It is good to know that growers participating in the eco-apple project have made some real gains in using IPM and reducing pesticide risk. We couldn’t know that for sure without the data aspect of the eco-apple project. All the data is confidential and considered property of WAGA. We will provide you with your orchard-specific scores and keep it confidential. We then aggregate the data for the entire group of growers participating in the project to gage our success in meeting your needs.
Read more on available data tools (some new)…
For growers new to the project, we suggest you take the IPM survey soon, answering questions as they relate to your orchard management in 2005 for a baseline score. (For a copy, go to the end of this post and download the Word file.) Then, after the season is over, if you retake the survey for what you did in 2006, we can start to compare your progress as a result of the eco-apple project activities. Similarly, if you can provide the project with your pesticide use data for 2005, we can give you a comparative score at the end of the 2006 season. Speak with your network coordinator about submitting this data as soon as you have it ready.
We have some data management tools to assist you in this effort.
Your network coordinator has a notebook for you to use that includes sheets you can take out to the field to record pesticide use and pest observations. You may have a better system in place already, but this is a starting point for those of you who struggle to maintain records. This is a good topic for your network to discuss at some point. The SE Network has been toying with the idea of using a palm pilot to record data into software directly while in the field….
Ten network growers expressed interest in pesticide use software available commercially. We’ve worked with the software developer to add the pesticide toxicity index and pesticide price information to give you information as the season progresses. Let your network coordinator or John Aue know if you want to give this software a try in 2006.
The IPM survey we ask you to fill out was developed by growers, WAGA and the UW. It shouldn’t take too long and will help us arrive at an IPM score for you. I am posting a copy of the survey so it is easy for you to access when you are ready to fill it out. Download file
