From Season-Long Care to Harvest
This course continues where BF 120 ends, and covers vegetable production from transplanting to harvest, including information on in-season fertility, integrated pest management, weed control options, harvesting strategies, and tips for marketing your products. Be prepared to create an in-season fertility and pest/weed control plan as part of this course.
Weekly homework will focus on preparing you to make good decisions in the coming growing season. (Note: You do NOT need to take BF 120 to enroll in this course)
Target Audience
Beginning to Intermediate: This course is for aspiring farmers and those with at least one growing season of vegetable farming experience. You should already have a basic understanding of how to select crops, manage bed preparation, seeding, and transplanting. This course targets farmers in the Northeastern US. Farmers outside the region are welcome to register, but should do so knowing that some of the information presented may not be appropriate for their region.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to
- Make good decisions about fertility management for your specific crops
- Understand options available for weed, pest, and disease control
- Be able to identify problem weeds, pests and diseases on your farm
- Learn successful harvesting and marketing strategies
Webinars
The bulk of the course happens on your own time, with discussions, readings, and assignments in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, webinars will be woven into the online interface of the course to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from outside presenters and ask questions to address your farm issues in real time. If you miss one, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.
Webinar Schedule
Live instruction for the 2021-2022 season will begin on Wed. Jan 12, 2022 from 7-8:30pm Eastern time, and continue for 6 weeks, with the final webinar on Wed. Feb 16.
While we encourage live attendance so you have the opportunity to
engage with the presenters and ask questions, all webinars we will be
posted in our online classroom for students to watch anytime. Once you have enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all
materials indefinitely, and can return to participate in the live
webinars as many times as you wish.
Your Instructor
Amy Ivy recently retired from her role as part of the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. She worked with gardeners and commercial vegetable and berry growers for Cornell Cooperative Extension for 31 years in the northeastern corner of NY, on the east side of the Adirondack Mountains. Her particular interests are season extension, protected culture including high tunnels, soil health and insects, both good and bad.