Author Archives: Dan Olmstead

About Dan Olmstead

I'm the NEWA Coordinator here at the New York State IPM Program. I work to provide online decision support to growers in NY and across the country for IPM and agricultural best practices.

New York State expertise for NEWA tools and resources

Last updated 3/19/19

NEWA offers 23 different fruit and vegetable models and all use real-time weather data to generate research-based crop guidelines for growers in New York State and beyond. Extension specialists across the state provide expertise in different commodity areas and are available to provide management expertise and consultation regarding the utilization of NEWA guidelines on your farm.

Use this guide to locate a fruit or vegetable specialist in your region of New York. Click the hyperlinks to learn more about a specific NEWA model, extension program, or commodity specialist.

NEWA Apple Resources

Apple diseases. Fire blight, apple scab, sooty blotch fly speck.

Apple insects. Apple maggot, codling moth, obliquebanded leafroller, oriental fruit moth, plum curculio, San Jose scale, spotted tentiform leafminer.

Apple management. Blossom thinning, carbohydrate fruit thinning, irrigation modeling.

Affiliation Name
New York State IPM Program Julie Carroll
Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Ontario Fruit Team Craig Kahlke
Mario Sazo
Tessa Grasswitz
Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern New York Horticulture Team Mike Basedow (northern NY)
Dan Donahue (Hudson Valley)

NEWA Grape resources

Grape diseases. Black rot, phomopsis, powdery mildew, downy mildew.

Grape insects. Grape berry moth

Affiliation Name
Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Erie Regional Grape Program Tim Weigle (New York State IPM Program)
Jennifer Russo
Andy Muza (Penn State Extension)
Cornell Cooperative Extension Finger Lakes Grape Program Hans Walter-Peterson
Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern New York Horticulture Program Jim Meyers
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County Alice Wise

NEWA Vegetable resources

Vegetable diseases. Onion diseases, potato diseases, tomato diseases.

Vegetable insects. Cabbage maggot, onion maggot.

Affiliation Name
New York State IPM Program Abby Seaman
Cornell Cooperative Extension Vegetable Program Elizabeth Buck
Christie Hoepting
Judd Reid
Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern New York Horticulture Program Chuck Bornt
Teresa Rusinek
Maire Ullrich
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County Sandra Menasha

 

Spring is coming – tune up your weather stations

The 2019 growing season will be here in another few weeks. Now is the perfect time to give your Rainwise weather stations a tune-up. Use the checklist below to make sure you are getting the best possible data feed from your machine.

If your Rainwise station is getting old (>6 years) consider replacing the machine if this decision suits your farm management needs. A 2017 online survey of current NEWA users found that 75% of growers are saving money on their spray bill with average annual savings of $4,329 from reduced pesticide applications and $33,048 in avoided crop losses.

To get in touch with Rainwise support for station servicing or replacement of your weather station sensor assembly please reach out to the RainWise Inc. Service Department for consultation by phone (207) 801-4039 or email service@rainwise.com.

Contact support@newa.zendesk.com with other questions regarding the online NEWA platform at newa.cornell.edu.

Spring weather station tune up checklist

Set a maintenance schedule. Check your weather station every 2 or 3 weeks through the growing season. Choose dates in advance and add to your calendar or planner.

Clean the solar radiation sensor. The diffuser can be cleaned with a damp cloth. Replace the sensor if has turned yellow.

Check the anemometer and weather vane. Make sure the anemometer (spinning fan) and weather vane move freely in all directions. Set the weather vane to zero on due North.

Check the leaf wetness sensor. Examine the plastic board and electrodes for corrosion, cracking or weathering damage.

Check the relative humidity sensor. Verify the accuracy of RH measurements by looking at NEWA values on mornings that are rainy or have heavy dew.

Clean the rain gauge. Remove leaves, nests, insect, spider webs and other debris. Set a schedule. Watch this video and learn more about tipping bucket maintenance.

NYS Mesonet: 2018 year in review

2018 marked the first year of collaboration between the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA), which is part of the New York State IPM Program at Cornell University, and University at Albany’s New York State Mesonet (NYSM). In March, ten data streams (table 1, figure 1) were established to link NYSM-generated weather data to the NEWA online agricultural decision support system, available for use by agricultural stakeholders across New York State. 2018 was successful, as demonstrated by metrics provided in table 2. 2019 is sure to attract more users to these locations on NEWA as awareness grows of their availability.

The successful collaboration between NEWA and NYS Mesonet was also featured as a showcase in the New York State IPM Program 2017-18 Annual Report. The report can be downloaded from this Cornell eCommons permalink:

NYSIPM 2017-18 Annual Report: https://hdl.handle.net/1813/60613

Table 1. NYS Mesonet weather stations streaming data to NEWA in 2018.

Municipality County Mesonet ID NEWA page
Burt Niagara burt http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_burt
Cobleskill Schoharie cobl http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_cobl
Fredonia Chautauqua fred http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_fred
Laurens Otsego laur http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_laur
Sherburne Chenango sher http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_sher
South Bristol Ontario sbri http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_sbri
Southold Suffolk sout http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_sout
Sprakers Montgomery spra http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_spra
Stephentown Rensselear step http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_step
Voorheesville Albany voor http://newa.cornell.edu/index.php?page=weather-station-page&WeatherStation=nysm_voor

 

Figure 1. NYS Mesonet station linked to the NEWA platform.

New York State Mesonet Agricultural Impact

Table 2. Summarized impact metrics, across all linked NYSM locations, that originated from IP addresses within New York between March 1 2018 and December 31 2018.

Impact metric Total
Unique users 190
Unique sessions 465
Unique pageviews 3524
Sessions per user (average) 2.4
Pageviews per user (average) 18.5
Contact hours 59h 29m
Contact minutes per user (ave) 19m
Contact minutes per session (ave) 8m