Fruit ICM News

Volume 4, No. 3
February 18, 2000

In This Issue:

Calendar
Fruit Congress Highlights
Considering a Limited Liability Company for Your Business?
Controlled Atmosphere Disorders of Commercial Fruits & Vegetables
Pesticide Record Keeping for Fruit Growers
Kentucky Fruit Situation
Pesticides - the Science and the Politics
Preliminary Monthly Climatological Data for Selected Ohio Locations January, 2000

Calendar

February 29: Video Conference for Plum Pox Virus Virtual Seminar, OARDC, Wooster, 1-3:00 p.m., Fisher Conference Room - open to all.

March 4: Southern Ohio Berry School, OSU Centers at Piketon, 1864 Shyville Road, Piketon, Ohio, 9:00 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. Sessions for raspberry and strawberry production. Please contact Brad Bergefurd at 1-800-860-7232 for additional information.

March 14: Update Meeting on Worker Protection Standards, Sandusky Co. Jobs & Family Services Bldg., 2511 Countryside Drive, Fremont, Ohio, 9:00 a.m. to noon. Robert DeVany, Pesticide Control Supervisor for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, will discuss grower obligations under the WPS Act. Further details are available from the Sandusky County Extension Office at (419) 334-6340.

March 16: Paul Wright, Attorney at Law, will be in Northeast Ohio to explain business organizational forms (partnership, corporation, limited liability corporation, etc.) This subject applies to horticultural, farm, and non-farm businesses. See later article.

Fruit Congress Highlights

A theme, common to several presentations at the recently concluded Ohio Fruit & Vegetable Growers Congress, was in the form of a question, "Are we producing the apples that the market wants?" Dr. Diane Miller, OSU Horticulturalist, set the tone by discussing "The Apple Variety and Marketing Picture" and concentrating on those desirable characteristics of tasty, crispy, and juicy apples. (Goldrush and Honeycrisp are varieties mentioned as exemplifying those characteristics.) She also related the Ohio results of the NE-183 New Variety Trial, and Dr. Jules Janick, Purdue Horticulturalist, enthusiastically reported the new releases from the Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois (PRI) Breeding Program. He also praised the breeding program of the Midwest Apple Improvement Association (MAIA).

Following an apple tasting break, an Indiana grower panel comprised of David Doud, Steven Doud, and Ed Fackler discussed the characteristics of "great" apples. Thursday evening concluded with three views of marketing (and planting) new varieties: wholesale, farm retail, and pick-your-own. Dave Gress of Fruit Growers Marketing Association, Bob Sage of Sage's Apples, and Andy Lynd of Lynd Fruit Farm were the respective presenters.

On Friday afternoon, Dave Allen from Allan Brothers Orchards, Wapato, Washington pointed out that Red Delicious trees are being removed and some orchards have been abandoned. He believes that by further reducing the production of less desirable apple varieties, apples will again become a profitable crop in the state of Washington.

Considering a Limited Liability Company for Your Business?

If you are considering a Limited Liability Company, Limited Liability Partnership, or other new form for your small business, you will want to attend OSU Extension's March 16 meeting, Business Organization Alternatives. They will hold the meeting at the Holiday Inn, Hudson, Ohio due to easy accessibility from most of northeastern Ohio. The presentation will target people with farms, nurseries, greenhouses, and other small family-owned businesses.

The featured speaker is Paul Wright, Attorney at Law, who spent 29 years with the Ohio State University as an Extension economist and educator before co-founding Wright & Logan in 1991. In 1998 he served as President of the American Agricultural Law Association. Paul has published and spoken extensively on many estate planning, business planning, and agricultural law topics.

Long gone are the days when a partnership or corporation are your primary choices for a business. The recognition of LLC's and LLP's in Ohio in 1994 increased the types of organizations available to businesses. If you are considering a change or simply want more information, be sure to mark your calendar and sign up to attend.

The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. and will conclude by 3:00 p.m. Lunch is included and pre-registration is required by March 13. Cost for attendance is $25.00 per person. Please make check or money order payable to: Northeast District Extension and mail to: Northeast District Extension, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. A confirmation, additional information, and directions to the meeting will be sent upon receipt of payment. For more information call: (330) 263-3831 or e-mail: polson.1@osu.edu.

Controlled Atmosphere Disorders of Commercial Fruits and Vegetables

The Canadian Bulletin entitled Controlled-Atmosphere Disorders of Commercial Fruits and Vegetables, published in 1990 and out of print for many years, has been reprinted. This publication is a thorough review with excellent color photos of the disorders of the following fruits and vegetables: apples, artichokes, Asian pears, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet cherries, citrus fruit, honeydew melon, kiwi fruit, lettuce, peaches, nectarines, pears and strawberries. It contains five pages of references and 47 color photographs.

Details on the publication:

Edited by P.D. Lidster, G.D. Blanpied, and R.K. Prange

5.9 in. X 9 in., 59 pages, 1990 (reprinted 1999)
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Publication 1847/E
ISBN 0-662-18117-4

One to five copies may be ordered at $9.00/each. Multiple copies are $8.00 each. To order, send check or money order (in Canadian dollars) made out to the Receiver General for Canada to the following address:

Library, AFHRC,
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
32 Main St.
Kentville, N.S. B4N 1J5
CANADA

Pesticide Record Keeping for Fruit Growers

Two recently upgraded computer programs, designed to meet record keeping requirements and also to assist with Worker Protection Standard (WPS) posting were reviewed at the Fruit Congress. The first is a for sale product from Reed Markley, Kathiltna Software, 318 Readfield Road, Manchester, ME 04351. The data base is an Excel workbook that uses a combination of Excel macros and VBA. Developed for tree fruit, it runs on Excel 97 or higher. Among the features of this program is the capacity to make and print a WPS worker notification chart with all required data. Three data entry screens can be viewed at http://www.ctel.net/~kahiltna/. His e-mail address is: rmarkley@ctel.net.

The second program is available for downloading from Zeneca. The site is http://www.farm-assist.com. Other features, in addition to WPS worker notification charts, include spray rate calculator, season planner including inventories, and profit predictor. You are welcome to download from the above site. Floppy disks are available from Kerry Cohen, Hotline Specialist, Zeneca Ag Products, 1800 Concord Pike, P.O. Box 15458, Wilmington, DE 19850-5458, (800) 759-2500.

Kentucky Fruit Situation

Source: Kentucky Fruit Facts, February 2000, John Strang, U. of Ky Horticulturalist and Tom Priddy, U. of Ky Agricultural Meteorologist

Several fruit growers have inquired about this season's bloom potential in light of the severe 1999 drought. Apples initiated flowers from mid-June to mid-July, which was before it became extremely dry in most areas. Thus, the prospects for a good crop are present with respect to bloom numbers. However, if the trees were overcropped in 1999, biennial bearing could still be a problem with varieties that are more prone to biennial bearing. The following list shows the period of flower initiation for a number of fruit crops.

Apples Mid-June-Mid-July

Pears Early July-Early Aug.

Peaches Late June-Late July

Prune Late June-Mid-Aug.

Sweet Cherry Early July

Tart Cherry Mid-July

Blackberry Late Aug.

Raspberry (June bearing) Sept.-Nov.

Grape Mid-Jun.

Gooseberry Aug.

Currant July

Blueberry Late Fall

Strawberry Aug.-Sept.

They dug a few strawberry plants, cut branches from a number of non-irrigated fruit trees in the Lexington area, and forced them to evaluate the bloom in January. The peach and Stanley prune plum branches bloomed and looked good. The apple flower buds are swelling and also look good. The pear buds are not swelling and may not have received enough chilling. The drought may have had its harshest effect on the strawberry crop. Most plants that they dug bloomed; however, many of the plants in the field were very small. The small plant size is due to the drought and late runner plant production. Generally, very small strawberry plants do not fruit well. Tom Priddy at the U.K. Agricultural Weather Center indicates that the agricultural drought index is close to normal, which means that the soil has enough water in it so that it is adequate for cropping and farming purposes. The Palmer Drought Index, which pertains to municipal deep water supplies indicates that west and central Kentucky are in a moderate drought and east Kentucky is in a mild drought. The forecast for the next several weeks is for above normal precipitation.

Editor's note: Regions of Ohio still shown to be experiencing severe drought as defined by the Palmer Index include central, northwest, southwest, and northeast hills. The northern two thirds of Indiana is also listed as severe, as is north central Kentucky.

Pesticides - the Science and the Politics

Sources: Cindy Baker, Director of Government Affairs, Gowan Co.; Brent Walth and Alex Pulaski, Newhouse News Service via Dr. Joe Kovach

Between 80 and 100 persons, a majority of which were growers, met for an Imidan Technical Briefing in Pasco, Washington on February 10, 2000. Ohio was ably represented by Mitch Lynd of Johnstown. The great news is that no dietary or drinking water issues were raised, even when children aged 1-8 are considered. EPA is mainly concerned about worker issues, particularly reentry periods. The basic message they gave was "tell us what you need for the maximum feasible reentry." To be included in a conference call to discuss Imidan, contact EPAs Pat Cimino. Her email: cimino.pat@epa.gov.

Guthion is the subject of four articles featured on MSNBC News, which may be considered biased against the continued use of this pesticide. http://www.msnbc.com/news/365276.asp?cp1=1

Preliminary Monthly Climatological Data for Selected Ohio Locations January 2000

Weather Station	Monthly	Normal Monthly	Monthly	Season	Average	Normal	Average	Normal	Mean	Normal
Location	Precip.	Precip.	Snowfall	Snowfall	High	High	Low	Low	Temp	Mean
Akron-Canton	2.51	2.16	13.6	24.7	33.0	32.6	17.7	16.9	25.3	24.8
Cincinnati	4.45	2.59	7.6	9.9	37.7	36.6	19.5	19.5	28.6	28.0
Cleveland	2.63	2.04	24.7	37.0	34.3	31.9	18.8	17.6	26.6	24.7
Columbus	3.53	2.18	13.8	19.9	35.2	34.1	18.8	18.5	27.0	26.3
Dayton	3.20	2.13	16.9	17.8	34.4	34.1	15.5	17.9	25.0	26.0
Elyria*	-	2.04	-	-	35.1	34.3	16.4	17.9	25.8	26.2
Fremont	1.16	1.79	-	-	33.9	32.0	13.8	16.1	23.9	24.0
Mansfield	3.03	1.98	16.9	25.7	32.2	32.1	15.6	16.8	23.9	24.4
Norwalk**	2.45	1.90	-	-	35.0	31.9	15.7	15.3	25.4	23.7
Toledo	1.55	1.75	12.2	15.3	32.7	30.2	14.8	14.9	23.8	22.5
Wooster	2.42	1.95	-	-	34.5	34.9	17.3	18.5	25.9	26.7
Youngstown	2.32	2.13	15.0	31.1	33.1	30.7	18.4	16.4	25.7	23.6

Elyria* - data unavailable, data from orchard monitor in Berlin Heights
Norwalk** - data unavailable, data from farm monitor in Milan

Temperatures in degrees F, Precipitation in inches

Records set:Highs - 2^nd ; Akron 63º, Columbus 64º, Mansfield 60º, Wooster 64º, Youngstown 61º Lows - 22^nd ; Mansfield -8º, Wooster -7º

Table Created by Ted W. Gastier, OSU Extension from National Weather Service, OARDC and local data

The Ohio Fruit ICM News is edited by:

Ted W. Gastier
Extension Agent, Agriculture
Tree Fruit Team Coordinator
Ohio State University Extension Huron County
180 Milan Avenue
Norwalk, OH 44857
Phone: (419)668-8210
FAX: (419)663-4233
E-mail: gastier.1@osu.edu

Information presented above and where trade names are used, they are supplied with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by Ohio State University Extension is implied. Although every attempt is made to produce information that is complete, timely, and accurate, the pesticide user bears responsibility of consulting the pesticide label and adhering to those directions.

All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.

Keith L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Adm. and Director, OSU Extension.

TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868

| Back |

Apples	Mid-June-Mid-July
Pears	Early July-Early Aug.
Peaches	Late June-Late July
Prune	Late June-Mid-Aug.
Sweet Cherry	Early July
Tart Cherry	Mid-July
Blackberry	Late Aug.
Raspberry (June bearing)	Sept.-Nov.
Grape	Mid-Jun.
Gooseberry	Aug.
Currant	July
Blueberry	Late Fall
Strawberry	Aug.-Sept.