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Make azaleas look like those at the Masters
Where grass is greener
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I expect more than a few folks soon will take a look at their azaleas and ask how they can make their plants look as good as those at the Masters. 
As fate would have it, the next azalea maintenance task on the calendar is pruning.  Here is a quick rundown on the what, when, where, why and how of azalea pruning.  
The azalea pruning season runs from the time the plants stop blooming in spring until flower buds set in the summer.  Here, in a normal year, that roughly translates to after St. Patrick’s Day until the Fourth of July.  Pruning after flower buds set would remove blooms from next year’s blossom display.  It also removes a very large energy investment the plant has made in these large buds.  If you want to start to debilitate your azaleas and make them more prone to disease, less robust and puny looking, then go ahead and prune after the Fourth of July.
If you cannot get to the pruning before the Fourth, it is better to wait until after the plants bloom next year. 
If you have pruning to do and you can make time for it, there are a few options on the type of pruning you might consider.  The best pruning strategy — especially for the old Indica varieties — is to count the number of stems coming up from the ground and divide by four.  You want to prune out one-fourth of the stems.  Choose the largest diameter (oldest) stems and cut them out just above the ground.  If you do this every year, the azaleas will be kept in bounds, constantly rejuvenated and will provide pound-for-pound the most blooms. 
If your azaleas have gotten out of hand — way too tall and loose — you may need to consider severe pruning to rejuvenate the plants.  This basically is chainsaw pruning.  Cut them off between 6 inches and a foot above ground and let them come back.  Indicas can take it.  The established root system on mature plants will allow rapid recovery from severe pruning.  Then, when they get to be four years past severe pruning, you can start on annual pruning that removes one-fourth of the stems each year.  If you want your azaleas taller and larger, divide by five and only take out one-fifth of the stems each year.
But what if you like the height and density of your plants but you only have four to eight stems from which to choose for pruning?  Cutting out the largest stems might make the plant just plain ugly.  Then we fall back to reduction pruning.  The objective is to lower the height and reduce the visual mass of the plant by selectively pruning out branches.  When the pruning is complete, the shrubs should not look like they have been pruned.  They retain their natural shape and character, but are smaller.  One reaches into the plant and prunes the branch back to a subordinate (smaller) branch.  Repeat until the final shape of the plant is reached. 
Remember that if you want an azalea to be dense and look good at a height of 3 feet, you will need to make your pruning cuts back to a height of 2 feet to give the new shoots some space through which to develop a dense canopy.  Unlike a putting green, azaleas need more than a quarter-inch to develop a canopy. 
This brings us to the worst way to prune an azalea: the hedge.  Hedging azaleas almost ranks with topping trees as a horticultural no-no.  If you want a clipped hedge, the azalea is not your plant.  Try boxwood instead.  Azaleas will continue to mature into woody stems from the inside out until all you have is a thin veneer of leaves covering a tangle of gnarled, amputated branches.  At that point, the chainsaws start dripping bar oil at the thought of getting to work. 
Decide if your azaleas need pruning, how you want to prune them and have at it after they finish blooming.  Remember the words of the great Yogi: “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”

Gardner is a county extension agent.

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
GardenCityTerminal
The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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