Educational Programming Key for the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program

JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK (Date) -- Cornell Cooperative Extension Chautauqua County’s Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is excited to announce, as part of their on-going effort to assist grape growers in increasing the economic and environmental sustainability of their vineyard operations, a schedule of events has been developed for this summer that is sure to provide something for everyone. For those who like face to face interactions, LERGP is planning a Summer Growers Conference on August 11, 2017 at the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Laboratory (CLEREL) in Portland, NY. Growers and members of the Lake Erie Grape industry will be able to hear from leading research and extension faculty and staff from Cornell, Penn State, Carnegie Mellon and Newcastle Universities as part of an agenda that covers topics from disease and insect management and Changes to the Worker Protection Standard to what’s happening in the Efficient Vineyard project with talks on Variable Rate Shoot Thinning and Precision Vineyard Imaging.

Helping growers explore opportunities for diversification is part of the mission statement for LERGP at CLEREL and is shown in not only the type of grapes grown at the lab (juice and wine), but also through the research and extension efforts being conducted in grapes, hops, vegetable production and willow biomass at the lab. For those interested in hops production, a meeting focused on late season hops Integrated Pest Management strategies, as well as harvesting, processing and marketing a hop crop will be held on Saturday, August 19, 2017. And finally, Darcy Telenko of the Cornell Vegetable Program will be holding a field day at CLEREL on August 29, 2017 to provide the opportunity to visit the different field trials that she is conducting during the 2017 growing season.

To help celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program, a Public Open House is planned for Saturday, August 12 at CLEREL. LERGP is welcoming our neighbors, both near and far, to come and take a hayride through our research plots and vineyards, join us for lunch and take advantage of the opportunity to see just what it is we do here at the lab. This is a free event. For more information on all these educational opportunities visit our upcoming events calendar on the LERGP website at https://lergp.cce.cornell.edu/events.php

Once you are on the web, you can take advantage of some of the distance learning opportunities LERGP provides by visiting our podcast page at http://lergp.com/podcasts/ Members of LERGP produce weekly video podcast or vblogs on topics ranging from “What is LERGP?” to “How to Manage Grape Berry Moth”. The topic changes each week and there is the opportunity to provide suggestions for future blogs through the comments section of the web page. These types of resources are valuable for growers, as well as people who are just interested in what all is involved in growing grapes in the Lake Erie Region.

The Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is a cooperative effort between Cornell and Penn State Universities; the participating Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations of Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus Counties in New York and Erie County in Pennsylvania; and participating industry partners National Grape Cooperative (Welch’s), Constellation Brands and Walkers Fruit Basket. The LERGP extension team provides research-based educational programming for commercial grape growers throughout the year at venues across the Lake Erie grape belt. For more information on LERGP, call 716-792-2800 or visit our website at http://lergp.cce.cornell.edu/

The Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). 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 June 23, 2017