Horticulture
HORTICULTURE CATEGORIES
Tree Decline Survey
Please consider taking this survey, even if you haven't observed apple decline in your orchard blocks!
Precision Apple Crop Load MANagement - PACMAN
PACMAN Research and Extension teams are entering their forth year of the USDA/NIFA/SCRI funded research and Extension project titled "Precision Crop Load Management for Apples". See what they have learned about vision based technologies and potential management implications
2024 Western NY Fruit Conference Materials
Presentations can be found in pdf format here after the conference, pending publication permission from author.
2023 Virtual Orchard Meetup Summer Series: Managing the Uncontrollable
2023 Western NY Fruit Conference Materials
Conference presentations can be found in pdf format here, pending publication permission from author.
Past Webinar Recording Links
Check here for Lake Ontario Fruit Program hosted and/or promoted educational webinars that have been recorded and received permission for open publication.
Mechanical Blossom Thinning Video
NEWA 3.0 Workshop
The new NEWA 3.0 system is online (https://newa.cornell.edu/), and 2022 will be the first year when you will not be able to use the old version. If you have not yet looked at the new website, or if you have looked at it but weren't sure how to best use it, the "NEWA 3.0 Tutorial Online Workshop" is perfect for you.
Pawpaws in New York
Are you a fan of pawpaws? These custardy fruits can be hard to come across, so this guide provides information on how to grow your own pawpaw from seed, and how to care for grafted seedlings. Pdf on growing now available.
Honeycrisp Meetup Recordings
Spring Meeting Resources for 2021
Resources from the 2021 spring meetings in recorded webinar, and video format will be linked here as they become available.
Lake Ontario Fruit Webinar Recording & Video Links
LOF Fruit Bites
See details to check out quick "how to" videos on a variety of fruit and orchard topics.
LOF Summer Fruit Series Webinar Videos
Find the recording videos and pdfs of presentations from the Summer Fruit Series webinars.
Spring Meeting Resources
Resources from the 2020 spring meetings in pdf. The recorded webinar in video format will be linked here as they become available.
2020 Pruning Video now Available
CCE prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of the communities we serve. Given the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, and due to an abundance of caution, the Pruning Workshops at both locations on March 23rd and 25th were cancelled. However, tall spindle pruning focused on Honeycrisp, and including basic principles that can be used in any tall spindle orchard content has been made available through video format on the Lake Ontario Fruit Program YouTube Channel.
2020 Lake Ontario Winter Fruit School
This all day event provided 2 near-identical programs available on the West and East sides of Rochester on consecutive days. We are featured an intensive Precision Honeycrisp management school in addition to updates on Labor, Fruit Farm Business Summary, as well as pests and diseases, including European Cherry Fruit Fly. Pdfs for most of the presentations are now available.
Reflective Ground Cover For Coloring Apples At Harvest: Could Yield Revenue
Position Open, Business Management Specialist
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Reflective ground cover has been used in fruit-growing regions for a number of years now. The Lake Ontario Fruit Team conducted a field trial in 2018 of reflective ground cover at two Wayne County farms. The infographic contains information about reflective groundcovers including the quality and economic benefits found in the study and additional information on types of groundcovers and suppliers.
2019 Cornell Fruit In-Depth School Presentations Now Available!
The presentations that appeared at the 2019 In-Depth School focusing on precision crop load management and plant growth regulator use in apples are now available to review any time. Articles related to the topic have also been included in the pdfs below.
Tree Fruit Nutrition Training with John Kempf
John Kempf has outlined the science behind a strategically applied nutrition-based system in pome fruit production, mainly in Oregon and Washington orchards, and more recently in the Northeast. Using field observations, John has provided an interpretive framework with which to decipher the nutritional requirements of trees, targeting nutrient type and developmental phase of the crop. At the recent 2019 CCE LOF Winter Fruit Schools, John gave insights into the movement of minerals within the tree and how this applies to the remediation of issues apple growers face such as fire blight, bitter rot, and bitter pit.
Empire State Producers EXPO proceeding link
Links to proceedings and resources listed in presentations from the EXPO can be found here.
New Video - An integrated view of the physiology of apple water relations
Alan Lakso discusses the water relation of apples in a recent seminar given at Cornell. For video link click view details.
Increased Risk of Diffuse Skin Browning in Goldens in 2018
Recommendations to mitigate the risk of diffuse skin browning due to 2018 season conditions.
New CCE LOF Videos
2018 Lake Ontario Winter Fruit Schools
Soil Health Researchers Launch Farmer Survey in New York State
Study Will Analyze Economic and Environmental Benefits of Cover Crops and Other Farm Practices
[Ithaca, NY] A state-wide survey of New York farmers is underway, with the aim of highlighting economic costs and benefits associated with maintaining and improving agricultural soil health. The survey, which will examine the agricultural practices of using cover crops and reduced tillage, is being conducted by the New York State Soil Health Workgroup and funded by NYS department of Ag and Markets.
The New York State Soil Health Workgroup is a network of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers working to keep the state's agricultural soils healthy and productive in the future. As part of these efforts, the group has recently launched a survey to explore farm practices that impact soil health, productivity, and farm profits. The survey is currently underway and will run until March 10th, 2018. The survey questionnaire can be completed by New York State farmers through an online link at tinyurl.com/NYsoilsurvey. A paper form of the questionnaire is also available at the Soil Health Group's website (https://blogs.cornell.edu/soilhealthinitiative/) which can be printed and returned to the researchers by mail.
"Soil health offers a lot of win-win solutions" said David Wolfe, a professor who studies soil and water management at Cornell University. Our efforts to improve soil health are "directly affecting farmers and healthy food for all of us, but also all kinds of environmental issues: erosion, water quality, food security and climate change challenges. They're all part of this". New York State contains over 7 million acres of active farmland that are used to produce a wide variety of agricultural crops including apples, grapes, vegetables, corn, and soybeans. While agricultural soils are crucial to the state's farms, they also provide other benefits to society such as protection of water resources and reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). However, these soils suffer from compaction and loss of organic matter, and generally the health of these soils has degraded over time as a result of intensive use.
The New York State Soil Health Workgroup is looking for ways to improve and promote on-farm practices such as cover crops that bolster soil health. One of the group's principal investigators is Matt Ryan, who conducts research on sustainable cropping systems. "Cover crops can do a number of different things, provide a number of benefits. They can protect soil from erosion, they can suppress pests, but they're also one of the best tools that we have for building and increasing soil health", Ryan stated. The practice of using cover crops to protect bare soil and build organic matter could be greatly expanded in New York state, and the survey is one way that the researchers are working to get a better handle on how cover crops are being used, what impact they have on farm profitability, and why some farmers have yet to adopt the practice. "We're looking at different ways to overcome this barrier to adoption" Ryan added.
The researchers urge farmers to participate in the study by completing the 10-minute questionnaire via the online link at https://tinyurl.com/NYsoilsurvey before March 10th, 2018. A paper form of the questionnaire can be downloaded and printed, and more information about soil health and the Workgroup is available at their website; https://blogs.cornell.edu/soilhealthinitiative/. Questions about the New York State Soil Health Workgroup's research can be directed to Cedric Mason at (607) 255-8641 or cwm77@cornell.edu.
Spray Mixing Instructions Considering Tree Row Volume - TRV
Mario Miranda Sazo, Cultural Practices
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Spray Mixing Instructions Considering Tree Row Volume - TRV
Terence Robinson, Poliana Francescatto, Cornell University
Win Cowgill, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University
Mechanical blossom thinning video.
Precision Chemical Thinning in 2017 for Gala and Honeycrisp
Precision Chemical Thinning in 2017 for Gala and Honeycrisp
Poliana Francescatto, Craig Kahlke, Mario Miranda Sazo, Terence Robinson
As a new season is approaching it is time to set up your precision thinning program. Precision thinning is a strategy to increase the efficacy of chemical thinning.
A Practical "Visual Guide" for March Pruning of Young High Density Plantings
A Practical "Visual Guide" for March Pruning of Young and Semi-Young High Density Apple Plantings
Mario Miranda Sazo
The document is a practical and colorful visual guide that shows some important pruning cuts to better grow and train the "money makers" Gala, Honeycrisp, and Fuji trees.
Spanish translated version now available
Please click on details form more information and the guide pdf.
Platform Payback Tool
This financial tool will assist growers in determining the annual savings by investing in a platform for pruning, hand thinning and harvest. Platforms eliminate the use of ladders and create a consistent work flow that improves labor productivity for labor intensive tasks in orchard systems.
DEC Registered Pesticides for New York
This the the link to access the the NYDEC pesticide registrations. Access labels here.
Bureau of Pest Management - Information Portal - http://www.dec.ny.gov/nyspad/products?13What Herbicides control which weeds ?
Deborah Breth, Integrated Pest Management
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
This guide is used to identify the most effective herbicides to target specific weeds in tree fruit. First identify the weed, or weeds, then find those weeds across the top of the spreadsheet. For each weed, make a list of herbicides that are effective on the label. Then you will need to double check the label to determine 1) if the tree fruit crop is labeled, 2) if the tree age is appropriate for use,3) what rate is needed for specific weeds and any soil limitations that might impact those rates. You can go to the Bureau of Pest Management - Information Portal to find the labels to determine specific application requirements including the rates, timing, any adjuvants necessary, and any precautions to ensure crop safety.
2016 Lake Ontario Winter Fruit School
Presentations from the 2016 Lake Ontario Fruit Program Winter Fruit School.
Black Stem Borer Trap Data
Revisions in EPA WPS comment period open until Dec. 23, 2015
Deborah Breth, Integrated Pest Management
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
EPA is finalizing changes to the WPS. The WPS is a regulation primarily intended to reduce the risks of injury or illness resulting from agricultural workers' and handlers' use and contact with pesticides on farms, forests, nurseries and greenhouses. The rule primarily seeks to protect workers (those who perform hand-labor tasks in pesticide-treated crops, such as harvesting, thinning, pruning) and handlers (those who mix, load and apply pesticides). The rule does not cover persons working with livestock. The existing regulation has provisions requiring employers to provide workers and handlers with pesticide safety training, posting and notification of treated areas, and information on entry restrictions, as well as PPE for workers who enter treated areas after pesticide application to perform crop-related tasks and handlers who mix, load, and apply pesticides. The full content if you want to review and comment can be found at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0184-2510.
A summary chart of major cahnges between the new revisions and the current standard can be found here.
http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/comparison-chart-wps.pdf
Apple IPM for Beginners
Deborah Breth, Integrated Pest Management
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Pest management can be a complex system in perennial crops such as apples and other tree fruits. "Apple IPM (Integrated Pest managment) for Beginners" is an excellent guide for new growers who want to grow apples, or want to be more familiar with managing pests in apple plantings. Even growers who have been farming all their lives may know someone coming into the business that can learn from this guide and improve the quality of apples produced. This 42-page guide will help new apple growers protect apple orchards from pests, in fact sheet format. This series of fact sheets is available in printed color format (see order form below), or in .pdfs https://blogs.cornell.edu/treefruit/ipm/apple-ipm-for-beginners/ It will help you address the major apple pests, but does not guarantee perfect fruit. These fact sheets and scouting guides are a compromise between the most accurate, complex information researchers have to offer and the amount of information a beginner can take in. Read the first four chapters carefully to start this new venture. Then follow the Scouting Calendar as apple stage of growth advances week-by-week. "Apple IPM for Beginners" was partially funded by Federal Smith Lever Funds. Additional full color printed copies can be ordered from CCE-Lake Ontario Fruit Program.
NYS Crop Survey Report
Matthew Wells, Production Economics & Business Management
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
The results of the first state-wide electronic apple crop survey are now available. Click this link to download the report in PDF format.
Labor Cost Calculator for Platform Activities
Matthew Wells, Production Economics & Business Management
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Download this spreadsheet to help calculate acres covered per day and labor cost per acre utilizing platforms.
Precision Crop Load Management 2015 - Information and Tools for the Job
The CCE LOF team has just launched three shorts videos explaining the benefits of Precision Crop Load Management.
Apple IPM
Anna Wallis, Tree Fruit and Grape Specialist
Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture
How can you use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) to control pests in your orchard? These presentations provide a broad overview of IPM Theory, orchard insect and disease pests, and resources available to guide your decision making, such as the NEWA weather system.
Pruning Labor Cost Calculator
2015 Winter Fruit School
The Benefits of Orchard Mechanization for the Tall Spindle Orchard System
Mario Miranda Sazo, Cultural Practices
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
NY apple growers are rapidly adopting the Tall Spindle planting system which has higher yields than traditional systems and is allowing them to adopt motorized labor positioning platforms to reduce pruning, hand thinning and summer pruning costs. In the future pruning costs may be reduced even further with mechanized summer side-wall shearing. To take full advantage of these advances in mechanization, new orchards should be established at a spacing of 2.5-3ft x 11-12 ft.
Choosing the Right Rootstocks for SnapDragon and RubyFrost
Mario Miranda Sazo, Cultural Practices
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
SnapDragon is a very precocious and weak growing scion similar to and often weaker than its Honeycrisp parent. SnapDragon's ability to set a heavy crop load in years two and three coupled with its low vigor can challenge your need to fill the tree spacing while producing marketable fruit. SnapDragon blooms slightly ahead of Honeycrisp, ahead of RubyFrost and overlapping with Empire.
Two New Cornell Apple Varieties
Mario Miranda Sazo, Cultural Practices
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Cornell recently announced the release of two new apple varieties developed in partnership with the New York Apple Growers (NYAG). They are SnapDragon and RubyFrost, and they were developed by Cornell breeder Susan Brown.
Crop Load Management
Mario Miranda Sazo, Cultural Practices
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Crop load management is the single most important yet difficult management strategy that determines the annual profitability of apple orchards. The number of fruit that remain on a tree directly affects yield, fruit size and the quality of fruit that are harvested, which largely determine crop value. If thinning is inadequate and too many fruits remain on the tree, fruit size will be small, fruit quality will be poor and flower bud initiation for the following year’s crop may be either reduced or eliminated. Consequently, poor or inadequate thinning will reduce profitability in the current year and result in inadequate return bloom in the following year. Over thinning also carries economic perils since yield and crop value the year of application will be reduced and fruit size will be excessively large with reduced fruit quality due to reduced flesh firmness, reduced color and a much-reduced postharvest life. Thus, management of crop load is a balancing act between reducing crop load (yield) sufficiently to achieve optimum fruit size and adequate return bloom without reducing yield excessively.
How to get your tree nutrition right in the 2013 season?
Mario Miranda Sazo, Cultural Practices
Lake Ontario Fruit Program
Work on apple tree nutrition has shown that (1) fruit harvest removes significant amounts of potassium from the orchard every year, (2) sandy or gravel soils have low potassium supply power, (3) NY soils generally have low potassium levels, and (4) low organic matter leads to low potassium supply.
Apples
Apricots
Asian Pears
Blueberries
Cherries
Currants
Gooseberries
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Plums
Raspberries / Blackberries
Strawberries
Unusual Fruit
Upcoming Events
From Seed to Success: Turn Your Idea into an Actionable Plan
January 7, 2025 : Session 1: The 30,000-foot view, what are you trying to accomplish? What resources do you have?
Unit 1: Introduction to Business Planning and the Business Plan (Liz Higgins)
- Session 1: The 30,000-foot view, what are you trying to accomplish? What resources do you have?
January 14, 2025 : Session 2: Introduction to Project Management
Unit 1: Introduction to Business Planning and the Business Plan (Liz Higgins)
- Session 2: Introduction to Project Management
January 21, 2025 : Session 3: How Business Planning Becomes a Business Plan
Unit 1: Introduction to Business Planning and the Business Plan (Liz Higgins)
- Session 3: How Business Planning Becomes a Business Plan
January 28, 2025 : Session 4: Your Market and Your Competition
Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Farm (Bonnie Nelsen)
Session 4: Your Market and Your Competition
February 4, 2025 : Session 5: Revenue and Product Mix to Achieve Your Goals
Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Farm (Bonnie Nelsen)
- Session 5: Revenue and Product Mix to Achieve Your Goals
February 11, 2025 : Session 6: Marketing Plan and Evaluation of Marketing Efforts
Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Farm (Bonnie Nelsen)
- Session 6: Marketing Plan and Evaluation of Marketing Efforts
February 18, 2025 : Session 7: The Basics of Financial Statements
Unit 3: Developing a Financial Plan for Your Farm Business (Steve Hadcock)
- Session 7: The Basics of Financial Statements
February 25, 2025 : Session 8: Enhancing Confidence in Your Numbers
Unit 3: Developing a Financial Plan for Your Farm Business (Steve Hadcock)
- Session 8: Enhancing Confidence in Your Numbers
March 4, 2025 : Session 9: Using Financial Statements and Financial Information to Plan and Evaluate an Enterprise
Unit 3: Developing a Financial Plan for Your Farm Business (Steve Hadcock)
- Session 9: Using Financial Statements and Financial Information to Plan and Evaluate an Enterprise
Electric Weeding in Organic Perennial Crops
January 14, 2025
Join us for a free webinar on electric weeding in organic perennial crops.
Farm Grant Literacy Workshop
January 16, 2025 : Session 1: Understanding Farm Grant Opportunities
GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!
January 23, 2025 : Session 2: Identifying Farm Grant Opportunities
GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!
January 30, 2025 : Session 3: How To Read and Interpret Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!
February 13, 2025 : Session 4: Panelists
GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!
February 20, 2025 : Session 5: Panelists
GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!
February 27, 2025 : Session 6: Panelists
GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!