2022 CTRE: Reaching New and Established Christmas Tree Growers through Webinars
From Bert Cregg
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From Bert Cregg
Reaching New and Established Christmas Tree Growers through Webinars
Authors:
Heidi Lindberg - Michigan State University Extension, 12220 Fillmore St., West Olive, MI 49460, USA
Bert Cregg, Debalina Saha, Riley Rouse - Michigan State University, Department of Horticulture, 1066 Bogue St., East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Occurred 9:45-10:15 PDT, June 8, 2022
Abstract
Webinars provide easy-to-access, convenient, and cost-effective training options for Christmas tree growers. MSU Extension has hosted seven Christmas tree winter webinar series since 2016 covering nutrient, disease, insect, and weed management topics for both new and established growers. The webinar series has been increasingly popular where a total of 694 people participated over the first four years total to the following number of participants in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively: 350, 356, and 476. The most recent webinar series during 2022 reached 476 participants from 33 US states and 4 providences of Canada, representing 138,438 acres of Christmas tree production throughout North America. Short term impacts were evaluated at the conclusion of the yearly series and participants received a long-term impact survey a year after the program where they could report the changes in practices and the number of acres affected by the management change. For the 2022 webinar series on weed management, 92% of survey respondents planned on making a change to their weed management strategy, impacting 20,439 acres of production. The webinar series has been successful in distributing information to wide audience of both new and experienced Christmas tree producers and is an important avenue for outreach in the 21st century.