Help for Gardeners

The CCE-Chenango Horitculture program provides support and services that can help home gardeners with a variety of gardening challenges.

CONSUMER HORTICULTURE: GARDENING AT HOME IN CHENANGO COUNTY

Consumer horticulture deals with plants in the landscape; trees and shrubs, flowers, vegetable and fruit plantings, landscaping, indoor plants, composting, and other related topics. This information is useful for anyone who works with plants; homeowners, groundskeepers, gardeners, youth programs, etc.

Questions about Consumer Horticulture? Please contact Patty Stimmel at 607-334-5841 x 16 or patty.stimmel@cornell.edu

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CHENANGO COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS:

Our Chenango County Master Gardener Volunteers are here to help! Our Gardening Hotline is open May through September for all your home growing questions, pH testing, insects and disease identification and more. Contact them at 607-334-5841 x 13 or chenangomgs@cornell.edu. If you have a question October through April, try extension 16 instead.

OR

Submit questions by mail: fill out the form and mail it in.

WANT TO BECOME A MASTER GARDENER VOLUNTEER?

If you want to learn lots about gardening and use that knowledge to help the people of this fine county, contact the MGV coordinator for Chenango County, patty.stimmel@cornell.edu or 607-334-5841 x16 for an application. Classes in Binghamton and Ithaca are available starting in January/February 2014.

COMMUNITY GARDENS PROJECT:

Interested in joining a community garden near you or help CCE Chenango establish a new one? Click here: CCE Chenango Community Gardens Project

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 Clinichttp://PlantClinic.cornell.edu/Default.htm or Cornell's Insect Diagnosis Labhttp://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). Otherwise, drop samples off at our 99 North Broad Street office.

SOIL TESTING

CCE Chenango offers three soil testing opportunities.

pH: We conduct pH testing and recommendations in the office for free. Please bring in 1/2 cup of dry soil from a few spots in your field, garden or lawn and either our Chenango County Master Gardeners or our Hort/NR Educator will test the pH. (Acidity and Alkalinity measurements only)

Full Nutrient Analyses: Soil samples requiring a full nutrient analysis are send to the Agro-One Lab in Ithaca.This lab works in partnership with the Cornell Nutrient Analysis Lab to provide full recommendations for soil testing. Cost is $16 per sample. Please bring in a total of 2 cups of dry soil taken from 8-12 locations in your field, garden or lawn at the root level of the plants you are trying to grow. Full information about the Agro-One Lab can be found at: http://www.dairyone.com/AgroOne/default.htm

If you are looking for non-standard soil tests or tests for research we may send you to the Cornell Nutrient Analysis Lab:http://cnal.cals.cornell.edu. Please contact our office to determine which lab you need if you are unsure. The Cornell Lab no longer processes regular soil samples.

RELATED LINKS

Cornell Gardening Page: Includes every topic of home gardening, vegetable and fruit varieties http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/ and loads of fact sheets.

Cornell Master Gardener Program

Local Growing Information: Info on growing things in our region
Buy From the Backyard; Local Product Listing

Last updated July 26, 2019