Empire State Producers EXPO Berry Sessions Jan. 22-23

From Cathy Hiedenriech, Berry Extension Support Specialist, mcm4@cornell.edu

2013 Empire State Producers EXPO Berry Sessions – Something for Everyone…

Join commercial berry growers from across the state on Tuesday, January 22 and Wednesday January 23 for berry education sessions at the Empire State Producers EXPO held at the OnCenter in Syracuse, NY.

Special Joint Spotted Wing Drosophila Session

Day one of the day and a half long program begins with a special joint fruit and vegetable session on the new invasive pest Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD). This pest was first detected in New York at the end of the 2011 growing season and caused significant damage and crop loss to berries across the state and region in 2012.  SWD causes damage to late season summer raspberries and blueberries; fall raspberries and blackberries, and day neutral strawberries. In addition, reports of SWD infested fruit were also verified in stone fruit (peaches, plums, and nectarines) and grapes, as well as multiple species of wild hosts. Verification of SWD in grape tomato has yet to be confirmed.

Dr. Greg Loeb, grape and small fruit entomologist at Cornell University will recap SWD infestation for the 2012 season including results from a damage assessment survey. Dr. Hannah Burrack, small fruit entomologist from North Carolina State University is a featured speaker who will discuss the biology and life cycle of Spotted Wing Drosophila to help growers gain a better understanding of the pest.  Drs. Andrew Landers and Arthur Agnello from Cornell University’s Department of Entomology will instruct growers on modernizing their sprayers for optimal control of SWD and progress made using fixed spraying systems for high-density fruit plantings.

Mid-Day Berry Session

The mid- day session includes Ms. Sarah Johnson from the NYS Department of Ag and Markets speaking on crop insurance for specialty crop growers. Also featured in this session is a talk by Dr. Kerik Cox, Cornell University tree fruit and small fruit pathologist, on a no frills approach to managing berry fruit rots, and a discussion by Ms. Dale Riggs, president of the NYS Berry Growers Association (NYSBGA), on a new cooperative agreement between Cornell University’s Small Fruit Breeding program and NYSBGA along with it benefits for NYSBGA members.

Afternoon Berry Session

The final session for day one features Dr. Kimberly Lewers from the USDA Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). Dr. Lewers has been with the BARC fruit lab since 2001, conducting research on strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry. She serves as a Research Geneticist developing improved cultivars of these valuable fruit crops while studying inheritance of important traits and developing molecular markers and genetic maps to help track these traits in breeding populations. Dr. Lewers will be speaking on low tunnel strawberry production. This strawberry production system, used commercially in the Middle East and Northern Europe for winter production as well as in Brazil as a rain shield during summer production, is now being modified by Dr. Lewers to extend day-neutral strawberry production along the northern and mid-Atlantic seaboard of the U.S.

The low tunnel talk will be followed by grower Tim Stanton of Stanton’s Fuera Farms and Laura McDermott of the Capital District Fruit and Vegetable program discussing their work with zone tillage in June-bearing strawberries.

Cornell University’s Dr. Marvin Pritts will present preliminary results from a Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension (NE SARE) project looking at improving berry soil and nutrient management using the Cornell Soil Health test.

The day will close with highlights from the 2012 berry pricing survey presented by Cathy Heidenreich, Cornell Berry Extension Support Specialist.

Blueberry Intensive Workshop

A new feature included as part of the 2013 EXPO berry sessions occurs on Day 2 of the program. Dr. Gary Pavlis from Rutgers University will present a 2 hour blueberry intensive workshop focusing on maximizing production.

Cultivated blueberry production in New Jersey ranks second in the nation behind Michigan.  Atlantic county, where Pavlis is located, is the center of production with almost 80% of the total crop produced in NJ.  He has changed the methodology of fertilizing commercial blueberries. His research has changed the timing of application, computerized fertilizer recommendations and introduced fertilizing through trickle systems (fertigation) to blueberry growers. The result has been higher yields, better fruit quality and healthier plants. Benefit from his expertise during this workshop, which also includes a 15 minute Q&A session with the speaker at the end of the workshop.

For more information and registration instructions, visit the Empire State Producers Expo website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *