For the months of April, May, and June, 2003, 

 SkyBit hic. E-Weather Combo (Forecast & Summary) 

 and EPM Apple Disease products were received by 

 cooperating growers via daily e-mails (Figure 2). 

 Growers were instructed in interpreting the SkyBit E- 

 Weather information and comparing it to the weather 

 data collected on-site. It was assumed and suggested 

 that growers would use the environmental infonnation 

 fi^om both sources to help determine the need for and 

 the timing of orchard fungicide sprays for apple scab. 



During the growing season, contact was mamtamed 

 with grower cooperators to make sure the weather 

 stations were functioning properly and accurately and 

 that apple scab model data were being posted to the 

 MFGA web site. In late September 2003, an on-line 

 survey was developed for cooperating growers to give 

 feedback on their experience with the weather 

 equipment, SkyBit E-Weather, and using the 

 information to make spray decisions. 



In general, installation and use of the Spectrum 

 Technologies weather data loggers/stations went 

 smoothly. On occasion, growers had trouble 

 downloading and saving data to their personal 

 computers; in one instance data was lost and 

 unrecoverable. In addition, growers found it easy to 

 upload mode! data to the website; however, timeliness 



and frequency of uploading could be improved. 



As a rule, cooperating growers used the Spectrum 

 weather stations to collect orchard weather data 

 successfully, and then used the infonnation in models 

 to predict if apple scab infection periods occurred. They 

 also monitored daily SkyBit E-Weather information to 

 evaluate predicted spray conditions and the disease/ 

 insect models. Survey results suggest growers preferred 

 the on-site weather stations to SkyBit E-Weather. 



Survey results suggested, however, that growers 

 may not have used the models to predict apple scab 

 infection periods and help them make spray decisions 

 as often as one would hope. One concern expressed by 

 growers was the time it takes to evaluate the 

 information ('information overload'), particularly 

 during the 2003 wet spring and early-summer scab 

 spray season. In fact, it was so wet during this season, 

 that sprays to control apple scab had to be applied on a 

 weekly basis. At least one grower, however, said he 

 should have paid better attention to the model output, 

 which predicted he should have applied fungicides 

 more often than he did. 



Based on survey results, the model data uploaded 

 to the MFGA web site was used minimally (if at all) 

 by neighboring growers. Web site page requests to the 

 web server weather directory, however, totaled 



Fruit Notes, Volume 69, Summer, 2004 



