New York IPM Grower
| Jeff Green New York IPM Grower |
|
photo by Carrie Koplinka-Loehr
Near the Whitney Point exit of Interstate 81, you can see Strawberry
Valley Farm. It looks like a rejuvenated dairy farm, which is exactly what
it is. In the early morning hours, clerks are starting the registers in
the adjacent farm store, and a worker starts out to weed the asparagus fields.
"I'll show you the rest of this place," says owner Jeff Green,
"but first you have to see this." He leads the way to a greenhouse
with a 1,000-gallon plastic tank in the middle of it. PVC pipe and gravel
decorate the soil-less floor. "My hydroponic tomatoes," he announces.
Lush plants harboring green tomatoes reach to the sky, protected from the
chilly May temperatures. In a few days, Jeff will sanitize the watery solution
that is the lifeblood for this crop. "It prevents diseases," he
says. "I learned the hard way."
To keep insects at bay, Jeff releases parasitic wasps-which are smaller
than fleas and harmless to humans. He also uses beneficial mites to manage
spider mites. "Biocontrol is definitely working," he says. "I've
seen a big difference in the occurrence of whiteflies. And the public is
impressed!"
They're also impressed with the field tomatoes, sweet corn, peppers, beets,
peas, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, summer squash, and other
crops coming out of this pick-your-own farm. "We needed to create a
reason for people to come here," says Jeff Green. And he seems to have
created more than one reason.
Jeff Green and his partners, Peggy and Larry Frederick, give new meaning
to the words value added. They convert the bounty of the land into fresh
produce, canned products, maple syrup, and baked goods. They have made Strawberry
Valley a place for people to come for an experience, an escape from everyday
routine, a taste of rural life. And they have added value by growing the
produce with IPM.
"We advertise that we're an IPM farm and all of the people who come
here to buy vegetables can talk with us," says Jeff. He got on the
IPM track when he agreed to set out traps as part of a project with the
New York State IPM Program. The goal? To determine the first presence of
corn pests. "The results scared us," says Jeff, "because
at that point we were spraying once a week or every 10 days to take care
of bugs that weren't there!" To hold off on spraying was a new concept.
Since then he's learned to identify pests and try new thresholds, waiting
until pests reach a certain population before spraying.
What has been the effect on pesticide inputs? "Well," explains
Jeff, "Grandpa Green sprayed every five days, whether he needed to
or not. There was this white cloud.... Today, there are certain things I
have to spray once a week for and others where the chemical bill has been
cut in two." Jeff also tries to plant varieties that will resist pests,
such as cabbage that isn't sensitive to thrips. And he reads as much as
he can get his hands on.
Jeff's interest in IPM led him to attend the recent National IPM Symposium
in Washington, D. C., and has spurred him to participate in the regional
planning team for the IPM Initiative. "Five years ago," says Jeff,
"I would have said that growers' opinions were lost. Now Cornell Cooperative
Extension is really trying to service the grower."
return to IPM in the Northeast Region 1996 Report, Table
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