The Tree Fruit and Berry Pathology Website is an interactive website hosted on the NYSAES web server at: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/extension/tfabp/index.html. The website was designed to provide resource material on fruit diseases and timely information on emerging disease concerns and management practices. The website places emphasis on fruit diseases important to New York and the North Eastern United States, but much of the information is applicable worldwide.

Tree fruit and berry crops are economically important agricultural commodities for New York. The yearly production value of apples alone in New York is typically estimated at over $150 million. In order for New York to maintain and expand its fruit industry, producers must contend with numerous disease problems that severely limit the productivity and profitability of fruit commodities. In order to better manage fruit disease problems, producers need up-to-date information on endemic and emerging fruit disease problems in New York. There are numerous published resources on fruit diseases in New York, but some are often expensive, difficult to find, or simply out of print. In many cases, the resources are in the process of being made available online. A website providing an organizational framework for current fruit disease resource information with an emphasis on diseases of New York Fruit crops is needed. Since the internet has become a standard feature of homes and business, a website is a inexpensive and effective means of distributing timely information on disease management tools and emerging disease concerns for New York.

A new Tree Fruit and Berry Pathology Website, under reconstruction in the fall of 2006, was launched in January 2007. The site includes: links to fruit newsletters, disease management guidelines, disease fact sheets, diagnostic and forecasting tools, disease image and movie galleries, and a discussion forum.
This spring the site is preparing to launch the disease forecasting models in collaboration with the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program for the 2007 apple season. These models use data from the North East Weather Awareness systems to make predictions about disease development in many New York counties. Along these lines, the site is prepared to host an online version of Fruit Fax, a subscription fruit alert bulletin produced by the Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Ontario Fruit Program.
Video clips of disease problems in New York are being assembled and posted to galleries to provide a fuller experience of disease problems compared to simple stills. New video compression technologies allow for better resolution videos at sizes accessible even from dialup access.
The discussion forum is a common feature of the internet, but new to extension pathology websites. Like a listserve, it allows users to initiate discussion of topics but provides an organized framework for discussing topics, does not flood email, and allows for a wider range of digital media content.

The website will benefit fruit production stakeholders by providing an organized framework for accessing electronic fruit disease resources including pest management guides, newsletters, and fact sheets. Because of the recent launch in January 2007, it has been difficult to summarize empirical usage data to measure impact at this time. While some sections such as the image galleries will provide more immediate benefits for those attempting to identify disease problems in their plantings, the discussion forum provides a means for stakeholders to make direct queries and interact with others in the New York fruit community. As this type of technology is new to stakeholders, efforts are needed to demonstrate and promote this feature before usage and impacts will be apparent.

My topic area is concerned with providing resources and education about plant diseases

Pending