RUTGERS COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

of Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren Counties

New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station

NORTHWEST JERSEY PRODUCTION NEWS

Horticultural Information for the Commercial Grower

In Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren Counties

Vol. 7 No. 5 May 28, 1997

North Jersey Strawberry Research

Trials Open House

June 12, 1997

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Rutgers Snyder Research and Extension Farm

Pittstown, NJ 08867

See strawberry plasticulture trials examining the influence of planting date, row cover removal date, and double cropping on yield, earliness, fruit quality, and returns per acre.

See a matted row variety trial with recent commercial releases and selections from the Rutgers University, USDA, Cornell University, and Italian breeding programs.

Please contact Peter Nitzsche to get further details, or schedule an appointment to view the trials at a different date and time. (201) 285-8300 or 285-8307 or (201) 605-8195 FAX

Directions to Snyder Research and Extension Farm (908) 730-9419

From North - Take I-78 to Exit 15. Go left at bottom of ramp (Rt. 513/Pittstown Rd). Go 4 miles into Pittstown - Do not turn on Rt. 513 or 579. Stay straight for .5 mile on Pittstown Rd. (Rt. 615). Turn left on Locust Grove Rd. Farm is 1.5 mile on left.

From South (Trenton Area) - Take Rt. 202 & 31 North to Flemington traffic circle. Take Rt. 12 West at circle. Go 5 miles to Pittstown Road (airport sign). Turn North (right), and go 3.5 miles to Locust Grove Road. Turn right, farm is .5 mile on left.

Cooperating Agencies: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and County Boards of Chosen Freeholders. Educational Programs are offered without regard to race, sex, age, handicap or disability, color or national origin. Rutgers Cooperative Extension is an Equal Opportunity Employer

by Win Cowgill

Area Horticultural Agent

Most apple varieties are past petal fall in North Jersey. In Hunterdon County most apples have set well following a long extended bloom. The exceptions are spur Red Delicious, Stayman and McIntosh. Two freezes during bloom hurt these varieties. In three orchards I have visited since Friday all reds have set very light and will require no additional thinning. Staymans have been hurt the worst. In most cases no thinning needs to be done at all on these cultivars. You can tolerate some doubles on Reds if the crop is light overall. You will need to evaluate your apples by cultivar block by block.

For the most part growers have applied one or two applications of chemical thinners already. We are now in the late Fruit Set Phase of development where the fruitlets range from 12-20MM in size. They are now showing strength and you can clearly tell which fruitlets will remain on the tree. This larger fruit is much harder to thin at this point.

The sunny conditions the past two days and warm temperatures have caused the fruitlets to jump in size.

In Hunterdon County (Pittstown) fruit was at the following sizes on Monday, 5/26

Liberty 14-15MM

Empire 12-14MM

JonaGold 12-14MM

Red Chief Red Delicious 10MM

Warren County (Hackettstown) Tuesday, 5/27

Stayman 9MM

McIntosh 10-11MM

Starking Red Delicious 10-10.5MM

JerseyRed 11-12MM

Sevin, NAA, Vydate, Accel and Ethephon are labeled for late fruit set application up to 20MM. At this stage combinations will work best to
further reduce fruit set. On small fruited cultivars like Empire and Gala, you want to reduce the crop load to at lest one fruit per spur. For maximum size, crop load on these cultivars must be reduced even further so that some spurs have no fruit. On Gala, all fruit that set on the one year old wood should be eliminated, it will be smaller than fruit born on the two year old wood.

Combinations that have worked well:

Sevin XLR-Plus (1 Quart 100 gal) with NAA (15-20 ppm)

Vydate L with NAA

Ethephon with NAA

There are two companies (Micro Flo and Rhone-Poulenc) that have Ethrel formulations for apple thinning, both have 21.7% active ingredient Ethephon.

MicroFlo's label reads for Golden Delicious apples while the Rhone-Poulenc formulation has all apples on the label. Ethrel is labeled at 1.5- 4 pints per acre, less if used in combinations. Consult the label carefully.

Ethephon has also been used successfully in Virginia as a rescue treatment for thinning up to 20MM in size when weather conditions have not allowed for any or adequate thinning with other

Notice to Employers Regarding

Crew Leaders

Mel Gelade

Commissioner, NJ Dept. of Labor

For a crew leader to be considered an employer, he or she must obtain a certificate of registration from the Division of Workplace Standards. A crew leader who is delinquent in reporting wages or in making unemployment and disability insurance contribution payments may not receive a license or may have his/her license revoked.

Production News 1997 Page
If you engage a crew leader who is unlicensed or who loses his or her license, the workers of the crew leader would be considered your employees under the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Law. You would then be responsible for the reporting of all wages and the payment of all payroll taxes.

Please be certain that any crew leader whom you engage is in compliance with the registration provisions of the New Jersey Crew Leader Registration Act (NJCLRA) and the wage reporting and tax payment provisions of the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Law.

If you want to verify the validity of a crew leader's registration under the NJCLRA, you may call the Division of Workplace Standards' Hotline at (609) 292-2341.

If you need information concerning the tax and wage reporting provisions of the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Law, contact the Division of UI/DI Financing at (609) 645-6727.

Reporting Crop Damage

NJFB President John Rigolizzo joins the call by Art Brown and the State Board of Agriculture for farmers to report crop damage from wildlife. Fish and Game authorities contend that restricted access to properties that need to be hunted is the over-riding impediment to more effective wildlife management. Equally important to their overall strategy is more thorough reporting by farmers of wildlife damage to crops. It is vital in deer management, for example, where permits and quotas are appor
tioned on the basis of reported complaints. In 1996, 387 farmers reported deer damage to Fish and Game.

Farm Bureau supports a renewed effort by farmers in reporting deer damage. Do not be deterred by a suspicion that the effort of calling in a damage claim is futile. On the other hand, it really counts! To report deer or any other wildlife damage, call the Fish and Game Hotline at (908) 735-6938 or (908) 735-8793. The line is open 24 hours a day; leave a recorded message if necessary. Use the same number to seek assistance from a wildlife management specialist or to report an access problem to a nearby property. Let's make this work.

Other Coming Events

State Horticultural Association

of Pennsylvania

1997 Summer Educational Orchard Tour

The 1997 Summer Tour co-sponsored by the State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania and the Berks County Fruit Growers, is scheduled for June 25th and 26th. The cost is $45 per person. This includes travel via air-conditioned motor coach, tour guides, refreshments, a chicken and pig roast picnic dinner on Wednesday evening, and lunch on Thursday.

We have chosen the Morgantown Holiday Inn as our headquarters. Currently the Holiday Inn is holding a block of rooms for our group for the night of June 25th. These rooms will be held until June 4, 1997. For reservations at the Holiday Inn, call (800) 339-0264, and specify that you are with S.H.A.P. in order to get a special room rate of $65/room (1-4 people).

The Morgantown Holiday Inn is located at Exit 22 off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. They have a full-service restaurant, plenty of nearby restaurants,

and an indoor pool open until 10 pm. You will be able to pick up your registration packet between 11:00 and 11:55 am the morning of June 25th. If you are staying at the Holiday Inn that night, you will need to register your room before the buses depart.

Wednesday, June 25th - Buses will depart promptly at 12:00 noon. Please have lunch on your own before departure. We will have a chicken and pig roast dinner at the second orchard.

Thursday, June 26th - Buses will depart promptly at 8:00 am. We will visit orchards in the Boyertown area. A catered buffet lunch will be provided. The buses will return to the Holiday Inn late in the afternoon.

Some of the highlights we will see include:

· Double and triple row apples and peaches

· The oldest planting of Gala in the state

· Orchard farm markets

· An orchard using the "Off -Limits" deer protection system

· Central leader peach trees

· Strawberry planting

· CA facility and packing lines . . . and much more!

Since many of the orchards we will be visiting are located in narrow or congested areas, there will be no private vehicles allowed on the tour so that the buses can have proper space to maneuver.

Please send the Summer Tour Registration Form, along with a check payable to S.H.A.P. to :

Maureen Irvin, 697 Mountain Road, Orrtanna, PA 17353. Deadline for registration is June 6, 1997.

Cream Ridge Strawberry Plasticulture and Breeding Field Day

Date: Thursday, June 5, 1997

Time: 1:00 p.m. to ?

Place: Rutgers Fruit R&E Center

283 Route 539

Cream Ridge, NJ 08514

Includes: Plasticulture Research Plot Tours

Eastern Variety Trials

Organic Nutrition

Runner removal

Vegetable Double Cropping

NJAES Strawberry Breeding and Variety Showcase

Plasticulture and Matted-row

Field Equipment Demonstrations

Dr. Joseph A. Fiola

Specialist in Small Fruit and Viticulture

The cooperators (Dr. Steve Garrison, Pete Nitzsche, Pete Probasco, Dr. Gojko Jelenkovic, Robert Lengyen, and Robert Rouse) wish to thank NJAES, NESARE, and NASGA for their support of the strawberry program.

Directions to Rutgers Fruit & Research Center

Take Exit 7A off the New Jersey Turnpike to I-195 East. Take the 2nd Allentown exit off I-195 (Route 539 South). Follow Route 539 South 6-7 miles. You will pass the Cream Ridge Golf Course - we are about 2 miles past that on the right - look for the Rutgers Fruit Research & Extension sign. Phone (609) 758-7311 X 10.

DID YOU KNOW Rutgers Cooperative Extension offers educational programs without regard to race, sex, age, handicap or disability, color or national origin? Rutgers Cooperative Extension is an equal opportunity employer.

No-Till Vegetable Twilight Meeting

Date: Monday, June 9, 1997

Time: 6:00 pm

Place: Karl Morgan Farm

487 Pointers-Auburn Road

Salem, NJ

See demonstrations of no-till production of tomatoes, melons, and pumpkins at this farm. Hairy vetch, crimson clover, and rye in mixtures, and hairy vetch alone to be used as a killed-cover crop mulch for no-till planting. No-till vegetable transplant machinery will be demonstrated at this meeting. B.J. Farms of Bridgeton, NJ will be providing a modified transplanter intended for no-till planting of vegetable and other transplanted crops.

For more information contact: Michelle Infante, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County, (609) 863-0110. This meeting is being held in cooperatiion with our host grower, Karl Morgan, B.J. Farms, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Salem, Gloucester, and Cumberland Counties.

Directions to Karl Morgan Farm

Take Route 40 west from Woodstown and go past the Cowtown Rodeo. Travel 1.5 miles past the rodeo to the first blinker light and make a left (sign will say towards Salem). This is Pointers-Auburn Road (however there is no sign). Travel 2 miles and farm driveway will be on your right. (Private hedge along the driveway and a black mailbox with the number 487 and Morgan on the mailbox).

Northwest Jersey Production News

published by

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of

Hunterdon, Morris, and Warren Counties

Winfred P. Cowgill, Jr.

Area Horticultural Agent

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Hunterdon County

4 Gauntt Place, Flemington, NJ 08822-9058

(908) 788-1339

Fax (908-806-4735

Diana Boesch

Ag Secretary

Peter Nitzsche

County Agricultural Agent

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris County

PO Box 900

Morristown, NJ 07963-0900

(201) 285-8300

Fax (201) 605-8195

William Tietjen

County Agricultural Agent

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Warren County

165 County Road, 519 S.

Belvidere, NJ 07823-1949

(908) 475-6505

Fax (201) 475-6514