Register Now for the North Jersey Commercial Vegetable and Fruit Grower Meetings

North Jersey Commercial Vegetable Growers Meeting

February 28, 2019

North Jersey Commercial Fruit Growers Meeting

March 7, 2019

Hunterdon County Complex

314 State Rt. 12, Building #1

Flemington, NJ 08822

For registration and program details contact Cynthia Triolo at 973-285-8306 or ctriolo@co.morris.nj.us

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.

Spotted Lanternfly Basics Webinars

In conjunction with the New York State IPM Program and the Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Northeastern IPM Center will host a collection of webinars, titled “Spotted Lanternfly Basics.” Each webinar will focus on, and be tailored to, a specific commodity group:

Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Grape and Apple Industries (Feb. 26, 2019, 1:00 p.m.). Registration link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_d_3KfxQ9SuKHyhk6pM7NCA

Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Hops, Berry, and Vegetable Growers (Feb. 26, 2019, 10:00 a.m.). Registration link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ONViZLocSBCOKIv-sjoZVg

Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Christmas Tree Growers (Mar. 4, 2019, 10:00 a.m.). Registration link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7eehVeBvSBOgM3aTXOtaew

Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Nursery, Greenhouse, and Landscape Industries (Mar. 4, 2019, 1:00 p.m.). Registration link: https://cornell.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u5mYQOHMSESWFcNoftt2Nw

All webinars will follow a similar format that covers spotted lanternfly biology, identification, and hosts, monitoring and management strategies, and a regulatory update. While the content may be relevant to audiences throughout the Northeast, management practices covered will be specific to New York. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions.

For more information and registration links, go to:

http://neipmc.org/go/mYey

Update Your Peach Harvest Windows!

Rutgers Tree Fruit Breeding program, spearheaded by Dr. Joseph Gofredda, continues to release new varieties, giving growers more options to choose from. Five new and exciting Peach and Nectarine varieties were developed after extensive multi-year evaluations at several location in New Jersey, representing different agro-climates. Additionally, three-year post-harvest evaluations of fruit quality were performed at Pomology Lab at Rutgers Agriculture Research and Extension Center (RAREC) in Bridgeton. Fruit and tree characteristics of these new peach and nectarine varieties are described below. [Read more…]

Time to Hill-Up your Grapevines is NOW!

Winter injury is a crucial limiting factor to wine grape production in the New Jersey. Following the harsh winter of 2013-14, almost 85% of vineyards reported various degrees of cold damage. Often, the cold injury results in the development of Crown gall disease, which causes gall formation around the trunk and graft unions, which can lead to vine decline or death. One particularly useful way to reduce winter injury is to protect the graft union from the cold by covering, or Hilling-up, the base of the vines with soil to protect the graft union. Right time to hill-up is after the harvest and before the ground is hard frozen – that is now!

Factsheet 1264 https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1264/ details the following important aspects of hilling-up to protect the graft union from cold damage.

  • The principle of Hilling-up – How the soil works, both as a thermal mass that holds the heat and insulator that slows heat loss.
  • How to perform effective hilling-up using available and specialized implements.
  • Cost benefits of using the implements.
  • Challenges such as, timing, preventing damage to the drip lines and to trunks during hilling-up; and how to address those challenges.
  • The process of hilling down in the spring to prevent root formation above the graft union and proper weed management.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County Has New Office Location

County Agricultural Agents, Michelle Infante-Casella and Hemant Gohil have a new office location in Gloucester County. The Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) Office in Gloucester County relocated last week. The new location is now at the Shady Lane County Complex, 254 County House Road, Clarksboro, NJ 08020. The entrance is on the right side of the main 3-story brick building, under the numbers 254; follow the sidewalk with gray brick pavers.

Front-side of a building

Entrance to the RCE of Gloucester County Offices down the sidewalk on the right.

The office also has a new phone number and Agricultural Agents and other staff can be reached at 856-224-8040 (Agriculture and Natural Resources is extension 1). This new complex provided by Gloucester County offers more office space and multiple options for educational programs. To the left side of the complex is a 4-classroom building, formerly the Gloucester County Fire Academy, that is now operated by Rowan College of Gloucester County, that can be utilized for extension education and other county-related events. The main office building has 3 conference rooms for small group meetings. RCE will still have access to the main auditorium at the former facility in Clayton. For more information about Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County see http://gloucester.njaes.rutgers.edu.