Cornell Vegetable Program Helping Growers

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (October 29, 2019) - The Cornell Vegetable Program maintains an active presence in 14 counties across Western New York. In addition to regular suite of farm visits, phone and email consultations, and conducting grower-driven research projects, here’s some of the programming we ran this season in the Southern Tier.

Monthly Meeting Series

It’s the second Tuesday & Wednesday evening of the month. Where are most of the new produce growers in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Wyoming counties? They’ve made a long trek to a peer’s farm to spend their evening with Cornell Vegetable Program staff. These growers have gathered for an installment of a summer long, hands-on crop management course. With dozens of crops each needing different management plans, literal hordes of insect pests, carpets of weeds, and plant diseases blowing on the wind, produce growing is tough!

Though growing fresh market vegetables may seem a daunting undertaking, the Genesee Valley & Chautauqua Produce Auctions continue to attract new growers from across the Southern Tier. Many of these individuals are first time produce farmers and belong to plain communities. Several English growers also take advantage of the collective marketing opportunity offered by the produce auctions to reach more and larger buyers while simultaneously decreasing their marketing labor input.

The Cornell Vegetable Program supports the successful development of local farming and marketing enterprises and strengthens the Southern Tier grower community through monthly field walk educational programs. Attendees are a diverse mix of long-time and beginning farmers, organic and conventional producers, English and plain community members, and auction and non-auction marketers. This blend of growers promotes the development of a peer network and facilitates the transfer of production techniques and growing system approaches. These peer networks are essential to creating a vibrant and resilient agricultural community across the Southern Tier.

Cornell Vegetable Program staff teach growers essential integrated pest management knowledge and scouting skills at each field walk. Grower questions and interests drive the field discussion and training component. More importantly, farmers get a chance to share tips & tricks and compare notes in a supportive, educational environment. Cornell Vegetable Program staff complement these discussions with information on control options, pest alerts, preventative horticultural techniques, and the latest research findings.

Plant Disease Outbreak Mitigation

Cornell Vegetable Program staff took the lead on identifying, tracking, and helping growers manage the spread of two serious plant diseases this summer. Only Cornell Cooperative Extension system provides this essential, time-sensitive, effort-intensive service to farmers. This is important because many small businesses in the region (including grocers, farm stands, restaurants, and produce auctions), rely upon our local growers’ ability to provide a consistent supply of local, nutritious produce.

The first serious plant disease, Late Blight, blows in on storm fronts. Late Blight decimates tomato and potato crops and can cause major economic harm to growers. The Southern Tier has unique geographical features that make the region a high-risk area for late blight development and spread. Home gardens can harbor and propagate late blight and frequently serve as disease reservoirs that lead to further geographical spread. County CCE offices were proactive and efficient at helping gardeners identify, manage and contain their late blight cases to protect local farms. Furthermore, their efforts with consumers allowed Cornell Vegetable Program staff to work more intensively with commercial farmers.

The second plant disease outbreak began after local flooding events this growing season introduced and spread a disease that attacks several types of vegetables. When an outbreaks occurs in a field of susceptible vegetables, it is highly unlikely that a farmer can harvest any marketable crop. Many vegetable growers were in the area affected by flooding, and so it was important to quickly determine the geographical extent and severity of the outbreak.

Field visits, radio and print media blasts, newsletter notifications, and farm visits were used to alert growers and disseminate management information. The Cornell Vegetable Program then conducted farm visits and provided extensive training on how to identify, treat, and prevent further spread of both plant diseases was provided to regional growers during the two monthly meeting series.

County Extension offices were critical partners, without whom the timely and wide-spread release of information and making connections between local growers and CVP specialists simply would not have happened. By alerting and educating growers, farmers outside of the initial infection zones were able to raise successful crops.

Support to gardeners is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua) in line with the County’s 20/20 Comprehensive Plan. CCE-Chautauqua is a community based educational organization, affiliated with Cornell University, Chautauqua County Government, the NYS SUNY system, and the federal government through the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities.

Last updated October 29, 2019