Marjorie B. Kaplan, Dr.P.H. Associate Director, Rutgers Climate Institute Rutgers University 14 College Farm Road New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8551 848-932-5739 (phone) 732-932-8644 (fax) email: kaplan@envsci.rutgers.edu Website: climatechange.rutgers.edu Follow us on facebook Follow us on twitter
Archives for February 2019
March 7 Seminar at NJAES, New Brunswick Open to Public
South Jersey Tree Fruit Meeting
Date: March 6, 2019 @ 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: RAREC, 121 Northville Road, Bridgeton, NJ 08302
Registration: Required, by February 28th Contact: Karen Holton (holton@njaes.rutgers.edu), (856) 455-3100 x4104
Cost / person: $15.00 (Checks preferred, made out to Rutgers University), lunch included.
Pesticide Credits: Core (2); 1A (07); 3A (07); 3B (01); & PP2 (07) (Applied)
PROGRAM
8:00 am Registration
Coffee and pastries
8:25 am Welcome and Opening Remarks and update.
Hemant Gohil, Agriculture Agent, Rutgers Co-op. Extension, Gloucester County
8:30 am A Year that was – Environmental Stress effects on Peach Development.
Daniel Ward, Extension Specialist in Pomology, Rutgers NJAES.
9:00 am Key Pest Issues in 2018, and Possible Reasons.
Dave Schmitt, Fruit IPM Program Associate, Rutgers NJAES
9:15 am Peach Brown Rot: Improving Disease Control and Fungicide Resistance Mgmt.
Norm Lalancette, Extension Specialist in Tree Fruit Pathology, Rutgers NJAES
10:00 am Break – Coffee and pastries
10:15 am IPM tactics and beneficial insects in tree fruit.
Anne Nielsen, Extension Specialist in Tree Fruit Entomology, Rutgers NJAES
10:45 am Dealing With Spotted Wing Drosophila and Scale Pests.
Dean Polk, Statewide Fruit IPM Agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension
11:15 am Plum curculio biology and management.
Clement Akotsen, Post-doc Research Associate, Rutgers NJAES
11:45 am Industry Updates and NJ Peach Promotion Council Updates.
12:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm How Herbicide Resistance affects Weed Managing in Tree Fruit Production.
Thierry Besancon, Extension Specialist in Weed Science, Rutgers NJAES
1:30 pm Pesticide Storage and Spills: Managing Risk.
Pat Hastings, Pesticide Safety Education Program Coordinator, Rutgers NJAES
2:00 pm Overview of Managing Orchard Soil Health.
Megan Muehlbauer, Agriculture Agent, Rutgers Co-op. Extension, Hunterdon Co.
2:30 pm Fruit Quality and Post-harvest Evaluations of New Peach Varieties.
Hemant Gohil, Agriculture Agent, Rutgers Co-op. Extension, Gloucester County
3:00 pm Open Session – Grower Questions and Discussion.
Spacing Robots – Experiences of the Container Nursery
Spacing is one of the most labor intensive and least desirable jobs on the nursery. Continuous moving, bending and twisting with filled containers is also the common cause of workers’ injuries. Using robots for spacing and moving, can address these challenges, however has its own challenges. During a panel discussion on the Nursery Mechanization, held at Clayton in Gloucester County on Jan 16, Donald Blew of Centerton Nursery, shared their experiences in using robots.
- Efficient Utilization of the Space: The big reason for Blews was not because they could not find the labor or because it was cheaper, but the fact that robots are good at spacing pots in hexagonal pattern and saving spaces and saves money on that. “If you draw a square and put your four pots in it, you have that extra space in the middle that is not being used. If you put them in a hexagonal pattern, you can use a little bit more of that free area that you have”. Robots can do that with precision. It saved them right around 10 greenhouses last year! At eighteen hundred square feet a piece, it is quite a bit of area gained. Previously, they could fit 24,000 three-gallon hydrangea in one greenhouse. Now, with spacing robots can add 6,000 more, with the same center-to-center distance between pots. So, for every three and a third house they saved at least one house. Other thing is that it lets you know exactly how many plants are going into the greenhouse which gives an ability to refill greenhouse after, say you shipped half of the greenhouse. There are calculations and online spreadsheets that make it easy.
- How does it works? No, they don’t work on GPS. They have very simple lasers and sensors. It is actually taking the number of wheel count, so it knows how far it is going by how many revolutions making. You apply a boundary marker, along one edge/side of the bed, and then put at least one container down-faced to establish the reference point or boundaries. Then enter certain parameters such as specifying either the square or hexagonal pattern, spacing between and within the rows, on robot’s human interface. “Mark the center with D.O.T. tape and now you can use two Robots”, said the owner of four such robots.
- Challenges: Biggest challenge is that it needs a skilled labor to operate and maintain, including charging batteries, every four to five hours. If you have four of them, you may need one person dedicated to just do that. According to Donald Blew ‘there are days when it can take a full day just to troubleshoot or repair the robots’. Machine is expensive, costs around 35,000 per piece. On an average people are getting five to ten years out of them. By the time you have paid off, it’s time to get a new one. However you can lease them through Farm Credit.
- Do your math before buying. Ask yourself how many man-hours you spend, doing the operation that robots could replace. Then do the math as far as payroll. If number make sense and handle the challenges then by all means, buy the Robot.
Romaine: What happened and where do we go from here?
The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Food Safety Team invites you to attend a Town Hall Meeting to learn the roles of the Food and Drug Administration, New Jersey Department of Agriculture and the New Jersey Department of Health in the 2018 Romaine foodborne illness outbreaks and what the plans are for the future.
The meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 15, 2019 from 9:00 am to noon at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County, 291 Morton Ave. in Millville, NJ 08332.
Douglas H. Fisher, NJ Secretary of Agriculture; Tom Beaver, Director of NJDA Division of Marketing and Development; Chris Kleinguenther, Bureau Chief of NJDA Division of Marketing and Development; and Wesley Kline, Rutgers Cooperative Extension will discuss the steps that were taken for past outbreaks and what can be done for future outbreaks.
This event is free, and lunch will be served. Please RSVP to Charlotte at Charlotte.Muetter@ag.nj.gov or 856-839-3377 on or before February 13 if you are planning to attend.
SAVE THE DATE!
North Jersey Commercial Vegetable Grower Meeting
February 28, 2019
&
North Jersey Commercial Fruit Grower Meeting
March 7, 2019
Hunterdon County Complex
314 State Route 12, Bldg. #1
Flemington, New Jersey 08822
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Detailed program and registration details forthcoming
Questions? Please contact: Cynthia Triolo (Morris County Cooperative Extension) at 973.285.8306 or ctriolo@co.morris.nj.us
Or
Kim Frey (Hunterdon County Cooperative Extension) at 908-788-1339 or kfrey@co.hunterdon.nj.us