Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

Cornell Cooperative Extension educators and Researchers;

Karen Jeannette, Content Coordinator of eXtension.org Gardens, Lawns, and Landscapes would like to complete this survey.

http://is-nri.com/take?i=152534&h=lTeb-dvPASoK-c7Vgk3qzQ

Questions about the survey? Contact Rick Koelsch

rkoelsch1@unl.edu, 402/472-2966, University of Nebraska-Lincoln or the University of Nebraska IRB office at402/472- 6965.  This survey is approved by the University of Nebraska Institutional Review Board (#200608523 EP).

Unfamiliar with eXtension? eXtension is an Internet-based collaborative environment where Land Grant University and other content providers use research-based knowledge to solve real challenges in real time. Access the published content at

http://www.extension.org/ .  There are currently 37 Communities of Practice (CoP – subject matter teams leading content development) contributing web content of which 21 host a live web site.

Who Developed This Survey? Ashley Griffin, eXtension;  Sue Hawkins, University of Vermont; Karen Jeannette, University of Minnesota; Bryan Kaphammer, USDA ARS; Ben MacNeill, eXtension; Pat Swanson, Iowa State University; Mike Wilson, University of Kentucky.

This Cornell factsheet is here.

Please try to refer callers to this fact sheet and specifically to this list of FAQ. Plant Clinic is still getting calls from homeowners who tell them they are calling their county CCE offices and cannot get any information on “the blight”. Please let any Master Gardener Volunteers who might be staffing the phones know they can direct callers to this site. Thank you!

Also, we have not received samples (or reports) of Late Blight from the following upstate counties: Chemung, Cayuga, Madison, Herkimer, and Montgomery. If anyone is seeing infected plants there, please let us know. Better yet, please send a sample.
Thanks again.

Sandra Jensen Tracy
Plant Disease Diagnostician
Cornell Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic
607-255-7850

Please note that this map indicates counties where late blight has been confirmed but do not assume that late blight is not present in counties without reports.  If you know of confirmed late blight in the “no report” counties please contact Abby Seaman (ajs32@cornell.edu).

A NY TIMES Opinion  By DAN BARBER Published: August 8, 2009

IF the hardship of growing vegetables and fruits in the Northeast has made anything clear, it’s that the list of what can go wrong in the field is a very long one.

We wait all year for warmer weather and longer days. Once we get them, it seems new problems for farmers rise to the surface every week: overnight temperatures plunging close to freezing, early disease, aphid attacks. Another day, another problem.

The latest trouble is the explosion of late blight, a plant disease that attacks potatoes and tomatoes. Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast. Although the fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it has devastating effects on tomatoes and potatoes grown outdoors. Plants that appear relatively healthy one day, with abundant fruit and vibrant stems, can turn toxic within a few days. (See the Irish potato famine, caused by a strain of the fungus.)

Most farmers in the Northeast, accustomed to variable conditions, have come to expect it in some form or another. Like a sunburn or a mosquito bite, you’ll probably be hit by late blight sooner or later, and while there are steps farmers can take to minimize its damage and even avoid it completely, the disease is almost always present, if not active.

But this year is turning out to be different — quite different, according to farmers and plant scientists. For one thing, the disease appeared much earlier than usual. Late blight usually comes, well, late in the growing season, as fungal spores spread from plant to plant. So its early arrival caught just about everyone off guard.

full article here

Some great accessible information to share widely in your community:

Subscribe to ShortCUTT – Weekly (during the 35-week growing season) newsletter from Cornell Turfgrass Program sent via email. Features pest alerts, expert updates, observations around the state, Frank Rossi’s ‘Gazing in the Grass’ column, and more. Also available as

ShortCUTT podcast

The EAB recommendations for home owners and woodland owners has been posted to the nyis.info EAB homepage resources box as well as in the content box along with the CCE EAB identification protocol.

It has also been posted under both the “Resources for woodland managers and forest owners” and “Resources for homeowners and communities” tabs on the EAB resources page. It has also been sent to the members of the CCE invasive species listserve. — Chuck *********************************************************************** Charles R. O’Neill, Jr. Sr. Extension Specialist Cornell University/New York Sea Grant Director, NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse Coordinator, Cornell Invasive Species Program Morgan II, SUNY College Brockport, NY 14420 Voice: 585/395-2638 Fax: 585/395-2466 E-mail: cro4@cornell.edu Web site: NYIS.INFO

The NYAVA Professional Development Committee Presents:

Uncovering Hidden Volunteer Assets in an Uncertain Economy

an interactive workshop featuring
renowned author and non-profit leader

Jill Friedman Fixler

Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Time: 8:30 am-12:00pm

Location: UJA-Federation of New York
**************************************************************************************

This interactive workshop is designed for volunteer professionals who want to increase organizational capacity through the engagement of high-impact volunteers. The workshop will also demonstrate how the volunteer engagement professional is key to building a culture of abundance for organizational capacity building. Workshop participants will gain an understanding of the abundant resources offered by Boomer volunteers and the generations that follow and making the shift from volunteer management to a culture of volunteer engagement. The workshop provides tools and techniques that participants can implement in creating their own high-impact volunteer engagement initiative.

Location:
UJA-Federation of New York
130 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022

Directions:
By Subway: 4, 5, or 6 to Lexington and 59th Street.

Registration Fee:
$40 — NYAVA Members
$60 — Non-Members

PAYMENT MUST BE MADE IN ADVANCE AND WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AT THE WORKSHOP.

FOR WORKSHOP INFO PLEASE CONTACT: Jaime Denniston-Merced at Jaime.Denniston-Merced@newyorkcares.org or Rebecca Schwartz at rschwartz@sharsheret.org.

Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Hardy Kiwifruit Open House
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
1 to 3 PM
Lansing Orchard, Sweazey Road, Lansing, NY.
Cornell University invites you to attend its first hardy kiwifruit open house on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 from 1 to 3 PM at the Lansing Orchard on Sweazey Rd, Lansing, NY.
The open house will include a tour of a large planting of trellised kiwifruit just prior to harvest. Participants will learn how to grow kiwifruit (planting, training, pruning, pollination, pest management) and be able to taste the vine-ripened fruits.

From Ithaca: Go north from Ithaca on 34. Continue onto 34B in Lansing for about 5 miles. Take a left onto Sweazey Road and drive towards the lake. Turn right into the orchard just before the pavement ends.

From Auburn: Go south on 34 from Auburn. Take 34B south. Turn right onto Sweazey Road shortly after the Milligan Station power plant.

For more information contact Cathy Heidenreich, mcm4@cornell.edu, 315-787-2367.

A number of Canadian towns and provinces have instated pesticide bans in recent years. Now, a documentary on the very first town to do so (Hudson, Quebec) will be making the rounds at film festivals in the next few months. “A Chemical Reaction” is narrated by Paul Tukey, also known as the founder of the Northeast’s People, Places & Plants magazine. The documentary’s website is HERE.

A news piece about all natural products for gardeners and Scotts…

AUGUST 19, 2009 in the Wall Street Journal by GWENDOLYN BOUNDS

I’m standing in the midst of a grassy, windswept field in Marysville, Ohio, holding what could be the next killer app in lawn care. It’s a vial of herbicide made from a sustainable, natural source—Canadian thistle fungus—and it’s designed to wipe out clover, dandelions and other broadleaf weeds without damaging grass.

If plans stay on track, the product—code-named CBH, for Canadian Bioherbicide—could reach America’s lawns as soon as 2011. If so, it will be a pivotal moment in the fast-moving evolution of naturally derived lawn and garden products in the U.S. In no small way, success will hinge on the marketing heft of its formulator, lawn and garden giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., whose labs supply much of what the world’s homeowners buy each year in a quest to keep their grass green, plants plentiful and homes pest-free.

It’s an industry in transition, and Scotts is preparing everything from an insect repellent derived from wild tomatoes to mulch uses automotive-surfactant technology to help water penetrate soil faster. Nearly 40% of the nation’s 100 million households with a yard or garden say they are likely to use all-natural methods in the future due largely to environmental and health concerns, says the National Gardening Association.

the rest of the article can be found here

and a video