USDA provides more details about the Buy Fresh program and a link to its solicitation page here.
Commercial Ag Updates + Farm Food Safety
Rutgers Cooperative Extension Ag Agents provide updates on what they see in the field, upcoming events, and other important news that affects your operation, such as developments in on-farm Food Safety. Subscribe if you wish to be notified about workshops, meetings, and upcoming commercial ag events.
Subscriptions are available via EMAIL and RSS.
USDA Announces Coronavirus Food Assistance Program
From usda.gov/media/press-releases on April 17, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).
“The program will provide $16 billion in direct support based on actual losses for agricultural producers where prices and market supply chains have been impacted…” including $9.5 billion in aid to cattle, dairy and hog farmers, $3.9B to row/commodity crops, $2.1B for specialty crops growers, and $500 mil for “other” crops ($500 million).
The remaining $3B will be used to increase purchases of fresh produce, dairy, and meat to be distributed through “food banks, community and faith based organizations, and other non-profits serving Americans in need.”
More details about the CFAP can be found in the press release, however, as of yesterday morning, local USDA Service Centers had not yet received directions on how/where/when farmers should apply for direct assistance. They will inform local farmers as soon as the information becomes available and we will also pass on that information as soon as we have it.
Soil Temperatures and Seed Germination/Growth
This season’s warm March made it tempting to get an early start planting crops. However to give plants a jump on the season, resist the lure of warm air temperatures. Instead, pay more attention to your soils’ temperatures.
One might think the warmer March, not to mention the very mild January and February, and even this past weekend’s 70°F, would mean warmer soil temperatures by now than when retired colleague Ray Samulis originally wrote most of this post in 2014. Ray discussed recording 56-58°F temperatures from soils in various Central Jersey commercial vegetable fields on April 15 just before a multi-day cold front arrived. He had anticipated colder temperatures. Today, expecting higher temperatures, a quick sampling revealed soils nearly ten degrees cooler (48-52°F) than what Ray had measured.
What do soil temperatures have to do with your early vegetable seedlings?
- Mean spring soil temperatures determine nutrient availability, especially phosphorus which is closely related to early root growth, as well as nitrogen, hence, overall crop development.
- Knowing your earlier warming ‘hot’ fields can be reliable planting spots for cold tolerant vegetables, but monitoring the temperatures is the only way to know for sure. Germination temperature requirements for common vegetables are listed in the table below.
- Many of the same techniques (raised beds, clear plastic mulch, floating row cover, windbreaks) used to protect early warm season transplanted crops can also be used to warm the soil to give a boost to early direct seeded crops.
When it is sunny or when the wind is howling, judging the suitability for planting may seem clear. However, monitoring field specific soil temperatures and paying close attention to crop varietal cold tolerance (published by most seed companies) are better guides. Besides a soil thermometer, there are now many relatively inexpensive weather monitoring systems (from dataloggers that monitor individual parameters like soil temperature, to complete systems that will measure air and soil temps, wind speed, rainfall, and more – more on those in another post) that can be observed directly or can be linked to smart phones/devices and/or office computers miles away.
While it’s best to measure soil temperatures in your own fields, there are also online soil temperature reporting alternatives like the Rutgers NJ Weather Network. Twelve weather stations offer real time soil temperatures. Check the numbered station nearest your fields and bookmark the station. Syngenta GreenCast also offers broad regional soil temperature maps, with a 5-day soil prediction forecast feature, or you can put in your town and zip code for a local average (see figure 1). This is useful data when weather conditions are less than favorable and only narrow planting windows exist.
These temperatures represent vegetable seedling survival tolerance, not necessarily best performance:
Average Minimum Spring Soil Temperatures |
Vegetable Crop Tolerance for Reliable Germination |
40°F | Beet, Cabbage, Potato, Spinach, Turnip |
45°F | Pea, Mustard, Leek |
50°F | Carrot, Lettuce, Onion, Sweet Corn |
60°F and above | Bean, Cucumber, Pumpkin, Squash |
70°F and above | Eggplant, Watermelon |
Rutgers Ethnic Crops Research In The News
Dr. Albert Ayeni of Rutgers Department of Plant Biology summarized ongoing work of our Ethnic Crop Research Group exploring new crops for the diverse ethnic populations of the Garden State and beyond in an article published on HortDaily.com during the summer.
According to Ayeni, “Ethnic (or Exotic) crops present new opportunities for growers, produce marketers and consumers in New Jersey (NJ) and the Mid-Atlantic.”
As the season comes to an end and you have some more time to read, learn about four crops that Ayeni finds especially interesting at “Ethnic Crops Present New Opportunities for Growers in NJ and Mid-Atlantic”.
Sustainable Nursery Production Website Updates / Join Our Nursery Grower Email List
Please visit (click on links) the Rutgers Sustainable Nursery Production website for the following:
Join our Nursery Growers email list: please email Brandi Williams at brandiwi@co.cumberland.nj.us to stay connected during this time of COVID-19 social distancing and beyond. We will only email you important nursery industry related materials.
Voice your needs: please complete the 2020 Nursery Industry Survey to help the new nursery agents align their programmatic efforts to the needs of our communities.
Get information: view or download the missed 2020 South Jersey Nursery Meeting presentations (PDF).
Watch: visit the Rutgers NJAES video channel for educational content.
We need your input as this website is for you! Please feel free to contact us with ideas, suggestions, discrepancies, and thoughts on website improvements.
Please note: The Sustainable Nursery Production website will be rapidly expanding with new instructional videos, recorded webinar sessions, and commercial nursery production resources, serving as a key resource to our New Jersey grower communities. Additional sections such as commonly used forms will also be updated soon.
The new RCE nursery agents: Bill Errickson (Monmouth) and Timothy Waller (Cumberland) are focused on bringing new and updated Rutgers branded educational materials (fact-sheets, recommendations, videos, etc) to the forefront in an effort to better serve our growers.
Thank you for participating!
Contact Us:
Timothy J. Waller (website improvements)
County Agent
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County
291 Morton Ave.
Millville, NJ 08332
856-451-2800
twaller@njaes.rutgers.edu
Brandi Williams (Nursery Growers email-list)
Agriculture and Natural Resources Secretary
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County
291 Morton Ave.
Millville, NJ 08332
856-451-2800
brandiwi@co.cumberland.nj.us
Covid-19 and Wholesale Grower Questions
The CDC, FDA and USDA have no reports at this time of human illnesses that suggest coronavirus can be transmitted by food or food packaging.
What should an operation do to protect their workers and themselves? Growers should inform employees concerning the importance of following recommended guidelines for their own health, the protection of co-workers and to keep the farm running. Anyone getting sick with COVID–19 will have a significant impact on continued operation of the farm!
Transportation
1. Do not pack too many workers in a vehicle. Ideally there should just be two individuals in a pickup. If using buses have one individual per seat.
2. If bringing workers in from another country or another part of the United States, consider quarantining them for up to 14 days. It is especially important if one in the group is showing symptoms.
Labor Housing
1. Social distancing inside labor housing with a common bunk room may be a challenge. Consider installing temporary/permanent screens/walls between bunks, separating bunks as far as space allows, or divide bunks into individual beds if practical/possible.
2. Plan for what would happen if someone contracted Covid-19. There should be a separate area set aside for that individual, whether it is a separate room or in another house. The original camp should be cleaned and sanitized following CDC guidelines before any workers return. [Read more…]