1995 Tree-fruit Survey: Horticulture 



Wesley R. Autio, Roberta Szala, and William M. Coli 

 University of Massachusetts 



During the spring of 1995, the Extension Tree- 

 friiit Team conducted a survey of tree-fruit growers 

 in Massachusetts to determine what methods of 

 education they most Vcdued and what topics should 

 receive more or less attention by the Team. 

 Seventy-five percent of 210 growers responded to 

 the survey. In this article the results pertaining to 

 the horticultural questions are presented. 



Figure 1 displays the perceived importance of 

 the various sources of horticultural information 

 generated by the Tree-fruit Team. In general 



growers felt that the computer-based bulletin board 

 INFONET was less than somewhat important, 

 while they fouind maturity alerts, the Annual 

 Summer Meeting, and the irregularly scheduled 

 late winter meeting to be slightly more than 

 somewhat important. Respondents saw the New 

 England Fruit Meetings and personal visits by 

 Team members to be slightly less than important. 

 Fruit Notes and twdlight meetings ranked a slightly 

 more than important, and the New England Pest 

 Management Guide and the Tree Fruit Newsletter 



N.E. Apple Pest Management Guide 



Tree Fruit Newsletter 



Fruit Notes 



Twilight Meetings 



New England Fruit Meetings 



Personal visits 



Maturity Alert 



Summer Meeting of the MFGA 



February/March meeting 



INFONET 



Figure 1. Grower ratings of the relative importance of various educational tools used by the 

 Extension Tree-fruit Team. 



Fruit Notes, Summer, 1996 



