Organic 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.

Field Guide List

April 10, 2015 and

Commercial Vegetable Twilight Meeting April 23, 2015

The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents of Atlantic, Cumberland and Gloucester Counties invite you to the first commercial vegetable twilight meeting of the 2015 season to discuss early spring crop pest control, label updates and management topics. Feel free to bring plant, insect, disease, or weed samples to the meeting to have them identified, or perhaps you can stump the experts. Please bring samples in sealed plastic bags.
Pesticide Recertification Credits have been requested for this meeting.

Date: Thursday, April 23, 2015 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location: East Vineland Fire Hall, Landis Ave. across from the Savoy Restaurant
(park behind the building and enter conference room door in rear)

Agenda

  • 7:00pm Weed Control – Review of the Basics
    –Rick VanVranken, RCE Atlantic
  • 7:30pm Economic Benefits of Maintaining Native Pollinator Habitat
    –Elizabeth Schuster, Environmental Economist, The Nature Conservancy
  • 7:50pm NRCS Programs Supporting IPM/Organic Transition/Pollinator Habitat
    –Nicholas Saumweber, District Conservationist, NRCS
  • 8:10pm Early Season Insect Pests and Insecticide Updates
    –Joe Mahar, Vegetable IPM Coordinator
  • 8:30pm Vegetable Disease Control Options for Spring Crops
    –Dr. Andy Wyenandt, RAREC
  • 9:00pm Pesticide Regs & Worker Protection Standards Update for the Coming Season
    –Michelle Infante-Casella, RCE Gloucester
  • 9:30pm Questions & Answers
Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Organic Production, Vegetable Crops
October 9, 2014

New Jersey Soils and Copper Fungicide Use

During my field visits to Mercer County organic farms, growers often express concerns about negative soil health impacts from copper based fungicides. In an effort to evaluate soil copper use and the resulting soil copper levels, soil was sampled at fifteen farms throughout the state.

NJ Sampled Soils

Soils sampled for copper levels.

Both conventional and organic farms participated in this study which was funded by The Phillip Alampi Fund. Two composite samples were taken from each farm, one where copper fungicides had been applied and one where copper fungicides had never been used. Total and soluble copper levels were higher on copper applied soils compared to the non-copper applied soils. Even though copper levels were higher in these soils, the levels were not high enough to cause plant toxicity symptoms, reduce plant growth, nor were the soils showing signs of reduced microbial activity.

Best management practices developed for copper based fungicides use:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Organic Production
May 8, 2014

Small Farm Post-Harvest Practices Workshop

Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2 PM to 4:30 PM
Location: Webinar presentation @ Rutgers Cooperative Extension Office of Mercer County, 930 Spruce Street, Trenton, NJ
Followed by on-farm portion @ Z Food Farm, 3501 Princeton Pike, Lawrence, NJ

Improving post-harvest practices can help minimize produce damage and maximize the amount of quality produce that can be sold at market. Evaluating current post-harvest practices and identifying low-cost improvements is an important part of farm planning, and should be done as early in the season as possible.

Z FOODRutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County and NOFA-NJ welcome Lee Stivers from Penn State Extension as she joins us remotely giving a presentation on post-harvest handling procedures for high-quality, marketable produce via webinar.

The webinar workshop portion will be followed by a farm tour of Z Food Farm’s post-harvest handling set-up. Z Food Farm is a small certified organic farm located in Lawrenceville, NJ.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Organic Production
March 21, 2014

Organic Production: Suppressing Soil-borne Pathogens

Pathogens such as Fusarium, Pythium, Phytophthora, Thielaviopsis and Rhizoctonia that cause pre- and post-emergent damping-off can cause serious problems in organic (and conventional) transplant production.
The key to controlling and/or suppressing damping-off pathogens with biological controls is keeping the biological populations high and continually present on root surfaces of the host, and by following good cultural practices. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Organic Production, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: , ,
March 12, 2014

Vegetable Production Recommendations and Organic Practices

Growers who chose to farm under organic conditions can find valuable information on cultural practices, variety recommendations, alternative pest management methods, and NOP approved products in the 2014 Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations Guide.

Note that people who apply pesticides for the purpose of raising an agricultural commodity, including organic farmers, need to be licensed as a Private Pesticide Applicator. Small/Organic Farms Private Pesticide Applicator Training is being held April 9, 2014 in Mercer County.

The 2014 Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations Guide is published annually and is now available for free download. Between publications, updates to the guide can be found here on the Plant & Pest Advisory.

Filed Under: Organic Production, Vegetable Crops Tagged With:
March 12, 2014

Small/Organic Farms Private Pesticide Applicator Training

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County
April 9, 2014 10:00 – 3:00
$20 includes lunch and materials RSVP required by April 4th! Registration form 4/9/14
Contact: Meredith Melendez 609-989-6830 melendez@njaes.rutgers.edu

Topics covered will include:

  • NJ Licensing Regulations
  • The Label is the Law
  • Pesticide Health and Safety
  • Worker Protection Standard
  • Applicator Resources
  • Compliance Inspections
Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Organic Production