Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

CCE News offers updates and information from our cooperative extension system can be found on the CCE staff pages at: http://www.staff.cce.cornell.edu/administration/ccenews/index.htm

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New web page on the Cornell’s Gardening resources web site. Includes a new pulication “Site Assesment for Gardeners” by Charlie Mazza in the Department of Horticulture.

http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/landscape/index.html

Cornell’s Soil Health team has completed a final version (”1st edition”) of a comprehensive “Soil Health Assessment Training Manual”. At the following link, associated with the soil health website, you can view the table of contents and download the entire document or download specific chapters. Information for ordering hard copies is also provided.
http://soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu/Cornell%20Soil%20Health%20Manual.htm

http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/HD/Outreach_extension/newsletter.cfm
This new e-News is part of a larger project in the Department of Human Development to utilize the internet to disseminate educational tools, relevant research, and other resources. The goal is to provide easy access to research-based information for county educators and many other interested groups, which they can in turn use in a host of educational programs. The project will produce a quarterly electronic newsletter, at least four webcasts, supporting fact sheets, PowerPoint presentations, and other resources which will be available on the HD Outreach and Extension web site. The project is led by Valerie Reyna, Human Development Professor and Department Extension Leader. For more information, visit the project website or contact Karene Booker, (607) 255-7735; ktb1@cornell.edu.

Steve VanderMark a CCE educator in St. Lawrence who has work in this area shares some findings:

Our experience was that sugar content of sap was generally decreased the season following major FTC defoliation. Such sap requires more boiling to produce syrup of the proper density. That requires more fuel, fossil or renewable, raising cost of energy input. A longer dwell time for boiling sap in the evaporator often means darker syrup, considered usually of lower grade. Thus returns may be lowered in volume, grade, and dollars. Reverse osmosis (RO) sap processing will concentrate sap before boiling, but it can’t add sugar content to increase syrup volume; it just removes some of the water. RO units are attractive as fuel savers and “dwell-reducers” and may help those producers choosing to tap. They can be fairly expensive though. Steve Childs can no doubt further explain RO’s. So some of our producers said the sap was hardly worth boiling and others decided not to even tap. The latter were usually experiencing heavy defoliation the season before and heeded suggestions referenced from prior outbreaks.

One specific source was Prof. Doug Allen’s article ‘Forest Owners Must Adjust to Tent Caterpillar Defoliation’ in “The New York Forest Owner”, Vol. 42: No.4, July /Aug. ‘04, pg. 16, (member magazine of the NY Forest Owners Assoc.), which recommended avoiding summer silvicultural activity during heavy defoliation and tapping the following Spring. Up to them. Contact www.nyfoa.org for a copy of this article.

A CCE Staff Preparedness/Curriculum Development Resource Guide for Tent Caterpillar (Forest & Eastern) Outbreak Programming is also available. Contact Steve (sfv1@cornell.edu) for a pdf version.

Gateway to Cornell Maple Production Resources: http://maple.dnr.cornell.edu/

The link to the site is:

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/wmiller/bglannuals/

You will find links for both general trial information, as well as specific performance data and photographs for the past three seasons. New this year…we have added a recognition system including “Best Overall” and “Best in Category” titles. Check it out!

Bill Miller
&
“The Crew”
Melissa Kitchen, Stephanie Whitehouse, Cheni Filios, Maria Stager