Published October 04, 2009 11:19 pm - Energy workshops set; Harvest Craft Fair to benefit Adult Center; Head off late blight in 2010

Home and Garden Briefs: Oct. 5, 2009

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Energy workshops set for October
PLATTSBURGH — Peter Hagar of Cornell Cooperative Extension will explore ways to reduce home energy bills in no-cost and low-cost ways at upcoming workshops.

Save Energy, Save Dollars is free, and every household attending will receive a bag of energy-saving products including caulk, weatherstripping and gaskets to help reduce energy bills immediately, a press release said.

Workshops are set for 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the Schuyler Falls Town Hall, 997 Mason St., Morrisonville; Monday, Oct. 19, at the Saranac Town Hall, 3662 Route 3, Saranac; Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Peru Free Library, 2024 Route 22, Peru; Thursday, Oct. 29, at the AuSable Town Hall, 11 AuSable St., Keeseville.

Registration is required to ensure enough materials. Call 561-7450.

Harvest Craft Fair to benefit Adult Center
TUPPER LAKE — Dozens of artisans and craftsmen will have wares on display at the fifth-annual Harvest Craft Fair set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, at the HGA gymnasium, 40 Marion Ave., Tupper Lake.

All items are handcrafted in the United States, a press release said. Refreshments will be sold, too.

Net proceeds will go to the Tupper Lake Adult Center.

For more information, contact Sue Sherwood at 359-3821 or by e-mail at: sherbs1@roadrunner.com.

Head off late
blight in 2010

PLATTSBURGH — Starting now, farmers and gardeners can reduce the risk of widespread late blight next year.

In this region, said a press release from the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the late-blight organism survives from one season to the next in tissue-infected potato tubers.

Growers should harvest all potatoes then till up all land where they grew. Destroy any infected tubers "either by chopping into small pieces, burying deeply (below 2 feet), burning, feeding to livestock or spreading on the soil surface so that they will freeze over the winter," the release said. "Infected tubers thrown into a pile may survive the winter and thus perpetuate the disease."

Late blight doesn't over-winter in tomatoes because their seed is not infected.

Next year, the release suggested, buy and plant certified potato seed tubers. Also, dig up and destroy volunteer plants that grow from this year's crop.

Since infected tomato seedlings sold through big-box stores were a major contributor to the disease this year, the release said, gardeners should start their own seedlings or buy them from a local commercial grower.

Learn more at www.

nofany.org.