In early July, construction workers and volunteers from
across Georgia were toiling in
the heat of downtown Atlanta. Fighting a looming deadline, they
were building the
structure that will house the Showcase of Southern Agriculture
in Centennial Olympic Park.

Gathered under a tiny shade tree away from the hammering and
sawing were agricultural
specialists from the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences and Fort Valley State University.

They were part of Georgia Agriculture 96, a group formed to
showcase agriculture during
the Olympics. Their task, turning the red dirt and gravel-filled
dust into a lush garden
of row crops, seemed much harder than the builders’.

"We’re going to get it done," said John Beasley, a
UGA Extension Service
agronomist and committee chair.

Getting it done meant bringing in crops and trees in
containers from greenhouses in
Tifton, Fort Valley and Griffin.

"It was a challenge to get all these crops to grow in
containers," Beasley
said. "We had to experiment with the fertilizer and water
requirements. Growing crops
in containers is just atypical."

Thanks to the committee specialists’ outstanding work, the
plants made the move July
8-11 to be ready for the public opening of Centennial Olympic
Park July 13.

"They will stay in the containers that have a mix of
peat moss and soil from the
field," Beasley said. "That was one of the
requirements, rather than putting
them into that hard clay ground in downtown Atlanta."

The containers were placed in beds and buried with mulch so
the crops and trees appear
to be planted.

"We would have a zero survival rate any other way,"
Beasley said.

Olympic visitors will soon know why there are no peach trees
on Peachtree Street.

"Peach trees aren’t used to the reflective heat from all
the concrete
downtown," Beasley said. "It’s really tough on them.
The apple trees are doing
OK, though."

A UGA Extension Service engineer designed an irrigation
system to help the specialists
maintain the crops.

"We will have a trickle-irrigation system with a manual
valve so if one group of
plants is under more stress than others, we can send water to
just that group,"
Beasley said.

The committee planned the crop layout to take advantage of
shade from nearby buildings,
too.

"We tried to position them around the barn structure
based on their sensitivity to
sunlight," Beasley said. "We moved peach trees to the
northeast side so they get
morning sun and not as much direct afternoon sun."

The biggest concern is heat stress on the plants. But the
visitors could add a problem.

"We’re going to have some cotton plants with full bolls
on them," Beasley
said. "The visitors may pick them clean the first day, so
we have to have replacement
plants."

Another factor could be insect and disease problems.

"We don’t know of any insect or disease problems that
may occur in that
area," Beasley said. "But there are some turf and
ornamentals in the park. They
may have insects that will feed on the plants."

This learning experience for the growers should prove a
learning experience for the
visitors, too.

"We want to give visitors as good a look at the crops at
a mature stage of growth
as possible," Beasley said.