Cultivating future agricultural leaders at Cornell Orchards

Sustainable Orchard Management students attend labs at Cornell Orchards throughout the semester on topics like grafting, pruning and harvest strategies. Students also bring cuttings and other material from the orchards back to the Kenneth Post Lab classroom for further study.

“I don’t know how I would teach these classes if I didn’t have access to the orchards and the plant materials there,” Peck said. “You can read the textbook, you can watch YouTube videos, but when you put loppers into a student's hands and say, ‘Why are you going to make the cut there and not there?’ something clicks. You can see the lights come on as they put the principles into practice.” 

The first lab of the semester involves a tour of the orchards, where students are shown Cortland apple trees that were planted 100 years ago and still produce fruit, Peck said. Then they’re taken through a chronological tour of plantings from the 1920s to the 2020s to see how and why orchards have evolved over time – in most cases to higher-producing varieties grafted onto dwarfed, disease-resistant rootstock. 

“We use these for research, but this is really important for teaching, too, because when students go out in industry, they will see examples of all these types of species and planting strategies,” Peck said.

Lane McCombe ’26 is majoring in agricultural sciences so he can help run his family’s 300-acre fruit farm on Long Island, Briermere Farms. McCombe is part of the third generation producing apples, peaches, pears and berries, which are sold fresh and used in the family’s farm bakery. 

Growing up in farming, McCombe already had quite a bit of knowledge about orchard management, but he still learned a lot and appreciated being able to ask Peck questions specific to his farm, he said.

“Pretty much all of the labs were hands-on: we pruned trees, grafted trees, learned about different rootstocks and why they’re used, and learned about pesticide management. It was most interesting to see all the different techniques used over time, including the newest techniques coming out now,” McCombe said. “Lots of the stuff that we talked about in lecture, we saw in the lab and it helped me solidify it and understand how it all fits together.”

Peck teaches two other classes that utilize the orchards: Fruit Crop Physiology (PLHRT 4500), which covers tree-fruit, grapevines and the small fruits grown in the Northeast and how they interact with their environments; and Cider Production Lab (VIEN 4340), which offers students an immersive experience in making hard cider and is co-taught with Kathleen Arnink, lecturer in food science. He also directs an undergraduate summer internship at the Orchards in collaboration with colleagues Justine Vanden Heuvel, Lailiang Cheng and Marvin Pritts, all professors in SIPS’ Horticulture Section. 

“We're the second-largest apple-producing state in the country. We’re one of the top wine-producing states in the country. And Cornell is the land-grant for New York,” Peck said. “For all these reasons, we need to make sure that our students leave here with actual practical skills. Whether they’re going to be fruit farmers or scientists or work in industry, we want our students to be the best minds out there.” 

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES).