From Cornell Chronicle article by Blaine Friedlander 2013-05-14:

With unpredictable annual rainfall and drought once every five years, climate change presents challenges to feeding Ethiopia. Adapting to a warming world, the potato is becoming a more important crop there – with the potential to feed much of Africa.

Semagn-Asredie Kolech, a Cornell doctoral candidate in the field of horticulture, studies the potato and bridges the tradition of Ethiopian farming with the modernity of agricultural science.

He shuttles between Ethiopia and Ithaca to examine and research efficient agricultural practices in the shadow of climate change. “The potato is a good strategy crop for global warming. It has a short growing season, it offers higher yields, it’s less susceptible to hail damage, and you can grow 40 tons per hectare. With wheat and corn, you don’t get more than 10 tons a hectare,” Kolech says.

Read the whole article.

From Mark Bridgen, director of the The Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center and Pi Alpha Xi advisor.

The first chapter of the national horticulture honor society Pi Alpha Xi (PAX) was formed at Cornell in 1923. But after more than a decade of inactivity, PAX’s Alpha Chapter is back with the induction of new members on May 7, 2013.

The vision for PAX grew out of an after-dinner conversation of a group of academics from several universities at the International Flower Show in New York City in 1923. They were looking for ways to recognize the academic achievements of floriculture students in the United States, and foster fellowship among students, educators and professional horticulturists.

A group at Cornell University led by Arno Nehrling established the society, writing its first constitution and ritual and designing the insignia (right). The first installation of the Alpha Chapter was held on June 1, 1923. It has since spread to some 40 academic institutions around the country, and embraces all horticulture disciplines.

PAX was very active at Cornell University for many years, peaking in the 1970s. Members organized a formal dance with a live band each fall at Willard Straight Hall. Back in those days, young men presented huge football mum corsages to all the young ladies at these events.

As student enrollment in floriculture and ornamental horticulture declined and faculty retired over the years, the Alpha Chapter’s activities declined, and it eventually became totally inactive sometime in the 1990’s.

This year, I was named the new advisor to the Alpha Chapter and we’ve reactivated our membership with National PAX. I was originally a member of the Gamma Chapter at the Pennsylvania State University back in 1976, and later continued my activity as a graduate student at the Epsilon Chapter at Ohio State University and with the Kappa Chapter at Virginia Polytechnic & State University, where I earned my PhD. My wife, Margot, was also a member of PAX at Penn State.

The floriculture team at Cornell University is anxious to invigorate the Alpha Chapter and reignite a tradition that began here at Cornell. You can find out more about Pi Alpha Xi at the American Society for Horticultural Science website, or contact me with questions: mpb27@cornell.edu.

If you missed Monday’s Department of Horticulture seminar, you missed two presentations by Public Garden Leadership MPS candidates Katie King and Erin McKeon, they’re now available online:

• Public Gardens: Addressing Environmental Issues Through the Use of Native Plants with Katie King
• Collaborative Marketing Groups in Public Horticulture with Erin McKeon
• More seminar videos

From Franziska Doerflinger, PhD candidate, Graduate Field of Horticulture:

On Saturday April 13, 2013, more than 60 graduate and professional students from the Cornell community came to the Ken Post Lab Greenhouses to get their hands dirty and play with plants at the SoHo-organized event: “Horticulture Outreach Day,” (The event was sponsored Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Finance Commission.)

In six, 30-minute workshops, Horticulture graduate students explained mushroom cultivation and the process of constructing and caring for a terrarium to interested attendees. We also demonstrated how to grow edible sprouts cheaply and easily at home; how moss graffiti is made; and how vermicompost works and how it can greatly improve the life of your houseplants.

Last but not least, SoHo members showed some easy techniques for how to propagate houseplants. Every participant went home with at least one plant for their home and will know how to care for it.

We hope this will be the first of many such outreach days and a tradition was born, enabling this to become an annual event.

Big thanks to all the Horticulture graduate students for their participation in the organization and for their time. Thanks also to the Greenhouse management and staff for letting us use their facility.

Students in Creating the Urban Eden: Woody Plant Selection, Design, and Landscape Establishment (HORT/LA 4910/4920), taught by Nina Bassuk and Peter Trowbridge, measured tree diameters on the Ag Quad Tuesday. They will use the measurements to estimate the monetary benefits of each tree, which they’ll display on oversized tree tags attached to each tree during the week leading up to Arbor Day, April 26.

The students will use the National Tree Benefit Calculator, a simple-to-use online tool that estimates the environmental and economic benefits of street trees based on their location, size and species. Those benefits include:

• Reduction in stormwater runoff
• Increase in property value
• Energy savings for heating and cooling
• Improvements in air quality
• Carbon dioxide sequestration

For more information about the calculator, visit: www.treebenefits.com/calculator

Students in HORT/IARD 3200, Experiential Garden-Based Learning in Belize, spent the week leading classroom activities and building school gardens in a village in Toledo District. Details coming soon.

Did you do anything of horticulture interest on spring break? Send pix to cdc25@cornell.edu

Students in HORT 4940 Biodiversity on Easter Island kicked up their heels. Learn more at the Department of Horticulture seminar they’ll be giving April 22.

Did you do anything of horticulture interest on spring break? Send pix to cdc25@cornell.edu

Grad student helps women rebuild Rwanda with mushrooms [Cornell Chronicle 2013-03-13]

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 scarred its people and its landscape. Cornell graduate student Bryan Sobel is trying to help heal both — using mushrooms. Sobel, a graduate student in the field of horticulture, recently spent two weeks promoting mushroom cultivation to women farmers in the central African republic.

The short-cycle, high-yield crop could offer a profitable complement to traditional crops in an economy largely driven by subsistence agriculture.

Read the whole article.

See also: Horticulture CRSP Trellis Fund offers grad students experience, adventure

Congratulations Sarah Hulick!

MS candidate Sarah Hulick (right) won best oral presentation at the Northeast Regional Meeting of the American Society of Horticulture Sciences January 3-4 for her talk titled “Black Plastic Mulch and Transplants Increase Yield and Economic Viability of Jack O Lantern Pumpkins.” Hulick’s research will be submitted for publication this spring. Her committee members are Steve Reiners, Chris Wein, and Brad Rickard in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

Bryan Sobel helps mushroom growers in Rwanda

MS candidate Bryan Sobel’s recent trip to Rwanda — part of USAID Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program’s Trellis Fund Project — was featured in a Horticulture CRSP news release:

Bryan Sobel (right), a Cornell graduate student studying horticulture, is working on a master’s thesis about mushrooms and recently returned from working on a Trellis project with a women’s cooperative in Rwanda, where mushrooms are a particularly high-value crop.

“I could tell that the women were very excited to learn to grow mushrooms and that they recognized this as valuable knowledge,” he said. “I think that I have given them the opportunity to make a difference. You can’t go and make a difference in lives in two weeks. This is their project, and now it is up to them. They’ve already had their first harvest of mushrooms.”

Sobel will continue to work with the project in the following months, as they attempt marketing their mushrooms and address nutrition-related objectives.

“I want to pursue a career in international ag development, so I’m very pleased with this program, to be able to travel and do this type of work,” he said.

Deanns Curtis in Garden Design

Deanna Curtis (MS ’10) has an article in the Feb./March issue of Garden Design, “Poetry in Motion,” about the recently revitalized azalea garden at the New York Botanical Garden, where Deanna is associate curator. The article is not available online, but you can read a previous work by Curtis: Our Guide to Conifers.

Just in time for arrival of this year’s crop of seed catalogs, the 2013 edition of Selected List of Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners in New York State is now available online.

The varieties listed in this report should be well adapted for most home gardens in New York State, offer relatively high quality, be dependable, possess disease and insect resistance when
possible, and have a relatively long harvest period. Field of Horticulture MS candidate Sarah Hulick coordinated this year’s update.

There may be varieties not listed in the report that will perform satisfactorily in your garden, or even better under certain conditions. If you’d like to dive into a larger pool of varieties as you plan you garden, visit our Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners website for detailed descriptions and seed sources of more than 6,100 varieties. At the site, you can compare varieties, read ratings and reviews by fellow gardeners, and offer your own observations of which varieties perform best in your garden.

And if you’re looking for growing tips, check out our vegetable growing guides.

Enjoy the holiday season — and especially those seed catalog.