Attention Fruit Growers

Cherry and Berry Growers: A Decade of SWD: Lessons for Management- a 1 hour webinar December 8, Noon EST.

Fruit Growers, please take this survey on your Current weed management practices!

Strawberry Growers, we need your feedback!: Strawberry Production Practice Survey

All Berry Growers – Please take the 5 Minute Berry Pricing Survey

Do you use plastic mulch? Take a quick Survey on Degradable Mulching Films for Sustainable Agriculture

Orchardists: Help your hobbyist customers better understand Tree Fruit production – encourage them to enroll in the Cornell Small Farms course !

More information on each of these below .

Join the Sustainable SWD Management Team December 8 at 12pm EST for a one hour webinar

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://ncsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_r__Q2lCTS2Wkf8UZmq4KlA

We will highlight what we’ve learned about spotted-wing drosophila populations, crop risk, pesticide efficacy, biological control, cultural & behavioral controls, and how to use this information to improve management.

Weed Management Survey

Weeds can be a significant problem in berries, tree fruits and grapes, especially after transplanting and during flowering and fruit set. Herbicides are a primary tool for managing weeds, although herbicide resistance has limited the utility of many products, and off-target movement can sometimes result in damage to the crop.

Perennial cropping systems are exploring technologies such as automated harvesters and pruners, to reduce labor demands, and canopy sensing sprayers, to minimize the amounts of crop protection chemicals applied to shrubs, trees, and vines. Novel weed control tools that eliminate or reduce the need for herbicides are actively being developed for and marketed in the agriculture and horticulture industries. These new technologies could begin to play and increasingly large role in future crop production, particularly in high-value specialty crops that 1) have limited herbicide options, 2) are sensitive to herbicide injury, and 3) are heavily reliant on a labor market that is simultaneously growing more scarce and more expensive.

A team of weed scientists from UC Davis, Oregon State University, and Cornell are asking berry, tree fruit, tree nut, and vine crop growers to take 5 to 10 minutes and answer this short and anonymous survey (https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bEpfAijoP7puQDP) about your current weed management practices and your interest in novel technologies, like vision-guided sprayers and cultivators, and electric, steam, and pressurized water weeders. This will help us plan research and extension projects that will address stakeholder concerns regarding the future of weed management.

There’s always a chance that we forgot to include some amazing tools that are emerging on the horizon; please feel free to e-mail Lynn Sosnoskie at lms438@cornell.edu and let her know what you think the future of weed control will look like.

Strawberry Grower Survey

The CCE Eastern New York fruit team, along with collaborators from the University of New Hampshire and University of Vermont, wants to learn more about the practices you use and the challenges you face in strawberry production. Your responses will help them better understand the diversity of practices used in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada, and will help them design research & outreach programs to provide the best resources for improving strawberry production on your farm. This information is being gathered for Northeast SARE project “Advancing Strawberry Production in the Northeast”.

The survey is available here: https://unh.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2nlFpEZhejOE0Pr

It should take approximately 15 minutes of your time. To thank you for your time, you can also be entered into a drawing to win fabulous prizes.

NY Berry Growers’ Association & Cornell University 5-Minute Berry Pricing Survey

Partnering with NY Berry Growers' Association, Cornell University conducts a berry pricing survey across New York State every two years. This project aims to make recent statewide berry pricing information available to berry growers so they can better evaluate the economic returns of their various berry crops.

We invite you to participate in this voluntary 5- minute survey. All response data are confidential and only aggregated results are used. Please click on the link to the online survey below. You will also soon be receiving a paper copy of the survey in the mail, but please complete only 1 survey and make sure you fill in your name on the survey, so we do not double count you. https://cornell.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6G1x0jBqkRzVIih. Please contact Zoey Yang at zy357@cornell.edu with questions relating to the survey.

Survey on Degradable Mulching Films for Sustainable Agriculture

As we know, thousands of square miles of worldwide agricultural land today utilize polyethylene mulch for crop production. Polyethylene—the polymer used for products such as grocery bags, shampoo bottles, and children’s toys—has become an environmental plague throughout the planet. A federal grant, matched by New York State and RIT, is enabling university researchers to study a competitive solution for identifying a more sustainable alternative to conventionally used plastics in farming. You can read the press release here.

The ‘Degradable Mulching Films for Sustainable Agriculture’ is a 4-year project done in collaboration with the Cornell Vegetable Program team members and CCE-Monroe County staff. This survey will allow researchers to better understand the current usage of plastic mulching film and the challenges associated with it: https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3mxuwOVlZlaxGvj

Thank you for your help supporting this important research!

Cornell Small Farms Program New Season of Online Courses-Enroll Now!

CSFP’s new season of online courses is almost halfway through, and now’s the time to register for their upcoming block three courses which begin in 2021. Upcoming courses include new courses on social media and online marketing, farm business courses, and production courses covering beekeeping, mushrooms, sheep and more. A beginner course on TREE FRUIT is also available for the hobbyists in your life. The courses are offered on a user-friendly platform, which grants registrants permanent access to their content. Tiered pricing based on household size and income, helps make the courses more affordable for everyone.

Upcoming courses: Exploring Markets and Profits, Holistic Financial Planning, Introduction to Beekeeping, Season Extension with High Tunnels, Introduction to Tree Fruit Production, Sheep Production, Social Media & Online Marketing; Vegetable Production II; Woodland Mushroom Cultivation, Writing a Business Plan.

You can browse and register for all course offerings on the Cornell Small Farms website.