Category: Uncategorized

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.  

A few weeks ago I posted on the disappointing inclusion of compost tea in the APLD’s Guide to Sustainable Soils.  Included in my discussion of the issue was the suggestion that people involved in writing the guide also benefited financially from compost tea applications.  This led to some very honest and constructive emails between me and the APLD’s national leadership, which resulted in educating both parties.

Here’s what I found from the APLD’s President Susan Olinger and Sustainability Chair Toni Bailey:  “As members of the Board of Directors of APLD, we can verify that there was no financial motive behind the inclusion of compost tea by the volunteers that wrote the soils guide.”  This is heartening and makes me feel less cynical about the motives behind including compost tea in the publication.

And here’s what I was able to impart to the leadership of APLD:  that while landscape designers may like to include compost tea as a soil amendment, the belief in its efficacy in improving soil tilth or biology is not supported by legitimate science.  It’s not a matter of sides, or opinions, but a matter of scientific evidence.

If the APLD doesn’t intend its guide to be a scientifically supported document, that’s certainly fine; landscape designers aren’t scientists, after all.  But since good soil science-based information is found throughout most of the guide, the inclusion of compost tea and mycorrhizal inoculants could easily be interpreted by others as science-based as well.

Photos by Tom Fernandez

Ok, admit it.  If you’re over 40 or so, at some point in your life you’ve muttered that phase, likely more than once.  There is no doubt the younger generation can do things to get under your skin and raise your blood pressure.  But then they can turn around and do some pretty cool things, too.  The cool side was on ample display this weekend as over 750 college Horticulture students from 62 college and universities competed this weekend at the annual PLANET Student Career Days (SCD).  For the initiated, SCD is the landscaping Olympics for undergraduate students across the US (and a few from Canada to boot). The competition is organized by the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) and sponsored by companies such as Stihl, Gravely, and Husqvarna.   Students competed in 28 events including arboricultural techniques, plant identification, skid-steer operation, sales presentation, paver construction and landscape installation.  The event moves around the country each year, and Kansas State hosted this year’s event in Manhattan. 

The logistics of the event are astounding.  For example, in the paver construction, wood construction, and landscape installation events, 40 teams are given the exact same set of materials and tools.  When the starting horn sounds the teams are given their plan and then allowed two hours to complete the job.  Watching 40 two or three person teams racing against each other and the clock to complete their project is truly inspiring; as is the camaraderie and sportsmanship.  At PLANET SCD everything is on the up and up. No performance enhancing substances, no under the table payments; just college kids working their hardest to do their best for themselves and their team.  And everyone can contribute.  The plant geek who can nail plant ID or the persuasive saleswoman-to-be who gets their customer to sign on the line can score as many points for their team as the athletic tree climber or skilled equipment operator.  So, what’s the matter with kids these days?  When you watch them compete in SCD: not a darn thing.

For more on PLANET student career days, including a pretty cool video clip  on last year’s event go to: http://www.studentcareerdays.org/

For the record: BYU-Idaho was the overall winner this year.  MSU finished 4^th and Virginia Tech was 9^th. 

Students compete in Landscape CAD at PLANET SCD

Team MSU is all smiles after the Landscape Installation event in the mud-pit

MSU Horticulture club President Jackie Grow (left) closes the deal en route to a 3rd place finish in Sales Presentation

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!

On this blog we get mad at lots of things.  Sure, anger is fun, but sometimes you’ve got to suck it up and say something nice for a change.  So today I thought I’d point out a product that, while it comes from a company that I’ve had issues with in the past, is, itself, a good product.  I like Miracle-Gro Moisture Control potting mix.  The reason is that it utilizes coconut coir, a waste product from coconuts which holds lots of water and which can still maintain good aeration.  That means a reduced amount of peat.  I also like that the fertility present in this product (so you don’t need to fertilize right after you plant) is 3-1-2 which is appropriate for most situations.  Now, could you mix up you own coir potting mix more cheaply?  Sure, if you can find it.  You could also fertilize with a renewable organic fertilizer.  Still, I think Miracle-Gro got this one right.

Last week I decided to continue my discussion on cold hardiness and so now, of course, temperatures are forecast in the mid-70’s for this week.  Oh well, I’m still convinced we’ve got one more blast of winter to go and some of this will still matter to someone.

One of the questions posed in response to last week’s post was how much cold hardiness changes during the winter.  Before I get into that, it’s good to review how cold hardiness can be quantified.  Cold hardiness is essentially how much cold a plant can withstand before it suffers damage.  There are two common ways by which this can be measured.  The simplest and most straightforward method is through a whole plant (or whole shoot) freeze test.  In this test, entire plants, usually seedlings, are placed in freezer that is programmed to drop the temperature progressively colder, say from 3 deg C to -36 deg. C

At set intervals, often 3 deg. C, a group of plants are removed.  The plants are allowed to slowly thaw and are then examined for needle damage or bud kill.  At the warmest temperatures, plants are undamaged.  As we examine plants subjected to colder temperatures, we’ll begin to find some with damage.  Eventually we’ll find a temperature where all the plants are damaged.  When we plot the percent of damaged plants versus temperature we can identify an LT50, or lethal threshold where 50% of plants are damaged.

Examples of determining bud damage during whole shoot freeze tests.

The second common assay for cold hardiness is termed Freeze-induced electrolyte leakage or FIEL.  FIEL testing is similar to the whole plant freeze test except that instead of freezing the entire plant or shoot, just a small portion of tissue, such as a conifer needle segment is needed.  The FIEL test is based on the fact that plants can withstand inter-cellular ice (ice between cells) but not intra-cellular ice (ice within cells).  When intra-cellular ice forms it disrupts the cell membranes and cell contents are released into solution.  The amount of leakage of cell contents into solution can be easily measured using a standard conductivity meter.  Again, we can estimate an LT50 by plotting the amount of damage versus exposure temperature.

By assessing cold hardiness periodically through the winter, we can assess changes in hardiness associated with acclimation and de-acclimation processes.  A classic study by Karen Burr and her colleagues demonstrates how quickly acclimation can change.  In their study they tracked cold hardiness of conifer seedlings that we exposed to acclimating conditions (short days and progressively colder temps) and then de-acclimating conditions (longer days and warming temps).  The resulting chart demonstrates how dynamic cold hardiness can be.  When we describe plans based on Hardiness zone we’re talking about their maximum hardiness or the temps they can stand in the mid-winter period.  But note how quickly the lethal temperature rises during de-acclimation.
Seasonal trend in phases of cold hardiness: Acclimation, Maximum hardiness, and De-acclimation

Typically, our most common winter injury problems occur during the de-acclimation phase as temps warm and hardiness is lost.  We saw a dramatic example of this several years ago in western Michigan when an early March warm-up with temperatures in the 50’s F was followed by nights with temps as low a -5 deg.  This resulted in widespread bud-kill in conifer plantations.  With a week of highs in the 60’s and 70’s forecast, it’s easy to see why our current warm-up has everyone nervous.

Maximum and minimum temperatures from a west Michigan weather station