Pomona Orchard · Monthly Tasks

Pomona — Home Orchard, Naturally

User Manual · 39 plants · NJ climate · Built on the orchard_automation_layer workbook

📜 Version & Release History —

1 · What this tool is

The Orchard Command Center is a single-file web application that reproduces the full orchard_automation_layer_v1.xlsm workbook in your browser. Every sheet (Dashboard, Inventory, Schedule, Orchard Log, Weather Trigger, Live Forecast, Decision Engine, Schedule Timeline, Fertilizer, Pruning Guide, Orchard Playbook) is an interactive screen, and the central VBA macro RefreshOrchardEngine is ported to JavaScript so it runs without Excel.

Everything you edit — status (Pending / Completed / Skipped), pest pressure, yield, cost, notes — is saved to your browser's localStorage so the next time you open the file, your work is still there. No internet connection is required.

2 · Your orchard at a glance

Crop	Plant IDs	Class	Priority	Base risk (1-5)	Primary risks
Apple (Granny Smith)	APP-1	Tree	Medium	3	Apple maggot · codling moth · fire blight
Asian Pear	PEA-1	Tree	Medium	3	Fire blight · pear psylla
Apricot	APR-1, APR-2	Tree	Medium	4	Brown rot · aphids · late frost
Peach	PCH-1, PCH-2, PCH-3	Tree	High	5	Leaf curl · borers · brown rot
Sweet Cherry	CHR-1, CHR-2, CHR-3	Tree	Medium	3	Fruit fly · bird pressure · cracking
Sour Cherry	SCH-1, SCH-2	Tree	Medium	3	Fruit fly · fungal spots
Plum (Santa Rosa)	PLM-1, PLM-2	Tree	Medium	4	Black knot · brown rot · plum curculio
Fig (Chicago Hardy)	FIG-1	Tree	Low	2	Rust · borers · frost
Blackberry	BLK-1, BLK-2	Berry	Low	2	Cane disease · SWD
Raspberry	RAS-1, RAS-2, RAS-3	Berry	Low	2	Cane disease · SWD
Gooseberry	GOS-1	Berry	Low	1	Powdery mildew · sawfly

3 · Getting started in 60 seconds

4 · Every screen, explained

Dashboard

The home screen. Shows totals (21 plants split 15 trees / 6 berries), this-month pending tasks, completed / skipped counts, workload intensity, today's weather trigger banner, season focus, top priorities, the top 5 forecast days, and a monthly workload roll-up.

Inventory · the single source of truth

Every plant in your orchard. Searchable, filterable, and fully editable. Each row shows variety, base risk 1-5, primary risks, training style, location, and status. Click any Plant ID to open the full Plant Profile.

Adding a plant

Click + Add Plant. Pick a crop — the rest of the form auto-fills with the canonical profile for that crop (variety, training style, primary risks, base risk score, default action, plus a suggested Plant ID like PCH-4). Adjust anything you want, save. The engine immediately rebuilds the Orchard Log to include all applicable tasks for your new plant — every month, every category — by matching against the Schedule's crop-group rules (Peach, Stone Fruit, All Trees, All Plants, Entire orchard).

Editing a plant

Click the Edit button on the row, or click the plant on its profile page. Changes save instantly; the log rebuilds; saved status / yield / cost are preserved wherever the task still applies.

Removing a plant

Two ways: Delete (removes the plant from inventory and stops generating new tasks for it — old log history stays in storage), or set the Status field to Removed (keeps the record in the list, stops generating tasks, you can later set it back to Active). Replaced status is for trees you've replaced with the same variety — it suppresses tasks but keeps the slot.

Plant Profile

Click any Plant ID. You get a single-pane view with:

• Header — ID, crop, variety, class, priority, base risk stars, year (if planted date set), location, status
• Description — canonical crop profile + your custom notes + training style + primary risks
• Current state — this month's pest pressure, task count, next pending, last completed
• 12-month pest pressure heatmap — one colored cell per month
• Annual maintenance plan — every task this plant gets across the year, in chronological order, color-coded by category
• Fertilizer plan (auto-pulled from Fertilizer sheet by crop group)
• Pruning plan (auto-pulled from Pruning sheet)

Resetting

The ⟲ Reset Data button in the top bar prompts you for a scope: LOG (just task edits), INVENTORY (back to the 21 seed plants), or ALL (everything).

Products in Use · with auto-cost into the Log

Pre-loaded with 32 products from your purchase history (categories Tools / Insecticide / Fungicide / Fertilizer / Protection / Other) — Copper spray $17.18, Dormant Oil $42.60, Fertilome Spinosad $21.50, Farmer's Secret $49.99, Surround, Espoma Berry-tone, and more. Each card shows category, organic flag, used-by crop count, YTD applications (from the Log), stock on hand, cost per unit, and YTD cost.

Click any product to set stock / cost / reorder threshold / supplier / notes. Once cost is set, every Orchard Log row using that product auto-fills its cost field — so your YTD spend tallies automatically. Set a reorder threshold to get Low / Reorder status pills.

The app also auto-derives products that are mentioned in Schedule / Inventory / Fertilizer but not yet in your master list — they appear with their crop usage so you can fill in stock and cost when you next buy them.

Live Weather (Open-Meteo)

The 7-day forecast is live, pulled from Open-Meteo (free, no API key, CORS-friendly). Set your city in Settings → Location → Lookup coordinates, and the geocoder fills in lat/lon. The Dashboard banner, Weather Trigger KPIs, Live Forecast page, and Monthly Calendar all read from the same live data. The forecast caches to localStorage, so the app shows the last fetched data even if you're offline.

Annual + Monthly Calendars

The Annual Calendar is a 12-month grid — click any month to jump into its task list. The Monthly Calendar is a real weeks × days grid; tasks are placed on actual dates intelligently: spray tasks land on Live Forecast GO days, HOLD days are shaded, sanitation runs Mondays, canopy walks Saturdays, and sequenced tasks (Copper → +7 days → Oil) respect their gap. Click any day for the detail view; click ⇩ Export .ics to send all month tasks to Apple Calendar / Google Calendar.

Schedule

The 24 task templates that drive everything. Each row says: which crop group, which plants, category (Spray / Inspect / Fertilize / Prune / Sanitation / Netting), the task, the product, the window months, priority, trigger condition, organic-compatible flag, and the field rule.

Orchard Log

The auto-built task list. Every plant × every applicable schedule row × every month in the window = one row (~391 rows across the full year). This is where you do the bulk of the work. Use the editable Status / Pressure / Yield / Cost / Notes columns to track reality.

This Month Only

Same data, narrowed to the selected month. Best view when you're standing in the orchard with your phone.

Weather Trigger

The 12-month rule book. For each month you get the NJ stage, the "Spray GO" criteria, the "HOLD / Avoid" criteria, recommended tasks, priority crops, recommended products, and a 1-5 spray score. At the top: today's live snapshot (temp, wind, rain forecast).

Live Forecast

A real 7-day forecast pulled live from Open-Meteo (free, no API key required). Set your city in Settings → Location and click "📍 Lookup coordinates" — the geocoder fills in latitude/longitude automatically. Default location is Trenton, NJ.

Each day shows high/low °F, precipitation %, wind mph, weather icon, and a computed Spray Window:

• Likely GO — precip < 20%, wind < 10 mph, temperature acceptable
• Watch — borderline (precip 30-60% or wind 10-15 mph)
• Hold — precip ≥ 60% or wind ≥ 15 mph

The forecast caches to localStorage so the data persists across reloads, and the app falls back to the cached snapshot when offline. Click ↻ Refresh forecast any time to fetch fresh data.

Decision Engine

The recommendation page. For each plant in the selected month, it shows base risk × seasonal pressure × weather modifier × pest pressure → a Focus Score 1-5 → a top action. Plus a crop roll-up at the bottom.

Schedule Timeline

A visual annual calendar. Each crop has its own row; each month is color-coded by the dominant activity (Copper, Dormant oil, Bloom hold, Spinosad, Netting, Feed, Plan, Scout, Sanitation). At-a-glance answer to "what's the headline this month?"

Fertilizer / Pruning Guide

Quick-reference cards. Fertilizer recommends a specific product per crop group (Espoma Garden-tone, Jobe's, Tree-tone, Berry-tone) and the application window. Pruning explains the goal, method, and watch-outs for each crop.

Orchard Playbook

The Do's / Don'ts list, the crop-by-crop order of operations (Peach: copper → +7d oil → post-bloom scout, etc.), and fertilizer guardrails.

5 · How the Refresh Engine works

This is the JavaScript port of the Excel macro RefreshOrchardEngine. Pseudocode:

1. Snapshot.
   For every row in Orchard Log with a TaskID,
   save {status, pressure, yield, cost, notes} to localStorage.

2. Clear the Orchard Log.

3. For every plant in Inventory:
     For every row in Schedule:
       if appliesToMatches(schedule.cropGroup, plant.crop, plant.class):
         for month m from startMo to endMo:
            taskID = lower(month + "|" + plantID + "|" + category + "|" + task + "|" + product)
            if not seen(taskID):
               seen.add(taskID)
               pressure = getPestPressure(crop, month, category, task)
               row = { month, plantID, crop, category, task, product,
                       status: "Pending", pressure, yield: "", cost: "", notes: "" }
               restoreFromMemory(row, taskID)
               OrchardLog.push(row)

Match rules (Schedule "Crop Group" → which plants)

Crop Group value	Matches
all plants	every plant in Inventory
entire orchard	every plant in Inventory
all trees	plants whose Class = "Tree"
stone fruit	Apricot, Peach, Plum, Sweet Cherry, Sour Cherry
Any other string	plants whose crop name appears in the string (case-insensitive)

6 · Pest pressure scoring (1-5)

The auto-pressure heuristic, line-by-line port of the VBA GetPestPressure function:

Crop family	Peak months → score	Shoulder → score	Other → score
Apple, Asian Pear	Apr-Jun → 4	Jul-Aug → 3	else 2
Peach, Apricot, Plum, Sweet Cherry, Sour Cherry	Mar-May → 5	Jun-Jul → 4	else 2
Blackberry, Raspberry, Gooseberry	Apr-Jul → 3	—	else 2
Fig	Jun-Aug → 3	—	else 1
(anything else)	—	—	2

Keyword bumps (each adds +1 to the base score):

• Category contains spray
• Task contains insect
• Task contains fung
• Task contains copper
• Task contains dormant oil
• Task contains scout

Final score is clamped to the 1-5 range.

7 · Weather Trigger logic

Every screen reads from a single weather snapshot. The decision is one of three states:

State	Conditions
GO	Wind < 10 mph · No rain forecast in next 24 h · Temp > 40 °F · No open blossoms · No hard freeze in next 48 h
WATCH	Borderline (precip 30-60%, light wind, marginal temp)
HOLD	Any disqualifier hits — rain, wind ≥ 10 mph, bloom open, hard freeze risk, or active wet conditions

The Live Forecast page automatically ranks the next 7 days and picks the top 3 candidate spray days. Current pick: 2026-04-06 (Mon) — clear, 0% precip, calm.

8 · Decision Engine logic

For each plant in the selected month, the Focus Score is:

FocusScore = (BaseRisk × 0.4) + (SeasonalPressure × 0.3) + (PestPressure × 0.3)

where SeasonalPressure =
   4 if month is Mar/Apr/May
   3 if month is Jun/Jul
   2 otherwise

Top action heuristic:

• Peach / Apricot / Plum → "Copper timing + sanitation"
• Apple / Asian Pear → "Scout blight / rust"
• Sweet / Sour Cherry → "Monitor fly / rot"
• Anything else → "Scout + log conditions"

Crop roll-up: average Focus Score per crop. If avg ≥ 3.5 → "Scout closely", otherwise "Routine".

9 · Daily & monthly workflow

Daily (during growing season)

Weekly (year-round)

1. Monday morning: review Live Forecast, plan which day this week is the spray day.
2. Weekly canopy walk: walk every plant, update pest pressure in the log, prune any blight strikes.
3. Weekly sanitation (May-Oct): remove dropped fruit, mummies, prunings from under every plant.

Monthly

1. First of the month: change the Month picker, click ↻ Refresh Engine. Review what's new.
2. Read the Season Focus line. Make sure your weekly plan reflects it.
3. End of month: export CSV to keep a permanent archive.

10 · 12-month playbook

Month	NJ stage	Headline action	Spray score
January	Full dormancy	Prune, sanitize, sharpen tools	1/5
February	Delayed dormancy	Finish pruning, plan copper/oil	2/5
March	Pre-budbreak peak	Copper on stone fruit, dormant oil, first fertilizer	5/5
April	Bud break → bloom	Stop sprays during bloom, scout, prune blight strikes	4/5
May	Petal fall / fruit set	Thin peaches, targeted spinosad only if justified	3/5
June	Early summer canopy	Net cherries, weekly canopy walk	2/5
July	Heat / harvest	Harvest berries, sanitation, irrigation	2/5
August	Harvest / sanitation	Harvest, remove drops, log yield	1/5
September	Post-harvest	Sanitation, soil moisture reset	1/5
October	Leaf drop	Fall copper on stone fruit, mulch	3/5
November	Dormant transition	Copper after leaf drop, trunk protection	2/5
December	Dormant	Plan next year, equipment reset	1/5

11 · Field rules — non-negotiable

12 · Sheet → Screen reference

Excel sheet	Web screen	What's there
Index	(Left nav)	Replaced by sidebar
Annual_Calendar	(Dashboard)	Today's date and month picker are baked into the top bar
Dashboard	Dashboard	KPIs, weather, season focus, top priorities, monthly workload
Inventory	Inventory + Plant Profile	Editable plant list (add/edit/delete). Click any ID → full profile with heatmap, maintenance plan, fert & pruning.
Schedule	Schedule	24 task templates
Fertilizer	Fertilizer	4 crop groups, product, window
Pruning Guide	Pruning Guide	6 crop pruning references
Orchard Log	Orchard Log	Auto-built task list, editable
Lists	(inline dropdowns)	Status, Category, Priority, etc., used internally
This Month Only / Monthly Work	This Month Only	Filtered log
Weather Trigger	Weather Trigger	12-month rule table + live snapshot
Live Forecast	Live Forecast	7-day forecast + best-day picker
Orchard Playbook	Orchard Playbook	Do's / Don'ts + order of operations
Schedule Timeline	Schedule Timeline	Visual annual band chart
Products in Use	(future)	Empty sheet — reserved for product inventory
Decision Engine	Decision Engine	Per-plant focus score + crop roll-up
LogMemory (hidden)	localStorage	Persists status / pressure / yield / cost across refresh

13 · Tips, shortcuts, troubleshooting

Keyboard shortcuts

• / Focus the search box in the current list view.
• Tab Move between editable cells in the Orchard Log.

Buttons

• ↻ Refresh Engine — rebuilds the Orchard Log from Inventory × Schedule.
• ⇩ Export CSV — downloads the current Orchard Log as CSV (import back into Excel).
• ⟲ Reset Data — clears localStorage and rebuilds from defaults (use after you've changed the data tables in code).

Common situations

Symptom	Fix
Orchard Log is empty	Click ↻ Refresh Engine once.
Edits don't persist	Open in a normal (non-private) browser window. Private mode blocks localStorage.
Numbers don't match the Excel workbook	The web version recomputes every refresh. If you've changed Inventory or Schedule, click ↻ Refresh.
Want to start fresh	Click ⟲ Reset Data, then ↻ Refresh Engine.
Multiple devices	localStorage is per-browser-per-device. To share data, Export CSV from one and re-enter on the other, or use a synced folder.

14 · Sources & references

The schedule, weather rules, and crop information are based on:

• Rutgers NJAES — Commercial Tree Fruit Guide: Apples
• Rutgers NJAES — Commercial Tree Fruit Guide: Cherries
• Rutgers NJAES — Commercial Tree Fruit Guide: Pears
• OSU Extension — Winter sprays help fruit trees stay healthy
• OSU Extension EC-631 — Managing diseases & insects in home orchards
• UC ANR IPM Home Garden

Note: All sources are commercial-grade references. Home-garden product labels may differ on rates, intervals, and pre-harvest restrictions. Always follow the label on the bottle you are actually using.