New Podcast Episode
If you didn’t already know, our very own Bryan Brown produces and hosts an educational podcast all about weed management! Recently, the team sat down to reflect on last year’s experiment, and discuss our ...
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Field Day! August 9, 2022
Tuesday, August 9th from 2-4pm, rain or shine!! Come join us at Cornell AgriTech’s Gates West farm, to learn about two exciting experiments: Full-season row cover (mesotunnels) for pest and disease exclusion Comparison of ...
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Harvest Data!
Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown, and Abby Seaman On Monday 9/20/21, coincidentally, the same day as the 2021 Harvest Moon, we collected the last round of our squash harvest data. Here are our yield ...
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Progress: All Treatments over a 2-Month Span
Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown, and Abby Seaman Treatments on 6/29/21 From top to bottom: Straw Mulch transplants, Black Plastic Mulch transplants, Rolled Rye transplants, Cultivation plot direct seeded. Treatments on 7/30/21. ...
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Insects: Beneficials!
Abby Seaman, Bryan Brown, and Marcus Lopez One of the questions we’re trying to tackle in this trial is whether our treatments affect the type and number of beneficial insects and other arthropods. So: ...
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Powdery Mildew
Abby Seaman, Bryan Brown, Marcus Lopez Powdery mildew, a fungal pathogen that lives on the surface of leaves, sending little feeding structures into the leaf to absorb carbohydrates and other nutrients, is the predominant ...
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Ergot of Rye
Marcus Lopez One potential downside to growing organic rye, is ergot infection. Claviceps purpurea is a parasitic fungus that can infect rye and other cereal crops. The sclerotia of the ergot fungus contains ...
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Insects! Plant it and they will come? Squash bug
Abby Seaman, Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown Squash bug can be especially tricky to work with in a research setting because there’s no guarantee that they’ll make an appearance in your plots, and also ...
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Straw Mulch!
Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown, Abby Seaman Spreading straw mulch is a great way for small scale farmers to manage weeds, but the presence of wheat or oat seeds presents a unique challenge. To encourage ...
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Insects! Plant it and they will come? Striped cucumber beetle.
Abby Seaman, Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown In a research farm setting, unlike a commercial farm, we actually WANT pests to show up so we can conduct a trial. But sometimes we plant it and ...
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Black Plastic Mulch
Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown, Abby Seaman Black plastic mulch is commonly used in vegetable production. Let’s talk about some of the pros and cons. Firstly, black plastic is an extremely effective way to manage ...
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How Much Rye Biomass Do You Need for Weed Suppression?
Bryan Brown, Marcus Lopez, Abby Seaman A lot. But looking at our stand of rye in April 2021, we were worried by how unimpressive it was. In New York, cereal rye biomass at ...
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Roller-Crimping Rye at Anthesis
Marcus Lopez, Bryan Brown, Abby Seaman One of our weed management systems will rely on a vigorous cover crop of rye that will be rolled down for mulch. When roller-crimping rye for mulch, timing ...
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Getting Started!
by Bryan Brown, Marcus Lopez, and Abby Seaman What’s the best way to manage weeds in organic winter squash? Many farmers use black plastic mulch. Others cultivate. And small-scale farms may spread straw ...
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