A little sun, a little snow (well we could use a LITTLE more snow) – it’s been a pretty month so far – but lots of traveling – and talking!

Get your samples defrosted and ready for The Doctor is IN diagnostic session at the CTFANY annual winter meeting in Syracuse this Friday and Saturday! See if you can stump us – I’m easy to stump but Brian is GOOD!  Lots more useful information, too.

Barking up the right tree!  Basal bark sprays have some advantages for armored scale control but I need more background on them. Rich Cowles from New Hampshire created a YouTube video on how to do it!  However, Safari for basal bark sprays is only labeled for hemlock woolly adelgid and elongate hemlock scale on Eastern and Carolina hemlocks in NYS – a 2(ee) label – not helpful for most Christmas tree growers.  I will keep asking about how we might change this.

And more sprayer technology that helps reduce the amount of pesticide applied!  Good IPM!  Oregon State has a smart sprayer designed for nurseries.

Looking for labels – and MSDS sheets?  It might be time to update your folder! PIMS – Pesticide Product, Ingredient and Manufacturer System (just be careful when googling – there is a PA mortuary site with the same acronym) is the best place to get labels because they have the NY labels and the 2(ee)s.  In the process of finding this, I learned that MSDS’s will become SDS’s.  Probably not a drastic change for any of you – but now you know!

CDMS has both labels and MSDS information

Another grower question – even if they did ask about cut flowers this time!  Michigan State University has a series of resources on cover crop technology  for Christmas tree growers

Come see us at the show – or send a question if you can’t be there – or just enjoy the week!