Help for Gardeners

The CCE-Tompkins Horticulture program provides support and services that can help home gardeners with a variety of gardening challenges. 

GrowLine

Trained Master Gardener Volunteers respond to your gardening questions. Email your question to growline1@gmail.com. If you have questions about the identification of a plant, critter, or disease, please attach clear photos. We can do our best identification when your question includes clues about the context as well as close-ups of the plant or creature in question.  If you prefer not to use email, you can leave a message at the Grow Line phone number: (607) 272-2292 x161. Please speak your name  clearly, leave as much detail as necessary for us to understand and answer your question, and leave contact info.

Soil Testing Services

***This service is currently on pause here at CCE-Tompkins**** See the CCE Soil Testing web page for more information. You can take your samples to Agway for soil pH testing, and to Dairy One for more extensive nutrient testing. 

Insect, Disease or Plant Identification

***This service is currently on pause here at CCE-Tompkins**** You can send your samples to Cornell University for identification, at a charge of $25/sample. Please read this information about how to submit an insect sample to The Cornell University Insect Diagnostic Laboratory.

Home Garden/Landscape Site Visits

Master Gardener Volunteers (MGV) are available to perform a limited number of garden site visits each year. The charge for individual consultation is $50 for a one hour consultation.  Master Gardeners are available to provide services that deal with mostly with diagnostics, plant ID, and other services that require our MGV training background. CCE Tompkins and the MGVs do not do garden design as part of our Site Visit program. Requests for appointments can be made by contacting the Growline at growline1@gmail.com.

Seeds and Seed Saving Resources

CCE Tompkins maintains a seed library in the Agriculture-Environment office. Free seeds are currently only available for gardeners at our Seed Giveaways. We also accept well packaged and labeled seeds from community members for the seed library, which will be redistributed the following year for other gardeners. For more information on saving seeds and a list of organizations that promote seed saving, seed production and plant breeding, go to Cornell University's resource page on all things seedy!

Please note: All CCE-Tompkins fees are contingent upon the ability to pay.

Last updated August 30, 2021