Going the "Extra" Crop in Lean Times

Abstract

n these “lean” economic times, many of us are being forced to accept more program assignments as positions are being lost through retirement and, more recently, outright eliminaI tion (Cage, 1991). If we evaluate new opportunities in specialty crops through the lens of our existing overburdened and thinly supported extension programs, surely most of these possibilities will be stillborn. In the case of specialty or nontraditional small fruit crops in the south eastern United States, red raspberries seem to get the most interest and coverage by newspapers and the popular press (Demmer, 1990). In North Carolina, we have numerous “Yankee Transplants” (including myself) who insist on growing “northern” red raspberries that have difficulty in the hot, humid summer climate of the Piedmont and coastal plain. Furthermore, raspberries are especially prone to winter freeze injury in the foothills and mountains of western North Carolina, as temperatures there may fluctuate in January and February by as much as 80F in a 24-h period. There is a growing demand for information pertaining to red raspberry culture in each of North Carolina’s major geographic and climatic sections. But, little information derived from a university-directed applied research program in red raspberries exists to extend! With the exception of a recently renewed Rubus breeding program in the Dept. of Horticultural Scienceat the Univ. of North Carolina, efforts in culture and pest control are non-existent. In this article I address some of the difficultiesextension horticultural specialists face in trying to develop specialty crop production and marketing information. lnformation recycling. Recycling leaflets and bulletins from other states with significant commercial red raspberry acreage, such as Oregon and New York, is one approach to satisfying an extension client’s demand for information. However, this can be inadequate, and even damaging, if you consider the financial risks to the information-user when so little is known in the region about the basic adaptation of the crop, the pest complex and controls available (if any), and how the market will respond to a new cultivar. Specialty crops such as red raspberries in the southern United States are risky business. Local-