New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA), Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources is offering the following grant opportunity:
Nutrient Management Assistance Grants
Available Funding: Up to $25,000
Application Deadline: June 16, 2025
Funding Period: Three Years
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA), Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources is pleased to announce a funding opportunity to support manure spreader purchase and maintenance, and to establish a community use program for the manure spreader. This grant aims to advance nutrient management Best Management Practices (BMPs) across New Jersey farms by enabling the shared use of properly maintained equipment.
Eligible Applicants:
• New Jersey-based individuals
• Agricultural businesses
• Cooperatives
• Not-for-profit organizations (NFPs)
• Government agencies
Applicants should demonstrate a strong working relationship with local agricultural producers and must be committed to supporting nutrient management in their communities.
Program Highlights:
• Purchase and maintain a manure spreader
• Establish a community use program for the manure spreader with a minimum of five farms
• Support the implementation of Animal Waste Management Plans (AWMPs) with Nutrient Management Plans or nutrient budgets where the manure spreader will be used
• Implement all funded activities over a three-year period
For application materials and additional information, please visit: https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/grants/njdanutrientmanagementgrants.html
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.
Need a Manure Spreader? Nutrient Management Assistance Grants – Deadline 6/16/25
Ornamental IPM 4/8 Recording Upload – Next session Tuesday 4/22
Ornamental IPM – next session is Tuesday 4/22/25
Sign up here for the NEW 2025 – Rutgers Ornamental IPM Program.
Click here for a PDF of April 08, 2025 webinar that can be printed and used as a field guide or similar
Click here for a VIDEO recording of April 08, 2025 webinar
Next sessions topic:
- Updates (GDD, Miticides, Ambrosia Beetle, Boxwood blight alerts)
- Boxwood leafminer
- Holly leaf miner
- Eastern tent caterpillars
- Spongy moth
- Evergreen lacebugs
- Clearwing Borers (and trapping)
- Red-headed flea beetle (adult pre-treatment)
- Diseases: Fire Blight and Rusts
2025 Registration includes:
The focus of this program is to provide timely updates on pest, disease, and weeds impacting commercial ornamental producers. The webinars will focus on the most important pests for a 2 week interval, will be recorded, and will be shared shortly thereafter with Spanish overdub (spoken word). The trap packages are in an effort to find grower led solutions for monitoring economically important pests throughout the multiple regions of New Jersey. Please consider joining this program for its inaugural year.
- Site visit to your ornamental nursery/farm from Rutgers agents
- Delivered printed IPM resources (Guides, factsheets, bulletins)
- Free pheromone & sticky trap kit + guidance on setup/monitoring
- Access to live bi-weekly webinars (Zoom)
- Every Second and Fourth, Tuesday, April through September
- Webinars will be recorded – posted later with Spanish overdub
This program is free, however registration is required.
(Next webinar Tu 4/22 at 12PM)
Register for the NEW – 2025 Ornamental IPM Program (including Christmas Tree Farmers)
Attention Christmas Tree Growers – This is ALSO FOR YOU
Topics applicable to Christmas Tree Production in the first session include:
- Balsam twig aphid
- Cooley Spruce Gall Adelgid
- Eastern Spruce Gall Adelgid
- Pine Bark Adelgid
- European pine sawfly
- Hemlock Rust Mite
- Spruce spider mite
We are trying to make these seminars as applicable as possible to as many different ornamental crop producers.
Please consider signing up for the NEW 2025 – Rutgers Ornamental IPM Program.
The focus of this program is to provide timely updates on pest, disease, and weeds impacting commercial ornamental producers. The webinars will focus on the most important pests for a 2 week interval, will be recorded, and will be shared shortly thereafter with Spanish overdub (spoken word). The trap packages are in an effort to find grower led solutions for monitoring economically important pests throughout the multiple regions of New Jersey. Please consider joining this program for its inaugural year.
Registration includes:
- Site visit to your ornamental nursery/farm from Rutgers agents
- Delivered printed IPM resources (Guides, factsheets, bulletins)
- Free pheromone & sticky trap kit + guidance on setup/monitoring
- Access to live bi-weekly webinars (Zoom)
- (First session NEXT TUESDAY 4/8 @ 12PM)
- Every Second and Fourth, Tuesday, April through September
- Webinars will be recorded – posted later with Spanish overdub
This program is free, however registration is required.
Register for the NEW – 2025 Ornamental IPM Program PLUS Boxwood Blight, Pest emergence, Updates
Please consider signing up for the NEW 2025 – Rutgers Ornamental IPM Program.
The focus of this program is to provide timely updates on pest, disease, and weeds impacting commercial ornamental producers. The webinars will focus on the most important pests for a 2 week interval, will be recorded, and will be shared shortly thereafter with Spanish overdub (spoken word). The trap packages are in an effort to find grower led solutions for monitoring economically important pests throughout the multiple regions of New Jersey. Please consider joining this program for its inaugural year.
Registration includes:
- Site visit to your ornamental nursery/farm from Rutgers agents
- Delivered printed IPM resources (Guides, factsheets, bulletins)
- Free pheromone & sticky trap kit + guidance on setup/monitoring
- Access to live bi-weekly webinars (Zoom)
- (First session NEXT TUESDAY 4/8 @ 12PM)
- Every Second and Fourth, Tuesday, April through September
- Webinars will be recorded – posted later with Spanish overdub
This program is free, however registration is required.
| Boxwood Blight Risk Assessment as of 3/4/2025 | |||||||||
| Region | Location | CODE | 31-March | 1-April | 2-April | 3-April | 4-April | 5-April | |
| Southern | Upper Deerfield | NJ50 | Very Low | Very Low | Very Low | Low | Minor Risk | Very Low | |
| Central | Howell / Freehold | NJ10 | Minor Risk | Very Low | Very Low | Low | Minor Risk | Very Low | |
| Northern | Wantage | NJ79 | Low | Very Low | Very Low | Low | Risk | Very Low | |
| M | T | W | TH | F | S | ||||
| Please check YOUR LOCAL risk (click here) | |||||||||
Please download and print the Rutgers Nursery and Landscape Pest Scouting Guide or Conifer and Christmas Tree Pest Scouting Guide and refer to this post “Obtaining your local growing degree-days (GDD)” for additional information. (See pest scouting guides for complete list of references)
Please SHARE what you SEE!! If you see a pest, disease, otherwise interesting or troublesome issue please report it to the Working Group by following the QR Code on the front of the Pest Scouting Guides or by filling out this reporting form.
Keep reading for more resources!
Last Call: Farmer Resource Fair in Somerset County
All New Jersey farmers are invited to attend this Farmer Resource Fair which will feature an array of agricultural service providers. In-between a light breakfast and a hearty lunch, there will be engaging presentations and opportunities to visit with service providers at their table displays. The program schedule, as well as a preliminary list of service providers who’ve confirmed their attendance, is included below.
The event will be held on Friday, April 11, 2025 from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm at the Ted Blum 4-H Center located at 310 Milltown Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807.
Click here to register for this free event (registration is required). Please register by April 1, 2025.
This collaborative event is being organized by Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Somerset County, Somerset County Agriculture Development Board, and the State Agriculture Development Committee Next Gen Program. We hope you will join us! [Read more…]
White Pine Weevil Adults Become Active During the Early Weeks of Spring
Many arborists & landscapers often find it difficult to prevent white pine weevil pests (Pissodes strobi), because they are typically applying fertilizer & dormant oil treatments during the control window. In NJ, the control window against feeding white pine weevil adults occurs in March & April. Adults overwinter in the duff beneath trees. The WPW adults will often crawl or sometimes fly to the top terminal leaders of pine, spruce, or Douglas-fir trees. Eastern white pine & Norway spruce species are the most severely attacked & the death of the terminal leaders of these trees will often occur.
Often by July, an infested terminal will brown & die as the weevil larvae have destroyed the vascular tissues. (Photo Credit: Steven K. Rettke, Rutgers Coop. Ext.)
Treatment timing is critical with this pest, and controlling the adult female before egg laying is necessary. Apply preventative sprays (e.g., pyrethroids) only to the terminal leaders during this time. Before mating & egg laying, adults will feed by chewing holes within the central leader, causing a characteristic pitch flow that becomes white when dry. Then females will lay eggs in new cut-out holes within the top 12 inches of the leader just below the terminal bud.
White pine weevil adults will feed within the upper terminal leaders & cause pitch flow that when dries has a white appearance. This is an early symptom that adults are active & control materials need to be applied. (Photo Credit: Steven K. Rettke, Rutgers Coop. Ext.)
