Fruit Times

I’ve been getting a lot of calls from growers asking whether spotted wing drosophila (SWD) has been found in fruit crops in Pennsylvania yet. The good news is that it hasn’t been showing up in traps, not even in locations with SWD problems last year. So far, so good in Maryland as well. However, this doesn’t mean that growers should let their guard down.

As we continue with presenting data from an Internet survey conducted to learn how consumers use social media to engage with food retailers, below you will see highlights related to reasons people join a business’s social network by liking or following the business.

The pesticides listed are the same as they were two months ago, but the new spray record-keeping spreadsheet now has a new function. A Pivot Table that is located to the right of the spreadsheet, allowing growers to fill in chemical use information, is designed to calculate how many times a grower uses specific sprays throughout a season.

In this week’s installment of data describing how consumers use social media to engage with food retailers, we are sharing demographic characteristics of participants who indicated they were blogging or tweeting and how this could help your business.

Based on the Sky-Bit Ag E-Weather forecast and the MaryBlyt infection model, there is a potential for fire blight infections May 21st to 24th. Check newly planted and fire blight susceptible blocks for late bloom and apply control measures as needed.

The primary scab infection period is almost over. Mature spore release is now down to less than 2% from the 100% peak on April 17.

This will be the last posting of the Cornell MaluSim carbon balance tables. Most areas of the state are now beyond the effective thinning fruit size. As you can see all areas are in a carbon surplus meaning fruit is being adequately supplied with carbon and should not respond to thinners. As mentioned yesterday by Jim Schupp, there seems to be a heavy fruit drop in south-central and southeastern PA in response to a carbon deficit back the first week of May.

Growers are advised to carefully check their orchards prior to making another thinning application. In Adams County, it is ten days since a stress event caused by three days of cloudy weather and we are beginning to see a new wave of fruit drop.

As we continue with presenting data from an Internet survey conducted to learn how consumers use social media to engage with food retailers, below you will see highlights related to the demographic characteristics of participants who shared content on Facebook and with whom they shared.

Below are the carbon balance tables from Cornell’s MaluSim model. All regions show a projected surplus of carbon, meaning the trees will be less responsive to chemical thinners. Berks and Southwestern Adams county show a slight deficit for today but not very strong; over the next two days it will be positive.

Below are the Carbon Balance Model tables for five locations around the state based on SkyBit temperatures and radiation estimates. The graph represents data from the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville.

The carbon balance model for the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville indicates that May 9th was essentially a neutral day, with neither a large carbon surplus nor a deficit. Cool temperatures and increased sunlight on May 10th are initiating what is forecasted to be a 3 day period of projected surpluses.

In Biglerville, rainfall from April 18 through May 8 was mostly scattered, with soaking rainfall totaling 3.52 inches. This likely resulted in apple scab, fire blight, rust, bacterial spot and cherry leaf spot infections on unprotected susceptible blossoms, foliage and fruitlets.

Based on the predicted weather, the carbon balance model suggests we will be in a carbon surplus period. High temperatures for Thursday and Friday are not expected to get out of the upper 60’s.

Warm cloudy weather should result in negative balances in some areas of the state. Today’s balance and for the next two days were derived from SkyBit forecasted weather.

In our previous article, we discussed how demographics affect what respondents expect from a food business on Facebook. In this installment we describe some of the highlights of the data related to how people interact with business pages by posting content and clicking on a company’s Facebook ad.

The attached graph illustrates the carbon balance data for the Penn State Fruit Research and Extension Center in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The last three dates including today are based on weather forecasts from SkyBit.

As indicated in yesterday's thinning advisory for Southeastern Pennsylvania, it is important to adjust for changes in the weather forecast. Here is the carbon balance model for this morning.

The diameter of the largest fruits in many orchards is in the 12-14 mm range, meaning that we are in the advanced stages of the primary thinning window. So what does the Carbon Balance Model say? The Model reports that there has been a mild carbon deficit for the last two days, even though temperatures were only in the 60s yesterday, and much cooler than was forecasted. This mild deficit is due to low sunlight levels for the last three days. A much stronger deficit is predicted for the next several days, due to the much warmer temperatures plus cloud cover that is forecasted.

Last week, we introduced you to research that members of Penn State Extension conducted in 2010 to better understand how consumers use social media to engage with food retailers. This week we are providing some of the highlights of the data related to Facebook.