Areas of expertise

Our faculty and staff work hand-in-hand with educators in local offices of Cornell Cooperative Extension as well as Regional Agricultural Teams to put our science-based solutions to work on your farm and in your home and community. 

Older man shows pea vines to youth in pea field

For grain and forage producers, fruit, vegetable and mushroom growers, and gardeners.

Group touring bioswale along road

Features urban horticulture, bio-energy crops, turfgrass, flower bulb, greenhouse, resource information science and home landscape information.

Man in red Cornell cap takes cell phone picture of Titan arum in Conservatory.

Collections including hortorium, mushroom and fungus herbarium, vegetable varieties and woody plants database.

Female educator in hat leads garden program with youthful participants

Professional development, public gardens and farms and distance learning courses.

Rural African women taking part in educational program

Global Development programs, rice diversity project, transnational learning and Alliance for Science.

urban garden

Research, teaching and outreach efforts at the School of Integrative Plant Science have big impacts in urban areas.

Of special Interest

Industrial hemp plants growing in greenhouse experiment

New York state is poised to become a major producer of industrial hemp, providing healthy hempseed oil and grain food products, fiber for textiles, building materials and other uses, and medicinally active compounds that potentially offer health benefits to people and animals.

Organic certification class listen to farmer in high tunnel filled with lettuces

Portal to organic resources at Cornell for farmers, gardeners, agricultural and extension educators and all others interested in organic production systems.

Farmer field day group looking at field of barley.

Our Field Crops website is for corn, forage, small grain, and soybean producers. Provides comprehensive information on each crop along with recommendations, a newsletter and more.

Associated programs and initiatives

Farmer on tractor with high tunnel greenhouse in background

Cornell Small Farms Program

Small farms can help build human capacity, revitalize communities, supply regional food systems and foster ecological resilience in a changing world. Since 2001, the Cornell Small Farms Program has fostered programs that support and encourage the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms. Learn more about the Cornell Small Farms Program.

New York State Integrated Pest Management (NYSIPM)

NYSIPM develops sustainable ways to manage pests and helps people to use methods that minimize environmental, health, and economic risks. On farms, vineyards, orchards; in schools, nursing homes, playgrounds; in your own home, lawn, or garden — IPM is foundational to sound, careful, economical ways of dealing with pests. Learn more about NYSIPM.

Northeastern IPM Center

The Center promotes the development and adoption of integrated pest management (IPM), a sound, sensible approach to dealing with pests and pesticide problems. Working with partners in agricultural, urban and rural settings, we identify — and address — regional priorities for research, education and outreach throughout the Northeast.  Learn more about the Northeastern IPM Center.

Cornell Soil Health Program

Pioneering program sponsors educational programs, publishes the how-to manual, Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health – The Cornell Framework and provides the gold standard in soil health assessment: A battery of tests that goes beyond just looking at nutrient levels to include the physical and biological condition of your soil. Learn more about the Cornell Soil Health Program.

Cornell Waste Management Institute (CWMI)

The Institute develops and shares research-based knowledge to help stakeholders — from farmers to policymakers — make sound decisions on managing organic residuals.Learn more about CWMI.

Institute for Resource Information Sciences (IRIS)

The Institute integrates environmental information science and technologies to support education and research, including the development and use of environmental data and information using resource inventory, remote sensing, geographic information systems and related spatial information technologies. Learn more about IRIS.

Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture

The Initiative is pursuing a vigorous research agenda for digital agriculture through a collection of powerful interdisciplinary collaborations that will transform agriculture and foster a pipeline of practical innovations. Learn more about the Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture.

Lab Services and collections

Sampling probe filled with soil being removed from grain field

Soil Health Lab

Pioneering lab provides the gold standard in soil health assessment: a battery of tests that goes beyond just looking at nutrient levels to include the physical and biological condition of your soil. Learn more about the Soil Health Lab.

Cornell Nutrient Analysis Lab (CNAL)

Provides a wide-range of research quality analyses for environmental and biological samples using state-of-the-art analytical equipment and techniques. Clients include researchers, educators, state and federal agencies, crop consultants, farmers, home gardeners and others throughout New York, across the nation and around the world. Learn more about CNAL.

Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic

What's wrong with my plants? The Clinic provides fast and accurate plant disease diagnosis and up-to-date pest control recommendations for anyone from home owners to commercial growers. Services include analysis of plant material and soil for bacterial, fungal, viral and nematode pathogen. Learn more about the Clinic.

Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium

Founded by Liberty Hyde Bailey in 1935, the Hortorium has historically been the major U. S. center for the systematics of cultivated plants. Today, the Hortorium's mission has expanded to include systematic studies of wild and cultivated plants, ethnobotany, molecular systematics, paleobotany, phylogenetic theory, biodiversity studies and pharmaceutical studies of tropical plants. Learn more about the Hortorium.

Cornell Plant Pathology Herbarium

The Herbarium (CUP) is a large research collection of preserved fungi and other organisms that cause plant diseases. It is the fourth or fifth largest mycological herbarium in North America with about 400,000 fungus and plant disease specimens and 60,000 historical scientific photographs of mushrooms, agricultural practices, plant diseases and portraits. Learn more about the Herbarium.

Insect Diagnostic Laboratory

What's bugging you? Operated by the Department of Entomology, the lab can help identify insects and related arthropods and provide management suggestions if needed. Learn more about the Lab.

Program Spotlight

Small Farms Program support farmers at all phases of business development.

Small farms can help build human capacity, revitalize communities, supply regional food systems, and foster ecological resilience in a changing world. Since 2001, the Cornell Small Farms Program has fostered programs that support and encourage the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms.

Program Spotlight

New York poised to become a major industrial hemp producer

Hemp is a promising crop. New markets for hemp have opened up after a recent wave of legislation. By growing, selling, and processing hemp, New York could revitalize its economy. We have assembled an interdisciplinary team of researchers and extension specialists to study how the state can move forward in developing its hemp industry.

Program Spotlight

Helping trees deliver ecosystem benefits in tough urban environments

The Urban Horticulture Institute improves quality of life by enhancing the functions of plants within urban ecosystems — particularly woody trees and shrubs. Our breeding improves these plants. Our cutting-edge technologies help them withstand stress. And our Woody Plants Database helps match the right plant to the site location.

Farmer on small tractor in field with high tunnel in background
Industrial hemp growing in greenhouse
Group of students with newly planted landscape and Tree Campus USA sign

Learn more about Cornell Cooperative Extension

SIPS Council of Extension Leaders

Leadership in the School of Integrative Plant Science that coordinates our Extension efforts:

Land Acknowledgment

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United States of America.  We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.