Fruit Crops Edition - Blueberry Section

Seasonal updates on diseases, insects, weeds impacting small fruit (blueberry, cranberry, and wine grape). Fruit Pest Alerts are also available via this category feed.
 
Subscription is through the general Fruit feed available via EMAIL and RSS.

January 29, 2021

2021 NJ Ag/VGANJ Virtual Convention Update

By now you’ve probably heard from many venues that the educational sessions of our 2021 NJ Ag/VGANJ Convention will be held virtually the last week of February. Members of the Rutgers NJAES Vegetable Working Group and our colleagues that cover other commodities have developed a comprehensive program covering a wide range of topics. The entire up-to-date program can now viewed on the Vegetable Growers Association of NJ website – VGANJ.com/schedule.

As you will see on the program, concurrent two and a half hours-long, commodity-oriented sessions and workshops are scheduled each morning and afternoon. There will be sessions offering pesticide recertification credits. To accommodate the limitations of the Zoom platform, category credits will be available in afternoon sessions only, while two lunchtime sessions (Tues and Thurs) offer CORE credits.

Morning sessions may carry over into lunchtime Q&A discussions with speakers, if demand warrants, but on Wed, Feb 24, please join VGANJ President John Banscher for a special Tribute to New Jersey Farmers. We thank you for all your essential work during the pandemic of 2020, and we thank the VGANJ for sponsoring this educational event.

As we have offered at previous conventions, we are partnering with the NJ Dept of Health to offer their required training to those farmers/market managers who participate in the WIC & Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program. However, so as not to interfere with afternoon sessions, this has been scheduled as a separate Zoom meeting from 4-6pm. More details will follow.

To obtain credits via a virtual meeting requires a couple of extra steps on your part. Please view and familiarize yourself with the steps to be followed in this guide, which will also be available if you sign up for credits after registering with VGA. If you are not looking for credits, you will be able to move from session to session, but those wanting credits will need to be signed in to the Zoom meeting within 10 minutes of the start, remain attentive and responsive to random polls, and logged into the session until it ends. There will be some allowance and support if there are technical issues, but otherwise, leaving a meeting early will disqualify you for credits.

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Field, Forage & Livestock, Food Safety, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Nursery, Organic Production, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape
January 26, 2021

Onboarding for Seasonal Employees Training

Although this training opportunity is New York-based, it will have information that covers topics related to all employers who hire seasonal employees.

Attend a 1.5-hour, on-line program Best Practices for Onboarding Seasonal Workers. Learn the key things you should have in place to be ready to welcome a group of seasonal workers. This program will follow an onboarding guide, Onboarding Seasonal Farm Employees, that was developed by Liz Higgins, CCE Eastern NY Commercial Hort Team, Mark Wiltberger, CCE Lake Ontario Fruit Program, and Richard Stup, CCE Ag Workforce Development. The onboarding guide covers:

-required paperwork and documentation for a new hire, including seasonal, migrant workers
-required trainings (with an emphasis on fruit and vegetable farms) and guides for developing a training plan
-tips for bringing on new employees and having them productive from day 1, especially when you are up to your eyeballs in work!
-tips for creating a welcoming environment where employees feel connected to their workplace and competent on the job.

When you register chose one of four dates:  

January 26 | 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM

January 27 | 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

January 28 | 8:00 AM  to 9:30 AM

To register see information in the Morning Ag Clips at https://www.morningagclips.com/onboarding-seasonal-farm-employees/

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Cranberry, Fruit, Nursery, Organic Production, Tree Fruit, Turf, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: ,
January 15, 2021

Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention REGISTRATION IS OPEN!!!

Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention will be held February 8-11, 2021 ONLINE!

This year’s Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference is 100% online.  There will be an excellent lineup of speakers from all over the country presenting on topics ranging from soil health to digital marketing.

New Jersey Pesticide Credits will be awarded (CORE, PP2, 1A, and 10).

Please note: TO ENSURE GROWERS RECEIVE PESTICIDE CREDITS THEY MUST

  1. Register as a New Jersey State Horticultural Society Member
  2. They must attend the ENTIRE credit bearing session.
  3. They MUST look for and follow the instructions on the follow-up E-mail, which will be sent to from Hunterdon County Agricultural Extension Secretary Kim Crommelin kfrey@co.hunterdon.nj.us following the meeting.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the meeting or pesticide credits please reach out to Kim Crommeliln kfrey@co.hunterdon.nj.us

Register at the Link Below

https://amr.swoogo.com/mafvc2021/785984

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Fruit, Organic Production, Tree Fruit, Uncategorized, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape
January 13, 2021

A Decade of SWD: Lessons for Management

In case you missed it, here is the video of the webinar on “A Decade of SWD: Lessons for Management” sponsored by the Sustainable SWD Management SCRI Project.

 

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Wine Grape
December 16, 2020

Grower Input Needed for the Spotted-Wing Drosophila Organic Management Project

Dear Fruit Growers and Industry Professionals:

Please take a few minutes to fill out this spotted-wing drosophila (SWD) survey:

https://ugeorgia.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3NVhWTGnleU3bP7

This multi-state survey aims to help us to evaluate our research and educational efforts. Your participation will help us determine how growers and industry professionals have benefited from this project by asking questions regarding best management practices and satisfaction with the team’s efforts to organically combat the SWD pest.

Your answers will help improve our research and educational efforts to address this pest as well as providing accountability to our funder, the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA). All responses are anonymous. No personal information will be collected.

Thank you for your time and interest in our efforts.

Dr. Cesar Rodriguez-Saona (Entomology)
On behalf of The SWD Research and Extension Team

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Wine Grape
December 14, 2020

Grower Input Needed to Help Understand the Role of Anthracnose Diseases

All growers of tree fruit and small fruit, please take a few minutes to fill out this fruit rot survey!

This multi-state survey aims to help us understand the role of anthracnose (fruit rot) diseases and to prioritize grower concerns and challenges.  This short survey, linked below, is a part of a multi-state research collaboration that aims to help us understand the impact and role of anthracnose (fruit rot) diseases caused by the fungal pathogens in the Colletotrichum genus and to prioritize grower concerns and challenges.

The link https://go.rutgers.edu/liiy8uep takes you to the article from Penn State that has the survey link at the end of that article. All responses are anonymous. No personal information will be collected.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blueberry, Cranberry, Fruit, Strawberry, Tree Fruit, Uncategorized, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , , ,