Northern New York Agriculture
The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted the RFP and Application Form, Budget Template and Research Ideas for those interested in proposing projects for 2021.
Funding ($300,000 designated in the 2020-21 NYS Legislative Budget for NNYADP projects) is contingent upon the final approval and availability of funding through the New York State Department of Agriculture which administers the funds.
Willsboro, N.Y.: September 1, 2020. Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP)-funded research evaluating harvesting and production respectively of ground cherries and goldenberries produced mixed results. The good news: a harvesting frame built to efficiently collect ground cherries worked well. The unwelcome news: three methods of trellising of the upright-growing goldenberry proved too costly.
The farmer-driven NNYADP funded the research conducted by Cornell University and Cooperative Extension vegetable specialists at a commercial greenhouse in Essex, New York, and under the high tunnels at the Willsboro Research Farm at Willsboro, New York. The complete project report with production and harvesting data and costs and a video are posted on this website.
Ground cherry (Physalis pruinosa) and goldenberry (Physalis peruviana) are warm season annual crops that yield a yellow fruit popular as a healthy snack food. Golden cherry is currently grown and sold by farms in northern New York. It grows close to the ground and drops its fruit when ripe, making harvest labor-intensive. Goldenberry grows upright, is harvested by picking, and is being evaluated as a new crop for growers in northern New York.
“New York farmer interest in growing Physalis crops has increased in recent years with the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell evaluating their potential as crops here,” said project co-leader Elisabeth Hodgdon, Ph.D., based in Plattsburgh, with the Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture Program.
The research team started ground cherry and goldenberry, with seed from the Boyce Thompson Institute, in a commercial greenhouse in Essex, New York, in March 2019. The plants were transplanted into an unheated high tunnel at the Willsboro farm in May.
The ground cherry demonstration project grew the low-growing crop without any trellising support. The research team used a harvesting frame built of aluminum pipe and cut flower support netting by Willsboro Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., to efficiently gather ground cherry fruit. A video of this trial is posted under NNY Farm Videos under the News tab of this website.
For the goldenberry trial in the high tunnel at the Willsboro farm, the research team applied four treatments, including those studied in an earlier NNYADP-funded cherry tomato production trial: single leader, double leader, and stake-and-weave trellising, and untrellised.
The average marketable yield per goldenberry plant was less than one pint. Economic calculations showed that a grower would have needed to receive $91 per pint for the goldenberry grown by single leader, $67 per pint for the double leader crop, and $13 per pint for the stake-and-weave crop.
“These unrealistic prices reflect only the recovery of the expense of trellising and not the cost of seeds, potting soil, greenhouse space, or the time to remove the fruit from its husk and sort the goldenberries to determine marketability,” Hodgdon noted.
Serious pressure from multiple pests was also problematic with this trial.
Will the researcher try again with goldenberry?
“If goldenberry is to be come a viable crop for New York State, more research and development are needed to determine any opportunity to reduce costs, identify shorter season varieties, and improve pest management, particularly for the Heliothis moth that burrowed into the fruit in the trial,” said Hodgdon.
Goldenberry pest resistance and varietal difference research continues at Cornell University studies are underway at the Boyce Thompson Institute. New varieties may allow goldenberry to be a more viable crop for northern New York in the future.
NNYADP project reports on the ground cherry and goldenberry trials and high tunnel and field-grown fruit, berry, and vegetable production are posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org. Growers may also contact their local Cornell Cooperative Extension office for more information.
Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Ground Cherry Harvesting Frame Video:
See how efficiently this harvesting frame made by Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., works to collect the ground cherry fruit that falls from the plants when ripe (click on the headline link above). This work was completed as part of a 2019 NNYADP horticultural research project that also evaluated the opportunity to grow goldenberry under NNY conditions. To read the results of both trials, click here.
NNYADP Vegetable Research: Low Tunnels or Row Covers for Cucumber Beetle Management?
Willsboro, N.Y.; August 19, 2020. Based on the results of recent striped cucumber beetle management research, Cornell vegetable specialists recommend removing low tunnels once cucumber plants begin producing fruit, even when growing varieties that do not require pollination. The use of row covers for managing the challenging pest that attacks cucumbers, squashes, watermelon, pumpkins, and other crops is still under consideration. The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funded this project in the Advancing Vegetable Production in NNY research series. Reports are posted at www.nnyagdev.org.
Striped cucumber beetles are particularly difficult to manage on certified organic farms, as allowable biopesticide sprays are not very effective in managing the pest. Therefore, growers are interested in other management options, such as netting.
In the research trial hosted by the Willsboro Research Farm in New York’s Essex County in 2019, more marketable cucumbers were harvested from plots without low tunnel protection even though more beetles were present on average in the uncovered plots.
Likewise, “we harvested twice as many marketable cucumbers in the uncovered plots as the row covered plots, and five times as many cucumbers in the untreated plots as the insect exclusion netting plots,” said project co-leader Elisabeth Hodgdon, a vegetable specialist with the Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture Program.
“The conditions under the low tunnels in 2019 seemed to cause stress to the cucumber plants, producing dense vines with few fruit,” Hodgdon explained. “The conditions under the two row covers in the trial – a lower cost spunbond row cover and a higher cost insect exclusion netting – included lower light levels, higher humidity, and higher temperatures on sunny days.”
The research team also recorded high numbers of male flowers on the cucumbers grown under the row covers, a sign of plant stress in varieties that do not require pollination to set fruit.
The beetle pressure was not high enough in 2019, with low populations until early August, to sufficiently compare the two row covers for protection from the pest.
Project co-leader and Cornell Vegetable Program specialist Judson Reid notes the value of the regional research to local consumers, stating, “fresh market vegetable production and consumer interest continue to increase across the northern part of New York State with new food hub and produce auction development, farmers markets, roadside stands, and food co-ops all selling locally-grown products. The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program support for vegetable research is underwriting better crop production understanding and marketing opportunities for traditionally-popular and new northern NY-adapted vegetable crops.”
The complete report on Advancing Vegetable Production in NNY in 2019, plus information on NNYADP-funded research on high tunnel and field-grown vegetable and berry production, is posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org. Growers may also contact their local Cornell Cooperative Extension office for more information.
Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Click here to see the August 2020 report by Mountain Lake PBS Producer Thom Hallock with Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., talking about how well the NNYADP-funded “New Fruits for NNY” trials with aronia berry and honeyberry are progressing.
Click here to see the August 2018 report by Mountain Lake PBS Producer Thom Hallock on the NNYADP-funded “superfruits” research trials (click on the June 24, 2018 date in the story posting) at the Willsboro Research Farm. Hallock talks with NNYADP “New Fruits for NNY” project leaders Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., and botanist Michael B. Burgess, Ph.D., of SUNY Plattsburgh.
Below, Northern New York farmer Dani Baker of Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island is one of several NNY growers participating with the NNYADP “super fruits” on-farm production trials.
