The Peru Gazette

Willsboro, New York.  The latest results of “super fruits” and vegetable production research from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) will be featured on the Thursday, July 7, 2022 Open House Tour at the Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, New York. The tour will leave the main office at 48 Sayward Lane at 2 p.m. Arrivals welcome at 1:30 p.m. All activities are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the farm at 518-963-7492.

One stop on the tour will be the Juneberry (amelanchier) nursery established with support from the NNYADP with both wild-cut and commercial varieties of a fruit noted for its high-antioxidant and nutritional value. Juneberry was the first in a line of now-four “super fruits” under evaluation with grants from the NNYADP. The open house tour will also provide an update on honeyberry and Aronia research plantings at the farm. Elderberry trials have just recently been established there.

The results of NNYADP research focused on opportunities to extend northern New York’s cooler spring and winter season growing and sales opportunities will be featured with a focus on the 2021 trials of early spring sprouting broccoli and tender miniature cabbages and an investigation into the potential to grow winter broccoli.

Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., will be joined by colleagues to also present information on soil health, corn grain and corn silage varieties, strawberry growing systems, a canopy-sensing robot, cover crops, alternative to neonic seed treatments, male sterile forage sorghum, and growing winter triticale and winter rye for forage and grain.

The 352-acre Willsboro Research Farm was a gift to Cornell University by E. Vreeland Baker in 1982. The farm is operated as a Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and has hosted numerous projects for the NNYADP.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.