The Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Ontario Fruit team invites you to join our organization; you must be enrolled to benefit from the expertise of our Specialists. Enrollment in a partner county will provide a subscription to our newsletter, Fruit Notes, and access to Fruit Facts (the more time sensitive reminders for pest management and horticultural practices) and the Harvest Maturity subscription will provide you with apple ripening index measurements to help time harvest of apples by variety. We can also do farm visits to troubleshoot problems or evaluate situations.

In 2021, our program will be supported, in part, by 5 county Cornell Cooperative Extensions: Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, Oswego and Wayne Counties. If you have not been enrolled in our program before, and are farming or living in one of these counties, you can click on the county listed above and contact them to find out how to enroll. Renewals of current enrollees are different for each county, they range from January through the end of March.

However, we still welcome those that farm or conduct agricultural services in other counties outside of Niagara, Orleans, Oswego, Monroe and Wayne Counties to enroll in our program (Satellite Enrollment). The Satellite enrollment will also provide a subscription to our newsletter, Fruit Notes, and access to Fruit Facts and the Harvest Maturity subscription. However, we must continue to respect the major supporting role of the partner counties who continue to support the cost of the program overall. Therefore, the growers who enroll through the Satellite program can only access specialists on the team for consultation by phone, fax, or email. Unfortunately, specialists will not be able to do on-farm visits or applied research out of the partner counties. But there is a lot we can do electronically through communication technology these days! If you would like to become a member of our program through our Satellite enrollment you can enroll by printing and mailing the Satellite PDF Enrollment form below, or simply enroll online with a credit card in the form below.

For general enrollment questions contact Kim Hazel, email Kim or call her at 585-798-4265 ext. 26.

Want to learn more about the benefits or enrolling in the Lake Ontario Fruit Program? Contact Team Leader Craig Kahlke at 585-735-5448, or cjk37@cornell.edu.

LOF Enrollment Form - Satellite (PDF; 233KB)

2022 Virtual Orchard Meetup webinar series - Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.

June 2, 2022 : Part 1 Labor - Grower Experiences

2022 Virtual Orchard Meetup webinar series. Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.
A four-part webinar series on Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.

Part 1 Labor - Grower Experiences

June 16, 2022 : Part 2 Labor - Specialist Panel

2022 Virtual Orchard Meetup webinar series. Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.
A four-part webinar series on Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.

Part 2 Labor - Specialist Panel

June 30, 2022 : Part 3 Technology - Grower Experiences

2022 Virtual Orchard Meetup webinar series. Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology. A four-part webinar series on Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.

Part 3 Technology - Grower Experiences

July 14, 2022 : Part 4 Technology - Specialist Panel

2022 Virtual Orchard Meetup webinar series. Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology. A four-part webinar series on Orchard Efficiency: Labor and Technology.

Part 4 Technology - Specialist Panel

2022 SAP Analysis

July 15, 2022

Peel sap sampling/collection ended for Western NY/Finger Lakes regions on July.

LOF Summer Tour 2022

August 9, 2022

Please join us for the 2022 LOF Summer Tour on Tuesday, August 9th! 

Stop 1: Kast Farms, Inc. Hosted by Brett Kast and family. Topics include herbicide trial updates, soil health, fire blight, mating disruption, and comparison of NY1 on G.41 vs. M.9-337 rootstocks. Stop 2: Fish Creek Orchards, LLC. Hosted by Jose Iniguez and Jason Woodworth. Topics include an introduction of the SCRI "Precision Orchard Management for Apple" project, and overviews by 3 companies working with us and growers under this umbrella - Moog, Vivid, and Dropcopter, who are working with Green Atlas for the cartography. Stop 3: Lunch at the Carleton Fire Hall & Rec Center. Lunch will be provided by Frank Penna Catering. Growers and other tree fruit industry folks will have the opportunity to visit with sponsors and likely view several demonstrations of new precision crop load management technology. Stop 4: Orchard Dale Fruit Farm. Hosted by the Brown family and employees. LOF's precision pruning work with our SCRI grant, and crop load management research with Farm Vision and Fruit Scout will be featured. Stop 5: Nesbitt Fruit Farms. Hosted by Shane Nesbitt and family. Topics include bloom thinning results on Honeycrisp with the use of the Pollen Tube Growth model, and grow-through on-farm nursery production. Note: There may be some minor changes to the itinerary.

1.75 NYSDEC Credits will be offered in categories 22, 10, and 1A.