Progress 09/01/24 to 08/31/25
Outputs
Target Audience:Specialty crop growers, conventional and organic growers, Spanish- and English-speaking farm workers, beginning and women farmers, Commonwealth Quality growers, UMass Extension staff, Regional Extension IPM specialists, IPM consultants and scouts, agricultural service providers, farm managers and decision-makers, industry representatives including UAS (drone) pilots and trainees, and other stakeholders. Changes/Problems:Our Extension Educator II who was working in berry IPM resigned, leaving a gap in our capacity to support small fruit producers. We are nearing the end of a successful search to fill the vacancy at a master's level (Educator III). Hannah Whitehead resigned her position in November of 2024 but has since re-joined the team at a part-time, non-benefitted rate. As such her ability to contribute to the EIP pollinator health objectives is limited, and her time must be devoted to fulfilling obligations toward another grant on cut flower production and IPM. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Professional Development 10/21/2024.New England Tree Fruit IPM Conference Tree Fruit IPM Working Group through Northeast IPM Center. Northampton, MA 10/29/2024.PSA Annual trainer update PSA. remote 11/10/2024.Entomological Society of America 2024 Joint Annual Meeting. Entomological Society of America. Phoenix, AZ 12/5/2024.Penn State Biocontrol School. PennState Extension. Lancaster, PA 12/10/2024. New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference, NEVFC. Manchester, NH 1/3/2025.NEVBGA Winter Meeting, NEVBGA. Northampton, MA 1/6/2025.Northeast Weed Science Society Annual Conference. Anapolis, MD 1/19/2025.MA Pesticide Commercial Certification, MDAR. remote 2/22/2025.NEVBGA Winter Meeting, NEVBGA. Shirley, MA 2/25/25 - 5/20/25.Spanish Class, The International Language Institute of Massachusetts. Northampton, MA 2/26/26 - 2/28/25.Undoing Racism Training. People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. Springfield, MA 3/11/2025.Hudson Valley Cut Flower Conference, Cornell Cooperative Extension. Kingston, NY 3/15/2025.Entomological Society of America Eastern 2025 Branch Meeting, Entomological Society of America. Harrisburg, PA 3/31/25 - 4/3/25.NE Risk Management EducationConference, NERME. Nashville, TN 5/20/2025. MDAR Agricultural Compost Training, MDAR. Southborough, MA 10/24/24-10/25/25.NE2220 - Multi-state Coordinated Evaluation of Grape Cultivars and Clones, Iowa State University. Ames, IA How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In addition to the methods of communication listed above: Clements, Gannet, Garofalo and Pinero, wrote 12 issues of the Healthy Fruit newsletter, 150 paid subscribers Ghantous and Sylvia contributed articles to 5 issues of the Cranberry Station newsletter, reaching 203 subscribers. Gannett, Higgins, McKeag, Scheufele, Shokoohi, and Whitehead prepared 12 issues of Vegetable Notes reaching 3,412 subscribers. Clements, Gannet, Garofalo and Pinero produced 8 podcast episodes and hosted 3 "Lunch Bunch" weekly IPM updates on tree May through June with an average of 25 attendees per session Ghantous and Sylvia published the first 3 weekly Cranberry IPM messages of the 2025 growing season (online and also available as recorded message by phone. Clements, Gannet, Garofalo, Higgins, Scheufele, and Whitehead all contributed to the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference as members of the executive planning committee and/or delivering presentations. The conference was held December 17-19, 2024 attracting 1,517attendees for 3-days of educational sessions receiving a total of 1,477.50 pesticide re-certification credits Social media was used (https://www.instagram.com/umassvegetableteam/ and /umass_extension_fruit_team) to promote events, make announcements, promote new newsletter issues, and share on IPM topics such as frost protection and pest identification, reaching 1,433 followers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Priority Area #1: IPM Implementation for Specialty Crops Objective 1a: Adapt the "Mentor Farm Program" Work with the 12 mentor farmers to address IPM issues and implement IPM strategies on their farms through regular scouting visits, hands-on training, pest monitoring, evaluation, and planning Identify farms with interest in addressing pollinator health issues to serve as mentor farms Host twilight meetings on mentor farms to highlight IPM strategies being adopted Conduct end-of-season interviews to assess changes in knowledge, behavior, and condition and improve upon pest management for the 2026 season Recruit new mentor farms as current farms "graduate" from the program Objective 1b: Provide IPM education for growers and pesticide applicators via one-on-one technical assistance and group education Respond to grower inquiries about crop and pest management, pollinator health, urban agriculture Host twilight meetings, field days, workshops, and conferences to provide IPM education for growers Give presentations for growers and IPM professionals to share knowledge and increase IPM adoption Objective 1c: Maintain Network for Weather Applications in MA Continue to monitor and repair or update, as needed, our network of 45 weather stations Provide support for growers installing, maintaining, and using weather stations Provide support for growers using pest models that utilize weather station data Objective 1d:Update regional guides for growers and applicators Maintain the New England Vegetable Management Guide website Update New England Tree Fruit Guide Begin planning and editing the New England Vegetable Management Guide 2026-27 edition Objective 1e: Training the next generation of IPM professionals Mentor undergraduate students in 2025 Hire and train new students for 2026 season Goal 2 (objectives a-d): IPM Research and Demonstrations Complete 2025 studies described above. Share results of 2025 trials with growers and IPM professionals via newsletters, presentations, and conferences Begin planning IPM research and demonstration trials for 2026 season, including: Spinach, basil, and cucumber downy mildew management Phytopthora blight management Sand-blasting as a perennial weed control strategy Mass-trapping for Japanese beetle control Evaluating autonomous insect traps for remote monitoring Bitter rot disease modeling and control Evaluating resistance of different grape cultivars to foliar and trunk diseases Conduct UAS pesticide application spray drift studies Objective 3a: Partner with the new UMass Extension Urban Agriculture Program Continue to provide support to urban agriculture Extension educators via consultations, site visits, presentations and programs Continue to provide support for IPM on urban mentor farms Priority Area #2: IPM for Pesticide Applicators Objective 1a: Adapt the "Mentor Farm Program" Work with mentor farms on optimizing spray programs, educating them on proper timing, choosing the right materials, ensuring adequate coverage, making calculations correctly, and sprayer calibration Objective 1b: Provide IPM education for growers and pesticide applicators via one-on-one technical assistance and group education Consult with growers on appropriate spray programs that incorporate resistance management Give presentations and host workshops and twilight meetings on optimizing spray programs, safe and effective use of pesticides, and pesticide impacts on pollinators and endangered species. Offer pesticide re-certification credits for certified applicators Objective 1d:Update regional guides for growers and applicators Update pesticide sections of crop guides to include up-to-date information about current registered pesticide products across fruit, vegetable, and cranberry industries in MA Objective 3c: Partner with MDAR to coordinate education on grower compliance with current EPA labeling regulations Co-PIs continue to meet regularly with MDAR pesticide team, at least quarterly Keep UMass Extension staff up to date on pertinent changes relevant to newly required mitigation measures to protect endangered species Provide grower education via workshops, webinars, and 1-on-1 relevant to ESA Priority Area #3: IPM for Pollinator Health Objective 2d: Cross-commodity IPM Continue the establishment of habitat demonstration plots, conducting pollinator surveys weekly during the season, and comparing species abundance and richness across habitat types as well as on commercial farms. Share findings about pollinator activity and trends with growers via newsletters Present findings at our annual field day Write 1 fact sheet about the opportunities and challenges of installing pollinator habitat on farms Produce two other factsheets topics such asPollination Needs of MA Fruits and Vegetables, Cover Cropping for Bees,andRaspberry Canes as Nesting Habitat for Native Bees Priority Area #4: IPM Support for Pest Diagnostics Use EIP funds to submit samples to the lab and ensure accurate diagnoses of plant problems Contribute expertise to diagnostic lab in the areas of weeds and insect pest identification
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Priority area #1: IPM Implementation for Specialty Crops Objective 1a: Adapt the "Mentor Farm Program" for weed, pollinator health, and urban agriculture specialists--33% complete. 12 mentor farms have been identified with 2 focusing on weeds, 3 on urban agriculture, and 2 on cut flowers, plus 3 vegetable and 2 fruit farms. Planning interviews and initial site visits have been conducted. Objective 1b: Provide IPM education for growers and pesticide applicators via one-on-one technical assistance and group education--33% complete. Our team has provided 470 consultations and at least 100 site visits, given 76 presentations for 3,141 attendees, and organized 45 programs for 1,632 attendees; this includes 5 programs for 98 urban growers and 8 presentations on weed IPM for 352 attendees. We offered 22 hours of pesticide re-certification credits for pesticide applicators at these workshops. Our 5 newsletters go out to 3,987 subscribers and 35 issues were published this period plus 11 podcast episodes or recorded pest messages. We submitted at least 5 samples to the diagnostic lab with support from EIP. Objective 1c: Maintain Network for Weather Applications in MA--funding for this objective was cut--33% complete. We secured funding for this objective through Hatch multi-state project W4009, and our NEWA coordinator conducted 134 consultations and 32 site visits, repairing or updating 36 stations in our network which now includes 45 locations. The website has been used by 874 people for 44 hours. A presentation on using NEWA data was given at the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference for 150 growers and IPM professionals from across the region. Objective 1d: Update regional guides for growers and applicators--60% complete. The Cranberry Chartbook was updated for 2024-26 and distributed to 203 growers. The New England Vegetable Management Guide was updated for 2025-26 and 1,200 copies have been printed for distribution with 860 copies distributed to growers and Extension professionals thus far, and the online version was viewed 64,413 times during the reporting period. Objective 1e: Training the next generation of IPM professionals--15% complete. We have hired two undergraduate summer scholars and will train them on IPM scouting and applied research in entomology and weed science. Objective 2a: Tree fruit IPM Research and Demonstration--25% complete. Apple disease is monitored weekly via the decision support system RIMpro and via lab-based spore counting methods. Alerts are sent to growers through a WhatsApp group and via the weekly newsletter Health Fruit which has 170 subscribers.We are in the process of hiring a new Berry Educator, as the previous person in the role left the team;there has been no progress on the strawberry disease forecasting. Autonomous photo traps for key lepidoptera pests are being evaluated and were deployed at 14 orchards, each with a weather station onsite. Weather station data is being used to compare degree day accumulations with moth flight patterns. The information gained from this monitoring effort is distributed weekly via newsletters as it is collected and will be analyzed at the end of the season to determine the best timing to deploy traps.Our grape IPM program will focus on black rot (Guignardia bidwellii), downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola), powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator), and grape trunk diseases (many fungi), priorities identified by grape growers. Initial assessment of incidence and severity of grape diseases across MA is currently underway. Objective 2b: Vegetable IPM Research and Demonstration--20% complete. Two studies on management of Phytophthora blight in peppers were conducted in 2024 and results were published online and in our newsletter in November 2024. One trial on spinach downy mildew was conducted in winter of 2024-5 and results were shared at 1 grower meeting for 65 attendees and 1 webinar with 62 live attendees. Plans are underway for experiments to be conducted in the summer of 2025 on basil downy mildew and cucurbit downy mildew. We hosted a biocontrol specialist to present two twilight meetings on high tunnel pests management and shared pest and beneficial insect identification resources with 50 attendees, demonstrating best practices. Objective 2c: Cranberry IPM Research and Demonstration--25% complete. Sylvia has been working closely with > 25 cranberry growers one-on-one to monitor occurrences of new pests, Cranberry Black Bug (Plagiognathus repetitus) and Blunt-nosed Leafhopper (Limotettix vaccinii), and provide management recommendations to control populations once detected. Sylvia is conducting an on-farm insecticide trial investigating the possibility of improving weevil management with the addition of an insecticide synergist (PBO) to a currently used insecticide with waning efficacy. Lab trials are ongoing to study efficacy of novel pest control products (one chemical and one biological control) on weevil, black bug, and green spanworm. Ghantous has initiated two on-farm weed studies this spring, one on fireweed ecology to help time herbicide applications to maximize efficacy and the other is on moss identification and management. Objective 2d: Cross-commodity IPM Research and Demonstration-- 35% complete. UAS for IPM Applications. LWIR UAS surveys of the State Bog cranberry farm in East Wareham, MA were conducted in 2024 and demonstrated this technology effectively detects and delineates irrigation activities. A pesticide drift study and a poverty grass mapping study were completed in November 2024. Results of these 3 studies were shared with 25 cranberry growers at a grower meeting (Winter 2025). A newsletter article "General Legal Guidance on Using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UASs) for Aerial Application of Fertilizer and Pesticides in Massachusetts" was published (Spring 2025). Pollinator Health. Hedgerows established in 2023-4 have been surveyed for pollinator activity once and will be surveyed throughout the 2025 season and results shared with growers via newsletters and social media. Integrated Weed Management. A trial on perennial weed management in blueberries was conducted in 2024 and results were shared at two winter grower meetings for 85 attendees.Three weed management trials are underway for 2025 including perennial weed management in blueberry, weed management in carrot, and the multi-state Hatch project NE2338: Weed Emergence Studies. Objective 3a: Partner with the new UMass Extension Urban Agriculture Program--30% complete. Supported two urban agriculture Extension educators via 14 consultations, 4 site visits, 3 presentations and 5 programs for 98 attendees, and assisted with advising 3 mentor farms located in urban areas Objective 3b: funding was cut Objective 3c: Partner with MDAR to coordinate education on grower compliance with current EPA labeling regulations--25% complete. Co-PIs met with MDAR Director of Division of Crop and Pest Services Taryn LaScola twice to discuss rollout of new EPA measures to mitigate pesticide impacts to endangered species by implementing changes to pesticide labeling and regulations in MA. Co-PI Ghantous gave a presentation for UMass Extension staff on integration of ESA protections to FIFRA processes. Objective 3d: Partner with the UMass Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory to support IPM practitioners--10% complete. We submitted at least 5 samples to the diagnostic lab with support from EIP and wrote about pest outbreaks in our newsletters.
Publications
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