Pest Update: 3-30-16

Submitted by cb32 on Wed, 03/30/2016 - 13:40

Scale insect update.

GREEDY SCALE:  As promised, I've been monitoring greedy scale infestations so that I can alert you all when their crawlers hatch.  If you remember, with these greedy scale (an armored scale), the best time to treat them is when their eggs hatch and the crawlers emerge.  The crawler stage is short (just a few days) and is when these scale insects are most susceptible to treatment.  

I have three locations that I'm monitoring for greedy scale: one north in Bandon, one in between Bandon and Langlois, and one south of Langlois.

Organic Grower Meeting Summary (3-5-16)

Submitted by cb32 on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 15:50

Saturday, March 5, 2016, was the day of the first Oregon Organic Grower Meeting.  Twenty-five people attended, most of which were growers.  Drew Katz of Oregon Tilth gave a nice presentation on the process involved in becoming certified organic. It’s quite the process, and it requires you to keep a lot of records, but it’s definitely not impossible or too overwhelming … many growers have either completed the process, or are in the middle of their transition period.

Here are a few of the highlights I picked up from the meeting:

Who can be a member of the OCGA?

If you grow cranberries in Oregon or work in a field related to growing cranberries, then you can be a member of the OCGA.

Why join the OCGA?

The OCGA was founded in 1985. It’s a voluntary, non-profit educational research foundation. The objective of the association, as stated in the Bylaws, is to “support educational cranberry research with emphasis on current problems”. We try to achieve this goal in many ways, three of which are listed below:

  1. Support research projects that will address current cranberry production issues. The majority of the funds we spend on research go to Dr. Kim Patten, Washington State Extension. His research projects were instrumental in acquiring labels for Callisto, Quinstar, Curio and Altacor to name a few of the recent added product labels.

  2. Keep growers informed of current issues. We do this mainly through Cranberry School and Field Days. Each year the OCGA Board considers which speakers and topics would benefit Growers the most. We also have special meetings as needs arrive.

  3. We keep connected with cranberry researchers. This year, Oregon is hosting the North American Cranberry Research and Extension Workers (NACREW) Conference. Cranberry Researchers from every growing region will be here talking about ongoing cranberry research and touring several of the local farms. The OCGA Board, Don Kloft, the Ocean Spray Ag. Scientist and our new County Extension Agent, Cassie Bouska, have all been working hard to organize the event.

  4. Access the Members Area of the OCGA website. Here we post presentations given during the current year’s Cranberry School, as well as other information related to growing cranberries.

If you are a long time member of the OCGA, thank you for your support. You’re the reason we have the School, Field Days and a label for the herbicide Curio here in Oregon. If you’re not a member, I hope you will consider joining and taking advantage of the benefits membership provides. I know times are difficult in the Cranberry Industry and every dollar counts, but I believe that keeping informed on current research and the tips that you can learn from attending will save you money in the long term.

Please review and use the PDF membership form below.

Already a Member?  Please sign up for access to the web site.

 

Membership Form: PDF icon ocga_registration_form.pdf

Pages