The Urban/Home Horticulture Overlap (Hint: It’s all Urban!) [Upstate Gardeners Journal 2013-09-05] – Resources from the Urban Horticulture Institute can help you match the right woody plant to your site, whether it’s street-side or in less stressful locations, says UHI director Nina Bassuk.
Breeders, seed savers advance organics movement [Cornell Chronicle 2013-09-04] – Gardeners in search of the perfect, pesticide-free pepper – that can be grown organically under local weather conditions – are unlikely to find seeds in a shop. But they may soon benefit from a participatory plant breeding and seed saving movement that is gaining momentum with help from Cornell scientists and alumni.
New varieties hold promise for New York growers [The Packer 2013-0829] – Fans of the Honeycrisp will likely celebrate the new variety SnapDragon. Cornell University breeder Susan Brown, who developed the variety, says SnapDragon is similar to Honeycrisp in quality, but it is far less prone to many of the production challenges of Honeycrisp, including bitter pit, soft scald and fire blight susceptibility. Plus it has a longer shelf life.
TC3 tackles farming, food with new culinary program [Ithaca Journal 2013-08-21] – Tompkins Cortland Community College is planning new academic programs in culinary arts and sustainable farming and food systems, with a farm near the Dryden campus and a restaurant in downtown Ithaca to help give students hands-on practical experience in both fields.
Meet the Juneberry [CALS Notes 2013-08-21] – If a new research effort beginning at Cornell’s Willsboro Research Farm is successful, the juneberry, a Canadian cousin of the eastern serviceberry, may soon find a new home among the commercial berry patches of New York State.