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In 2010, Penn State Extension's Start Farming program educated 427 aspiring and beginning farmers with eighteen courses on topics ranging from farm business exploration to grass-fed beef and organic vegetables.
The 4-H Fair is looking for clubs to do activities again this year.
Check out the new blog written by our 4-H Summer Assistants, Sarah Doyle and Alicia Hoke
Theodore Roosevelt once wisely cautioned, “To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them.” Adams County’s prosperity is tied to the cultivation of the land, but urban development has increasingly threatened agriculture in this region. Thus, the protection of the land from urbanization has become ever more important in the Adams County region, mostly for the future sustainability of our community.
High populations of brown marmorated stink bugs (BMSB) are being observed in and around fruit orchards located mainly in the southern part of Pennsylvania. Also, during our monitoring of orchards that experienced high BMSB pressure last season, we have already detected BMSB injured fruit. It is assumed that most injuries visible to this point were caused by the feeding of the overwintering adults, although new, young 2nd and 3rd instar nymphs were also recently observed feeding on pome and stone fruit. With an extended spring emergence of BMSB adults, it will be impossible to clearly determine the current developmental phase for any particular local BMSB populations. As the season progresses, all developmental stages (i.e., eggs, nymphs and adults) will be present in the orchards at the same time. Additionally, the ability of this pest to survive and reproduce on almost all green plants in our environment, will contribute to a continuous influx of new individuals into orchards from the surrounding vegetation. If last season taught us anything about this pest, we have learned that stink bugs migrating from the surrounding vegetation can cause injuries to fruit throughout the entire season until mid-October.
Improving local water quality and the Chesapeake Bay starts with feeding cows. The amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that goes in the front end of the cow directly impacts how much comes out the back end.
This past winter at some of the fruit schools, I talked about the need to determine the nutrient status of your orchards through leaf analysis. Unlike vegetable crops, tree fruit and small fruit are not replanted every year and their roots are capable of absorbing nutrients any time the conditions are favorable. There is also a considerable amount of nutrient recycling. Nutrients in leaves that fall to the ground or brush that is cut from the trees and chopped in the orchard are recycled and made available again to the trees. Only a small portion of the nutrients are removed in the form of the fruit. Leaf analysis also can determine micronutrient levels in the tree. Soil tests for micronutrients are very difficult to validate.
The Marcellus Shale natural gas boom that is affecting so much of Pennsylvania isn’t coming to our area. You won’t see well-drilling rigs or tanker trucks full of water on our highways, or pick-up trucks with Texas and Oklahoma license plates in our parking lots. Why not? There’s no Marcellus in south-central and southeast Pennsylvania. And who is Marcellus, anyway? Marcellus is the name of a geologic formation – shale that underlies a good portion of northern and western PA and that is full of natural gas.
Damage to trees due to leaching or drift of herbicides applied to turf is a rare event; but when it does occur, it can create a lot of anxiety and customer dissatisfaction.
Is been a while since I discussed global warming. The issue has died a little given other issues like wars and the economy.
From the article: "But the number of e-mails, the seniority of the people writing them, the variety of positions they hold and the language they use — including comparisons to Ponzi schemes and attempts to “con” Wall Street — suggest that questions about the shale gas industry exist in many corners."
A recent impact study indicates a positive effect on business activity due to Marcellus shale activity
Franklin County Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Mary Ann K. Oyler, would like to share with you and your family the delightful and delicious in-season fruit, cherries.
Quick summer meals that do not heat up the kitchen and are easy to prepare. Easy Chinese recipes are included.
Helping to prepare the children of military families to be successful as they enter the school system.
A 4-H geocache has been established in the Mt. Pisgah County Park in Bradford County. This is for those 4-H members that are participating in the Bradford or Tioga County orienteering/GPS project.
