The Empire State Producers Expo produced by the New York State Vegetable Growers Association and Cornell Cooperative Extension will take place virtually this year on Jan. 11 to 14, 2021.
Sessions covering soil health are scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 12:
Soil Health I – Cover Crops
Session Organized by: Ryan Maher, Cornell Small Farms Program
This session covers the latest research on selecting and managing summer cover crops in your rotation with Rebecca Brown from University of Rhode Island. And Skip Paul from Wishing Stone Farm, RI, will talk about the advantages of cover crop interseeding and share his successes and failures with establishing cover crops in brassica cash crops on his farm.
8:45 AM DEC credit sign-up*
9:00 AM Welcome
9:05 AM Exploring summer cover crops for vegetable systems in the Northeast
Rebecca Brown – Dept. of Plant Sciences and Entomology, University of Rhode
Island, Kingston, RI
9:40 AM Mechanically interseeding cover crops into Brassica cash crops
Skip Paul, Wishing Stone Farm – Little Compton, RI
Soil Health II – Reduced Tillage
Session Organized by: Ryan Maher, Cornell Small Farms Program
In session 2 Chad Cochrane from USDA NRCS-NH, and Nathan Johanning from University of Illinois Extension and also a farmer, will cover managing no-till (NT) vegetables and the decision points for different crops. You will learn about NT vegetable transplanters, tips for modifying equipment, and NT management practices for sweet corn and pumpkins.
10:45 AM DEC credit sign-up*
11:00 AM Welcome
11:05 AM No-Till in NH: Lessons from pumpkins and sweet corn
Chad Cochrane, USDA-NRCS, Concord, NH
11:35 AM Making no-till systems work for transplanted vegetables
Nathan Johanning, University of Illinois Extension, Waterloo, IL
These sessions will take place on Tuesday, January 12, 2021, from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Explore the full 2021 Empire State Producers Expo schedule and register online.