Cornell Researchers Help North Country Farmers Extend Growing Seasons

By Krisy Gashler

At Wild Work Farm in the North Country’s Keene Valley, the last frost can come as late as mid-June, and the first frost usually hits in September, said owner and operator Lissa Goldstein. Coping with that very short growing season is one of Goldstein’s primary challenges. 

For decades, Cornell’s Willsboro Research Farm on the edge of Lake Champlain has been conducting research to help North Country growers like Goldstein make the most of short growing seasons. The U.S. Department of Agriculture maps regions based on temperatures to identify hardiness zones, which help growers know which crops and varieties they can plant – lower numbers are colder, and higher warmer. The Hudson Valley, Long Island and much of the Finger Lakes growing regions fall into hardiness zones 6-7. In the Adirondacks and northward, that hardiness falls to 4 or 5. 

“Any research that’s specific to this region, to our growing season, is really helpful, because we’re very different from the rest of New York State,” Goldstein said. “The people that work at Willsboro, they are very intimately aware of what the farmers in the area are doing and what we’re focused on. So they’re able to tailor the research so that it is relevant to us.”

That research includes testing which crops, varieties and management practices can perform well in high tunnels – unheated, metal-framed, plastic-covered structures that provide protection and some warmth for crops grown in the soil. Over the past 20 years, their use has skyrocketed among vegetable, fruit and flower growers, increasing yields and profits in cold climates. 

 “We have these research farms in different regions across the state because conditions are different, farmers’ needs and interests are different, and we’re trying to support the farming communities as best we can to succeed and be profitable,” said Mike Davis, manager of Willsboro Research Farm, one of eight research farms across New York state managed by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES).