2008 Use Statistics for Virginia Fruit Page
The Virginia Fruit Home Page received
10,521 visits from January through December 2008, based on numbers acquired
from the Virginia Tech server for actual requests (not in-page counters). But such
visits to the home page itself represents only the tip of the iceburg. Altogether there were 352,851 visits to
pages within this web site in 2008.
Of the fruit crop home pages
represented in the Virginia Fruit Page, the Apple Page received the most use (6,824 visits),
followed by the Peach Page (4,159 visits), the Small Fruit page (2,511 visits), the Pear
Page (1,766 visits), and the Grape page (1,322 visits).
Within the Apple Page,
biological information on pests, predators and bees received much interest. The Apple IPM page received
4,263 visits, and pages associated with Direct Pests 37,144 visits, Indirect Pests
23,872 visits, and Orchard Predators 17,893 visits. This provides a complement to the
West Virginia page, which has an emphasis on disease management. Among grape pests,
those causing direct injury received 10,409 visits, and 32,865 for those
causing indirect injury.
The dozen leading pest species across fruit crops whose pages were
visited were (in decreasing
order) stink bugs, Japanese beetle, codling moth, European red mite, green June beetle, periodical cicada,
spirea aphid, plum curculio, oriental fruit moth, Drosophila pomace flies, tarnished plant
bug, and grape phylloxera.
The site continues to be used
by both commercial and home fruit producers, reflected by use statistics for pages based on
Virginia Tech pest management recommendations.
There
were 24,420 visits to pages associated with the Spray
Bulletin for Commercial Tree Fruit
Growers (45% Apple, 27% Peach and Nectarine, 12% Pear, 9% Cherry, 7% Plum), 1,703
visits to pages associated with the Spray Guide for Commercial
Vineyards, 2,511 visits to pages associated with the Spray Guide for Commercial Small Fruit (47%
Blueberry, 31% Strawberry, 22% Caneberry), and 15,548 visits to pages associated with
the Spray Guide for Home Fruit (50% Apple and Pear, 19% Grape, 13% Stone
Fruit, 8% Blueberry, 6% Strawberry, 4% Caneberry). (In the VCE website, the PDF
version of the commercial tree fruit guide received 43,145 visits, the commercial
vineyard site received 868 visits, the commercial small fruit guide received 431
visits, and the home fruit guide received 1,158 visits).
A new section deals with the
use of Personal Digital Assistants to distribute fruit IPM information. The page describing this
project (Virginia Fruit AdVisor: PDAs as Extension Delivery Tools) received 331
visits. But the total visits for pages associated with the project were 25,982.
A new section, created in
cooperation with the North American Rapsberry and Blackberry Association, received 2,608
visits.
Send comments by e-mail to: Douglas
G. Pfeiffer