Greenhouse Scout School 2026

Hi all. I'm John Miller. I'm located in Rochester, NY, and I take care of the day-to-day operations of the Foodlink Community Farm. We have 2.5 acres of raised beds, a small orchard, and an apiary. We serve around 100 families that garden with us. I grow starter plants for our gardeners and for others. Previously, we partnered with a local school and grew in their greenhouse, and we will continue to do this. This past year, we built a 30x60 greenhouse. I'm taking this course so that I can do a good job of managing it. 

While I have a lifetime of experience, I am still learning new things every day. I grew up on a large dairy farm and managed 2500 acres. I've been a crop consultant for forage and veg crops, concentrated mostly on potatoes and cabbage. I was a part of the earliest IPM programs promoted by Cornell. 

My greenhouse scouting will be used to help manage the pests, and I will make the decision on the course of action. Thus far, we have the goal to utilize natural resources and biocontrols. While our garden space is not certified as organic, it is our goal to be pesticide-free. 

Hello, My name is Lori Voll-Wallace. I am located in New Milford, PA, which is just below Binghamton, NY. I own a brand new 22 x 24 greenhouse and would like to learn more about greenhouse pests, improve scouting skills, and apply natural/organic methods of pest control. Current problems aphids and spider mites. I grow vegetables and flowers. Half my greenhouse has a concrete floor which is my work area and the other half I grow in raised beds on soil. Loving it!! It's been providing most of my vegetable needs this winter. Plan on doing a small side business of growing transplants. Doing lots of experiments to see what works best in my greenhouse and when. Keep temperature around 45 degrees. My photos are too large to share. Will have to make some sort of diagram.

Current crops: Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant (doing very poorly), celery, kohlrabi, leeks, garleek, saffron, lettuces, kale, cabbages, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, collards, tatsoi, bok choi, carrots, Swiss chard, radishes, alyssum, nasturtium, and a volunteer sunflower. Just planted 2nd round of cucumbers after first batch was done. 

Recently retired. Love to grow all kinds of stuff and extra produce gets donated to food banks. I also help maintain and plant a large food bank garden. Growing all their transplants. 

Time to start lots of new seedlings for spring and summer!

Hi! My names Grace! I live in Breckenridge, Texas, so I'm a little down south from y'all! I work at a nursery in Breckenridge and absolutely love it! I grew up in this nursery and was able to learn from a lot of experienced people. I all myself the modge podge child because of all the guidance and different view points I was given. I am taking this class because I want to learn more and understand why plants act like they do. I am lucky to have a boss that pushes me to be better and gain more knowledge for the long run!

The picture tagged at the bottom is the picture of the Big Greenhouse. We have 5 greenhouses total, but this one gets the most attention. The Big Greenhouse is our main plug planting greenhouse. Right now we have lots of bedding plants and a few veggies and fruits. This greenhouse stays the most constant on temperature as well as maintaince. The main reason I chose this greenhouse though is because of how packed it gets with the plugs, as well as how many different plugs wholesalers are placed in it too. 

We always have to keep a close on it, but we didn't know how to properly scout. I hope with this class I'll be able to put all of what I learn and put to it to good use in this greenhouse! Because of all this, my boss really pushed me to take this class. I am excited to learn everything y'all throw at us!

Hi, my name is Mary Taylor. I live in Little Compton Rhode Island and I work at Peckham’s Greenhouse also located in Little Compton. I will have been working at Peckham’s for a year come March. Previously my only experience with plants was my 10 houseplants and my chaos garden. Now of course I’ve expanded to almost 150+ houseplants… I haven’t counted in a while. I will be scouting at Peckham’s for this course. Since there are so many different houses to possibly scout I decided to go with one that has a couple of flowering crops, primrose and erysimum. I’ve included a little drawn diagram of D house as well as a photo.

I’m taking this course because I am interested in learning more about the various pests that plague not only Peckham’s but my own plants. I’m also studying to take the Rhode Island pesticide license exam. Once I have my pesticide license I will also be able to spray at Peckham’s which will be helpful since currently we only have one person who can spray. 

My “favorite” greenhouse pest is currently mealy bugs because it’s so easy to spot and also easy (and fun) to spot treat with rubbing alcohol. I have dealt with them before and know how to treat them effectively. I have not had to deal with them en masse so I may not be as “fond” of them once I’ve been truly tested. 

I’ve included some photos of the rest of Peckham’s and my own houseplants just for fun.

Hello everyone, I am Sathwik and I am a master's student in Controlled Environment Agriculture at Cornell University. I took this course to train myself to be really good at scouting for little bugs and it's an interesting skill to have as a grower.

 I found a place to scout  in Kenneth Post laboratory,Cornell University and it is really interesting combination of the plants at this greenhouse. It's a combination of house plants like Begonia ,Bushy Green Plants of Pilea species, umbrella tree and spider plant.