Greene County Extension Office

08/20/2026

We will be closed for a few days our AC has went out. We are hoping to reopen next week! In the meantime if you need anything you can still call the office number for assistance!

07/08/2026

While backyard chickens are more tolerant of summer heat than commercial chickens that are grown in controlled settings, backyard chickens can overheat when temperatures reach extreme levels.

With feels-like temperatures reaching above 100 degrees some days already, we’re there, Mississippi! So, if you have backyard chickens, these tips from MSU Extension backyard poultry specialist Jessica Wells can help keep your feathered friends cool this summer:

Provide shade. Be sure your chickens have some form of shade throughout the day, whether they are in a coop or allowed to free range.

Provide fresh, cool water daily. Water that is cooler than the air temperature helps lower their body temperature. It is okay to change the water throughout the day to keep it cool and clean. Do not add ice.

Add ventilation. Opening or adding windows to the coop along with fans or misters can help keep the air temperature cooler.

Frozen treats can also help keep chickens cool but be cautious with these. When it gets hot, chickens will choose to eat less so make sure they are still eating their regular, balanced diet. Any treats you give should also be nutritionally valuable. Feeding a balanced diet early in the morning when temperatures are not as extreme helps ensure chickens get the right amount of nutrients through their regular diet.

Freezing cut-up fruits and vegetables in water-filled ice trays is an acceptable treat for chickens.

Learn more here: https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/poultry-beginnings-raise-your-own-backyard-chickens

07/02/2026

Happy 4th of July! 250 Years of America!

In observance of the holiday, we will be closing at 12 noon on Thursday, July 2nd. We will reopen at 8 am on Monday, July 6th.

Stay safe and cool!!

06/22/2026

🌾🌾

Cattails have stout stems, broad, linear leaf blades, and the characteristic cigar-like flowering spike, which is dense and brown before erupting into a white, downy mass in the fall.

Many species of fish and wildlife use cattail stands. Red-winged blackbirds, waterfowl, and fish will nest in the stands; beaver and muskrats eat the shoots and roots; and a variety of bird species eat the seeds.

In this aquatic w**d factsheet, we explain more about how to identify the different forms algae can take and how to treat it: https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/cattail-typha-spp

05/29/2026

05/26/2026

New Soil Testing Information!

Soil testing is the first step to healthy soil and productive crops, pastures, turf and gardens.

Follow the steps below to submit your soil sample:

Order online. Visit soiltesting.extension.msstate.edu and follow the instructions to complete your order. Enter your contact info, sample names and crop or intended use.

Choose payment. Cost is $12 per sample. You may pay by cash or check sent with your soil sample or choose to receive an invoice to pay by credit card. Your payment options are cash, check or invoice.

Prepare and label your sample. Collect the soil to be tested. Fill the sample collection container to the fill line and close the container. Write the “sample name” (and your name, if desired) on the outside of the container. Clearly write your order number and sample name on each container. This information must match what was entered online.

Ship or drop off your sample. The new shipping address and drop off location is:

Southern Soil & Plant Lab, LLC.
117 Haley Barbour Parkway
Yazoo City, MS 39194

Receive results. Results will be sent to you and your county Extension office. You can contact your Extension agent for assistance with the sample report and recommendations.

Important Reminders
Cost is $12 per sample.
You may pick up your soil sample containers from your county Extension office.
You are responsible for shipping samples to the soil testing laboratory.

Contact your local Extension office for help with collecting soil samples, understanding crop codes, interpreting soil test reports and general soil fertility questions.

05/26/2026

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“Can I use a sugar substitute in place of regular sugar when making jam or jelly?”

No. Sugar helps with the gel formation in regular jams and jellies. It also reduces moisture for microbial growth. If you prefer a reduced sugar or sugar-free jam or jelly, make sure to use the correct recipe.

If you are planning to can fruits and vegetables this year, don’t just wing it. Planning and preparation are important first steps.

Make sure you have the right equipment and research-tested recipes. Both are essential to a safe product. Remember, home food preservation is a science.

Read the Complete Guide to
Home Canning: https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/the-complete-guide-home-canning

05/22/2026

We will be closed in observance of Memorial Day on Monday, May 25.

05/20/2026

Leaffooted bugs can ruin a late-season vegetable garden!! Like stink bugs, which feed in a similar manner, leaffooted bugs attack a wide range of garden vegetables including, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, peas, and beans.

They are especially damaging to tomatoes and they love tomatillios. Damage is caused primarily by the highly mobile adults, which feed on fruit with their piercing-sucking mouthparts, injecting their toxic saliva in the process and causing soft, sunken spots in the fruit. In addition, even mildly damaged fruit will often have an off taste. Also like stink bugs, leaffooted bugs have a distinctive, unpleasant odor, and they tend to congregate in groups.

Adults make a loud buzzing sound as they fly, and gardeners who are busy picking vegetables are often startled by the sound and sometimes mistake these for bees or wasps. The nymphs are reddish orange with black legs.

Infestations are highest in late summer and fall because they have already completed one or more generations and especially because adults are attracted to lush, productive vegetable gardens as they are flying from nearby, and not so nearby, w**ds and row crops that have matured and are no longer suitable hosts.

Control: Spraying with an effective insecticide to directly contact as many insects as possible is the key to successfully controlling leaffooted bugs. Plan on spraying every 7 to 10 days once you begin to see, or hear, or smell, significant numbers of adults in the garden.

Because adults often fly out of the garden when disturbed (when they hear you coming with the sprayer) only to return later, spraying early in the morning, when temperatures are cooler and cold-blooded insects move more slowly, can help improve control.

Because treatment is most often needed during the harvest period, it is important to choose insecticides with short pre-harvest intervals (PHIs) and to coordinate your spraying and picking schedule. Zeta-cypermethrin (GardenTech Sevin Insect Killer Concentrate) and permethrin (several brand names) are two effective insecticides that have short PHIs on most garden vegetables. See product labels for details.

Some gardeners use a trap crop of large-flowered sunflowers to attract leaffooted bugs away from vegetable crops they are trying to protect. It only takes a dozen or so sunflower plants to do this in an average garden. Adults are attracted to the sunflowers and will lay their eggs and produce nymphs there. But be sure to spray the bugs on the sunflowers before the nymphs can mature and move to your vegetables. Otherwise you will have a nursery crop, rather than a trap crop!

05/19/2026

DON'T FORGET!! The Southeast 4-H Project Achievement Day is Tuesday, June 30 at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville!