Author: jeffgillman003

I can’t decide if I like the fact that various companies read what I write or not. On the one hand, it’s kind of nice to know they care, but on the other, I kind of like to think that I can talk to people without them hanging over my shoulder.

How do I know they’re there over my shoulder?

They send me stuff.  Sometimes it’s a nasty or "educational" e-mail after I’ve published something about their product that they don’t like, and sometimes it’s a gift bag (or an offer of a gift bag) if I mention that I like something.

I never respond, with one notable exception.  Once I wrote a little something on bees for a newspaper and a small honey operation went out of their way to drop off some honey for me at the front desk.  I thought that was really nice so I wrote them a quick thank-you. 

I wrote something nice about Milorganite recently and they sent me a ballcap, some pens, and samples — along with some literature.  That was nice, but I feel like it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to write back.  I do like Milorganite, but if I start to think of them as my "friends" I don’t know how impartial I’ll be able to be if I find something out that changes my opinion.  I will use the free sample though.

On the boo-hiss side I had the lawyer from company in town call a newspaper where I published a story recently to tell them I got my facts wrong and that they needed to publish a retraction.  The company was wrong though — so no retraction was published, but it was still odd to have a lawyer get involved like that.  Will I think twice about talking about that company’s product in the future?  Not consciously.  But subconsciously?  Who knows (shoot — subconsciously it might make me talk about them more — I don’t know).

Today I’m going to throw up a post that’s a little link-heavy, but I encourage you to follow these links because they show how prevalent the technology is that I discuss.  And a trip to the garden center will quickly show how infrequently this technology is used.

It’s frustrating.

Why the heck do we still buy plants grown in containers using 1950s technology?  I was reading Bert’s post this week about how to treat container grown trees before planting and also considering a somewhat similar experiment which I conducted about a year ago (stats are in and support my points in that article), and I couldn’t help asking, why do we put ourselves through it? 

The technology is out there for us to produce great root systems by using new types of pots that have become available over the last few years. Look up High Caliper Growing System, Rootmakers (which also includes RootTrappers — we’ve been using these for years), Smart Pots, Superoots, — and there are other systems out there too – all of these systems greatly reduce circling roots and are relatively easy to use.

Do we ask for record players or black and white TVs when we go to the electronics store?  No!  We want MP3 players and big flat screens.  So why are we content with plants grown in containers that come straight from 1954 in our garden centers? 

If we would just start to demand that garden centers and nurseries provide container grown plants with better root systems we’d get them – because they are out there.  But we need to be proactive or we’ll be stuck in the past forever.

OK, here’s a question for you.  How much would you pay for an online course taught by professors (perhaps garden professors?) about plants and gardening including things like fertilizers, pest control, etc.?

Hour long lectures once a week (through Skype or something similar) with an additional 1/2 hour built in for questions?  12 weeks of lectures.  No college credit.

I haven’t talked to the other garden professors about it — this is purely a hypothetical question for now.  I’m just wondering if there is interest in this kind of thing, and if so, how much. 

Thanks for your responses!

I’m not going to sugar coat it – I’ve been too cavalier in recommending iron phosphate for slugs and snails. 

A few days ago Erin Harris put a comment in my post about dandelions asking whether those iron phosphate baits you can buy for slugs might also be toxic to earthworms.  The answer is yes – they might.  And not only that, these iron phosphate baits can also be toxic to other animals such as dogs.

How bad might these products be for dogs and earthworms you ask?  I don’t think anyone knows exactly, but to my knowledge this is the most recent paper on the subject.  And here’s an abstract on dog poisonings.

Now, based on the data I’ve seen on poisoning incidents, iron phosphate is less likely to poison your dog than its closest competitor, metaldehyde (though the iron phosphate seems more likely to hurt earthworms than the metaldehyde).  I’m not going to stop recommending iron phosphate – Still, I can’t recommend it quite as freely as I have been in my talks — I need to add some real caveats. 

So then the question is, how did I not know about the potential problems of iron phosphate?  Simple.  I assumed that the compounds listed on the active ingredient list were really the only ingredients I needed to think about.  Silly me.  Just like Round-up, and almost any other pesticide you can name, there are other ingredients that help the active ingredients work — and that could cause issues.  For Round-up, the soaps mixed in there to help the product stick can hurt frogs or other amphibians.  For Iron phosphate, the extra ingredient that could do some damage is EDTA.

So, you’re asking, what is EDTA?  EDTA is a chemical which makes metals more soluble, called a chelate.  In iron phosphate products EDTA helps the iron to be taken up into the body of the snail or slug making it work much better than it might otherwise.  EDTA is also used in fertilizers so that elements (usually iron) are taken up more readily (because they’re soluble).  But because EDTA makes metals more soluble, it also helps them get to places they shouldn’t go – like into an earthworms body.

Now don’t go thinking EDTA is bad.  It’s not.  In fact, if you ever ingest lead or some other metal you’ll be thankful for EDTA because it is used to help clear potentially toxic metals from the body.  EDTA is even present in some of our foods for various reasons.  That said, as with any chemical (including water!), it is possible for EDTA to do things we don’t want it to do in the wrong circumstances.   And that’s why we need to be more careful with its use.

As I said before, I’m still OK with iron phosphate products, especially as they compare to metaldehyde products, but you can bet I’ll be spending more time stressing its drawbacks.  I’ll also be spending more time touting beer.

For slugs of course!

Now, a question for you.  These iron phosphate products are currently listed by the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) and some labels list it as being safe to use around pets and wildlife.  If the products include EDTA, should that be the case?  (You can look up EDTA in Wikipedia if you want to see how it’s made.)  Are you comfortable with using EDTA in organic production?  Does it matter to you if it’s used as a fertilizer vs. as an ingredient in a pesticide?

Why does everyone want to kill dandelions?  I like dandelions.  I like that my kids go and pick them and give them to me.  I like that they break up the monotonous green of my yard.  I like that they can be used to make wine (though I’ve never had any).  I like that I can pick one and take it apart to teach my kids and the kids in my classes about the basic morphology of flowers.

I don’t like the fact that the most common herbicide used today to kill dandelions, 2,4 D, may have serious effects on the health of dogs, in part because it isn’t rapidly excreted from the dog’s body.

I also don’t like the fact that many shrubs and perennials are killed every year because of poor spraying techniques intended to kill dandelions.

But what’s most irritating to me is that we have a technique out there for controlling dandelions which is pretty darn effective, but which is almost never used.  It’s not a 100% control, probably not even an 80% control, but it still works pretty well if we’d just give it a go.  And that technique is….wise fertilization.  You see, dandelions like to be fertilized with potassium.  They love the stuff.  In fact, they love the stuff more than grass loves the stuff, so if we’d just reduce the amount of potassium we applied to our yards…we’d have fewer dandelions.

But if you just can’t get over the idea of having a yard clear of dandelions, there is a new, relatively safe, product out there that will kill them though it may take a few applications.  It is not an “organic” product – though in my estimation it’s safer than many organic products.  The active ingredient of that product is FeHEDTA, which is an iron chelate that delivers a dose of iron the dandelion can’t handle but which, apparently, grass can. This stuff is available in two products I can think of offhand – Ortho elements lawn weed killer and Whitney Farm lawn weed killer. 

But come on — dandelions are cool.  They’ve been in the US just about as long as European settlers and their descendants have — and taken over the landscape just about as effectively.  Shoot, we should probably have the dandelion as our country’s official flower! Why are we so anxious to toss ’em?

Rotenone is an organic insecticide that has been voluntarily withdrawn by its manufacturer because it’s quite toxic, it’s dangerous to the environment, and there is some evidence that it causes Parkinson’s disease.  And there are safer choices.  For my post today I was thinking of posting about all of the places I could still buy rotenone, but after doing a web search I couldn’t find many – and most of the places I found to purchase it don’t really have it (I don’t think) – they’re just old pages that weren’t taken down.

But in my string of results I kept getting this one weird hit – something called Goodwinol ointment for dogs.  So I looked into it, and sure enough, there’s an ointment you can buy for your dog that contains    1.25 % Rotenone.  It’s supposed to be for mange, but no prescription is necessary, so anyone could buy it.  To me this is a little concerning.  Rotenone is some nasty stuff, 1.25% is a relatively large dose, and I’m not sure that most people using it would be careful to use gloves.  So I’m wondering, should this stuff really be out there?   

I like to say that my taste in music is eclectic, but it’s not really true.  I like music that is known as classic rock (60s – 80s rock once known as pop) and I like music known as "alternative" (really a meaningless term — but I don’t invent the labels).  The one band that I love who might be considered completely out of the mainstream is Rasputina — a cello based group who sing about many things, including history.  1816 in particular.  Listen, it’s a history (and meteorology) lesson in a song.

So, that said, In 1816 there were freezes in every month of the year across much of the Northern part of the US.  Leaves were frozen off trees almost as they formed — and yet, unless trees were small and/or weak, they lived to see 1817 (also a tough year), and beyond.  Sure, fruit production was way down, but trees are prepared for tough conditions — they store plenty of carbohydrates to protect themselves against that very thing occurring.  So, if anyone asks what’s going to happen to our trees if they flush out early (which they are doing) and then there are some late frosts, just point to 1816.  Or, better yet, let them listen to the song.  

Back in February I had the opportunity to give a talk on a new book that I put together with a friend of mine, Meleah Maynard, who is a Master Gardener and garden writer here in Minnesota (you can see our promotional video here  — this is the video our administration let us run — you should have seen the one they didn’t!).  We conducted this talk at Bachman’s — a very well known garden center here in Minnesota.  For this talk we took products off the shelves and talked about them — some we trashed, like high phosphorus fertilizers.  Some we raved about, like cotton seed meal.

Anyway, Bachman’s got word of what we’d done.  How could they not?  some of their employees were there –and they loved it.  In fact, they brought me, as well as some internal people and John Lloyd — a well known and well respected tree guy in the area — back to talk to their sales force about the good and bad products they carry.  No holds barred.

This is the kind of thing I love, and here’s why.  I’m pretty difficult to pin down politically.  On some topics there’s no doubt I’m a liberal, on some a right winger.  Sometimes to the point of being a libertarian.  When it comes to garden centers I’m a libertarian.  Companies needs to make money, so they should have a diverse inventory, if that’s what brings consumers in, and let the buyer beware.  Part of Bachman’s success comes from the huge variety of products it carries, and I think it would be a shame for them to reduce this variety in any way — it could hurt business.  HOWEVER, Bachman’s knows that this freedom doesn’t mean that Bachman’s employees should be ignorant of the environmental consequences of some of the products they carry, or that they should recommend these products to their customers when asked.  So they have the best of both worlds — If you want some nutty product, hey, Bachman’s has it, and if you really want to know which products are good or bad?  Hey, just ask their knowledgeable sales force.  Nice!