Greetings.

The UVM Grape Program is seeking THREE volunteer vineyard managers to participate in an Integrated Pest Management Assessment. Selected participants will receive personalized, one-on-one consultations to address their pest management needs. We will only be selecting three participants from interested respondents for this round of the program. This is a great opportunity to review your pest management practices and discover areas to improve IPM on your farm.

How this works:

1. You will complete a short online survey of yes/no questions based on an NRCS and UMASS instrument about your pest management practices.

2. Answers will be collected by the UVM Apple Program.

3. Specific practices will be assigned points based on their importance to an IPM system.

4. Total points scored will be used to determine your current IPM needs.

5. UVM Grape Program staff follow up with a consultation to assist with IPM implementation on your farm.

6. An follow-up assessment will be conducted after harvest to assess impacts of IPM educational efforts.

The assessment includes a series of research-based best management practices encompassing soil and nutrient management; cultural practices; pesticide application techniques, record-keeping, tactics for insect, disease, and weed management; and grower education.

By participating in this assessment, you will also be helping the UVM Grape Program to evaluate the usefulness of this tool for future IPM education and outreach efforts.

–> If interested, please contact Sarah Kingsley-Richards by May 6 at sarah.kingsley@uvm.edu.