WSJM, April 19, 2006 Grape IPM Meetings

This is Al Gaus the Berrien County Extension Educator for fruits and ornamentals reporting from the MSU Extension office in Berrien County.

There will be a series of three Grape IPM meetings in Van Buren and Berrien Counties again this year. These meetings will be on Thursdays. The meeting dates are April 20, May 25 and July 13. The morning meeting will be from 10 A.M. to noon at the Cronenwett Farm Shop at 70123 28th Street east of Lawton. A repeat afternoon meeting will be from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Berrien County MSU Extension Office at 1737 Hillandale Rd in Benton Township between Napier and Meadowbrook. These meeting are co-sponsored by National Grape Cooperative and MSU Extension and are open to all. The format for the meetings will be a review of insect and disease control in grapes specific to either early, mid or late season, focusing on the pests of each season during that meeting.

The April 20, 2006 meeting will review prebloom insect and disease control. The May 25 meeting will discuss bloom sprays. The July 13 meeting will cover late season insects and diseases.

Al Gaus and Mark Longstroth of MSU Extension and Terry Holloway of National Grape will share the results of their scouting. Drs. Rufus Isaacs and Annemiek Schilder will the featured speakers and discuss current and upcoming pest control windows. RUP credits for private pesticide applicators and commercial fruit (1C) have been requested.

Repeating, there will be a grape IPM meeting at the MSU Extension office tomorrow, Thursday April 20, 2006 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. It will be covering prebloom pest control.

That is all for today, this has been Al Gaus for Michigan State University Extension in Berrien County.