Christmas Trees Edition
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Seasonal pest alerts and news about insects, diseases, and weeds impacting Christmas Tree production including Commercial Ag Updates (meetings and marketing); and Pesticide Program updates from the Rutgers Pest Management Office News Blog.
Companion Website Links:
Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.
Pesticide Storage Inventory with Cover Letter Due May 1st to Fire Department
Some Early Spring Insect Pests of Christmas Trees
The accumulation of heat units (Growing Degree Days (GDD) will soon begin to increase rapidly in New Jersey as we approach the early weeks of April. If past histories or present-day monitoring indicate the need for interventions, then the best control windows for numerous insect/mite pests are beginning to occur. The following is an incomplete listing of a handful of some of our early-season Christmas tree insect pests that may need to be scouted & possibly controlled. Those included in this blog are the European pine sawfly, Eastern spruce gall adelgid, Cooley spruce gall adelgid, Nantucket pine tip moth, Pales weevil, White pine aphid, & Pine bark adelgid.
After many years, these slow growing Colorado blue spruce trees are close to reaching their peak selling growth stage as Christmas trees. (Photo Credit: Steven K. Rettke, Rutgers Coop. Ext.)
Free Webinar: Marketing Your Farm – Agritourism
Wednesday, March 29, 12-1pm Eastern Time
Rutgers Cooperative Extension is partnering with other New England states to deliver agritourism education. A free webinar will be held to help farmers learn the three essential components of marketing your farm, with a focus on agritourism. Myrna Greenfield is the “Top Egg” at Good Egg Marketing and the author of Marketing Your Farm: A practical guide to attracting loyal customers and increasing sales. Ellen Parlee is the co-owner of Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, which offers pick-your-own fruit and flowers, along with a farmstand, bakery, ice cream stand, animal petting area, and a food trailer for lunch. Ryan Wilson is the co-owner of DeMeritt Hill Farm in Lee, New Hampshire, which offers pick-your-own apples/peaches/blueberries/Xmas trees, hayrides, school tours, special events, Cross Country running, and hiking trails and has a full commercial kitchen. The farm plays host to Torey Roderick Performance Horses and every October, the world-famous Haunted Overload. Lisa Chase from University of Vermont Extension will moderate the session.
To register see: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_e3WWWaq9SoaQSR8nVkotdQ
This webinar is free, but registration is required.
Webinar: Incorporating Classes into Your Agritourism Business
Thursday March 23, 2023 12-1pm Eastern Time
Rutgers Cooperative Extension is partnering on a regional project with other New England Land Grant Universities to offer webinars related to agritourism in the northeast.
Join our speakers for Incorporating Classes into Your Agritourism Business, where they will share their experiences with offering, hosting, and teaching classes. As farm and food business owners, you are experts in your craft and likely face endless questions from customers and the public. Why not use this as an opportunity to offer classes, enabling your customers or the public to learn from your expertise? Classes can be tailored to a variety of topics and activities.
Susan Rigg is the owner of and cheesemaker at Whey River Creamery. Susan offers both introductory and advanced hands-on cheesemaking classes. Michele Capron is the co-owner of Lavender Essentials of Vermont. She offers numerous classes, including lavender wreath creations, cooking with lavender, native tea blending, herb garden, and make it – take it. Deb Hartshorn owns White Picket Farm LLC, offering a variety of class experiences, including soap making, creating terrariums, succulent bowls, and more!
To register go to: https://extension.psu.edu/incorporating-classes-into-your-agritourism-business
This webinar is free, but registration is required. You will need to create an account with Penn State Extension to register for this webinar.
In-Person Pesticide Exams for April
Updated 2023 Pest Scouting Guides are up – Getting prepared for the season ahead
The updated Pest Scouting Guides are here, and have a few improvements that enable YOU to share what YOU are seeing in the field with RCE.
Please click, download, and print these scouting guides for use at your nursery, landscape, or conifer plantation. Once printed you can scan the QR at the top of document to link back to the digital copy. These are much larger documents than 2022, as they are sorted by GDD, NEW-Insect “Group”, and by NEW-“favored host plants”.
Refer to this post “Obtaining your local growing degree-days (GDD)” for additional information (click here) or contact Tim Waller twaller@njaes.rutgers.edu for help.
It is important to note that the GDD ranges do not replace scouting and that many of these GDD ranges have not been validated in New Jersey and would greatly benefit from local feedback. Therefore you will notice a QR code at the bottom of the cover-page. If you scan this code it will take you to a form that asks for details about pest occurrence, host plants, any observations, and after you submit your comments it allows the user to upload photographs. This is also a great place to leave feedback on what you would like to see in future iterations (such as pictures…).
PLEASE REPORT – pest observations that deviate from the stated GDD ranges in the guides
PLEASE SHARE PICTURES OF PESTS – we are working to develop insect ID pocket guides and other resources for our NJ growers…but we need your help
LONT – Comment and Photo upload REPORTING LINK (click here)
Conifer – Comment and Photo upload REPORTING LINK (click here)
If you would like to interact with the raw data yourself or incorporate it more closely into your businesses needs download this data file (click here) (file will download once clicked!). Please note it is a Microsoft Excel file, that is protected / cannot be modified on all but the two sheets labeled “GDD ACCU”. If you would like help with this or a non-protected file please contact twaller@njaes.rutgers.edu.
Regular updates will be utilizing this resource throughout the 2023 season. Have a great Spring Season everyone.
