University of Vermont Fruit Blog

Category: Tree Fruit

  • Final mention for now: A succinct guide to FSMA compliance for small farms

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    By Terence Bradshaw Only when describing a new Federal initiative can we say the a 35-page guide is succinct, but this is an excellent resource that should answer many questions about implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act and how it applies to your farm: http://go.uvm.edu/fsmashortguide -Terry Where trade names or commercial products are used…

  • Registration Open- New England Fruit & Vegetable Meetings December 12-14

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    By Terence Bradshaw Online registration is now open for the 2017 New England Fruit and Vegetable Meetings in Manchester, NH, to be held December 12-14. As usual, there will be sessions for growers of all scales, scopes, and specialty crops, including two sessions each for apples and grapes, a stone fruit session, a cider and…

  • Food safety meeting November 7 & 8

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    By Terence Bradshaw I have received a number of questions regarding the November 7&8 Food Safety Training hosted by UVM Extension that I mentioned in a post this week. Below I summarize some quick answers from myself and UVM Extension’s Hans Estrin to the more common ones: 1. Will this training be offered again? This…

  • NEWA upgrade survey

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    By Dan Olmstead PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN OUR ONLINE NEWA SURVEY – help us build our new website! 1 September 2017 The Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA) wants you to take our online survey — it’ll only take about 10 minutes of your time. Take the survey now: https://cornell.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0GRlhOIDI5HwbR3 Whether you’ve used NEWA’s online…

  • Getting ready for harvest in orchards and vineyards…

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    By Terence Bradshaw Mid-August is approaching, and that means that fruit are beginning the ripening process in Vermont orchards and vineyards. This is an important time to plan some final management practices before things get too busy. Foliar (apple) and petiole (grape) tissue sampling: Now is the time to collect plant tissue samples for nutrient…

  • Orchard pest management, late July

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    By Terence Bradshaw Many growers, especially of pick-your-own or retail-sold fruit, are starting to think about wrapping up the pest management season for 2017. Before doing so, it is important to consider late-season insect and disease pests that could affect the crop going into harvest. Apple maggot numbers ticked up in a lot of orchards…

  • Midsummer orchard management

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    By Terence Bradshaw July 9, 2017 As we move into midsummer, the busy hive of early season pest management is largely behind us, and we just need to keep a few things in mind. On the disease front, sooty blotch and flyspeck have the potential to be a big problem this year, so fungicide coverage…

  • Hail, tonight and in general

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    By Terence Bradshaw June 27, 2017 A pretty strong storm with high winds and hail just blew through East Montpelier and Calais; my colleague up in South Burlington reports barely a puff of wind up there. The point here is that hail may have affected area orchards, but as is usually the case, was highly…

  • Borers and moths, plus a little on orchard diseases

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    By Terence Bradshaw June 26, 2017 There’s pretty much no question that apple scab ascospore release is done now, and only lesions from that primary scab season that became established in the trees can continue to spread the disease. There is a bit of scab out there; if you have any, then keep covered with…

  • Orchard management- June 18, 2017

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    By Terence Bradshaw June 18, 2017 I am doing some last minute preparations for my summer cold-climate viticulture course which starts this week (and still has a few slots if you’re interested), so this will be relatively brief. Codling moth (CM) should be tended to in most orchards in the warmer valleys this week if…