New study on pesticide use and GMOs

Some environmental extremists discount agricultural research done by universities, because they receive funding from Big Ag and therefore their researchers can’t be trusted. So this news report of a recent study by one of my Washington State University colleagues is doubly important: it dispells this baseless assertion and it provides some significant – and troubling – information about pesticide use and GMO crops.

Briefly, the article links an increased use of herbicides as a result of increased use of GMOs such as Roundup-ready crops. Weeds build up resistance to herbicides over time, meaning that Roundup becomes less useful as a weed killer and farmers have to turn to more toxic substitutes like 2,4-D to control weeds.

Dr. Benbrooks’s results, published in a peer-reviewed journal, are contested by the chemical industry, and other scientists question the seriousness of the problem. But next time you hear someone malign university scientists as being in Monsanto’s back pocket, please refer them to this post.

An unwanted bonus in your urban chickens

Longtime reader Ray Eckhart sent me a NYT story on urban chicken eggs and lead contamination.  As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, urban gardeners should have their soils tested for lead, arsenic, and other commonly found heavy metals before they plant edibles.  Chickens that are allowed to peck and scratch in metal-contaminated soils will pass that unwanted load on to you via their eggs.

So test your soils!  It costs a bit of money, but then you know exactly what’s lurking in there.  If your soils have significantly high levels of lead or other contaminants, you can still raise chickens as long as they don’t roam your garden.

Plant sentience – a slippery slope

I maintain a “Garden Professors blog” group on Facebook, where people can pose questions and make suggestions. Ellyn Shea asked about the trend towards calling plants sentient, especially given the new book by Daniel Chamovitz – What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses

Dr. Chamovitz is a respected scientist, and there is no doubt that plants sense and respond to their environment in ways we are still learning to understand. But couching plant responses in language associated with human sentience is a slippery slope.  Yes, it makes plant physiology more understandable to nonscientists, but it also leads to increased belief in pseudoscientific ideas. For example, here’s a response to an on-air interview with the author (the link is my own insertion):

“Over a hundred years ago Rudolf Steiner wrote about biodynamics and plant growth. Their sensitivities to the seasons, their environments, and humans…”

Here’s another:

“I have been talking to plants for years…our experimental garden overflows, the cellular intelligence, the capacity to communicate is deeply satisfying when you learn how to listen and feel what the plant is saying…they give us much information at a spiritual level as well as physical, i thank my flowers verbally, i sing to them,they respond in healing ways…water has the same living intelligence…talk to a glass of water with love before you drink it and it actually improves the feelings of health and flavor ….”

And another:

“One who understands this far more thoroughly than Chamovitch is Stephen Harrod Buhner, author of The Lost Language of Plants and the Secret Teachings of Plants, in which he details the most cutting edge cardio-neurological science which demonstrates that the heart (more neurons than muscle cells) is the body’s primary resonator and capable of direct energetic communication with the rest of the living community. All indigenous and ancient peoples knew this.”

Plant physiology is drastically different from animal physiology, and what we’ve learned about how plants work comes from centuries of careful scientific study – not from folklore and superstition.  For those of us Garden Professor types who spend time educating the public about plant sciences, anthropomorphizing plants or using imprecise language just makes our jobs more difficult.

Up, up, and away…

First, let me cue the 5th Dimension.

 

I got a call the other day from the owner of a local hot air balloon company.  They specialize in fall color rides and he wanted to include some info from me about the state of fall color in Michigan this year.  Despite our concerns following this summer’s heat and drought, it turns out this year has been very good for fall color.  I think our color has been a bit more variable than usual with some trees turning early and I’m noticing many maples are dropping pretty leaves quickly once they hit peak.  Nevertheless, nature is giving us a great show. And if you’ve got a little extra spending money, there’s probably no better way to see it than from a beautiful balloon…

Photos: Scott Lorenz, Westwind Balloon Co.

 

 

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When all else fails…

As someone who has had a foot in Horticulture and a foot in Forestry throughout most of my career, people often ask me to compare the two disciplines.  One of the truisms that applies in both cases is, “When all else fails, blame the nursery.”  I’ve seen this following seedling die-offs in industrial forest plantations and I’ve seen it many, many times after street tree or landscape planting failures.  In fact, if you believe some people, tree nurseries are responsible for every plague and pestilence to ever afflict mankind.  Are some tree failures related to things that happened in the nursery?  Of course.  But there are lots of things that can go wrong between a nursery and a tree’s final destination; and even more things that can go wrong after it’s planted.

I know a lot of people don’t believe this, but nursery growers want their trees to survive and grow well after they leave their care.   Growing trees is like making cars and any other business.  You need satisfied customers if you expect to have repeat business.  The best growers are always looking at their production practices for ways to improve their product.  Last week I visited Korson’s tree farm in central Michigan.  Korson’s grows Christmas trees and B & B landscape conifers.   Rex Korson, the owner, has been concerned over the impact of root loss during transplanting of landscape trees.  So much so, in fact, that he is conducting his own trial on root pruning.

For those that are not familiar, root pruning of B & B trees is usually done a couple years before harvest by using a tree spade to severe tree roots.  The spade used for pruning is slightly smaller than the one used for harvest, so that new roots stimulated by pruning are harvested with the root ball.  Does it work?  I did a root pruning trial a few years back to see if it could improve survival of fall-planted oaks and had mixed results.  For Rex’s trees, however, the initial results were pretty impressive.  In the first photo below are root systems of Norway spruce trees dug with a 30” tree spade.  The second photo shows the root systems of trees dug with the 30” spade that had been root-pruned last October with a 24” tree spade.  The response in one-year’s time was dramatic.  At this point there no out-planting data but, other factors being equal, increasing the amount of roots harvested with the tree should increase transplant success.

I should hasten to point out that Rex is not alone.  I work with many other growers in the state that are constantly tinkering with this or that in their production systems; sometimes on their own, sometimes with university specialists or extension educators.  I’m not so Pollyanna to think that everything is always rosy in the nursery world but most growers, especially the better ones, are aware of the issues out there and are working to build a better tree.

Spruce dug with 30″ spade without root pruning

Norway spruce root-pruned in Oct 2011 with a 24″ spade and dug Oct 2012 with a 30″ spade.


Close up of new fine roots


Tree spade mounted on excavator for root pruning.  With this system an operator can root prune 8 trees in 5 minutes.

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Pennsylvania is for…..Snake Oil?

This year at the Philadelphia Flower Show there were a few groups talking about compost tea.  Meadow Brook Farm, a farm owned by the Pennsylvania State Horticultural Society is one, and another is F2, a company that provides “Scientific Soil Management”.   Apparently they do things that are good for the soil, though the “method” section of their website is a little too vague for me.  They also offer pictures of the results they’ve had with compost tea on a few different projects.  The one that was most interesting to me was the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway.  You can see it here.

Look at the boxwood comparison and you tell me why the compost tea didn’t do a darn thing.   Look at the grass comparison while you’re at it.

Throughout the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society’s website there are all kinds of opportunities to find out how to make and use compost tea, including courses at Meadowbrook farm.  Now that Elaine Ingham is at the Rodale Institute (Which is in Emmaus Pennsylvania) they have all kinds of classes on it there too.  Even Longwood Gardens is Getting into the act (scroll down and click on the compost tea link).  So what I want to know is, why have the Compost Tea Gods invaded my home state of Pennsylvania?  What makes the keystone state so attractive to people who want to promote snake oil?  I just don’t get it.  Is it the cheesesteaks?  Maybe the scrapple?

No, I’m pretty sure it’s the Rolling Rock….or maybe the Yuengling – America’s oldest brewery (their Black and Tan is one of the best beers in the US – second only to anything brewed by the Surly company).   Yeah, that’s gotta be it.

Why it’s important to prune tree roots before planting

This week I discovered that one of our center’s landscape trees is ready to bite the dust. I was sad – but also happy.  It’s a wonderful teaching moment and if the tree has to give up its life to save others, I guess that’s okay.

As the video will show you, this Japanese maple was planted some years ago with a root circling the trunk.  As both the trunk and root have developed in girth, we’ve reached a point where the trunk is constricted and the weight of the tree is splitting this V-shaped specimen down the middle just like a turkey wishbone.  We’ll just have to see how long it takes.

 

Bottom line: even though it takes a little more time to correct a flawed woody root system, it’s well worth the effort.

Gone but not forgotten…

Got to spend Friday in the field in northern Michigan visiting growers and seeing some neat stuff: Great fall color, some natural concolor x Fraser fir hybrids and some awesome root systems produced by root pruning.  Unfortunately, like the dog that ate the homework, my camera decided not to part with the images.  I am tracking down replacements and will post an update on Friday.</d

Fall for Ornamental Grasses


I’ve written about ornamental grasses previously – they really are one of the toughest, most useful yet under-appreciated groups of garden plants.  Most provide at least three seasons of interest, but fall is when they really shake their pom-poms.

On a recent conference trip to western Michigan with pal and plantsman Paul Westervelt, we stopped by the trials at Walter’s Gardens of Zeeland – one of the largest perennial propagators (wholesale) in the country.

It was a beautiful, breezy day in their extensive gardens, and the grasses were positively alive with light and motion (and kittens – seven or eight, I think). What a fantastic afternoon.

 Here are a few recent introductions that knocked our socks off.  All are hardy to at least USDA Zone 5, heat tolerant to Zone 8 or 9, and the non-natives have been screened for any invasive tendencies. All are patented.

Panicum virgatum ‘Dust Devil’


 There are many great cultivars of our native switchgrass out there; but few come in under 6’ or 7’ – problematic for the small garden. Dust Devil is comparatively  petite – 3 to 4 feet tall, blue-green foliage, and resists the rain beat-down that often happens to the rangy cultivars. Selected by Michigander Gary Trucks.

 

Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Burgundy Bunny’


 Paul and I were especially impressed by this sport of ‘Little Bunny’.  I’ve grown tons of ‘Little Bunny’ which is eminently useful for a pouf of “grassiness” at the front of the border.  ‘Burgundy Bunny’ brings terrific color that only gets better in the fall, in the same small package.  From Walla Walla Nursery and introduced by Plant Haven.


Paul models Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Red Head’

Nothing petite about this monster Fountain Grass.  Wow. 5’ tall and as wide, with gigantic foxtail plumes. As with most Pennisetum species, the show starts mid-summer and continues through fall.  Selected by the perennially prolific Brent Horvath of Intrinsic Perennials.

 

Schizycharium scoparium Blue Heaven™ (‘MinnBlueA’)

 

Selected by grass maven Dr. Mary Meyer from her trials at the University of Minnesota.  Mary has found a nice Little Bluestem that has outstanding foliage color (gets even better as the season progresses) and a very upright habit that fights the flop.  Native across much of North America and perfect for awful sites, Little Bluestem laughs at clay, heat, and drought, once established.  


 Andropogon gerardii ‘Indian Warrior’


Little Bluestem’s big brother of the tall grass prairie.  Another upright flop-fighter, this Big Bluestem is from Brent Horvath/Intrinsic. I’ve enjoyed Andropogon in my garden (got it from Paul) – the colors are amazing- but by summer’s end, they’ve flopped all over their neighbors. Can’t wait to give ‘Indian Warrior’ a try.

Lots more info on these and other grasses and perennials at Walters Gardens’ consumer portal www.perennialresource.com

 

Kittens in the grasses.  Ahn.

 


Finally: when in Grand Rapids, stop by HopCat for a tremendous selection of Michigan craft beers and hard ciders and the suitably-name Crack Fries (yes!!!).