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Let’s set aside the familiar button, cremini, and portabella mushrooms (all in the same species of Agaricus mushrooms) and focus on a different and growing segment of the mushroom industry: specialty mushrooms. The USDA defines “specialty mushrooms” as any non-Agaricus mushroom, which includes...

Mimicking the natural world can be an effective approach in sustainable pest management. We can use the good bugs to manage the bad bugs! Many insect and mite pests have natural enemies that can be purchased and released on the farm to help reduce pest populations. The trick is knowing what the...

From kale and collards to mustards and radishes, brassicas (aka crucifers) are perhaps the most common crop family on urban farms. In New York, they are also host to a range of insect pests, including cabbageworms, flea beetles, cabbage aphid, swede midge, harlequin bug, and cabbage whitefly. Many...

Row covers can be an effective pest management and season extension tool for urban growers. Row covers are fabric barriers placed either directly over crops or supported on frames (creating low tunnels). There are a variety of fabrics available that differ in weight, permeability, durability, and...

For vegetable farmers, both urban and rural, plant diseases are an inevitable part of the growing season. Every plant species can be infected by pathogens—biotic disease-causing agents—such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nematodes. On vegetable crops, damage can range from slight to severe. For...

When considering the climate change impacts of agriculture, there are many aspects to consider: sequestration of atmospheric carbon in the soil as soil organic carbon (SOC), emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4) from the soil, and the...