Farm Calls: Which fruit crops are best suited for an organic Pick-Your-Own?

From Sustaining Farming on the Urban Fringe

Last week Meredith Melendez, Mercer County Ag Agent, fielded this question from a grower who currently runs a CSA and is considering adding PYO (pick-your-own) fruit to the farm's portfolio. 

Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agents, including the Agritourism Team, weigh in with specific answers and solid advice.

They offer small-fruit crop suggestions, discuss the special problems related to organic cultivation of these crops, and comment on how agritourism activities can add to the farm's bottom-line.

Reminder: Direct Marketing Twilight Meeting

Posted by: Michelle Infante-Casella, Agricultural Agent, Gloucester County
minfante@njaes.rutgers.edu

The first summer Direct Marketing Twilight Meeting will be held July 16 at 7:00PM at Duffield's Farm Market in Gloucester County. No registration needed. If you have an interest in direct marketing and/or agritourism, please join us. Tracy Duffield will be giving a tour of their operation with three generations working the farm. There will be an update on the VisitNJFarms website and the meeting will conclude with a business meeting of the New Jersey Farmers Direct Marketing Association. Educational materials, buy local/nutrition brochures (for customer handout) and Jersey Fresh price cards will be available for you to take home to use at your markets, courtesy of a grant project done by Rutgers NJAES and NJFB. Directions and Meeting Flyer

Heat Stress Prevention

by, Michelle Infante-Casella, Agricultural Agent

This week's forecast is for temperatures in the 90's with high humidity. Agricultural worker safety is important to agricultural employers. Some tips on preventing worker illness during hot weather include:

1. Drinking enough water to replace body fluids lost through sweating before, during and after work.
2. Gradually adjusing to working in the heat.
3. Taking periodic rest breaks in shaded or cooler areas whenever possible.
4. Careful monitoring of enviornmental conditions and worker health by supervisors.

Train workers to recognize, prevent and treat heat illness is important. Workers should take precautions like: getting enough rest, wear protective clothing, drink extra water, adjust work schedules if necessary.

Recognizing heat illness is also important. Sypmptoms include:
*Fatigue, *Nausea, *Muscle Aches, Weakness and Cramps, *Headaches, *Confusion or Anxiety, *Dizziness, *Fainting, *Drenching Sweats Accompanied by Clammy and Cool Skin and *Slowed or Weakened Heartbeat.

Giving immediate first aid when workers become ill is very important. If the sypmtoms are severe, if body temperature is at 104 F (40 C) or higher, and if the person is inconherent or unresponsive call 911 immediately. Take these steps to treat a person with heat illness:

1. Get the person out of the sun and heat and into a cool shady or air-conditioned area quickly.
2. Lay the person down with legs and feet elevated slightly.
3. Loosen or remove clothing.
4. Have the person drink cool water, sports drinks or other non-caffienated beverages.
5. Use a spray bottle or cool wet sponge/cloth to apply to the persons body and fan them. This will create evaporative cooling.
6. Monitor the person since heat exhaustion can quickly become heat stroke.

Alcohol, drug or other substance abuse will increase the risk of heat illness. Improving personal health will help prevent heat stress.

Farm Food Safety: FDA Q&A Printable Summary

- Meredith Melendez & Wes Kline

The Food Safety Modernization Act will impact most growers in New Jersey.

Over the past weeks, we have posted the Questions and Answers for each of the conference calls focusing on subparts of the proposed Produce Safety Rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act on the Plant and Pest Advisory Food Safety section. For your convenience, the Q&A's have been collected into a single PDF.

FDA Q&A: Proposed Produce Safety Rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act
Click to View | Download | Print

Online Training Available for Retail Farm Market Employees

Penn State Extension is offering a new online Retail Farm Market Employee Professional Development session to build the knowledge and confidence of your farm market personnel that handle, process, or merchandise fresh market produce. More details can be found here.
--Rick VanVranken

Strawberry: Viruses to Watch For

Excepted from Two Viruses Found Throughout Strawberry Fields in the US
by Andy Wyenandt and Peter Nitzsche

Strawberry mottle virus (SMoV) and strawberry mild yellow edge virus (SMYEV) have been found in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey this spring. Plants sourced from one particular nursery in the Great Valley area of Nova Scotia are at risk. Keep this in mind when ordering new plants for fall. Although the strawberry plant may show symptoms and yield less, fruit from infected plants are still edible and there should be no difference in taste.

For New Jersey
Morris County Agricultural Agent Peter Nitzsche collected samples from two northern NJ farms and sent samples to Bob Martin of USDA ARS. As suspected, several of the samples from small or stunted plants came back positive for both viruses and some large and small plants tested positive for one of the viruses.

What to Look For
These viruses are usually only a problem in matted-row strawberry production, where plants are in the field for a much longer period of time and plantings are not destroyed at the end of each growing season.

• Look for small, stunted plants with older leaves sometimes turning bright red in color, while the edges of leaves around the crowns of plants, and/or emerging leaves, show a distinct yellowing, which sometimes develop into patterns of marginal necrosis (i.e., dead tissue along the margins of leaves). 
• Scout for aphids as they transmit both viruses.

Symptomatic Strawberry Plants
Photo by Chuck Johnson, VA Tech

What to Do
Scout for aphid vectors and spray appropriately following label recommendations. Plants known to be infected, or showing typical symptoms, or obtained from the nursery in question should be destroyed. If you have questions or concerns, contact your county agent.

[posted by Rabin]

Week of Cloudy Weather Condusive to Lettuce Tipburn

This predicted week of cloudy weather should make lettuce growers take note of conditions in their fields. Any lettuce crops that are one-three weeks away from harvest are susceptible to internal lettuce tipburn caused by low evapo-transpiration (Et) induced Calcium deficiencies in the rapidly expanding new leaves in the core of the head. Supplemental foliar applications of Ca with airblast sprayers to get it into the head as much as possible may help reduce the incidence of tipburn. More details about lettuce tipburn can be found on pages 6-9 of the Proceedings of the 2012 NJ Vegetable Conference here.
--Rick VanVranken