Commercial Horticulture

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Commercial Horticulture deals with businesses that produce or sell horticultural goods to consumers. This includes: nurseries, retail florists/garden shops, landscaping companies, orchards, fruit farms, and vegetable farms. If you are involved in commercial horticulture and require assistance in insect/disease identification and control, plant care and management, or require technical assistance please contact Alexis Woodcock. 

Get Listed!

Add your farm to our Commercial Horticulture listing to get updates on the latest classes, grants, tax info, workshops, insect and disease information coming out of Cornell and other reputable sources. Please complete our Commercial Horticulture Enrollment Form and mail it in to get on our list. This list will also allow us to tell possible customers (with your permission) where you are and what you do.

Beginning Farmers

If you are just getting started with Farming and are looking for information about what to do or where to go for information, check out the Cornell Small Farms web site!

Sales Tax Exemption

If you are a Plant Farmer or other small farmer, you don’t have to pay sales tax on items you purchase for your farm. This document details who is eligible: http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/memos/sales/m00_8s.pdf including: agriculture, floriculture, horticulture, viniculture, viticulture, aquaculture and silviculture; stock, dairy,

poultry, fruit or vegetable farms and more! Simply fill out this form and take it to the businesses you frequent. If a business you frequent requires an EIN number (some do and some don’t) you can apply for one free here: http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-%28EIN%29-Online

If you need help figuring out these forms, please contact the CCE office. Or read the following article: Information on Sales Tax Exemption 

Grant Writing Assistance

There are many opportunities to apply for grants for your Commercial Horticulture business on local, state and federal levels. If you are applying for a grant or would like assistance with applying for a grant, please contact our offices. We cannot write your grant for you, however, we can look it over and give you some tips. A couple sites to try if you are looking for grants for your farm:

https://grantsgateway.ny.gov/IntelliGrants_NYSGG/module/nysgg/goportal.aspx

www.grants.gov

Insect and Disease Diagnosis

If you have a sick plant and need to know what the cause is or the identity of an insect or fungus, submit a sample to us and we will tell you what it is and how to control it. We only conduct visual analyses, we do not culture samples. If you have a sample that requires culturing or that we cannot identify it can be sent to Cornell for analysis, there is a minimum of $25 charge for this service. Cornell's Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic http://PlantClinic.cornell.edu/Default.htm or Cornell's Insect Diagnosis Lab http://www.entomology.cornell.edu/Extension/DiagnosticLab/DiagnosticLab.php.

Plant Identification

Whether it's for plant control, propagation or just because you're curious- we will try to identify everything that is brought in, garden plants, weeds, trees, seeds, fruit, etc. If you would like to mail in a sample please include as much of the part to be identified as possible and a description of where you found the plant (growing conditions).

Site Visits

If you require on-the-ground technical assistance please contact Alexis Woodcock. Depending on your situation, we may be able to come out and take a look.

Last updated August 19, 2019