WARSAW, N.Y. — Cornell Cooperative Extension Wyoming County in collaboration with Burley Berries and Blooms (6335 Route 20A E, Warsaw, NY) will host a field walk on Oct 1, 2018 for their Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) project titled Affordable Methods of Managing Weeds in Strawberry Production at 5:30pm at the farm in Warsaw.
Participants will also be able to meet Esther Kibbie, the new western NY Small Fruit Specialist for Harvest NY. Don Gasiewicz, Agriculture Educator for CCE Wyoming will also discuss Spotted Wing Drosophila management in western NY.
Those in attendance can explore Burley Berries field trial where they implemented and compared six different methodologies for weed management in strawberries. Megan and Ryan Burley, owners of Burley Berries and Blooms said “over the past 6 years of growing strawberries, weeds have been our greatest challenge. In the growing system we use, many perennial weeds have a tendency to linger even with rigorous cultivation and hand pulling. There are herbicides available but they have limited effectiveness and we prefer to limit their use. Weed Management is our main priority because most of our business is You-Pick. Weed free fields mean happy pickers!”
With this funding, the Burley’s built a Weed Blaster. The Weed Blaster is based on a model developed by Sam Wortman, Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska. Initially, the blaster was built for organic specialty crop farms in the Midwest. For the Burley’s, they plan to use it on their first year strawberry plants. The weed blaster will apply abrasive grits between the rows via compressed air (100 PSI) by hand using a machine created with a portable air-compressor and a hand-held siphon grit applicator. They also trialed industrial hemp mulch, landscape fabric, cultivation, and herbicides to compare effectiveness and hopefully find a strategy to use for future plantings of strawberries at the farm. Pre-registration is not required for this event.
*Accommodations for persons with disabilities may be requested by calling CCE Wyoming at (585) 786-2251 no later than three days prior to the event to ensure sufficient time to make arrangements. Requests after this date will be met when possible.
–Cornell Cooperative Extension Wyoming County
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