March 2014 – UVM Fruit Blog

April 8th Northern Grapes Webinar

March 21, 2014- The Northern Grapes Project Webinar Series

“Impact of crop load and training systems on viticultural and enological performances of Marquette and Frontenac grown in Michigan and New York”

April 8th, 2014

12:00 Noon Eastern (11:00 am Central)

7:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm Central)

Tim Martinson of Cornell University and Paolo Sabbatini of Michigan State University will discuss results from vineyard trials conducted as part of the Northern Grapes Project. In New York, two years of training system trials on Marquette and Frontenac indicated that high training systems (Top Wire Cordon and Umbrella Kniffin) produced up to twice the yield with less labor inputs than Vertical Shoot Positioning. Fruit composition indices show modest reduction in soluble solids, but little impact on titratable acidity or juice pH. Individual sunlight-exposed Frontenac clusters had higher brix and lower titratable acidity than shaded clusters, across all training systems. In Michigan, training system (Top Wire Cordon, Geneva Double Curtain, and the experimental Moving Trellis) and crop load (cluster thinning) trials were conducted on Marquette. Spring frosts in 2012 impacted results and fruit chemistry was very good overall. In 2013, crop load studies indicated a large impact of cluster thinning on canopy growth and architecture. Despite the large difference in yield, minimal impact was observed on fruit chemistry.

Registration is NOT required if you received this email directly from Chrislyn Particka, as it means that you are a member of the Northern Grapes Webinar mailing list.

All members of the Northern Grapes Webinar mailing list will receive an email the Monday before the webinar containing the web address (URL) for both webinar sessions as well as connection instructions.

If you have received this email from someone other than Chrislyn Particka, you need to register via the link below:

http://northerngrapesproject.org/?page_id=254

Registering for one Northern Grapes Webinar will place you on the mailing list, and you will receive announcements and connection instruction for all further Northern Grapes Webinars.

Registration will close at 8 am (Eastern) on Monday, April 7th.

Feel free to email Chrislyn Particka (cap297) with any questions, if you want to check your registration status, or if you’d like to be removed from the Northern Grapes Webinar mailing list.

Further Northern Grapes Project information is available on-line at

http://northerngrapesproject.org/

The Northern Grapes Project is funded by the USDA’s Specialty Crops Research Initiative Program of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Project #2011-51181-30850 and through the New York State Specialty Crops Block Program.

Chrislyn A. Particka, PhD

Extension Support Specialist

Cornell University

Department of Horticultural Sciences

630 W. North Street

Geneva, NY 14456

cap297

315-787-2449 (desk)

315-787-2216 (fax)

www.northerngrapesproject.org

Survey on Apple Scab Resistance

March 21, 2014- I’m passing this on from some colleagues who are pulling together a grant to develop a rapid fungicide resistance test for apple scab. Please consider spending five minutes to answer the survey. This is important work that is worthy of funding. -TB

Apple pathologists in New England and New York would like to know how apple growers rate the importance of fungicide resistance and whether they are trying to manage it. The following short survey will help us a great deal. If growers do report fungicide resistance as an important issue in their orchards, we will use the information as justification to apply for research and education grants to address the problem.

The survey should take less than 5 min. We greatly appreciate your willingness to give us this very useful information.

Dr. Dan Cooley, UMASS and Dr. Kerik Cox, Cornell University

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MFFGZWR

Courses for instruction on Diversified Farm Management at UVM Summer 2014

March 18, 2014- This series includes my course on Sustainable Orchard and Vineyard Management. -TB

UVM Educational Farm Expands Learning Opportunities for Students
Catamount Farm to provide dynamic environment for wide range of students

By Erica Houskeeper

A new farming education endeavor at the University of Vermont will give students the opportunity to learn about sustainable farm practices, contribute to the local food system and help support research needs of the university.

Catamount Educational Farm in South Burlington will offer an extensive hands-on farm experience for post-traditional, undergraduate and high school students. Produce grown at the farm will be sold to select outlets within the UVM community, including University Dining Services, and be available at the UVM farm stand and through a CSA.

Catamount Educational Farm is located at the UVM Horticulture Research and Education Center (HREC) on land that has been owned by the university for more than 60 years. After three successful years of the UVM Farmer Training Program managing three acres of vegetables at the HREC, UVM Continuing and Distance Education and the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences created the Catamount Educational Farm by designating 13 acres for specialty crop production and academic programs.

“The establishment of Catamount Farm will allow UVM to provide a dedicated, hands-on learning environment for students seeking diverse farming and management skills on a well-managed, productive farm,” said HREC Director Terence Bradshaw. “Since its purchase in 1952, the mission and vision for the ‘Hort Farm’ has been to provide research, education and outreach. Catamount Farm fulfills that mission and effectively moves UVM’s local food system efforts to the next level.”

Catamount Educational Farm consists of five acres of diverse vegetables and eight acres of apples and grapes. The farm will continue to be home to the UVM Farmer Training Program for post-traditional students, as well as offer new courses such as the Catamount Farm Summer Experience for undergraduate students and the Introduction to Sustainable Vegetable Farming for high school students.

“Catamount Farm will provide a dynamic environment for immersive, experiential and relevant programs,” said Susie Walsh Daloz, who develops sustainable farm programming for UVM. “The expanded farm also allows us to reach a wide range of students, who now have the incredible opportunity to study sustainable farming while producing food for the UVM community.”

Students will be integral to carrying out all activities of the farm, providing them with real and diverse sustainable farm management skills.

“What’s unique and valuable at Catamount Farm is that production and education will go hand-in-hand,” said Laura Williams, manager of Catamount Farm. “Catamount Farm is so much more than a demonstration farm, and that’s what makes us remarkably different.”

For more information about Catamount Educational Farm, visit learn.uvm.edu/catamountfarm.

Input Needed on Proposed EPA Worker Protection Standard Changes

March 18, 2014- On February 20, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed changes to the agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS) to increase protections from pesticide exposure for the nation’s 2 million agricultural workers and their families. This is an important milestone for the farm workers who plant, tend, and harvest the food that we put on our tables each day.

You can view the proposed changes and how to comment on them at this link: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/safety/workers/proposed/index.html. Wherever you stand on the issue, this is an important potential change in current policty that could have significant implications for your farm.

-Terry

proposed-wps-factsheet.pdf

Under Trellis Management Grape Webinar April 4

March 18, 2014- This webinar may be of interest to some. -TB

Friday April 4, 2014 at 9am a discussion of Under Trellis Management with Dr. Justine Vanden Heuvel from Cornell University and Dr. Tony Wolf from Virginia Tech.

Please see attached meeting announcement for more information.

This meeting will be hosted through WebEx. WebEx is an online meeting venue that allows us to host live meetings and share presentations. It is similar to the Adobe Connect meetings that we had last year. A few days before the webcast I will send out a link to connect to the meeting for people who registered. To register please contact me, lt68.

Information on WebEx:

WebEx will automatically set up Meeting Manager for Windows the first time you join a meeting. To save time, you can set up prior to the meeting by clicking this link:
https://cornell.webex.com/cornell/meetingcenter/mcsetup.php

***Please note that there may have been a WebEx upgrade since your last webinar, so even if you have participated in a WebEx webinar before, I recommend you click the above link. If Java is enabled on your browser, the updates will occur automatically, but if Java is not enabled, you may need to download and run an installer to update.

Special note to Firefox and Chrome users:

The latest versions of Google Chrome and Firefox, which were recently released, will require the WebEx plug-in to be manually enabled in order for WebEx to work. The WebEx meeting will not successfully launch (users will stay on the “Join Meeting” page) until the plug-in has been enabled.

Cisco is currently working on setting up a way to join meetings that won’t require plug-ins, but until an alternative becomes available, users will need to enable the plug-in.

For instructions on how to enable the plug-in, please see: https://support.webex.com/webex/meetings/en_US/chrome-firefox-join-faq.htm

For further assistance:
1. Go to https://cornelluniversity.webex.com/cornelluniversity/mc
2. On the left navigation bar, click “Support”.

All webinars will be recorded and available for subsequent viewing on our website at http://ccesuffolk.org The recording should be available within a couple of days of the webinar.

Please note that you need to have a high speed internet connection such as LAN, DSL, satellite, or cable to access the webinar. Dial-up access through telephone modems will not work.

I will log in approximately 30 minutes before the start of the webinar. If you are having difficulties connecting, you can try contacting me (631.727.3595) up to 10 minutes prior to the start of the webinar. After that, I will likely not have time to assist you.

Thanks for signing up! We hope you enjoy the webinar.

Please email me, Libby Tarlton, lt8. with any concerns or suggestions.

Under trellis mgt webcast-April 4 2014.docx

2014 New England Tree Fruit Guide is Available Now

March 17, 2014

The 2014 New England Tree Fruit Management Guide is available for order now. This guide represents the work of IPM professionals throughout New England, and is our primary resource for IPM and general production information available to growers. If you think your old guide will cut it, it won’t. There have been numerous changes in product registrations and recommendation in recent years, and an up-to-date guide is your best investment in helping to keep your management program up-to-date.

Guides are $40 each, delivered. We are not set up to accept credit cards, so interested growers can print this email out and send a check for $40 payable to “University of Vermont” (nothing else goes on the to: line) to:

Sarah Kingsley-Richards
UVM Plant & Soil Science Dept
63 Carrigan Dr
Burlington, VT 05405

Please give your:

Name: _________________________

Orchard Name: _________________________

Mailing Address: __________________________

CORRECTION re: 2014 Pesticide Certification Review and Exam

CORRECTION: for current VT Pesticide Applicators License holders, this review is good for TWO recertification credits, not six as I mentioned earlier. Sorry for the confusion.

-TB

2014 Initial Certification Meeting, a review of the Core Pesticide Manual followed by the Pesticide Applicators exam

Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, VT
April 8 ; 9am-4pm
Pre-register by March 28; $20 registration fee

For more information, please visit: http://pss.uvm.edu/pesp/cert.html or contact Sarah Kingsley-Richards, sarah.kingsley@uvm.edu, (802)656-0475.

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This program will provide training and review of Vermont Pesticide regulations and the information covered in the Pesticide Applicator Training Manual that is necessary to understand and to pass the VT pesticide certification license exam.

The Core exam will be given after this training in the afternoon from 2-4pm. (No category exams will be given but can be scheduled with VAA for a later date.)

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Audience: Nursery employees, landscapers, school custodial staff, farmers, garden center employees, pest control operators, government or municipal employees, university employees, or anyone wishing a Vermont Pesticide Applicator license.

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Sponsored by Vermont Agency of Agriculture and UVM Extension with financial support from USDA Risk Management Agency

2014 Pesticide Certification Review and Exam

Spring really is coming -be ready when it finally gets here! All fruit growers, whether retail, wholesale, organic, or IPM, should hold a current Vermont Pesticide Applicator’s License to purchase and safely use pest management materials on your farms. This meeting provides initial training and an opportunity to take the initial certification exam all in one step.

For currently licensed applicators, this is a great refresher course, and offers six recertification credits.

Announcing:

2014 Initial Certification Meeting, a review of the Core Pesticide Manual followed by the Pesticide Applicators exam

Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, VT
April 8 ; 9am-4pm
Pre-register by March 28; $20 registration fee

For more information, please visit: http://pss.uvm.edu/pesp/cert.html or contact Sarah Kingsley-Richards, sarah.kingsley@uvm.edu, (802)656-0475.

The Core exam will be given after this training in the afternoon from 2-4pm. (No category exams will be given but can be scheduled with VAA for a later date.)

—
Sponsored by Vermont Agency of Agriculture and UVM Extension with financial support from USDA Risk Management Agency

UVM/Vermont Tree Fruit Listserv Questions

March 12, 2014

I have had some questions about signing up for the UVM/Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association Listserv. This interactive mailing list is offered to VTFGA members to facilitate cooperation, networking, and marketing activities between fellow growers.

This is important: to sign up for the list, you need to start with a blank email to listserv. That means deleting anything in the subject line, your signature file, and any attached graphics first in your usual template first. Then add “sub vttreefruit John Doe” (no quotes, and use your real name please, aliased subscribers will be asked to change their name or risk being removed from the list) in the body of the message. That should be the only thing in the message.

Instructions on listserv function and etiquette can are attached.

Thanks,

Terry

vttreefruit_listserveinstructions.pdf

NY-PA Grape Pest Management Guidelines now available

March 10, 2014 –

The 2014 New York and Pennsylvania Pest Management Guidelines for Grapes are now available at:

http://store.cornell.edu/p-186477-2014-new-york-and-pennsylvania-pest-management-guidelines-for-grapes.aspx

These will not be made available in an electronic format as has been done in previous years. The guidelines are
the best place to get IPM information for grapes in a single source, and every grape grower should have an
up-to-date copy. When I receive IPM-related calls, this will be my main resource, and I will reference it to
interested growers who should be looking at the same copy I have. Yes, there are quite a few differences when
applying the guide to cold climate (and generally less disease-susceptible) cultivars, but the material activity tables alone are worth the price.