Time to Think About Geese

Information on ways commercial farmers can address geese damage is gathered on the NJAES Snyder Farm Wildlife Damage Guide for Geese, Deer, and other species. Growers can apply for permits from NJ DEP Division of Fish & Wildlife to "addle" eggs and utilize harassment techniques such as propane cannons and pyrotechnics, noisemakers, and visual flagging.

Rhizoctonia root rot in strawberries

Rhizoctonia root rot is a common soil-borne pathogen of many vegetable crops. Diagnostic features of Rhizoctonia include the brown 'shoe-string'-like hypha that are visible growing on the surface of the infected root with the naked eye or 10x hand lens.

Up close under a light microscope you can see the brown hypha that grow inbetween infected cells and on the surface of the infected root. Another feature of Rhizoctonia is that it always "branches" at 90 degree angles.

For more information please see the 2011 Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations Guide.

- Andy Wyenandt

Final Pesticide Container Collection Day in Hammonton for 2011

From Karen Kritz, Ag Development Specialist with NJ Dept of Agriculture:

  

FINAL COLLECTION DAY IN HAMMONTON FOR 2011

Helena Chemical

66 Route 206 (North of the Route 30/206 intersection)

Hammonton, New Jersey

9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Friday October 7

DO NOT  

DROP OFF CONTAINERS UNLESS 

IT IS DURING THE SCHEDULED COLLECTION PROGRAM.

For Plastic Pesticide Container Processing Steps & Size Limits: 

Disaster & Food Safety Educational Meeting This Tuesday, Oct 4th at RCE-Gloucester County

Agricultural Disaster and Food Safety

(Fall Meeting of the South Jersey 
Integrated Vegetable Crop Management Twilight Series)

EVERYONE WELCOME TO ATTEND

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Gloucester County Office Building (Bldg. A), 1200 N. Delsea Dr. Clayton, NJ

7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

For the full agenda and pesticide recertification credit details:

NASA's Cross Promotion with Agritourism

Corn maze with Hubble Telescope
theme at Liberty Ridge Farm,
Schaghticoke, NY

Cross Promotion is an effective marketing tool and is actually quite common and useful in the produce business. You've seen it and probably not even thought about it. Buy Brand X cereal and get a coupon to buy Brand Y bananas, or "Don't forget to grab some Brand A dressing to go with this Brand B salad mix!" 

I hadn't thought about it in terms of the cross promotion technique as I was focusing on finding a niche and positioning when I wrote my American Vegetable Grower Marketing Matters column last fall. That story about a south Jersey corn maze operator working with the Philadelphia sports teams is a great example of agritourism cross promotion. Here's an interesting piece from the upstate NY Extension Vegetable program about NASA teaming up with agritourism operators across the country to celebrate (and educate about) space exploration. 

Effective cross promotion? I'd say so, for NASA and the farms involved!

Rick VanVranken

Updated: Microirrigation Pocket Guide

The California Microirrigation Pocket Guide has been updated and although billed as a resource for California Irrigators, contains how-to information in a "take-to-the-field" size for Irrigators in every state.
Part one explains how to manage and maintain a microirrigation system - irrigating at the right times, and with the right amount of water. Part two gives exceedingly detailed recommendations for maintaining pumps, motors, and engines.
Available through the NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Project: The California Microirrigation Pocket Guide
- Rick VanVranken

Time to get in Cover Crop

To say it's been a tough year for farmers, would be an understatement. The 2011 growing season has been marked by heavy rains, high winds, flooding, and extreme heat. Rob Shortell, former Rutgers grad student and now Assistant Professor at Cal Poly, got it right when he said, farming is about the details… "it's the weather, the timing, the attentiveness to details."

Click here for Image Gallery

Right now we've got a small window of opportunity to get in cover crops. There are only about 7 NJ fall seeding days for ideal establishment.

At RAREC, we had a perfect day on Thursday, September 22, and planted ...