2015 Conference Proceedings

January 20-22, 2015

Expo topics (remaining abstracts coming soon):

Keynote:

• GMOs: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction

Becker Forum

• Is your product ready? Learning the lingo and surviving the audit
• Examples in consistency:  The Eastern broccoli project
• Are you prepared for bidding and billing?
• Farm to hospital initiatives: how to leverage the power of GPOs

Tree Fruit

• Successful production of Honeycrisp
• DA meter: Science and practical use
• Optimizing postharvest handling of Honeycrisp
• Apple varieties and new uses: cider, slices and more
• Strengths and weaknesses of Geneva rootstocks
• Understanding graft incompatibility
• Experiences with black stem borer
• Black stem borer: A new pest for NY
• Managing fire blight and late season tree decline
• Progress in precision fruit spraying
• How NY growers are addressing labor issues
• Training systems to improve mechanizations
• How pruning severity impacts thinning success
• Managing invasive and resistant weeds
• Replacing herbicides with under-vine cover crops
• Research update for apple weed management

Processing Vegetables

• Weed management in beets
• Weed management in carrots
• Weed management in peas
• Weed management in snap and lima beans
• Weed management in sweet corn
• A durable management strategy for White Mold
• European corn borer in beans
• Unraveling lima bean diseases
• Nitrogen and snap beans
• Sweet corn variety results
• Snap bean variety results
• Pea variety results

Cabbage and Cole Crops

• Insect update: thrips, Swede midge and leps
• Herbicide update: Adjuvants and insecticides preceding Goaltender
• NAP disaster protection: What’s new?
• Disease management
• A peek at nitrogen dynamics in cabbage

Potato

• Potential for bindweed control with Matrix and Reflex
• Variety development for the east
• Storage management in a wet year
• Late blight update
• Stories from the sweet potato field
• Golden Nematode Program Update

Late Blight Management

• Late blight in Pennsylvania
• Late blight management in potato
• Late blight management in tomato
• Using the Cornell Decision Support System

Floriculture

• Keep it clean – Key sanitation steps
• Maximizing profits
• The buzz on neonicotinoids
• Disease crossover in ornamental and vegetable crops

Cut Flowers

• Fall flower production
• Top insects and diseases of cut flowers

High Tunnels

• Tomatoes for the high tunnel
• BMP’s: proper pruning and training
• Long term production: grafting
• Sap analysis for precision fertilization

Herbicide Resistance Management

• Status in Iowa
• Management in Delaware
• Status and Management in NY

Ethnic Vegetables

• Focus on Hispanic, Chinese, and Indian flavors
• Ethnic trial update
• Experiences with ethnic vegetables

Tomatoes

• Bacterial diseases
• The ABC’s of NPK
• Re-emerging viruses

Root Crops

• Bugs, crud and mysteries
• Disease update from down under
• Root crop storage
• Growing root crops on ridges

Vine Crops

• 2014 Disease management updates
• Two years of slicing cucumber variety trials
• Squash bug and other insect control

Sweet Corn

• Where have all the corn borers gone?
• Secrets of corn earworm and the stink bug stomp
• Wildlife control; bird and mammal damage to sweet corn
• Controlling pests that attack the ear

Farmers Markets

• Virtual walk through a farm market for food safety
• CSA’s and farmers markets
• Making the chef connection

Food Safety

• FSMA update
• GAPs can open new markets
• Buyer perspective on GAPs
• GAPs and market development
• Produce safety resources for NY farmers

IPM – Migrant Farmworker Housing

• IPM challenges and solutions in housing

Soil Health

• Strategic cover crops and reduced tillage options
• The updated Cornell Soil Health test
• Soil health effects on soil and water relations
• State and federal programs to improve soil health
  

Berries

• Juneberry basics
• Organic blueberry production and promise
• Berry business farm summaries
• Small fruit opportunities in the metro-NY area
• Going bigger with berries
• Bird deterrent testing
• Biological control of strawberry root insects
• Wild flower plantings to enhance pollination
• SWD research update

Onions

• Bacterial rots of onion, Oxidate and future plans
• Bacterial bulb rot factors and implications for management
• Major breakthroughs in bacterial diseases in Georgia
• Panel: Managing bacterial diseases
• New and improved sweet onions bred for New York
• Onion thrips management: Crises averted?
• Managing downy mildew and Stemphylium leaf blight
• Leek moth management recommendations

Tech Skills for Farmers

• Making a website work for your business
• Tracking finances with Quickbooks

Hops

• Weed management and herbicide update
• Hops scouting: procedures and findings
• Fertility practices for optimum production
• What’s new with powdery mildew?
• Hops research at the NYSAES

Malted Barley

• Catching the amber wave and avoiding a wipe-out
• Art and science of growing malt barley for NY markets
• Post-harvest considerations
• The beer triad: the farmer, maltster and brewer

Hard Cider

• Apple varieties for craft cidermakers
• 15 years of cider survival
• Establishing a NY farm cidery
• Resources for hard cider production