RIMpro is a proprietary interactive decision support system that can help fruit growers manage apple scab and fire blight in spring. I discussed RIMpro briefly in a blog post last year. I have evaluated RIMpro for three years and have found it very useful for assessing infection risks for both apple scab and for the blossom blight phase of fire blight. Information provided by RIMpro can assist with precision timing of the fungicide and bactericide sprays required to control these diseases.
This year Dr. Srdjan Acimovic, plant pathologist at the Hudson Valley Lab (HVL), is launching an apple grower/researcher partnership to further explore the usefulness of RIMpro for apple growers in New York and other parts of eastern United States. Growers participating in this partnership will be provided with assistance in accessing and understanding the biological significance of the apple scab and fire blight infection predictions that are provided by RIMpro. I will be assisting in the launch of this project and with interpretation of the data generated by RIMpro for locations in eastern NY.
Details of this new program are outlined in a 4-page summary and a powerpoint, both of which were used for a recent informational meeting held at the Hudson Valley Lab on 2 Feb 2016.
Following is a short summary from those documents:
- Anyone who has a NEWA weather station on or near their farm can use weather data from that station to drive the RIMpro software if they subscribe to RIMpro in 2017.
- Those wishing to use RIMpro will need to pay $50 to NEWA for a RIMpro-compatible data stream and 200 Euros to RIMpro as outlined on the RIMpro website at http://www.rimpro.eu. Click the button for “Create New RIMpro Account” on the right side of that page for pricing information.
- Growers in eastern NY (Long Island to Champlain Valley) who wish to participate in the partnership will pay $80 to the Hudson Valley Lab to cover both the NEWA data stream ($50) and some technical support ($30) for the e-mailed tutorials and RIMpro interpretations that HVL staff will be providing Mon-Wed-Fri throughout the primary scab season.
- Because RIMpro is a proprietary program, only folks who are RIMpro subscribers will be eligible to receive the thrice-weekly e-mails that assist with RIMpro set-up and interpretation.
- Growers outside of eastern NY who subscribe to RIMpro are welcome to join our RIMpro user group, and they can sign up to receive the thrice-weekly e-mails describing scab and blight conditions in eastern New York. Growers outside the area are not required to pay HVL the $30 fee for technical support because, while the tutorial info that we put into e-mails should still be useful, the comments on RIMpro outputs that we will be highlighting in our e-mails are unlikely to be timely or relevant for other regions.
Anyone who wishes to part of our RIMpro user group network for 2017 should contact either Dave Rosenberger (dar22@cornell.edu) or Dr. Srdjan Acimovic (sa979@cornell.edu) as soon as possible but no later than March 10.
Posted 3 Feb 2017
