Ah, blue sky makes me happy. And I hope that means more fires are getting under control in the West. Frost warning for tonight and Saturday night in the Ithaca area.
Education season is getting underway – mostly virtually this year. Lots of pest management topics included.
The Northeast Greenhouse Conference is moving to Fall 2021 but there will be 6 online webinars from Nov 4-Dec 16, 2020
https://www.negreenhouse.org/virtual-series-schedule.html $25 each or all 6 for $100 (You can find registration information at the same link). NY DEC pesticide recertification credits are available.
UMass Extension Green School is also going virtual – a 12 day certificate program for nursery/landscape operations. Courses start on Oct 26 and run through Dec 10, 2020. You must register by Oct 15. You would need to check with the program to find out if NY pesticide credits are available. They are not listed in the description.
https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/education/umass-extensions-green-school
American Hort’s Disease, Insect and Growth Regulator (DIG) Conference Nov 3-5, 2020
https://www.americanhort.org/page/dig-conference-2020#schedule
A recorded webinar on an important topic in these times – Stress Management and Mental Health Awareness from NY Farmnet
https://www.nyfarmnet.org/webinars
A question came up in the weekly SFE Harvest 2020: COVID office hours about air circulation and what it might mean for COVID infection in controlled environment agriculture. Growers have the ability to increase the number of air exchanges per hour – while considering temperature and venting needs – which is perhaps a benefit. However, it is also worth noting the direction of air flow as that seems to have an impact in some situations. Some references that were proposed:
https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/resources
Neither are specifically aimed at greenhouse production but might be useful in keeping your employees healthy as we all move inside.
I’m sure there are more updates lurking on my computer but it seems like a good time to send this along to you.
Have a great week!