Between The Vines S5E12: Drought-like conditions and SLF spottings

WEBVTT
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Hi, everybody.
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Welcome back.
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You are listening to Between the Vines.
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I am Jennifer Phillips Russo, the Cornell Viticulture Extension Specialist from the Lake Erie Regional Great Program.
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And I'm here with my co-host, Andrew Olden, who is our Penn State University Business Management Specialist.
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Hi, Andrew.
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How are you?
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Doing well.
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How are you doing, Jen?
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I'm well, thanks.
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It's a little chaotic in our region.
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It's uh harvest time.
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Today is October 6th, 2025.
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So we are definitely in the thick of it, aren't we?
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Yeah, it's uh it's never a dull year.
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I think uh I think in agriculture, that's what you what you learn.
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It's something different every year.
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So we uh we're definitely seeing some different things this year.
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Yeah.
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So I guess the one of the main things we have two big things to sort of talk about today.
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One of them is the lack of water.
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If you were or are a member of the L E R G P um program, then you receive our crop updates.
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We do them weekly throughout the growing season, and we do them every other week during harvest, knowing that our growers are incredibly busy and probably don't have the time to stop and read them.
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And then we continue every other week through the dormant season.
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Um you can become a member.
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You can look go to um lergp.cce.cornell.edu and sign up if you're interested.
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And I think you can also get there just by going to lergp.com.
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And the reason I mentioned that is that if you are a member, you get access to the um most recent ones that we have done within the last six months.
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So, really, what pertains to this year.
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Because in our last crop update, I put in a couple tables that I hope sort of puts things into perspective for our growers here in regards to the amount of rainfall that we have received.
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So we have this incredible historical data set going all the way back to 1926 of the precipitation from our um, it used to be the Ferdonia lab for Cornell University, and now we are here in our new lab in Portland, New York, and we've continued that on.
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And um, I was interested to see, because I know it's dry, and we've been tracking it on NUA, the amount of rainfall.
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Keep in mind that there are also microclimates.
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So when I'm speaking, I'm speaking about where we are collecting our data.
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So it really behooves you to start collecting your own data so you can see trends at your own place because there are microclimates in our region.
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Like we all know the rain may hit one area, but all surrounding that area can still be dry.
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So I just encourage you to really take some of your own data.
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And there's a lot of tools that we have in place that we can help you with that if you're interested, reach out to us.
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But I was looking at that historical data set, sort of went down a rabbit hole because I wanted to see, like through the years, where it was, but I focused on the last 10 years.
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And then I also focused on just the months that we have berries on the vine.
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So that would be we get fruits at in June.
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So I looked in June, July, August, and September, because at that time we were not through the month of September yet.
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And it was shocking to me to see the water deficit from just over the last decade.
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And keep in mind, I'll tell you the number in just one second, but I compared it to the year that had the lowest amount of rainfall out of the last 10 years.
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So not even the average amount of rainfall that we would get in those 10 years, but the lowest amount of rainfall.
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And we were very close to, I think it was 5.59 inches below that lowest year of rainfall over the last 10 years.
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So I know, yeah, right.
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I was like, oh, when I saw it in front of me in numbers, I was like, wow, that is down a lot of water.
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I didn't anticipate it being that much of a deficit.
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Thankfully, there's some in the forecast.
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I heard it on the news this morning, and I would love to be a meteorologist, right?
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Like you only have to be right half of the time, no one can control the weather.
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Unfortunately, otherwise, we would all be in a really great place right now.
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But that not having that water during cell expansion has really affected the size of our berries.
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And we've heard grower reports, we've had a lot of growers calling in to say that they're coming in lighter than they anticipated when after their crop estimation.
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And looking at those numbers, I'm like, well, there's just no water there.
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So it makes sense to me.
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Have you heard the same thing?
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Yeah, there's there's been uh growers that I've spoken with that have seen a decrease, you know, a ton, two tons per acre, depending on uh their vineyard, but it uh it also speeds up harvest a little bit, correct?
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I mean having uh ripening happen a little bit quicker, getting the sugars higher quicker because of that lack of water.
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Well, we don't have the dilution factor, right?
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So when the rains are there and there's a lot of water, the berries swell up and it dilutes the soluble sugars in there, or bricks, as we call it.
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So yes.
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And if we've been watching in our crop updates, Dr.
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Terry Bates and his research team collect the Concord berry curve every week as well.
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And we were tracking above the historical average.
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It's a 45, or I think he is a 24 historical average that he reports on those 24 years.
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Sorry.
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And we were above that.
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I'm trying to recall without looking at it, and maybe just slightly below 2024 when it was crop up um crop estimation time.
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So they were definitely tracking there, and then the water just stopped, and that line almost flattened out during um stage two or the leg phase, and that's when um seed development happens, and then stage three is when we hit um varation and cell expansion happens, and you kind of need water to get those cells to expand, and there hasn't been any.
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So, not to make light of the situation, I truly wish I could control the weather for our growers, but I do know that we've had a couple growers call and ask about irrigation in future years.
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And I know you had a conversation with Terry about that.
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Do you want to speak to that a little bit?
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Yeah, it's it's you know, it takes a year like this really for us to have uh have that conversation because most years we don't have water as a huge limiting factor.
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Um, you know, like you said, in our conversations with Terry, I I think he would say that it would be great if you wanted to uh control every input uh into your into your vineyard, you'd be able to be pretty um accurate with uh growing in an exact yield or or or getting exactly um you know that number that you're trying to hit uh year in and year out, if you could control every input, and irrigation is one of those things that uh is up to mother nature and and is is one of the bigger impacting tools.
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So um, you know, in a dry year, if you did have irrigation, yeah, you instead of losing those one or two tons per acre this time of year, you could add it on, or if your crop is light, you could add some water to to bring that tonnage up.
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Um you know, if you had the sugars to do so.
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So I I think there's definitely um there's definitely it would be an advantage to irrigation.
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Now the disadvantage would be how much does that cost?
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We're farming thousands and thousands of acres here in in the north the northeast in the Lake Erie region, and it's just uh I haven't sat down and looked at some of the numbers.
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I I actually printed off this uh report from 1999 that that our uh team did in the past on economics of drip irrigation for juice grapes in.
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1999.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So I've been going through that.
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And uh, but with in talking to Terry and talking with uh with other folks, it's just it's a lot of water.
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Not everybody in our region has access to a lot of water.
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Um, you know, the people that are on uh the sandy areas or the areas where there's not a ton um of flow rate, you know.
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One, you you would have to have wells or some sort of above uh ground water source, and then two, pumping all that water out.
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Um, and then just the sheer cost of you know covering hundreds of acres with with drip irrigation that maybe you would use every couple years.
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Uh in most cases, um, in my understanding, is it doesn't make sense for juice grapes because the margins are already so tight.
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Um, adding that additional uh overhead cost is not going to be beneficial in the long run.
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Now, uh if weather patterns change and we are suddenly in a dry, you know, a drier area, then maybe that does make sense.
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Um, you know, you see it a lot in California or in wine grapes where they have higher margins or less water where it does make more sense to irrigate.
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But um, like Jen was saying, if you look at the averages uh over the last you know century, I guess, uh we're we're generally not uh held up by by water.
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Um so it it's interesting.
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It takes these years, like I said, for us to really take a look at irrigation.
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People start asking these questions.
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Um, I've also had quite a few conversations about crop insurance when it comes to drought as well.
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Uh, you know, a lot of these questions that don't get asked until we have years like this.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah.
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Oh well, I guess if you want more information on possibly irrigating, reach out to Andrew.
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He can help you find where that is.
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Andrew, uh one quick thing.
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I miss might be putting you on the spot if it is.
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I do apologize.
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Um but our government, our federal government is in a shutdown right now.
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Is that going to affect any of the payments on some of the grants that our growers are expecting?
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So there is currently uh there's currently the one payment that we are that a lot of growers have already received.
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Um it's the specialty crop payment.
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Uh let me pull up the name for it right here so I have the uh official name of it.
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Um but most of our growers who saw a loss because uh of last year's frost um and got an insurance payment should have already received uh the first payment through there.
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There's a possibility that there will be a second payment through that.
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That could get pushed back now that we are in a government shutdown.
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Um and then it's the uh supplemental disaster relief program.
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I just brought it up here.
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Um, the second stage of that is for producers with uncovered losses.
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So those folks who didn't have crop insurance that got hit, uh quality losses and uh let's see, shallow losses.
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So a shallow loss is that you had insurance, but you didn't uh you didn't have enough to trigger a payment from your crop insurance.
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So um maybe you got a light freeze and you still had a crop, but it wasn't enough of a loss to trigger that crop insurance payment.
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So that's stage two, and that's supposed to begin some point this month.
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Um I I have to believe that the the government shutdown will push that back, uh rolling that out because the FSA offices are um well, they're not being you know closed, um, they're still running, but they are uh some of their programs are are put on hold and they're only keeping um you know the the uh minimum number of staff to keep things running.
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It could affect anyone that uses that utilizes FSA for loans.
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Um I know a lot of their their loan departments are uh you know not administering new loans.
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Um but for a good chunk of our growers who enrolled in that first stage, they have already submitted, they've already received their funding.
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Um there there was a chance that they were gonna get a second payment, I believe, on that as well.
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But um yeah, that definitely could affect it.
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The shutdown definitely could affect uh some of these stage two and and secondary payments that should be coming out of the supplemental disaster relief program.
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Okay, I guess we'll just you know keep our finger on the pulse, right?
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Only time will tell.
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So yeah, yeah.
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Um as far as other uh programs that are that we're waiting on, um, I did also want to touch on the resilient food system equipment only grant.
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That one is the one that New York State is uh giving out.
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They're one of the last states to do it.
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We already saw some growers in Pennsylvania in Northeast receive this grant.
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Um New York is kind of slow to getting this one rolled out, and it is already closed.
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Growers have submitted.
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Uh, I have a few growers that I worked with on getting it submitted in our region, and we are just waiting for that to be announced.
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Um that is also announced in October.
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Uh, I just got confirmation of that again or reconfirmation of that last week from uh the team that's administering this grant that said October.
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That's all they're giving us.
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So I'm just assuming that's end of October.
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Um, but it could come out any day now.
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Uh we're we're waiting to hear back.
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It's a very limited grant.
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They're not giving out a ton um a ton of projects.
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That's it's only a million dollars statewide with projects ranging from 30,000 to 100,000, so 10 to 30 grants statewide.
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But uh, I think our growers who submitted grants have a strong case, and I'm hoping that we can get some funding here.
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Um most of these will be for bulk equipment purchase.
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That would be fantastic.
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I hope that works out and everything moves forward smoothly.
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Yeah.
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Is anything smooth for us in this region in the last couple of years?
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It's okay.
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We're still all here, right?
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It's okay.
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Well, that leads me to our next thing that we need to discuss, and I'm sure many of you may have heard already.
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And that is that we did find an adult spotted lantern fly in Chautauqua County in western New York, like the heart of our um Concord Great Belt region.
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Alive.
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Alive.
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It is no longer alive, thanks to the quick work and the education of our grower, because this was at a grower's location.
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It was outside their shop.
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And they text me over the weekend.
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And I get a lot of pictures from growers where they're on vacation and they've gone someplace that have SLF, and they're like, oh my gosh, here it is.
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So when this grower sent it to me, I was like, Where are you?
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And he was, he replied with, at my shop.
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And I was like, No.
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So I have to tell you, I am extremely proud, number one, that that grower was educated enough to know what it was to capture it and to kill it and to save it for me.
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And he also took a photo of it.
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I immediately sent it to my contacts, who is uh Mike Formentelli, who is the lead for Spotted Lantern Fly with New York State Ag and Markets.
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I emailed him, I emailed him the picture, I emailed him the address, and I told him all of the information that I knew on that.
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And then I also reported it to reportslf.com, which goes directly to the um Ag and Markets reporting site, which is a whole bunch of letters.
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It's just easier to have reportslf.com for New York State so that it can make it easier.
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You don't have to think too much harder about remembering all of the letters and dashes that come after it.
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So, with that said, that was I can't remember if it was a Friday afternoon or a Saturday.
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I think it was on a Saturday when the grower sent me that.
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And by 7:40 in the morning on Monday when work resumed, Mike Formancelli from Egg and Markets called me and said, I received it.
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We've moved it to the head of the line.
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Can you meet us at that location today?
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So we sent out two inspectors from Egg and Markets that morning.
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And our team, the Lake Erie Regional Grade Program and New York State Egg and Markets, worked together to do a canvas search around this property.
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We are pleased to say that we did not find another adult at that time.
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Um, and we still haven't found another live adult since.
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But I just want to sort of um reassure our growers in this region that we take this very seriously, as does the state of New York, Ag and Markets.
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We work together seamlessly.
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We've built this relationship so that we have this um, what's the word I'm looking for?
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Accelerated reporting, like we know what we're looking for, and that it's so detrimental to our industry, and that we have to really be vigilant, not only in our scouting and our reporting, but ready to jump into action when we do, when it does get here.
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And they have allowed us to be like special reporters to them.
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So we have that personal relationship with Ag and Markets that we have developed over the years.
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It was um refreshing that our grower even commented on that.
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He said, I am impressed with how fast things happened and how serious it's been taken.
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I want to let you know that it's even gone one step further.
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Ag and Markets has devoted to grid searching.
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So they are sending inspectors out to our region and doing a grid search.
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And um, I've heard, but I'm not I've not seen it in writing, that there is um six different grid searches happening.
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And I believe that they might be used.
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I don't even want to speculate on how wide those grid searches are because I don't want agon markets to say, no, that's not it.
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But we are we're gonna, our team is gonna team up with one agon markets inspector, each person from our team, and they're gonna work at different grid searches together.
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So just want to reassure everybody, we are taking this seriously.
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We are out there working for you, but I also need you, our growers in the region, to be on the lookout as well.
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So we can give information about what it looks like.
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It's on our website.
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Most of our growers, I think, have been highly educated on it in the last 10 years.
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But even if you can convince the general population, your grandchildren, your nieces or nephews, your brothers or sisters to go onto our website or even onto Ag and Market's website, just Google Spotted Lantern Fly and see what it looks like so that you can be well-versed and knowledgeable because it needs to be reported because it is an agricultural pest, obviously, really bad for grapes.
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And um, yeah, it's this time this time of year we we can say, right?
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Like they're mobile, they're adults.
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Um, you know, they're flying around, they're moving around, they're climbing, they're feeding.
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Um, you know, look for them on spot lantern fly.
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Uh or on sorry, on Tree of Heaven.
00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:14.880
Let's look for the spot lantern fly on Tree of Heaven, on Alanthis, Altissima.
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:19.359
Um also, you know, around railroad tracks.
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:22.240
We we think a lot of them come in on the railroad tracks.
00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:28.240
So if you have property bordering the railroad that has Tree of Heaven, especially, those are hot some hot spots.
00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:32.319
But we're not advising you to go on the tracks.
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:33.920
Yeah, near the tracks.
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:35.599
Yeah, near the tracks.
00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:37.440
Yeah, definitely.
00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:39.039
Trespassing.
00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.079
They're about an inch and a half long.
00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:53.119
They are um, they're very actually hard to see when, which is nature's way of letting them be such great competitors, right?
00:21:53.200 --> 00:22:00.960
Because they're camouflaged, they're really hard to see when they're like on a tree, and until you can focus your eyes and know what you're looking for, and then you see them everywhere.
00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:21.279
Um, but I also want to reassure you, I know many of our growers, especially if you attended our conference, our winter conference in March last year, I presented on the mechanization pilot study that we did, knowing that, um not knowing, hypothesizing that we would get these bugs in our harvested grapes.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:27.119
So we had gone down to Southeast PA and worked with a grower down there who has a harvester because there aren't that many.
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:38.240
And we're very, very thankful for that grower who actually didn't spray as often as he should, so that there would be some bugs on the vine that we could have some numbers to work with.
00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:44.240
Unfortunately, 60% on average of all the bugs that were on the vine ended up in the bin.
00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:46.240
So we know that happens.
00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:54.720
We're really trying, and when I say we, it's the Royal We, we have a research team set up between Cornell and Penn State University.
00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:55.359
So Dr.
00:22:55.440 --> 00:23:01.680
Julie Urban's lab and her research team, Brian Walsh, the L E R G P team.
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:08.640
And then just recently, we also brought in Kyle Bakelja, who is the new New York State Grape IPM coordinator.
00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:29.599
And he went down with us just this past week and is continuing on some spray trials that we're doing down in Pennsylvania with growers that have SLF that we are trying certain sprays on and then counting the bugs at a regular intervals to see when that re-entry is of the bugs after the REI and then after the PHI.
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:40.880
So at least trying to get some sort of mitigation strategies not figured out but investigated before we actually get that bug in our region.
00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:49.440
And unfortunately, having that adult here, we also had a community member report two adults at their place and we did a search around there and didn't find more.
00:23:49.599 --> 00:24:02.079
But the fact that we're hearing of more adult reports could be an indicator that it might be here already, just not in the numbers that would show up in vineyards yet, unfortunately.
00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:11.599
But we're trying to stay ahead of that and trying to figure out some mitigation strategies to help us for when it does get here.
00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:14.240
Some really good news is that Dr.
00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:22.400
Julie Urban is the um the lead PI or primary investigator on a federal SDRI grant.
00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:35.440
So that is a specialty crop research initiative that we put in for looking at this particular how to keep out of mechanized vineyards, how to keep the bug out.
00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:38.240
You know, so we're trying to find mitigation strategies.
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:41.920
There's we put it in and it just finally got submitted.
00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:42.960
So it's in there.
00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:51.359
Now it's up to the federal government to decide if they can they're willing to award us that money so we can do this work.
00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:57.119
But we're trying to figure something out on a shoestring, anyways, just to give our growers some sort of information.
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:02.559
Long days, long days.
00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:04.960
Other than that, not much going on, right, Jen?
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:05.759
Yeah, no.
00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:14.799
The air still smells amazing, still smells like grapes, especially right after you pass a vineyard that's just been harvested.
00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:16.319
Smells so good here.
00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:18.000
It's one of my favorite times of year.
00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:23.359
And the weather, I know we haven't had rain, but the weather for harvest has been fantastic.
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:31.440
Yeah, it's it's been beautiful, and yeah, every morning there's I'm driving in, I'm seeing people out harvesting.
00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:39.519
And our region is um resilient, right?
00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:47.519
Like we've been through some tough times before, and out of that out of the, I don't want to say it's a tragedy.
00:25:47.599 --> 00:25:49.039
We're not in a tragedy right now.
00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:54.319
We we've been hit a couple hard times with some things, but out of that comes innovation.
00:25:54.559 --> 00:26:01.680
So I mean, look at the harvester, out of the labor things with Roy Orton and the patent on one of the first harvesters.
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:02.960
Now they're everywhere.
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:13.599
And we have been, I don't want to say allowed, but afforded the opportunity to continue this beautiful industry because of those innovations that came out of sheer grit.
00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:18.079
So we will we will rise or continue.
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:20.160
I'm trying to rally the troops.
00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:20.960
I don't know.
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:22.880
We'll persist.
00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:24.559
We will persist.
00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:27.200
At least we'll do the best we can to get us there.
00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:40.799
So well, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or anything that you are um have always been interested in and wanting to learn more about, please feel free to reach out to Andrew or I.
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:51.359
We're doing these around every other week through is what it's been working out to, but because of all the research and travel that we've had to do for a lot of things, it's been a little bit hit or miss.
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:52.799
I apologize for that.
00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:58.559
Please note that we are working truly to try to figure some some things out for you.
00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:01.599
So if it's hard to get a hold of us, that's that's why.
00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:03.839
And please be patient.
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:09.359
Well, we look forward to your comments or emails and what you're willing to see.
00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:12.000
And we will be back in a couple of weeks.
00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:17.279
Please stay safe out there and happy harvest for the rest of the season.
00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:20.640
Thanks, everybody.