CCE-LOF and CCE-ENYCHP will be giving you an opportunity to listen to permissions granted recorded presentations and Q & A discussions on topics relevant to all NYS growers. Topics and speakers that have granted permissions have numbered titles, representative of the order they appear on the YouTube Playlist.

Talk Topics and Speakers

1. Climate change patterns using weather data from across the state-Dan Olmstead, Cornell University. Dan is the NEWA project lead and NYS IPM Digital Outreach and Development Coordinator. He will present a wealth of information regarding precipitation and temperature trends in the apple growing regions of New York state. Apple trees, as well as pest and disease development, are tied closely to precipitation and temperature. Pulling historical weather data across the state from the past 30 years, Dan will show how these are changing year to year, within the growing season, both statewide and regionally.

"Discussing the current direction of federal pesticide registration policy"- Dr. Clayton Myers, USDA-ARS. Dr. Clayton Myers is an entomologist with the USDA Office of Pesticide Management Policy. Dr. Myers has experience working in both the EPA and USDA on pesticide issues and will bring us up to date on current federal pesticide registration policy and more specifically the re-registration review status of critical tree fruit fungicides. 

Management in a union eligible work environment, Hilary Moreira, Bond, Schoeneck & King. Ms. Hilary Moreira Esq. is an attorney with extensive experience working with farm owners who are facing the issue of farmworker unionization.  Ms. Moreira will be discussing the recent changes in NYS farmworker unionization law and offering practical guidance on how farm owners and managers can avoid unintentional stumbling into legal liabilities.

2. NYS Grown and Certified Infrastructure, Technology, and Product Development Grant Program - Aileen Randolph, New York Farm Viability Institute.

3. Survey IPM Priorities for our stakeholders-Dr. Anna Wallis, Cornell University. As the new Fruit IPM Coordinator for the NYS IPM Program, Anna Wallis will introduce herself and take the opportunity to briefly collect input on IPM priorities from stakeholders. Survey efforts will build on data collected by Cornell faculty over the past decades.

4. Survey of Spanish Priorities for Education and Translation materials for our stakeholders - Mario Miranda Sazo and Janet van Zoeren, CCE-LOF.

5. Fruit finish issues with NY1 and plans for future research - Dr. Jason Londo, Cornell University. Jason will summarize his work thus far with 2 distinct fruit finish disorders. In addition, he'll be briefly introducing his proposed research into a statewide (pending ARDP proposal) project looking at lenticel disorders in this variety. Through some informal surveys and photos, there are likely several types of lenticel issue being seen across the state. The on-farm research in multiple regions of the state will hopefully answer some questions about the root causes and possible prevention/mitigation strategies.

6. The Honeycrisp storage passport - Dr. Terence Robinson, Cornell University. Terence will discuss this ongoing and ever-improving program, which includes block information on crop load, peel sap nutrient ratios of K/Ca and N/Ca and estimates of bitter pit (BP) from the passive evaluation method. This information can and should be used for storage decisions on each block. It can save the industry significant losses and reduced returns of high BP incidence fruit stored and marketed in the wrong conditions and timeframe. Conversely, it can increase returns on predicted low BP incidence fruit by the use of correct storage regimes and increasing the marketing window later into the season.

7. Promising Ag-vision technologies to evaluate fruit thinning decisions and estimate yields - Mario Miranda Sazo and Mike Basedow. This Ag-technology talk co-chaired by Miranda Sazo and Basedow will introduce what vision technologies are available right now that NY fruit growers can use to improve their thinning decisions and yield estimations prior to harvest.   There will be three Ag-tech presentations and a virtual discussion with speakers and Dr. Terence Robinson.  The Ag-vision companies to be featured are Pometa (formerly Farm Vision), VIVID technologies, and Orchard Robotics.

8. Irrigation and water relations of apples - Dr. Victor Blanco-Montoya, Washington State University. Irrigation of apple orchards not only secures the significant investment of a modern apple orchard against a drought but serves also to increase and maximize yield of high-quality fruit. Water use by apples increases dramatically until the full canopy is established, increases slightly during the fruit growth stage (midseason to harvest), and decreases rapidly after harvest. In 2022, some apple regions in NYS suffered extended summer droughts without major precipitation events while that other regions had very late/big precipitation fall events that increased fruit sizes to levels not seen/experienced before. In this talk presented by Dr. Victor Blanco-Montoya of WSU, we will learn about the physiological effects of good irrigation practices, the rainfall effects (low, none, high) to the apple tree plant itself as well as to the fruit. How does late-season rains affect the tree and the fruit? How does drip irrigation differ from rainfall? How does a NY grower know whether installing irrigation in a block will be an economically beneficial investment?

  Once you have registered you will receive a confirmation email with a link you will need to access the recordings.

Program pdf available below

Statewide Virtual Apple Conference Agenda (PDF; 163KB)