BF 224: Tree Fruit Scouting

Implement IPM Scouting for Healthy and Economically Viable Orchards

Effective pest management is essential for orchard health and production of a successful crop. Throughout the season, routine monitoring and scouting are required to identify pest activity and intervene if needed, whether with organic or conventional methods. Managing pests must be conducted efficiently to be economically viable.

This course trains tree fruit growers, orchard employees, and other industry professionals on the biology, identification, and monitoring of major economically significant orchard pests, using an integrated pest management (IPM) approach. Content will include fundamentals of IPM in orchards, and descriptions of major insects, diseases, wildlife, and weed management, with a focus on apples. Get equipped to scout for pests, determine action thresholds, and begin to identify management solutions!

Once a year, when this course is offered live, DEC Pesticide Applicator Recertification Credits will be available for attending the live weekly webinars in this course (1 credit per webinar, categories 10, 1A, 22). Credits will be offered for each webinar individually so that students may receive credits for the specific webinars they were able to attend. More information is available after registering. For questions or additional information, please contact: [email protected].

Target Audience

Intermediate: This course is a good fit for farmers with a few years of experience or beginning orchardists/other orchard professionals interested in honing their knowledge of insect, disease, weed, and wildlife pests in orchards. This course will help students learn how to use an IPM approach to monitor pest activity and begin to make management decisions. Basic knowledge of farming is expected, as farm business management will not be covered in this course. To get the most out of this course, students will ideally have some prior experience with managing tree fruit.

Foundational Knowledge: While not required, we recommend taking BF 223: Introduction to Tree Fruit Production prior to this course. Individuals looking for general farm business management and marketing can find that content covered in other courses, including BF 101: Starting at Square One and BF 202: Writing a Business Plan.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will know:

• The basic principles of Integrated Pest Management and how strategies and tactics are implemented in an orchard setting, primarily in apples.
• The major economically significant insect, disease, weed, and wildlife pests of orchards (primarily apples), the biology of these pests, and how to identify them.
• The methods used to monitor major orchard pests, critical times during the season when pests are active and require management, and the appropriate thresholds used to implement a management tactic.
• How to use the pest forecasting models on NEWA website to predict pest activity and thresholds for making management decisions.
  ***This course will focus on orchard scouting and monitoring. We will only just begin to cover management tactics (i.e. pesticide efficacy). We will review resources and how to use them to determine tactics that are most effective and make educated decisions on selecting effective management tools.

Webinars

The bulk of the course happens on your own time with discussions, readings and review quizzes (not graded!) posted in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, live webinars will be woven into the online interface of the course to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from outside presenters and ask questions to address your farm issues in real time. If you miss a webinar, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.

Webinar Schedule

In 2025, this course will be offered live for 5-weeks on Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8:00 PM (Eastern) from February 26 – March 26. While we encourage live attendance, so you have the opportunity to engage with presenters and ask questions, all webinars are recorded and posted in the online classroom to watch anytime. Once enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all materials indefinitely, and can return to participate in the live webinars in future offerings of the course if you wish. Join us!