King William & King and Queen Virginia Cooperative Extension

09/10/2026

In yesterday's adventures, we spent time coaching the King William High School crops juding team in preparation for the state fair! We did a basic review of the production cycles of corn, soybeans, and wheat. We also discussed how these crops are used and what can impact their quality.

We will do two more practices with this group before they compete on September 30th.

**Full disclosure, in my excitement to be coaching this group, I forgot to take any pictures while actually teaching! This picture of the sign will have to suffice!**

09/10/2026

Save the date! If you're already looking forward to next Summer...

4-H Jr Camp 2027 will take place at Jamestown 4-H Educational Center the week of June 14-18! Registration will open in February 2027.

More details to come!

08/31/2026

The 4-H Teen Club interest meeting takes place tomorrow, September 1st from 6:30PM to 7PM at the Upper King William Branch Library!

There's still time to RSVP! Let us know you're planning to attend by calling (804)769-4955 or emailing [email protected].

POSTPONED- Due to unforeseen circumstances, The 4-H Teen Club interest meeting will now take place on Tuesday, September 1st from 6:30 to 7PM at the Upper King William Branch Library.

Join us Tuesday September 1st to learn more and help kick-off a new opportunity for teens in our area!

To those teens: Are you interested in leadership, personal growth and development, and community service? Maybe you're unsure, but you know you'd like to get involved and work with others. This is the place for you! 4-H Teen Clubs are youth-led, meaning Agents and Volunteers are there to help you follow your interests and help your big ideas come to life while promoting readiness for the future.

This is an informational meeting open to any teens aged 13-18 from King William County & King and Queen County. Youth should be joined by an adult/guardian for this initial meeting.

We'll meet at the Upper King William Branch Library from 6:30 to 7 PM in the Community Room.

Please RSVP to let us know you're attending! Contact [email protected] by email or call (804)769-4955.

08/28/2026

What is this contraption??? No, this isn't something we borrowed from NASA, this device is used to test pressure canners to ensure that the gauge reads accurately.

An accurate pressure gauge is important for canning foods safely. Testing these gauges is a free service that our office offers to help folks with home food preservation.

Immediately after testing this pressure gauge, we hopped in the truck and harvested a corn research plot. This plot evaluated two different seeding rates and three different corn hybrids.

08/26/2026

Take a look at this beautiful sorghum in King and Queen!

Sorghum has a variety of uses. It is commonly used as livestock feed - as a grain, chopped for silage, or even used as pasture. It is just a giant grass, after all!

Sorghum also has a number of uses directly for humans. It can be ground into flour for making breads, muffins, pancakes, etc. In some varieties of the crop, the stems can be crushed and the sap squeezed out to make molasses. Sorghum can also be popped just like popcorn. In fact, popped sorghum looks just like miniature popcorn.

08/24/2026

Uh oh! Bad news from the bucket garden at the office! This character (and some of his colleagues) found their way onto my tomato plants.

This is a to***co hornworm (Manduca sexta). You might say, "But Turner, it's eating up your tomato plants...that's a tomato hornworm!" As it turns out, tomato hornworm and to***co hornworm are two different species. They can both be found on either crop, but they are different!

The easiest difference to spot is the color of the "horn". To***co hornworms (Manduca sexta) have a reddish horn. Tomato hornworms (Manduca quinquemaculata) have a dark blue/black horn.

As caterpillars, to***co hornworms will munch on the leaves of tomatoes, to***co, and other plants in the Solanaceae family. These caterpillars turn into a large moth commonly called the Carolina sphinx moth or to***co hawk moth.

08/21/2026

Our sesame research plot in King and Queen is blooming. The bees love this stuff! The close-up of the flower is cool because it really shows the texture.

08/17/2026

POSTPONED- Due to unforeseen circumstances, The 4-H Teen Club interest meeting will now take place on Tuesday, September 1st from 6:30 to 7PM at the Upper King William Branch Library.

Join us Tuesday September 1st to learn more and help kick-off a new opportunity for teens in our area!

To those teens: Are you interested in leadership, personal growth and development, and community service? Maybe you're unsure, but you know you'd like to get involved and work with others. This is the place for you! 4-H Teen Clubs are youth-led, meaning Agents and Volunteers are there to help you follow your interests and help your big ideas come to life while promoting readiness for the future.

This is an informational meeting open to any teens aged 13-18 from King William County & King and Queen County. Youth should be joined by an adult/guardian for this initial meeting.

We'll meet at the Upper King William Branch Library from 6:30 to 7 PM in the Community Room.

Please RSVP to let us know you're attending! Contact [email protected] by email or call (804)769-4955.

08/11/2026

Check out this sorghum plot! Our office has 3 sorghum variety trials, each containing 5 varieties side-by-side to see which ones perform best in our area.

Sorghum is very similar to corn nutritionally....it looks pretty similar too!

08/08/2026

Come out and visit the 4-H table at today's Grand Opening of the Upper King William Branch Library from 11AM to 1PM!

The Library has TONS of fun planned for the community today! We'd love to share more about what 4-H is doing in your community, and children can make a DIY bookmark!

Located at 7890 Richmond Tappahannock Hwy, Aylett VA 23009.