Too-early spring takes a toll [Buffalo News 4/12/2012] Warm weather in March followed by frosts has decimated New York’s cherry crop and could also hurt apples. “I’m expecting the apple crop to be much less affected by those frosts. Maybe you might squeeze through the month of April without damage,” says Terence Robinson, professor and fruit crop physiologist in the Department of Horticulture,
Experts suggest grazing cows, sheep, ducks in forests [Cornell Chronicle 4/9/2012] Ithaca area farmer Steve Gabriel of Work With Nature Design, who is an extension aide in Cornell’s Department of Horticulture, is experimenting with [silvopasturing] in a novel way. With a grant from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, he is pasturing ducks in a mature sugar maple woodlot, which has the added benefit of providing pest control for another of his agroforestry projects, a shiitake mushroom farm.
‘Purple Wonder’: Small, Dark and Delicious [Cornell Daily Sun 4/4/2012] The latest strawberry from Cornell’s berry breeding program. “The color comes with a very good flavor. Dark-colored strawberry varieties are not unknown, but often varieties that get dark have a poor flavor as they ripen. But this one seems to get sweeter the riper it gets,” says Courtney Weber, who developed the berry.
Alumnus Designs Golf Course for 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro [Cornell Daily Sun 4/5/2012] Gilbert Hanse M.L.A. ’89, will design the golf course that will reintroduce the sport of golf to the Olympics for the first time since 1904. “This is one of the biggest golf course projects in the past fifty years — and probably the next fifty years. I think that the [selection] committee felt a sense of responsibility that countries that don’t pay a lot of golf may start to invest in it with it in the Olympics. This course may shape the business,” says Frank Rossi who advised Hanse on the selection of proper turfgrass for the challenging environment and other matters.