Every year I teach a class called nursery management. In this class students have the opportunity to try all kinds of different growing techniques out in the nursery. They get to use a tree spade and prune and all kinds of other stuff. But something else that I have the students do is to make hydroponic systems for growing plants. No, hydroponics is not a common technique for growing plants in a nursery, but to grow plants hydroponically you need to know what you’re doing, and so this is a convenient way to make the students think about the plants they grow and what these plants need to prosper.… Continue reading this article “My Favorite Class Project”
Author: jeffgillman003
Buddleia or Buddleja?
I recently heard that Mike Dirr has come out with the next edition of his book on woody landscape plants. Dr. Dirr (I can’t seem to bring myself to call him Mike, even after all these years) was my major advisor in graduate school, so I’m really looking forward to getting it. In the meantime I heard that he included a section on my thoughts about how to spell the scientific name of the butterflybush, a plant that I worked on to get my Ph.D.. … Continue reading this article “Buddleia or Buddleja?”
Slugs and Beer
Around my home I have gravel and hostas. Just perfect, as you might imagine, for lots of slug damage. This is where I do my work on slug remedies. And there are lots of remedies for slugs! One of the oldest of these remedies is beer. Almost any beer will be adequate (including alcohol free), but generally the darker the beer the better. When I first started testing different cures for slugs about five years ago one of the first ones that I looked at was beer. … Continue reading this article “Slugs and Beer”
Bags and Apples
One of my favorite garden “cures” is placing a clear plastic sandwich bag around apples when they are young to protect them from insects and disease. It usually works great and impresses the heck out of people who see and eat the apples which are normally tough to grow without using bunches of organic or synthetic pesticides.
Unfortunately this year was different. Rebecca Koetter, the person who planted these trees and put the bags on the apples (on the University of Minnesota campus) discovered that birds may choose to ignore the bags. … Continue reading this article “Bags and Apples”
Bare Root Trees
For the past 11 years I’ve been running a nursery at the University of Minnesota called the TRE (for Teaching, Research, and Extension) nursery where we research all kinds of fun stuff like Dutch elm disease, the dangers of mulching, and what happens when you plant a tree too deeply. One of the most interesting things we’ve done recently, though, is to install Missouri gravel beds into the nursery. Missouri gravel beds are called Missouri gravel beds because they were invented by Chris Starbuck, a professor at Missouri State. … Continue reading this article “Bare Root Trees”
No Way! Something that actually works?
Sometimes I feel guilty because I always seem to be putting down the products that people sell to make their living. But not today! Today I’ve got something that actually works! No, it isn’t pretty, and it does have some irritating problems, but I can honestly say that it does what the company that manufactures it says it does. And that product is the Aqua Globe.
This is a very simple contraption (which is part of the reason that it works). … Continue reading this article “No Way! Something that actually works?”
Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide, and Plants
There was an article published recently that traced the melting of glaciers in the US over the last 50 years. This study showed, pretty convincingly, that the glaciers are, indeed, melting, and melting rapidly. Meanwhile, in our atmosphere, levels of carbon dioxide from humans burning fossil fuel are increasing in a manner roughly correlated to the increase in temperature that’s melting the glaciers. But is the carbon dioxide actually causing the warming? Believe it or not this is still an area of discussion among scientist, and the answer isn’t as simple as many newspapers make it out to be. … Continue reading this article “Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide, and Plants”
The Pile Of Ash On My Floor
Part of the problem with being a professor is that companies assume that I have a bottomless supply of funds to test their products and that it is, in fact, my duty to do so. And of course they assume that this testing will ultimately find their product useful.
The truth is that I do love to test things, but I don’t have the funds to do the comprehensive tests that these companies usually want, at least not without them helping out at least a little – and most of them don’t want to spend money on tests! … Continue reading this article “The Pile Of Ash On My Floor”
Mulch Volcanoes
After Linda’s post yesterday I just had to add my own 2 cents about gator bags. I use ’em and I like ’em. But, that said, I never allow gator bags to sit against trees for an extended period of time (Maybe 6 weeks when the tree first goes in). That’s just asking for trouble! But looking at those bags got me thinking about a project which we’re finishing up this year. Volcano mulching. Believe me, it sounds a lot cooler than it is. … Continue reading this article “Mulch Volcanoes”
Introducing Jeff Gillman
I’m an associate professor in the department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota. Officially I work mostly with trees and shrubs, but I’ve also been known to test things like egg shells for stopping slugs, beer for its qualities as a fertilizer, and milk for its fungicidal qualities.
I come from a small town in Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, where I first learned about growing trees in my parents’ small orchard. I attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster PA, then earned a masters degree in entomology and a Ph.D.… Continue reading this article “Introducing Jeff Gillman”