Category: Cool Research

The new American chestnut tree: resistant survivor or Frankentree?

Recently ScienceDaily.com posted an article about American chestnut trees due to be planted in New York City. Researchers hope that these trees will be resistant to chestnut blight, an introduced fungal disease that pretty much wiped out mature specimens over the last 100 years.

When I lived in Buffalo, I was a member of the American Chestnut Foundation and every spring I helped with efforts to replant chestnuts in the hopes that resistant individuals might be found. … Continue reading this article “The new American chestnut tree: resistant survivor or Frankentree?”

Our visiting professor takes on veggie nutrition

First, let me give a blanket apology for all of us GPs – this is the first time ever all four of us have NOT posted in the same week.  I’m on the road this week with my high schooler checking out colleges, and I think the other three are out drinking beer and tipping cows somewhere.  So our visiting GP veggie specialist extraordinaire has graciously stepped in to answer a reader’s question about the apparent decline in vegetable nutrition. … Continue reading this article “Our visiting professor takes on veggie nutrition”

Plants aren’t so cooperative after all

One of the underlying tenets of ecology is the principle of competitive exclusion. This principle states that when two species compete for the same vital resource, the better adapted species will ultimately displace its competitor. Simply put, it’s survival of the fittest.

More recently, some ecologists have suggested that nature’s not quite so brutal – that the species composition in an ecosystem is determined more by random fluctuations in population numbers than by direct competition.

But last month, this "neutral theory" was directly challenged by evidence on three continents which compared the abundance of particular tree species, both in the fossil record and in existing forest ecosystems.… Continue reading this article “Plants aren’t so cooperative after all”

Our visiting professor digs into tomato planting depth

With Ray’s recent photos of the peach, crabapple, and hydrangea planted too deeply, a discussion of tomato planting depth arose in the comments. I’ve seen the prolific adventitious roots start to form near the base of tomato plants, and I plant tomatoes to the cotyledon or deeper, but tomato planting depth not an area I have extensive research experience in. So I did a little literature search.

It seems that the practice of planting tomatoes is more than just friendly garden folklore.… Continue reading this article “Our visiting professor digs into tomato planting depth”

Bridging research and reality

This summer, I’ll be giving a seminar on “Arboriculture Myths” at the ISA conference in Portland, OR. I’ve been quizzing arborist-types for a few months now to find out what myths they would most like to see debunked during my talk. Intermixed with the suggestions of dubious products and questionable practices there was this question: “How often do the results from research with limited scope get over-extrapolated?”

I like the question a lot, because this is the fine line that we Garden Professors walk in bringing you the newest scientific information we can find. … Continue reading this article “Bridging research and reality”

What I did on my Christmas vacation

The week between Christmas and New Years’ is usually pretty laid back around here.  But not this time!  Along with 22 volunteers, 3 family members, and 1 graduate student, I spent that week putting in 80 trees for a long-term experiment.


My long-suffering family and I installing the last of the 80 trees on the fourth day of hell.

My intrepid graduate student Cindy Riskin obtained 40 B&B Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) and 40 containerized mugo pine (Pinus mugo). … Continue reading this article “What I did on my Christmas vacation”

Phosphate toxicity and iron deficiency

Bert’s post yesterday reminded me of some work one of my graduate students did about 10 years ago.  We were curious to see whether a transplant fertilizer containing phosphate was correlated with foliar iron deficiency, which is visualized as interveinal chlorosis:

 What Scott did was to plant 10 rhododendrons per treatment into pots containing containing a name brand azalea, camellia and rhododendron food (5-5-3) at 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 times the recommended amount. Here are some of the results of that study:

 
Total number of chlorotic plants

Total foliar iron vs.… Continue reading this article “Phosphate toxicity and iron deficiency”

Today in Cucurbit News…

Cucumbers are one of the most widely-grown vegetables in the world.  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (a great place to buy unusual and international veggie seeds) lists 51 varieties from North America, Southeast Asia, China, India, Mexico, and Europe.  Dark green ones seem to be in the minority – yellow, white, orange and red skins in shapes round to elongated dominate.

Cukes traditionally have a few nutrients including some Vitamin A from carotenoids and beta carotene, but have never had the reputation as nutritional power house.… Continue reading this article “Today in Cucurbit News…”

An unusual company

This week I’m in Charlotte, NC as a guest of Bartlett Tree Experts.  In addition to providing tree services, this company also maintains the Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories and Arboretum. The latter includes over 300 acres of tree collections and ongoing research trials.  Here’s a sampling of the tree research we had a chance to observe:


Demonstration espalier pruning…


…and pleaching


Comparison of root barrier materials.  This area was covered with a sidewalk for a number of years and then exposed to observe tree rooting patterns. … Continue reading this article “An unusual company”

So…How Much Pesticide Is Actually In Our Fruits and Veggies?

We have discussed the dirty dozen here before – those foods which a group called The Environmental Working Group (wow—fancy name – everything they say must be true!) has established contain more residues of different pesticides than other foods.  I’ve already stated my concerns about selecting organic foods instead of conventionally grown ones because of a fear of pesticides so I won’t restate that here.  Instead what I want to call your attention to an article sent to me by our visiting professor, Charlie Rowher. … Continue reading this article “So…How Much Pesticide Is Actually In Our Fruits and Veggies?”