2010 Marketing Season

The 2010 marketing season is fast approaching. Below are three tips to get you thinking about the upcoming season.

1.Begin making contact with the customers that you had last year. Make phone calls or personnel visits to discuss this years plans.

2.Look for ways to get your business name out to more potential customers. Design a website if you don't have one, join a growers association that can help market for you, buy adds in papers, magazines or journals that may target the area you want to market in.

3.Deliver great customer service. I read an article recently that discussed the importance of customer service. It stated that customer service was more important than quality when it came down to a determining factor of whether a customer was going to purchase from you or someone else.

Chemical Mowing Rates

I have had a few calls about rates for chemical mowing applications. Even though the new growth of Fraser fir is out and seems to be hardening up, I would caution going back up to a full 8 oz. per acre rate of RoundUp at this time. You may want to stick to the 4 oz. per acre rate for another couple of weeks if you have fields that need spraying right now.

Summer Pest

Now is a good time to be scouting for a couple of pest. We are seeing some spruce spider mite activity with this hot, dry weather. Be on the lookout for spruce spider mites, especially in fields with little groundcover or along dusty roadways. Also, last week I looked at some trees with Elongated Hemlock Scale and they are producing the white covering right now and are easy to spot. Look on the underside of branches and make plans to treat in late July or early August if you find them.

Rust Mites

Hemlock Rust Mites are continuing to cause problems, especially in fields that were treated last fall and have not had a treatment for mites this spring. The weather conditions have been good for rust mite development, so you will want to get out and do some scouting even in fields you have treated for twig aphids this spring.

RoundUp Timing

Christmas tree and ornamental conifer growers that are using the chemical mowing practice with RoundUp should begin wrapping up their applications. When the new growth gets out to around 2" then you should stop applying the RoundUp directly to the foliage or cut your rate to the 4 oz. per acre rate instead of the 8 oz. per acre rate. For help with calibrating spray equipment, please contact your local Extension Agent.

Balsam Twig Aphid

Balsam Twig Aphid are very active and pesticide applications should begin on trees that will be going to market this year and next year. Remember to be out scouting for the hemlock rust mites and be ready to make a pesticide application if the economic threshold is reached.

Hemlock Rust Mites

Winters cold weather did not kill out the Hemlock Rust Mite. Rust mites are active and it would be good to be out scouting for rust mites during this beautiful weather. Even with temperatures supposed to cool down, the rust mites will remain active and possibly worsen. Go to the following website for more information on Hemlock Rust Mite and the thresholds to use in determining if you need to treat.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/xmas/ctnotes/ctn034.html