Please join the Rutgers Hemp Team on Tuesday, February 23 at 9:00 AMOrganic Farm Advisory
The Plant & Pest Advisory serves NJ growers by reporting on important pests and recommending responses that are grounded in reproducible trials.
Articles in this section contain information helpful to the NJ commercial organic grower.
Sharing organic practice trial results between land-grant universities is a cost effective way to create a common knowledge base built on the strengths of individual programs. In the sidebar, find institutions with programs in organic agriculture which augment knowledge developed at the Rutgers New Jersey Ag Experiment Station.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension Field Guides: These concise guides help with decision making from pre-planting to harvest. For each crop listed, learn what pests to proactively look for as the season progresses, how to look for them, and when to take action.
February 18, 2021 Stephen Komar
New Jersey Annual Vegetable Meeting: Hemp Session
Please join the Rutgers Hemp Team on Tuesday, February 23 at 9:00 AMFebruary 11, 2021 Joe Ingerson-Mahar
Pepper Weevil Management and Research Priorities
Pepper Weevil Management and Research Priorities
March 3, 2021, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Online Zoom Meeting
Pepper growers/agribusiness professionals/extension personnel are invited to attend a virtual meeting to discuss current pepper weevil management tactics and to set research priorities.
Since 2006, at least one farm each growing season has been infested with pepper weevil. So far, timely spraying after detection has occasionally been successful in eliminating weevils. Otherwise, insecticide applications have only suppressed weevil populations. Pheromone traps are useful in detecting weevils, but often fields are infested before the weevils are trapped. What else can be done? What are the priorities in attempting to manage weevils?
Please join the discussion to help develop tactics to reduce the impact of pepper weevil.
To register please go to https://go.rutgers.edu/3bm2r3xl
The registration deadline is March 1, 2021, and you must pre-register to get the zoom link.
February 3, 2021 Wes Kline
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Harmonized Food Safety Audit Training
We are offering a final, for this spring, online Harmonized Audit Training Course on March 2, 2021 from 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM. If you will need to obtain a USDA Harmonized Audit this year or want a refresher this is the course for you.
This three-hour virtual class will cover each question on the USDA Harmonized Audit allowing participants to hear how questions are interpreted by auditors. New Jersey Department of Agriculture Auditors will also discuss how someone signs up for an audit and review common issues that auditors found during 2020. Participants will have the opportunity have their questions answered to help make their audit run more smoothly.
The deadline to register for the class is Friday February 26. The registration form is on the Eventbrite page at rutgersonfarmfoodsafety.eventbrite.com
February 3, 2021 Rick VanVranken
2021 NJ Ag/VGANJ Virtual Convention Update 2
My apologies for some of the confusion from my initial update regarding the educational sessions of our 2021 NJ Ag/VGANJ Convention will be held virtually the last week of February. While the entire up-to-date program was, and is, available to view on the Vegetable Growers Association of NJ website – VGANJ.com/schedule, I forgot one critical point in that last post. The link for signing up for pesticide re-certification credits was not ready to go at that time.
It is ready now.
(One other clarification – when you join the VGANJ and pay your membership dues at either the full or daily rate, you are also registered for these educational sessions.)
Registration for Pesticide License Re-certification Credits
If you want to receive pesticide re-certification credits for attending any of the sessions offering them, you must supply identification information that will allow us to confirm your participation and to let DEP know which sessions you attend. You do not have to sign up for individual sessions, but you must supply these required pre-registration details or you will not receive credit. If supplied, you will receive credits for any session you attend in its entirety as described in our guide.
If you are attending for credits, you 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. You will not get credit if you leave to join another Zoom session. There will be some allowance and support if there are technical issues, but otherwise, leaving a meeting early will disqualify you for credits.
Before you start to register for credits, please have the following ready before you start:
- A photo, scan or screen-shot (your ID and license may be submitted as one photo or two) of:
- your Government-issued ID, and
- NJ Pesticide applicator status
- copy of your current license, OR
- status page from the NJ DEP <https://go.rutgers.edu/t0hiphuz>- search for your name in either the “Commercial Certified Pesticide Applicators by Name” or “Private Certified Pesticide Applicators by Name” menu selections on the page.)
NOTE: If you are NOT looking for credits, DO NOT enter your license and ID information. You will be able to move from Zoom session to Zoom session.
February 3, 2021 Wes Kline
Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) – Produce Safety Alliance Training Course
The Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training Course is one way to satisfy the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirement outlined in § 112.22(c) that requires ‘At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under the standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration’. This is the only training recognized by the FDA at this time!
The course is being offered virtually over two days on March 9 and 10 from 10:45 am to 3:30 pm. All participants must preregister by February 23 at rutgersonfarmfoodsafety.eventbrite.com. Once registered a training manual will be sent to each person and the registrant must have the manual to show at the training.
Fruit and vegetables growers and others interested in learning about produce safety, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule, Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and co-management of natural resources and food safety should also attend this training.
The course is divided into seven modules that cover:
- Introduction to Produce Safety
- Worker Health, Hygiene, and Training
- Soil Amendments
- Wildlife, Domesticated Animals, and Land Use
- Agricultural Water (Part I: Production Water; Part II: Postharvest Water)
- Postharvest Handling and Sanitation
- How to Develop a Farm Food Safety Plan
In addition to learning about produce safety best practices, parts of the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirements are outlined within each module and are included in the grower manual provided.
January 29, 2021 Rick VanVranken
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.
