Upcoming Events & Information
June 16: Flower Arranging class - (focus on Wedding Arrangements)
Join Cornell Cooperative Extension and Tom Cortright on Wednesday June 16th at 6:00 p.m. for a Flower Arranging class focusing on Wedding Arrangements. The class will be held at CCE office in the Learning Center. Learn the fundamentals of flower arranging and take home a beautiful hand-made wedding arrangement. Class is limited to 12. Cost of the class is $20 per person. To register call 607-664-2300 or email Stephanie at sms64@cornell.edu.
June 17: Strawberry Field Day
Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station is hosting a Strawberry Field Day from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 17, 2010. The field day will be held at the Darrow Farm at 3227 Gates Rd., which is approximately 3 miles west of the Experiment Station off County Rd. 4 (North St. in Geneva)and 1 mile south on Gates Rd. Contact Stephanie for more information at 607-664-2307 or sms64@cornell.edu
July 8: Southern Tier Hay Day
Cornell Cooperative Extension will host a hay field day July 8, 2010 featuring the latest in self-propelled choppers, big square balers, rakes and tedders. The field day will be held on Fitzgerald Road, with fields supplied by Taber Hill Farm and Bergen Farm. Demonstrations will be ongoing between 11:00am and 1:00pm and will include mowing, raking, tedding, chopping and baling.
Equipment to be demonstrated includes Kuhn’s new big square baler, H&S merger, Claas rake and tedder, New Holland self propelled chopper and a Claas 900 forage harvester. Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators will provide information on “Hay-in-a- Day” (wide swathing), Why “Grass is Great”, and the latest research on cutter bar height recommendations.
A light lunch will be served at noon. Following the field demonstrations those that are interested can join us for a short tour of Bergen’s Dairy Farm, including the rotary parlor. Reservations are appreciated; contact CCE-Steuben at 607-664-2300 to make a reservation by July 7th. The demonstration field is located on Fitzgerald Road, between Mecklenburg and Burdett, just off of State Route 79 (watch for signs along route 79).
Sponsored by Monroe Tractor, Lamb & Webster Equipment, Pottinger, and Lakeland Equipment.
August 2-6: Compost Operations Training Course
What does it take to run a successful composting facility? Whether you're just getting started or an experienced composter, this training from top experts will give you the information you need to compost successfully. Topics to be covered are:
Biology and Key Process Controls Site Design
Air Quality and Odor Control Water Quality and Stormwater Management
Compost Quality Permitting and Regulations
Product Markets and Marketing Safe Operations
This training course will be held at SUNY Cobleskill, Cobleskill, NY. To register and for more information visit http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/trainingcourse.pdf.
Master Beekeeper - Apprentice Level Fall Course - August 14 & 21
The Cornell University Master Beekeeper Program will conduct its one-day Apprentice Level Fall Workshop twice this year. This is a comprehensive course that picks up where the spring class left off. It covers summer, fall and winter management; honey removal, extraction and processing; and IPM for honey bee pests, parasites, pathogens and predators. New beekeepers and experienced beekeepers looking for a refresher course are encouraged to attend. Class runs from 9am-6pm and includes 2-hours of field work. Cost is $85. A workshop manual and refreshments are provided.
August 14 - 9am-6pm, Dyce Lab, Cornell University
August 21 - 9am-6pm, Betterbee, Greenwich, NY
For registration materials visit http://www.masterbeekeeper.org/masterbeekeeper.htm. Classes limited to 24.
Managing Late Blight in Tomato and Potato – An Essential Part of Gardening
Meg McGrath, Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University
Late blight is a unique disease. It is arguably the most destructive plant disease. Due to the quantity of spores easily dispersed by wind, a planting with late blight that is not managed, even a small garden, can have devastating impact on other plantings. This was well documented in 2009. Therefore, unlike other diseases, late blight needs to be treated as a “Community Disease”. Anyone growing susceptible plants needs to take responsibility and implement a good management program to ensure they don’t become a ‘typhoid Mary’.
In 2010 late blight could again appear early in the growing season wherever infected potatoes from 2009 in the ground or compost pile are left to sprout and grow thereby providing the over-wintered pathogen new foliage for producing its wind-dispersed spores. Thus it will be critical for managing late blight successfully this year to destroy left-over potatoes and any volunteer potato plants as soon as they emerge. Do not wait until symptoms, and thus new spores, develop.
Other management practices include:
• Using disease-free tomato transplants and seed potatoes,
• Selecting resistant varieties,
• Regularly checking the web for reports of late blight,
• Controlling solanaceous weeds (in particular hairy nightshade and bittersweet
nightshade),
• Applying fungicides preventively,
• Using practices that minimize humidity and leaf wetness,
• A least weekly inspecting plants for symptoms,
• Informing extension staff plus neighbors when late blight develops,
• Removing affected foliage, and
• Promptly destroying plants when management is not successful.
• Additionally, share information about late blight with other gardeners.
For more information on late blight, including symptoms, management, and occurrence
in 2010:
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/lateblight
Cornell Cooperative Extension offers information on Marcellus Shale exploration
The Marcellus Shale Team, a core group of Cornell faculty and staff, is researching expected impacts of natural gas exploration in the region, as well as possible mitigation strategies. CCE maintains an online Natural Gas Leasing Resource Center with a wealth of information and studies about the ramifications of drilling at http://gasleasing.cce.cornell.edu/. The site also contains more details about the planned public information sessions.
Cornell’s Community and Rural Development Institute recently issued a research and policy brief on “Emerging Trends in the Marcellus Shale,” which is available for download here.
CCE will also continue to promote cross-collaboration of outreach and education among the educational and research institutions throughout the Marcellus Shale region..
Learn More about Gas and Oil Leasing
Due to market forces and new knowledge about the Trenton-Black River and Marcellus
Shale gas plays, leasing activity is once againon the upswing in much of New
York And Pennsylvania. Before signing any proposed gas and oil lease, first
become as informed as you can and then seek legal advice from an attorney who
is knowledgeable about this complex issue. The following websites compiled courtesy
of Cornell Cooperative Extension can help you learn more about gas and oil leasing:
CCE Gas Leasing and Exploration
http://gasleasing.cce.cornell.edu
New York Farm Bureau
http://www.nyfb.org
New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation
http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/205.html
New York Water Resources Institute
http://wri.eas.cornell.edu
Penn State Natural Gas Exploration
and Leasing
http://naturalgaslease.pbwiki.com
Advanced Order Discount For Wine Grape Production Guide For Eastern North America
Dr. Tony Wolf, viticulturist for Virginia Tech, and 16 co-authors (including Terry Bates, Andrew Landers, Tim Martinson, and Wayne Wilcox of Cornell) have put together a comprehensive Wine Grape Production Guide for Eastern North America, to be printed this fall by NRAES (Northeast Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service). This 300+ page guide has 16 chapters, and is by far the largest commodity-based production guide produced by NRAES. It will likely become the new standard grape production guide for the Northeast, and has a lot of material (e.g., Terry Bates' nutrition chapter) directly applicable to Labrusca and juice grape growers as well. Advance pre-print orders are being accepted at $44 per copy until September 5. After publication, the cost will be substantially greater. To order online go to www.nraes.org/nra_winegrapecontent.html
NRAES is also looking for sponsors from industry, who will be acknowledged and/or featured in display ads at the front of the book (including a web link to your business). Details are available at www.nraes.org. Deadline for pre-print orders and sponsorships is September 5, 2008.