In This Issue:
Calendar
Second Harvest Food Banks
Possible Bud Damage in Peaches
Pest Management Shifting to IPM
Information Exchange
New Midwest Tree Fruit Pest Handbook
February 3-5: Ohio Fruit & Vegetable Growers Congress and Ohio Roadside Marketing Conference, SeaGate Centre, Toledo. For more information call Mike Pullins or Laura Gold at (614) 249-2424.
February 8-10: MSU Tree Fruit Integrated Pest Management (IPM) School Call MSU's NW Horticultural Research Station at (616) 946-1510.
February 10-13: National Farm Machinery Show, Kentucky Fair & Expo Center, Louisville,
Kentucky. Contact Steve Fowler at (502) 367-5100.
March 19: Raspberry School, Rosby's Berry Farm & Greenhouse, 50 E. Schaaf Rd., Brooklyn Hts.,
OH, 5:30 P.M. Millcreek Row Mulcher demonstration, herbicide application update with Dr. Richard
Funt. Receive ½ hour of ODA pesticide credits. For more information and to RSVP call Charles Behnke
at (440) 322-0127. $5.00 registration per family payable at the door.
The Ohio Agricultural Surplus Production Alliance of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks formed recently to maximize the effectiveness of providing food to feed hungry people. This initiative will create a sustainable link between Ohio farm commodity producers, processors, food banks, and emergency food providers in a collaborative effort which will produce shelf stable, nutritious food products and improved storage and distribution capacity to feed hungry Ohioans.
I have been asked to gather your success stories of utilizing extra produce in food bank programs to share with the Alliance. Your information will help in planning and implementing the coordination of statewide efforts in providing nutritious Ohio-grown produce. You may reach me by surface mail, e-mail, or fax. Thanks.
Sources: Illinois Fruit & Vegetable News, January 22, 1999 and National Weather Service
On December 6, 1998 daytime high air temperatures in Ohio ranged between 67 and 73 degrees. Thirty days later, most Ohio locations endured the first sub-zero temperatures of the winter. Weather station low reading on the morning of January 5, 1999 ranged -2 and -8. Peach bud damage estimate charts have been for trees that had adequately hardened-off before exposure.
The extended fall high temperatures might have made trees more sensitive to cold injury. Illinois fruit specialists, based on temperatures of -5 to -15 experienced in southwestern and south central Illinois, are estimating peach flower bud kill of 30-60%.
Bottom line, adequate viable flowers to set a full crop in most varieties are probably present, though less hardy varieties might be light on flowers this spring. A tough opener for the 1999 season, and there's still plenty of winter to go.
Globally, pest management programs in agriculture are in transition from a state of dependence on chemical pesticides toward a more balanced approach relying on a broad range of pest control strategies. In this situation, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has garnered increasing attention as a potential means of ameliorating commodity losses to pests while reducing reliance on chemical pest control, thereby enhancing the long-term sustainability of agroecosystems.
IPM is a comprehensive approach to pest management that utilizes multiple strategies to reduce or prevent pest problems. IPM is knowledge-based, requiring of its practitioners a practical grounding in the biology of the relevant pest species (insects, pathogens, weeds), as well as an understanding of environmental cohesiveness of whole agroecosystems and contiguous ecosystems.
IPM programs include several key steps:
IPM is a systems approach to the design, use, and continued evaluation of pest management procedures that result in favorable socio-economic and environmental consequences. The fundamental importance of IPM is evidenced in its recent adoption as a basic tenet of the sustainable agriculture movement.
Extension hopes to gather pesticide usage info as part of the National Agricultural Pesticide Impact Assessment Program (NAPIAP). Remember to stop by the Extension's table at the 1999 Fruit and Vegetable Congress Trade Show with records of your fruit pesticide usage. Here is your opportunity to make a difference in future reviews of agricultural pesticides!
Margaret Huelsman and Amadou Bu from OSU Extension Entomology will exchange a brand new 1999 Commercial Tree Fruit Spray Guide and/or Ohio Commercial Small Fruit and Grape Spray Guide for summaries of your spray records.
This handbook contains information on pests, production practices, and pest management practices. It should be used in conjunction with the 1999 Ohio Commercial Tree Fruit Spray Guide.
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.
Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keith L. Smith, Director, Ohio State University Extension.
TDD # 1 (800) 589-8292 (Ohio only) or (614) 292-1868