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Weather-based models are very useful in
forecasting key life stage and management dates for insect and disease pests.
Early warning helps pest managers get better results and use their time more
efficiently.
Apple
An extensive set of
"Orchard Radar" apple disease, insect pest, and horticultural event forecast
models are being updated thrice daily during the April-October 2012 growing
season for the following New England sites. You can see the finalized set
of forecasts for each site by clicking on the links below. See
Introduction to Orchard Radar
for more info.
 
There is great potential in extending the apple pest forecasting to other commodities.
such as woody ornamentals insect pests and
forage corn growth stages. Information also
exists to use the same weather data to estimate vegetable
disease risk and insect pest life stages; weed seed emergence and
growth; and irrigation scheduling timing. If you are interested,
contact the PRONewEngland webmaster.
Dr. Shelby Fleischer, Penn
State University, operates the sweet corn
PestWatch
website covering the entire Northeast.
Inspiration:
"Many of the events of the annual cycle recur year after year
in a regular order. A year-to-year record of this order is a record
of the rates at which solar energy flows to and through living
things. They are the arteries of the land. By tracing their
responses to the sun, phenology may eventually shed some light on
that ultimate enigma, the land's inner workings."
- Aldo Leopold, A Phenological Record
for Sauk and Dane Counties, Wisconsin, 1935-1945 (1947)
"You're the one who knows the
history and the circumstances. Hammers don't build houses and
models don't make decisions. They help you do those things"
- Dr. Tim Smith, Washington State University, quoted in The
Grower magazine, April 2004, Vance Publishing Corp.
“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" - Yogi Berra
Climate Change and Northeast
Agriculture |
