Attendees learned how to sample for annual bluegrass weevils at the July 15 Cornell Turfgrass Field Tour at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course, Ithaca, N.Y. (below). The remaining field tour of this summer’s series will be held Aug. 12 at Bethpage State Park, site of the U.S. Open.

Turf professionals can keep up with pests, diseases and the latest sustainable turf management practices through the weekly Cornell Turfgrass ShortCUTT podcast.

Garden maverick Felder Rushing addressed participants of the Living Sculpture Workshop and others from the back of his pickup truck garden on the Ag Quad, July 22, 2009.

See also: Cornell Living Sculpture website.

View: Part 2 | Part 3

Viewing flower beds at 2009 Cornell Floriculture Field Day

Attendees at the Cornell Floriculture Field Day June 21 were treated to talks on bulbs and landscape perennials, color in the landscape, insect and disease management, Cornell research updates, and a consumer panel at the Vet School’s James Law Auditorium.

But the action heated up that afternoon when the program shifted to the Bluegrass Lane Turf and Landscape Research Facility, adjacent to the Cornell campus. There, participants viewed more than 1,000 flower varieties in walkabouts of the perennial and annual flower trials.

In addition, the winners of the 6th Kathy Pufahl Memorial Container Design Contest were announced and Carol Glenister, IPM Labs, Locke, N.Y., accepted an Excellence-in-IPM Award from the NYSIPM Program for her work with beneficial insects.

View container contest entries.

Below, Carol Glenister explains how ‘guardian plants’ can attract beneficial insects that help keep pest in check to ornamental plantings.

On WHCU radio this morning, Ph.D. candidate Trent Preszler describes the challenges faced by vineyard managers during this wet, gray summer.

Trent’s advice: “You have to manage your grapevines in concert with the weather.”

Listen to the whole interview [mp3 file]

The Cornell Soil Health Assessment Training Manual has been revised and updated, including new sections on soil textures and managing soil contraints, as well as to reflect changes in soil health scoring and assessment methodology.

You can download the manual from the Cornell Soil Health website.

And don’t forget the Cornell Soil Health Train-The-Trainer Workshop August 10 – 14.

From Meg McGrath, Long Island Horticulture Research and Extension Center:

Diagnosing and controlling important cucurbit diseases in the home garden is an online web seminar that will take place July 21 at 7:30 p.m., hosted by Rutgers, Penn State and Cornell Universities.

The webinar and is geared for Master Gardeners and homeowners. To attend this webinar:

• All you need is a home computer with good volume. (Headsets are optional.)
• The webinar room will open at 7 p.m. and the webinar will start promptly at 7:30 p.m.
• Please click on the link (or cut and paste it in your browser) below and follow the instructions:
  https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=783&password=M.3286E85B8C7BAE30FF3793FAEF0464
• If you have any questions, please email Steve Komar at skomar@aesop.rutgers.edu

You can view a previous webinar, Late blight and other important diseases of tomato in the home garden clicking on the following link: http://njveg.rutgers.edu/html/in-news.html

“The path that leads from inspiration to invention—and on to commercial success, if all goes well—can be a long and winding road.” The CALS communications office tells the stories of how some in the college have traveled that road in Made@CALS. Some involving horticultural topics include:

• Re-Markable Paint – Turf specialist Frank Rossi (right) killed more grass than he painted on the way to inventing removable stripes for athletics fields.
• Designer Dirt – Urban Horticulture Institute director Nina Bassuk developed CU-Structural Soil® with the needs of both pavement and trees in mind.
• From Farm to Fork – Cornell has developed more than 250 varieties of apples, grapes, berries, and stone fruits.

Through the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, Cornell has helped create new organic production guides for:

• Carrots
• Peas
• Snap beans
• Cucurbits (including winter squash and cucumbers)

With pest control product limitations, the guides offer commercial vegetable producers organic integrated pest management (IPM) techniques such as keeping accurate pest history records, selecting the proper site, and preventing pest outbreaks through use of crop rotation, resistant varieties, and biological controls.

Download the guides.

“It’s amazing how many [parents] are supportive of their son or daughter [starting small-scale, organic farms], whereas 10 or 15 years ago they would have said, ‘What! Agriculture?’ They would have said, ‘You need to go into law or medicine!’ ”

Ian Merwin, Department of Horticulture professor, in On tiny plots, a new generation of farmers emerges in USA TODAY, July 13, 2009.

The article details the surge in interest among college-educated young adults in starting small-scale organic farms: “For these new farmers, going back to the land isn’t a rejection of conventional society, but an embrace of growing crops and raising animals for market as an honorable, important career choice — one that’s been waning since 1935, when the U.S. farms peaked at 6.8 million.”

Read the whole article.

The Organic Research Farm at the Homer C. Thompson Vegetable Research facility in Freeville, N.Y., will host twilight field days on two Mondays in August:

Organic Vegetable Research Farm Field Day

August 17, 4 to 7 p.m.

Hands-On Sessions will cover:

• Specialized equipment for weed control and reduced tillage
• Organic breeding for quality and disease resistance
• High tunnels for early and extended harvest of warm season crops
• Compost quality and maturity
• Striped cucumber beetle controls in different organic systems

Led by Cornell faculty doing organic vegetable research.

Diverse Fertility Management: Cover Crops and Other Nutrient Sources

August 24, 4 to 7 p.m.

This workshop will empower attendees to use and evaluate various cover crops for nutrient management. We have planted cover crops appropriate to warm-season use for demonstration and will discuss options for cool-season plantings.

Highlights:

• Learn to measure cover crop density
• Predict nutrient content of cover crop

Led by researchers of the Organic Cropping Systems Project

Questions? Contact: Melissa Madden, (607) 351-3313 or mam233@cornell.edu

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