Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/350705
www.goodfruit.com Good Fruit Grower AUGUST 2014 45 PHIL BROWN WELDING CORP. PHIL BROWN WELDING CORP. PHIL BROWN WELDING CORP. phone (616) 784-3046 • fax: (616) 784-5852 • 4689–8 mile rd nW, Conklin, michigan 49403 www.philbrownwelding.com BUILDING theBEST since 1964! Box Rotator Box Shuttle Double Fork Ground Hog Frost Fan Economy LIft 3-Point Forks 3-Point Hi Lift Conveyors Freight-Mate Durand Wayland Sprayers We offer a full line of fruit & vegetable equipment: Contact Vine Tech Equipment your Northwest Phil Brown Dealer 509-788-0900 www.vinetechequipment.com A properly planted tree produces like no other. • Adjustable tree depth. • Works on stony and tough ground. • Shoe swings for handling. • Electronic distance marker also available. • Two row tool bar available. TREE PLANTER Self-Propelled Work Platform Hydraulic Work Platform (sold separately) can be mounted on any available running gear. when they see frosts and freezing conditions com- ing. Obviously, they don't issue them in the dead of winter because vegetation is dormant. The key times are spring and fall. Still, dormant vegeta- tion is affected by extreme low temperatures in the dead of winter, and there are other stresses like high temperatures and extreme rainfall that affect vegetation during all seasons. Hall spoke to growers during Southwest Michigan Hort Days late last winter, at the invitation of Mark Long- stroth, Michigan State University extension fruit educa- tor in southwest Michigan. Hall gives him high marks for contributing to local growers exactly the kind of infor- mation that should be available in regions all over the country. Longstroth has developed a large database of infor- mation about the sensitivity of various fruits to various temperatures at various stages of development, which can be found at http://bit.ly/1j1e1E7. Larger mission The mission of the regional climate centers goes well beyond monitoring and observing weather. Weather observations—millions of pieces of data—are used to develop knowledge of climate. Weather describes the short-term conditions, while climate describes meteorological variables over long periods of time. As we appear to be living in a time of rapid climate change, regional climate cen- ters are now dealing with a dynamic sys- tem in which new weather observations are defining the new normal of tempera- ture, precipitation, wind, and other aspects of climate. The key mission of the National Weather Service is to protect the public by issuing warnings and adviso- ries, Hall said. The regional climate centers were created nearly 30 years ago to synthesize the historical climatic data it needs to do that. The MRCC frost/freeze project began in the fall of 2012, and the VIP program evolved out of that. The proj- ect has since developed it into a 12-month program covering the 48 contiguous states and is continually developing information for all the vegetation regimes in them—from deserts to tropics to tundra, Hall said. In addition, the information will move beyond frost/freeze and into other kinds of stresses, such as heat stress, drought monitoring, or floods. All tools and products for this project are online at http://mrcc.isws.illinois.edu/VIP. To be a subscriber on the project, send an e-mail to listserv@listserv.illinois.edu and put "subscribe freeze-list first name last name." • "We need a better way of knowing the susceptibility of plants." —Beth Hall