Climate Adaptation: Session 1 (Climate-Smart Farming, Heat Tolerant Varieties, Heat Stress Mgmt)

NOFA-NJ Grower and Farmer Speaker Series: NOAA’s Northeast Regional Climate Center, University of Delaware, NOFA-NJ and the Rutgers Climate Institute present the first of two sessions on Climate Adaptation May 17 2021 6-7:15PM
May 17th Climate Adaptation Using Growing Degree Days Two Part Series (Part One):
Using Growing Degree Days Presented by Art DeGaetano, Professor Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Director, NOAA Northeast Regional Climate Center. Climate Smart Farming, a program from Cornell University, has introduced a suite of tools to help farmers adapt to Climate Change. One of these tools estimates Growing degree days (GDD), or heat units. GDDs are used to estimate the growth and development of certain crops and pests during the growing season. Corn growth, for example, follows very closely the accumulation of average daily temperatures during its lifetime. The 3 main applications of GDD are planning succession plantings, long term monitoring for selecting varieties and insect scouting. Two other applications are anticipating fruit tree phenology (for disease and insect scouting) and also predicting % weed emergence.
Using Heat Tolerant Varieties presented by Emmalea Ernest, Scientist, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension Vegetable & Fruit Program. Many vegetable crops experience yield loss or quality problems when exposed to heat stress. The UD Extension Vegetable and Fruit Program has been testing varieties for heat stress tolerance for several years and have identified heat tolerant snap beans, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet corn, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Emmalea will discuss the physiological stages most susceptible to heat stress and the heat tolerant varieties that have worked well in Delaware
These sessions are part of the Climate Adaptation Fellowship, a peer-to-peer learning program that builds climate resilience across farms, forests and communities. Development of the Climate Adaptation Fellowship was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture NIFA (Award #2017-68002-26728), USDA Joint Venture Agreement 14-JV-11232306-103, the Rutgers Climate Institute, and University of Vermont Extension.