In 1882 the Massachusetts Legislature created the Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Station on campus (East and West Experiment Stations were its original buildings) and, in 1887, after passage of the federal Hatch Act, the campus created the federally-funded Hatch Experiment Station and the two were merged in 1894. Educational outreach to farmers and others went back to the earliest days of Mass. Agricultural College (M.A.C.) and was formalized by the establishment of an Extension Service as a campus department in 1909.
After Mass. Agricultural College became Mass. State College in 1931, both the Experiment Station and Extension Service continued their work as part of the State College’s College of Agriculture, which has evolved and held different names over the years, including College of Food and Natural Resources, College of Natural Resources and the Environment and, after a merger in 2009, the College of Natural Sciences. During the 1990’s, UMass Extension became a unit of a new university-wide Division of Outreach. This Division was disbanded in 2009 and Extension returned to the College of Natural Sciences, now as part of the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment. The UMass Extension Fruit Team is one of the Extension units currently serving farmers in the Commonwealth.
The team is comprised of: Professional Staff: Jon Clements, MS, Extension Educator, Fruit Team Leader, Tree Fruit, Integrated Orchard Management, Elizabeth Garofalo, MS, Extension Educator, Tree Fruit, IPM, Cider Apples, John Galván, MS, Extension Educator, Berry Crops, IPM, Nematology and Maria Ganett, PhD., Extension Educator, Fruits, Vegetables, Weeds; Stockbridge School of Agriculture (SSA) Extension Faculty: Dr. Jaime Piñero, PhD., SSA Associate Director and Extension Professor, Fruit Entomology and IPM, Dr. Jianyu Li, PhD., Extension Assistant Professor, Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Production and Dr. Elsa Petit, PhD., Lecturer, Viticulture and Plant Pathology.
The UMass Extension Fruit Team's mission is to develop and deliver innovative and sustainable science-based solutions to challenges faced by Massachusetts fruit growers. We accomplish this mission through implementation of top-notch publications, programming and in field research trials.
Selected Research Trials
-Multi-cultivar grafting: a novel low-cost, grower-friendly Attract-and-Kill approach to manage key apple pests in New England.
-Evaluating sanitation in managing apple bitter rot.
-Orchard Watch; a “Weather Monitoring Grid” across the UMass Orchard using nine remote weather stations to assess microclimate variability.
-Control of bindweed in blueberry plantings.
-Enhancing commercial blueberry production in Massachusetts by evaluating northern cultivars.
Managed Publications
-New England Tree Fruit Management Guide
-New England Small Fruit Management Guide
-Fruit Notes Quarterly Journal
-Healthy Fruit Newsletter
-Grape Notes
Grower Education
-Twilight Meetings
-Annual Summer Meeting
-Regional Biennial Conference
-Annual Winter Education Series