Commercial growers contribute a participation fee to Rutgers Cooperative Extension. These funds are used to hire seasonal field technicians or scouts who make weekly visits and monitor orchards and blueberry fields for pest activity. Fertility levels are monitored with leaf tissue samples taken from mid-July through mid-August and soil samples taken during Late-September. Plant parasitic nematodes are also monitored with soil samples. A fulltime staff helps survey fruit quality for levels of pest damage and pesticide use records that are collected at the end of each season. These records are analyzed and compared with seasonal pest levels and fruit quality. Data is entered and analyzed with IPMD.
All fruit growers in New Jersey benefit from this IPM information. Growers who contribute participation fees get individual farm reports and recommendations. These Primary Participants realize the most direct benefits. Secondary Participants, or all other growers in the State receive summarized IPM information and recommendations through newsletters, broadcast faxes, articles, fact sheets, grower meetings, and the world wide web. Primary Participants currently manage roughly 50% of New Jersey tree fruit and blueberry acreage.