):
[chime]
Dario Chavez (12:46):
The interesting thing is that its probably the
only, now, program the UnitedStates with that chill range.
Why it's important for us isbecause we still collaborate a
lot with University of Floridaand also we collaborate with
Middle Georgia, that breedingprogram in there. And you know,
as a breeder, we need to haveaccess to different gene pools.
We are talking of a chillrequirements and chill hours.
(13:08):
Well the way that chill hoursare are coming along if you look
at plot the chill hoursaccumulation for location, the
trend line is actually goingdown. We're functionally losing
chill, you look at it from the70s to now. What it means is
that the chill groups or chillcultivars that we used to grow
are not the same. We have lostfunctional chill groups, and
(13:30):
what I mean by groups is like,let's say you know, middle
Georgia you grow between 650 to850 chill hours and what that
means is that basically a youhave Cultivar X is 650 chill
hours requirement, Cultivar Y is750, and Cultivar C is 850. And
you can grow those withoutproblems in Middle Georgia. Now,
(13:51):
before, you used to be able togrow 950, 1050 chill hours and
that is not the case anymore.
You could grow them, and theplant will grow, but you will
not be able to set a crop which,you know, functionally speaking
tells you that that's notdoable. So for a breeding
perspective, having the accessto those gene pools helped us
because when you cross, let'ssay a high chill cultivar with a
(14:14):
mid chill or a low chillcultivar, what happens is that
the hybrids actually come in themiddle. So for us having
locations different chill areasare important because that
allows us to have the hybrids inthere and be able to collect
pollen of things that we needand then bring the pollen back
to different locations. So wehave basically a kind of a
middle ground. So having thatcollaboration group allows us to
(14:36):
basically look at materials from250, 150 chill hours to up to
800, 900 chill hours. So we canmove germ plasm from down there
to basically up here. It doesrequire time selection, but just
being able to access thoseconditions, you know, our germ
plasm in Attapulgus has beenseeing at least in the Gulf
(14:57):
area, seeing lack of chillissues for decades now, which,
you know, in Middle Georgia,we're starting to see more
often.
Emily Davenport (15:04):
Mm-hm.
Dario Chavez (15:05):
But this is something that we have been
dealing for years now anddecades in South Georgia, which
means that the cultivars that wehave been, or the selections
that we have been producing, hasbeen evaluated for decades for
those conditions, and we havegerm plasm that does well. So we
want to bring those genes tobasically Middle Georgia as
well. So the idea is that thatbreeding program is not just
(15:25):
going to help the Gulf area, butthe idea is that there will be a
gene pool also for the middleGeorgia area, the main
production area, and also a genepool for Florida as well,
because you know, thecollaboration is what helps us
to basically being able to haveprobably one of the only
collaborations where you canhave all these chill ranges and
look at all these materialstogether.
Jordan Powers (15:43):
Quite a collaboration
Dario Chavez (15:45):
Mm-hm.
Jordan Powers (15:45):
with, all with a common goal.
Dario Chavez (15:47):
Yup.
Jordan Powers (15:47):
Helping our growers preserve those peaches.
Dario Chavez (15:49):
Correct.
Emily Davenport (15:50):
What excites you most about the work that
you're doing?
Dario Chavez (15:53):
Another thing that I'm very interested on is from
the breeding perspective isabout training systems and how
we grow trees. Breeders havefocused 100% on the fruit, and I
don't blame them, because that'swhat the consumer wants, and
also the grower wants. How muchfruit is produced, how it tastes
and things like that. But weforgot about the tree. What I
mean by that is that everythingis about efficiency. And I talk
(16:14):
about the labor situation, well,we prune the trees by hand. And
what I think about this is like,well, if I am personally growing
a tree, I am not growing trees,I'm actually growing fruit. What
I mean by that is I want thetree that's the most efficient
as possible in growing and notputting a lot of growth that I
will have to come and prunelater on. So I have a PhD
(16:34):
student at the institute thathas been looking at three
dimensional studies ofarchitecture for peaches, trying
to characterize branching,branching differences, density,
and trying to see if there is agenetic component to it. We do
believe that there is a geneticcomponent.
Sound Effect (16:48):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (16:50):
We wrote a story on Jordan Knapp-Wilson, doctoral
student in the Institute ofplant breeding genetics and
genomics, and how he's using 3-Dscanning technology to inform
peaches of the future. We'llinclude that link in the show
notes for you.
Sound Effect (17:02):
[chime]
Dario Chavez (17:04):
He is about to finish next year, and we're
interested in because he hasopened the door for us to be
able to study the threedimensional aspects of
architecture and we can tie thatto production. So for example,
we have a trial that hasdifferent rootstocks and scions
in there. And we look at thedifferences of branching. Well,
we have MP 29 to restore that isdwarfing and we saw that the
(17:25):
number of branches that thattree is producing is completely
relatively smaller than thestandard tree, which means that
it will save money also, forpruning. If we're trying to
create a niche and focus on aniche that nobody's really
working on, probably it would betree architecture, training
systems in production, and justbasically trying to make a
change in the sense of growingwhat we have available already
for the growers. Can you grow itin a different way? Can you make
(17:47):
it more efficient? The idea is,just efficiency overall.
Jordan Powers (17:50):
All these tools for growers to have,
Dario Chavez (17:52):
Correct.
Jordan Powers (17:53):
Because it is such a variable industry to be
in.
Dario Chavez (17:56):
Mm-hm.
Jordan Powers (17:56):
So if you can create some consistency with at
least those tools that they haveavailable?
Dario Chavez (18:00):
Correct.
Jordan Powers (18:00):
That's really important. So switching topics
slightly, we know that yourwife, Rachel Itle, is another
CAES researcher working withblueberries.
Dario Chavez (18:10):
Yep.
Jordan Powers (18:10):
Which is another important Georgia crop being
impacted by climate change. Whatare dinnertime conversations
like at your house?
Dario Chavez (18:17):
Well, we talk a lot of shop sometimes. But we
have kids now, like little kidsthat they have taken over all
those conversations, which isprobably good. But we do bounce
ideas back and forth. We arecollaborators in several
projects too. We were trainedthe same way, we met in grad
school. So we tend to think verysimilarly, which you know, it's
(18:39):
always nice to have a soundingboard at home that will be 100%
honest with you, and just tellyou basically, if there's a
better way to improve things.
The blueberry industry and thepeach industry are quite
different, in the sense of thepeach industry is a mature
industry. And the blueberryindustry, although it has been
here for a while now, it stillis a changing industry. And
another thing that is differentis that a lot of people don't
(19:00):
know this, but four companieshold about 90% of the acreage of
peaches in Georgia.
Emily Davenport (19:07):
Wow.
Jordan Powers (19:07):
Wow.
Dario Chavez (19:07):
Which means that I can sit down in one room with
all the four companies and justbasically that will be it. But
doing blueberries, you know, youhave hundreds and hundreds of
growers from little to middlesize to big. So it's a different
dynamic. It's nice to talk aboutthe different things that
basically we're doing with theindustries and how we approach
them.
Jordan Powers (19:26):
That's always fascinating to me to think
about, what does that look like?
And now you're raising the nextgeneration.
Emily Davenport (19:32):
That's right.
Dario Chavez (19:33):
Yeah, hopefully, you know, you will never know.
Like I said, when I was a kid Ireally was not into it,
agricultur, and I thought thatalthough I helped in the form,
it really didn't seem like mycalling until I was older, so.
Jordan Powers (19:46):
Until it clicked.
Emily Davenport (19:47):
Yup. You never know. Alright, so the hardest
hitting question we're going toask, what's your favorite way to
eat a peach?
Dario Chavez (19:54):
I actually love to, during evaluation when
ripening season, you cannot beata ripened fruit from the tree.
It's just a completely differentexperience. Once you have that,
it's difficult to go back to thesupermarket to get your fruit.
Emily Davenport (20:10):
I bet.
Dario Chavez (20:11):
It's just different. You know, my kids,
they love it, when you'retalking about consumer
preference, they also worryabout peaches, because
consumption is going down andpeople wonder what's happening.
And when you look at thedemographics, a lot of the
demographic study peaches areolder people.
Emily Davenport (20:26):
Oh, hm. Okay.
Dario Chavez (20:26):
And so they're wondering why younger kids are
not and I think it's justbecause of a smaller fruit is
easier to have in a package. Andif you have a tree ripened
fruit, a good tasty peach, mykids take it any time over
anything else.
Emily Davenport (20:40):
Okay.
Dario Chavez (20:41):
So you know, I think it's just education. I
know that the industry here inGeorgia, and also in the
southeastern US, came up with aproduct a few years ago that it
was in little bags and smallerfruit size, and seems that that
market is going well, it seemsthat people prefer something
that you can grab. And it'sbasically like a Ziploc bag that
has several peaches in there.
And to me, it's actually a goodidea. I believe one of the
(21:03):
brands are called LittleFuzzies, and there's another
one. But you know, last year, Ibelieve they were trying to
focus on that market, becausethey have a lot of orders from
that still.
Jordan Powers (21:16):
And it makes sense. I mean, as a parent of a
little kid, I you know, I givemy three year old a peach and
she wears 98% of it. So I getit, but I do I mean, I still
remember growing up, my mom usedto make peach dumplings,
wrapping a whole peach in thisdough and boiling it.
Dario Chavez (21:29):
Oh!
Jordan Powers (21:29):
Oh my gosh, a little bit of butter and brown
sugar.
Dario Chavez (21:31):
Oh, yum.
Jordan Powers (21:31):
And it was ruining that tree ripened
experience. But we didn't have awhole lot of tree ripened
peaches, where I grew up. I waswaiting for you to say you
actually don't like peaches atall.
Emily Davenport (21:40):
Oh, me too.
Dario Chavez (21:41):
You know, it's funny because sometimes people
develop allergies to them, whichis sad.
Emily Davenport (21:46):
Oh.
Jordan Powers (21:46):
Aw.
Dario Chavez (21:46):
But you know, in my case, you cannot change the
ripened fruit from the fieldcompared with anything else.
Emily Davenport (21:53):
Mm-hm.
Jordan Powers (21:53):
Awesome.
Emily Davenport (21:53):
Yeah, definitely.
Jordan Powers (21:55):
We have covered a lot of ground from the ground
the peaches are growing in, topicking them off the tree. What
have we missed?
Dario Chavez (22:02):
I'm very excited to be here. I have been here for
10 years. And I always like tolook back and say, you know, how
I saw my job at the beginning.
And I always try to look intothe short, medium and long term
goals for my program. And thoseof course change with time. I
think this is an exciting timebecause there is more
opportunities out there. I'mvery excited to see where the
future takes. And it may meanthat it will be a different
(22:24):
production to what we do now.
And it may mean that we aregoing to change the production
systems a lot, but I'm reallylooking forward to what's going
to happen with the industry.
Jordan Powers (22:34):
Well, Dario, thank you so much for taking the
time. I know it's a busy, busylife that you lead. And we're
gearing up toward the start ofpeach season. So we appreciate
you taking the time to come inand talk to us today.
Dario Chavez (22:45):
Thank you. It was a pleasure to talk to you and
let me know if I can help withanything.
Jordan Powers (22:49):
Will do.
Emily Davenport (22:49):
Thank you.
Sound Effect (22:50):
[music]
Emily Davenport (22:51):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
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