ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This episode of "Between the Vines" podcast, hosted by Jennifer Phillips-Russo and Andrew Holden, featured Megan Luke discussing upcoming programs and current industry issues. The team marked the official start of bud break on April 18th, 2026, with Jennifer explaining that Cornell's research station calls bud break when 50% of buds reach 50% pink, while Penn State's phenology block recorded it two days earlier on April 16th. Megan announced the upcoming Coffee Pot meeting series starting the following Wednesday at Cornell AgriTech, focusing on pesticide equipment calibration and hands-on training modules developed through a NERMI grant. Megan explains how pH and turbidity can significantly affect pesticide performance, and Andrew provided updates on USDA supplemental disaster relief payments for 2023-2024 crop losses, noting that a second payment at 70% of allocated funding would be issued, with an extended deadline of August 12th for enrollment.
LERGP.com
https://lergp.cce.cornell.edu/contact_information.php
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Good morning and welcome back to Between the Vines.
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I'm Jennifer Phillips Russo, the Lake Erie Regional Great Program's Cornell Viticulture Extension Specialist here with my co-host, Andrew Holden from Penn State University.
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And today we also have another one of our team members with us, Megan Luke, from also from Penn State University.
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Good morning, everybody.
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Good morning.
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Just a little spiel about who we are.
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So Between the Vines is a podcast brought to you by the Lake Erie Regional Great Program.
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It is hosted by Penn State University.
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Our team is made up of a two-state, two-land grade university team.
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So you get expertise from both Cornell and Penn State when you are a member of our team.
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And we service the western New York, Western Pennsylvania area of the Lake Erie region, down into Ohio as well.
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Jennifer can't talk today because it's been a while since we've done that.
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Welcome back, everybody.
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We are mostly Lebrusca or native varieties in our region of 32,000 acres, but we also have the modern varieties and vinifera growing here as well.
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So good morning, everybody.
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I know we've already welcomed.
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I should mention that today is April 30th, 2026.
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And we have officially hit Bud Break here.
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This is something we need to chat about because what is bud break and when do you call it?
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Right here at the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory, Dr.
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Terry Bates research team.
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We have a set of phenology vines that we prune to the same amount of buds every year.
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Minimum pruning, balanced pruning, and then um, oh my goodness, it's usually like 90, 120, and something else.
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And I apologize, I'll put it in my crop update so you absolutely know what those numbers are.
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But then they go out and check the phenology or the stage at which the growth is on the vine throughout the spring season, so we can officially call bud break.
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We do not do that until 50% of the buds are at 50% pink.
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I know that some of our processors, such as um National Grape or Welches, they call bud break at 10% pink.
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But here at the research station, it's 50% pink, and we will keep doing it at 50% pink so that our year, our data set stays in that same amount we know every time when we've hit that exact stage.
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So we hit it on April 18th this year.
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And just to show the the how different that can be in in very small distances, uh, the Penn State Lab, um, we don't do the pruning um phenology the same way that that the Cornell Lab does, but we do have a block that's dedicated to phenology.
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And we called Bud Break at 50% pink on the 16th.
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Um so we were actually two days earlier um on the official uh our official call for that as well.
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Right.
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And just to put a little more context on what Megan is saying, that we're about 35 minutes apart driving distance, but that's usually what happens, is they're usually a couple of days before us down there.
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And it's just such it's crazy how the microclimates are around here.
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And they're also very closer to the lake.
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Go ahead, Andrew.
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I was gonna say, I I don't want to insert myself too much between uh two viticulturalists, but uh it it's my understanding that that this this spring was really accelerated, right?
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We had that week of really high temperatures like in the 70s.
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Did that um did that do some weird things to uh bud break this year?
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Yeah, I'm not happy about that.
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You're absolutely right.
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That's exactly what happened, is it woke the vines up early.
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So if you go off of our historical data set, which is over 45 years of every year collecting the same data, on average, May 3rd over all of those years, is the average bud break.
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In the 2020s, we keep getting earlier and earlier because we keep having these warm, unseasonably warm springs or late winters that are happening.
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So, yeah, April 18th compared to May 3rd, which is the average, is quite a bit of difference.
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And why is that important?
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Small pause.
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Yes, Andrew, with your hand up.
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I think I know this question.
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It definitely increases the chance uh uh of frost temperatures is you know, it's the earlier you bud, right?
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Yes, exactly.
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Our frost state hasn't changed much, right?
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Like in a few places the U.S.
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hardiness zones got shifted just a little, but in general, we we keep the same late frost state, but the plants get earlier.
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Yeah, that's that's the that's the danger of having these earlier and earlier bud breaks, is that our frost-free days have not changed.
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And unfortunately, we have experienced more and more frost over the last couple of years.
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I've been with Cornell for nine years, and there's been a frost every single year since I've been here somewhere within the region.
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2024 was obviously the worst.
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We lost almost 17,000 acres in our region, and we had a frost um event approximately four, maybe five days ago now, that didn't really hurt us in this region.
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Yes, we have some pockets that got hit with frost, but the poor finger lakes got toasted.
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And I've had colleagues in Virginia, Pennsylvania, southern Pennsylvania, um, Maryland, Texas that have all been reaching out to me saying that they just got slammed.
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So um definitely need for some research in that area on how we can protect our mines moving forward with all of these early bud breaks.
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But lots of exciting things happening there.
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Yeah, I heard Michigan as well.
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Some colleagues I spoke with some colleagues in Michigan, Ohio.
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Um, it's it hit a lot of areas, but I think uh our our director at the Penn State Lab was saying that the lake temperature is about 45 degrees right now.
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And so the we we definitely had some buffering there with the warmer temperature of the lake that helped protect grapes on the lake shore.
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Yes, you're right.
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So actually, this brings me to something that we put in our crop update last week.
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So if you are a member, you have access to our crop updates.
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If you are not a member, you have access to our crop updates, but not the most recent crop updates.
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They're all online.
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But if you are a member, you get everything that's current.
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So, but you can still access this information on our website.
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I am actually studying frost protection.
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And I have a couple colleagues that are also working in it as well.
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And we are, it's becoming more evident that we need more funding to actually dive into this problem because it keeps happening year after year.
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So we have a survey out there.
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This survey is twofold.
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You can find it on our website at lergp.com.
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There's a QR code and also a link that you can click on.
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It's just a very short survey.
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It doesn't ask who you are, it just basically asks what state you're in, what county you grow in, what cultivars you grow and how the acreage of each, what cultivars you think are damaged by the frost in acres of each.
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And then if you use any type of frost mitigation strategies, such as frost fans or smudge pots or helicopters or um just delayed pruning, if you do any of that, we just kind of want to get some of that data together.
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I am then sharing that data with each of the states.
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So if there is enough damage to help with a disaster declaration, they can go to their departments of ag and work with them using the data you provide.
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And we also want to use that data to go for some grant funding, saying this is not just a problem here, this is a problem all over the East, and um it really needs to be studied.
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So if you could kindly take that survey, that would be fantastic and hopefully help us secure some funding moving forward so we can work on this problem.
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Anybody have any questions about the Frost Frost survey or where to find it?
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No, it's uh they can always reach out to us or look at our uh websites for uh for the link as well, right?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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You can also, if you did have a lot of damage and you have a new network in your area, it is um it can be a really great resource or tool for you to download where your temperatures got to and your leaf wetness was at that time.
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So it would help with any crop insurance claims that you might have.
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And Andrew, I'm probably putting you on the spot here, but I think if you if you wanted to use crop insurance, you had to apply for that back in November.
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Yeah, we're we're we're uh we're past the enrollment window for for this season.
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But um, if you're interested in that, definitely uh start getting ready for for next year.
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Yeah, especially if you're seeing that it's becoming more and more of an issue.
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It's happening more often for you.
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So those are some of the things we do, but it's also like we said, May 30th.
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I feel like we should discuss what's happening in our own program.
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April 30th.
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Ah see guys?
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It's been a while.
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Thank you.
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We need this month.
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Absolutely need this month, April 30th.
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I've been doing a lot of research, so I'm very tired right now.
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April 30th, so we are starting what we do every year in May is we start our coffee pot series.
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Yeah.
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Maybe in July.
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Yeah, ending in July.
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Thank you.
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We go every week.
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Uh, there's a couple where we are at national conferences and stuff that we don't have, but you can find that schedule online.
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But we're gonna kick it off, and I'm gonna toss the um the ball to Megan here in a minute.
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We're gonna kick it off next week, Wednesday, and Megan's gonna tell you what it's about and why as part of our series.
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But just a quick overview if you're not familiar, our coffee pot series, our weekly meetings.
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We go to a grower's barn, we bring coffee and donuts as a team, and then we have timely research, viticulture, and business and IPM issues to talk about.
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Or a lot of times what happens is just the conversation happens organically, and growers start talking about what they're seeing, and then we bring expertise from Penn State and Cornell to the conversation.
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So those are, and there's by the way, there's food and there's recertification credits.
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So, how can you go wrong?
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Especially if you are in PA and you are looking for the core credits.
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Megan can then pick up from here and tell you what's happening on Wednesday.
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Yeah, so we we do have one core credit available for free every Wednesday for at our coffee pot meetings.
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So good news for those folks uh that have a hard time getting out to in-person meetings to get that uh necessity met.
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Um, but yeah, I'm really excited to kick off the coffee pot meeting series at Clarel at the Cornell Agrotech facility this year with a focus on calibration and pesticide equipment troubleshooting.
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Um, so the LERGP, along with the Cornell vegetable team and the agronomy team, um, wrote a grant last year uh through Northeastern Risk Management and Extension Education.
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Um, I'm gonna say NERMI.
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So I don't have to say that whole thing again.
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Um so we have a NERMI grant, and the goal of the grant is to create hands-on teaching modules for other extension educators to use um to help growers understand pesticide safety in a way that isn't just me standing at the front of the room with a PowerPoint presentation boring everybody to tears.
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Um, we wanted to bring um just more hands-on activities and more opportunities to teach um in a practical basis um around some of these really important skill sets.
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So, with that being said, this uh showcase on calibration is going to meet some deliverables for that grant, in that we are going to take some of the modules that we've developed and try them out on real live growers.
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We're not dumping pesticides on you though, just so we're good.
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No, no actual pesticides.
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It's just um, it's just instead of just talking about the things, you know, I talk a lot about pesticide calibration, about the math that's involved, about you know, selecting the right nozzles and how to make sure that they're set up correctly on your machine and functioning properly.
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Um, but we really don't have a lot of opportunities to to touch and take apart and really work through some of the solutions that are necessary.
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So that'll be the focus of um of my portion of the coffee pot meeting uh schedule on just this Wednesday is to provide some activities so folks can actually take those skills that we've been talking about and try them out on real equipment or with real tangible materials.
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Um I'm really excited about that.
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Um, it'll be a learning experience for all of us.
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We have found that some of these um some of these modules that we develop, once we get them in front of growers, don't work as well as we thought they would.
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Um, and that's why it's really important to try them out before we're handing them to other educators to work with their own clients.
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So I'm really excited to try this out uh with the support of the team.
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Um this is gonna be uh the team's first opportunity, I think, to participate in some of those uh those projects as well.
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So it's not gonna be just me doing the presentation.
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Jennifer, Andrew, um, and Kim will be helping out as well.
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So it should be a fun and educational experience.
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And we won't just be sitting in a classroom, we'll be actually uh, you know, trying out some of this stuff ourselves.
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Um, and then just quickly a friendly reminder that uh the LERGP um through a grant that I received several years ago does offer on-site sprayer calibate calibration services on a limited basis.
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So I'm able to offer that to LERGP members within New York, and it's open to all growers in Pennsylvania through um the services of myself and a few other colleagues that do that.
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Um, but you're welcome to reach out through the LERGP website or to me directly, um, and we can get that scheduled.
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I have a very short wait list um and you know, and limited time to do these uh to do those meetings.
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So I do recommend reaching out sooner than later.
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Yeah, I would just like to add about Megan's program on the sprayer calibration.
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It has been incredibly eye-opening for me, and I think also the growers that she have already gone through the calibration with her, especially the ones who have the computer calibration where it looks and seems like everything is running fine.
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And then Megan's like, uh nope.
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So unfortunately, there's still no technology that will really, unless you have a very high-dollar precision robotics piece of equipment, which in our region, I don't really think anybody has access to that yet.
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Um unless you have something that's really high tech, there isn't really any flow meter that tells you what's coming out of every single nozzle.
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So the only way to do it is to you know do a collection process like I teach.
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And um, and yeah, we we learn new things.
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Every calibration I do, we discover new and exciting issues.
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And it's always a learning experience.
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It's a really great program.
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And if you are interested in signing up for Megan's program, you have to be a member of L E R G P.
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And I would highly suggest if you could get your neighbors who are surrounded like near you, it would be best to have more people done in one location than her having to travel.
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It's a big, it's not a huge machine, but it's a big enough machine that's cumbersome for Megan to pick up and carry and drive back and forth.
00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:34.080
So to get many more done in one day would be best.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And it we we I use uh a truck and trailer um that's hosted by by our lab.
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So um, so yeah, try not to take away, take it away for too much of the day.
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Yeah.
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And and to speak to the the business side of things, uh, you know, calibrated sprayer is the most efficient and you know, best uh use of of your dollars when getting material out on the vineyard.
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So not only does it help you know with your viticulture, but it helps with uh with your wallet as well.
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Yeah, and that you're spraying where it needs to go.
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I actually went into a vineyard, maybe it was two years ago now, and I called the grower.
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I was like, Are you even spraying?
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The grower was like, I was like, because you have a horrible, horrible outbreak of disease.
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And he was like, Yeah, no, I'm spraying, and come to find out it was a nozzle that was clogged, that wasn't hitting where it needed to go.
00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:32.480
So take advantage of Megan because they couldn't use that fruit.
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Where it was an entire block, it was awful.
00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:45.359
Yeah, yeah, with cat between calibration and and the water quality issues, which was a a big cornerstone of what my educationing uh educationing, my education.
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My educationing last year was largely focused on water quality because that's uh a very frequent um issue in in pesticide application and and disease and pest breakthroughs.
00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.839
Um, water quality can can really impact that too.
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So calibration and water quality, and luckily they're they're pretty cheap and easy to fix too.
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So, you know, it's not like you have to go in and spend tons of money to to fix those issues.
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It it's usually just a couple of quick shifts or quick changes to your to your normal program, and you can fix those issues pretty easily, which is you know reassuring, I think, you know, rather than some bigger issues like pest resistance or things that can be a much bigger, um, much more challenging problem to overcome.
00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:50.799
So I would um ask you to elaborate a little bit on some of the things you have found because I know a lot of our growers in this region are familiar with our programming and show up in person at our meetings, but we are actually have a larger reach than just our region.
00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:53.920
And there may be some listeners who are like, what kind of water quality?
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What are you talking about?
00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:59.599
So maybe touch a little bit on what those are so they can have some information as well.
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Yeah, absolutely.
00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:08.000
Um, so so the the biggest thing that I talk to people about in terms of water quality is just your pH.
00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:14.640
Now, there's a lot of different issues with water quality, your hardness, um, things like that that can have a big impact.
00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:41.119
But the two biggest issues, I think, with water quality are going to be turbidity, which is going to be um like clay or silt or soil or algae in your water if you're using um a shallow well or if you're using surface water that has some of those contaminants or a lot of sediment, um, because those materials can just use up all of your active ingredient before the material even leaves your spray tank.
00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.519
Um, and so that's one of those issues that can be overcome by either changing your water source.
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:47.279
Obviously, that's the easiest way.
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Not everyone has access to more than one water source, though.
00:19:50.400 --> 00:20:04.319
So something like a simple sediment filter or or or or better, um, can actually remove a lot of the that sediment and turbidity that the active ingredient can bind to before leaving your tank.
00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:06.960
Um the other is going to be pH.
00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:10.960
And pH is super critical with a lot of our pesticides.
00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:20.400
Um generally, and I'm going to say generally because there's always exceptions, but generally a lower pH helps preserve our pesticides.
00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:28.480
Um, our a lot of our insecticides, our herbicides either become unstable or um or neutralize at a higher pH.
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:31.680
Carboryl has always been one of those classic examples.
00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:39.279
Um, carburet's half-life from a pH of six to a pH of eight is reduced like almost tenfold.
00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:52.240
Um, so you could end up with a product that is only lasting a day versus a product that could last up to a week in its efficacy, just based on the pH of your water at the time of mixing.
00:20:52.480 --> 00:21:08.880
Um, so with pH, and it's also worth noting that neutral water, so rain water or um uh municipal water tends to run a little high because they it it reduces the risk of lead leaching into drinking water in city environments.
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:10.319
So they tend to let it run.
00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:11.920
Which is good, yeah.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:13.839
It's it's a wonderful thing for human health.
00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:14.640
That's wonderful.
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:18.559
Yeah, yeah, we're not complaining about that, but it's something to be aware of.
00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:24.480
If even if you're using you know clean municipal water, the pH might be too high for your pesticide stability.
00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:41.759
And so by just making sure that you're adding your tank buffers, so if you're using AMS, if you're using a pH down solution, whatever you're doing to lower the pH, do that first before you start adding your active ingredients so you can make sure that the pH is in a place where you want it to be.
00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:53.200
And that's it's a real that's the best, one of the best things you can do to ensure your pesticides are working the way that you want them to and lasting as long as you want them to once they leave your spray tank.
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.079
Um, so that's that's one of the things that that I talk about.
00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:58.559
And you don't need anything fancy to test pH.
00:21:58.640 --> 00:21:59.759
There's the the dip.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:06.960
The dipsticks, the color, color, the color changing dipsticks that you can use if your color vision isn't great.
00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:11.599
Um, there's digital meters, they're less than$100, they last at least a year or two.
00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:17.039
Um, and you can just test the water and look and see what it is, make your adjustments and go about your day.
00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:30.640
It's one simple step that could make or break your pesticide program, because you know, the difference between a day of efficacy versus a week um can be huge when managing, you know, managing pests that are out there all the time.
00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:33.440
Um, so that's my my soapbox.
00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:37.039
No, but that is a very, very good soapbox.
00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:51.200
And even if you are not in the Lake Erie region and you would like to have access to our information or our current crop updates, because as you were talking, Megan, my brain was going, that should be next week's crop update, getting your sprayer ready, all of that.
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:59.519
You can still become an out-of-state member, and you can do that on our website, lergp.cce.cornell.edu.
00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:07.759
So if all of this information is stuff that you would like more of or are on a constant basis, please feel free to um register to become a member.
00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:14.640
And that is not maybe it is a shameless plug, but we get questions all the time about where we can get that.
00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:30.160
I think it's$100 or right around$100 for an out-of-state membership, and that gives you access to our weekly crop updates and it can give you um discounts if you ever wanted to come to our conferences and some other programming that we have.
00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:38.880
So and and and at risk of sounding like a public broadcast um co-host, uh that's$100 for a whole year.
00:23:39.200 --> 00:23:41.839
Yes, that's that's not like a monthly subscription.
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:49.039
That's that covers your whole year, all of the crop updates and newsletters, um, and information about all of our upcoming programming as well.
00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:53.599
I it feels like one of those old PBS commercials to say it like that.
00:23:53.920 --> 00:24:00.319
And I hate that we have to actually do that part of it as well, but it is what it is for our organization.
00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.640
So, Andrew, do you have anything that you want to talk about that's timely?
00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:05.599
Sure.
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:06.400
Yeah.
00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:25.519
I uh the the main thing that came out this week uh that I'd like to share is the USDA issued their second or will be issuing their second uh supplemental disaster uh payment from their supplemental disaster relief program.
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:38.720
Um this program was really for those who had uh been impacted by a natural disaster for their crop in the years of 2023 and 2024.
00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:48.160
So for our region, that was the frost year, and there was payments made uh in two stages.
00:24:48.960 --> 00:25:16.079
Um for stage one, it was the people who were um insured and uh yeah, the the the folks who um received the payment under crop insurance uh for that disaster, they they received some funding, um, additional funding to their their insurance payment.
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:32.720
And then the second stage was for those who were not covered, um and also those who had coverage but didn't have a uh big enough loss to trigger a indemnity payment.
00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:35.839
So uh we we call those shallow losses.
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:56.240
So essentially everybody, whether you had insurance or not, whether you had an insurance payment trigger or not, if you lost rapes in those in that 2024 season, um, if you signed up for this program through the USCA, through your local FSA office, uh you'd be able to receive payments.
00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:01.359
And it's it's a little bit complicated on how these payments were made.
00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:05.359
Initially, they made payments at a 35% level.
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:22.160
Um, that way they could calculate how many people enrolled and see how much of the funding that was available that uh they could pay out in future payments, and they calculated that the second payment will be an additional 35%.
00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:34.079
Um, so that'll bring things up to 70% of the uh total funding that was allocated for this program.
00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:43.920
The the question uh I guess would be is there going to be a third payment on top of that?
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:49.440
Um they actually extended the deadline to August 12th for this program.
00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:58.240
So if you haven't enrolled yet, talk to your FSA office in your county and see if you can and if you're eligible.
00:26:58.400 --> 00:27:03.599
Uh it takes a little bit of paperwork, but it's fairly straightforward and they'll help you through it.
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:14.960
Um and you could get a decent uh payment through through the USDA to cover some of those losses you may have experienced during the 2024 frost.
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:21.279
So it's it's very helpful for the growers in our region because of that event.
00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:41.759
But if you're outside of our region and you saw losses in either 2023 or 2024 and it was a um designated disaster, like we were talking about earlier, Jennifer, then you are likely eligible to receive this and maybe even more uh, like I said, a third payment in the future.
00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:44.079
So that's what's going on right now with that program.
00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:49.920
We're still waiting on the other bridge payment uh to be calculated.
00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:54.559
And that one is more of a tariff relief program that was rolled out.
00:27:54.720 --> 00:28:15.599
They have been making payments on road crops, but the specialty crop portion of it, the deadline was extended to last week, and they said, or the USDA said uh by the end of well, I think the verbiage that they used was soon after the deadline, they will announce the payment rates.
00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:19.440
So um there's not a clear definition of when soon is.
00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:27.680
So we're hoping here in the next week or two to figure out what the payment rates are, and then hopefully payments will start going out to growers.
00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:31.200
Um so keep keep an eye out for those.
00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:39.279
Um, like I said, all these are through the FSA program, so make sure you contact them with any questions.
00:28:40.799 --> 00:28:43.119
Yeah, thank you for that update, Andrew.
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:51.680
Um, you sort of reminded me while you were talking about another article that we I had in the crop update from last week.
00:28:52.160 --> 00:29:11.119
And this one is um the proposed 2027 USDA budget cuts that could um either woodcut or eliminate nearly all of the research and extension program administrated administered by the National Institute for Food and Agriculture or NIFA.
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:43.599
This impact basically what we did in that is could you please go, if you value what happens in research and extension, to your Farm Bureau website and send a letter to your representatives about the USDA budget proposal, because this would impact agricultural research and outreach programs, which is exactly what this is eliminating or reducing key funding that Cornell, Penn State, and similar institutions that rely on.
00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:54.000
So programs supporting local farm research, education, and forestry management management would be cut or removed, along with funding for sustainable agriculture and animal health.
00:29:54.240 --> 00:30:01.359
So the overall changes would be significantly reduced that support for farmers and rural communities in the agricultural innovation.
00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:15.839
So if that is important to you, you can go to nyfb.org and um you can find it under send a letter to your representatives about USDA budget proposal.
00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:27.359
It is a simple box on that screen that you can compose a letter for it, and um, they even have some text in there to prompt you for things to say, and then you just hit submit.
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:31.680
So it's not sitting down writing and mailing, it's right there, quick and easy.
00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:41.680
If you are interested and are willing to um ask your representatives to keep that in the budget to help support us, we would greatly appreciate that.
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:48.079
And if you're in Pennsylvania, their website is pf.com.
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:49.359
Thank you.
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:54.880
Does anybody have anything else they want to add, talk about, discuss?
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:56.400
It's been a long time.
00:30:58.480 --> 00:30:59.119
Yeah.
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:00.880
I know.
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.839
We're already past tax day, so they don't have to worry about that.
00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:09.039
Hopefully everybody got that in on time.
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:18.480
I think I think folks are you know being hopeful and waiting for this next week or so to get through.
00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:22.880
And then we're off into the in the growing season, right?
00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:25.359
We're already off and running.
00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.039
I've seen sprayers out.
00:31:27.279 --> 00:31:32.559
So people are already starting to get their spray programs because we are one to three inches right now.
00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:34.319
So hopefully the weather will.
00:31:34.880 --> 00:31:41.359
I know last night I got the alert of a potential frost from tonight into tomorrow.
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:43.759
Um, I'm hoping that was a mistake.
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:49.039
The weather is still going to be in the mid to high 30s.
00:31:49.279 --> 00:31:53.119
So I'm hoping that we can eke out of that.
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:57.039
The only thing that worries me is there's a lot of moisture in the air.
00:31:57.359 --> 00:31:59.680
We've had a lot of rain, it just won't let up.
00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:14.079
So um, yeah, hold your breath, fingers crossed, do whatever it is you need to do to put that energy out there that we can make it through and continue uh on to a healthy and happy growing season, minus those of our friends who actually did get hit.
00:32:14.240 --> 00:32:14.960
My apologies.
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:19.680
But here's hoping your secondaries continue to grow healthy and happy.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:21.680
Well, thank you for joining us, everybody.
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:25.039
Thank you, Megan, for popping on and joining the team today for that.
00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:26.799
Again, we are between the vines.
00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:29.839
It is April 30th, 2026.
00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:38.079
If you have things that issues or even topics that you would like more research or information on, please feel free to reach out to any one of us.
00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:41.279
We can do a podcast on that or bring in special guests.
00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:45.599
And you can find our information on our website at lergp.com.
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:46.640
Thank you, everybody.
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:48.240
I hope you have a great week.