Spring is off to a warm and fast start here in Michigan. March was unseasonably warm and the past week or so has seen temperature 20 degrees above average or more. Needless to say this is pushing all of our landscape trees and shrubs. Forsythia and saucer magnolia are in full bloom, at least two weeks ahead of schedule. The warm weather also has us scrambling to get some research projects in the ground as well. … Continue reading this article “Getting Loaded”
Tag: nutrients
Building healthy soils?
I love living in Seattle…but I’m getting increasingly impatient with the City’s “Building Healthy Soils” propaganda. For years I’ve questioned their recommendation to perpetually amend landscape soil with organic material to no avail. Let’s see what you all think of their “fact sheet” (which you can read here in its entirety).
“The best way to improve the soil is to add plenty of compost or other organic matter throughout the entire planting area before planting. Thoroughly mixing these materials deep into the soil helps provide water, air and nutrients to plant roots.”… Continue reading this article “Building healthy soils?”
An evolving view of plant nutrition
One of the hallmarks of science is that our view of the world evolves and changes as new evidence comes to light. When I was a grade-schooler following the Apollo missions, for example, I knew all the planets in order from Mercury to Pluto and how many moons each one had; Jupiter was the champ with 12. Today, Jupiter has as many as 63 moons depending on who’s counting. And Pluto, let’s not even go there. … Continue reading this article “An evolving view of plant nutrition”
Art, Science, and Faith
First of all, who we are and what we do. All of the Garden Professors are in the business of the science of Horticulture. What’s Horticulture? The standard definition of Horticulture is the art and science of tending a garden. Horticulture is clearly more than science but science is the foundation and underpinning. For anyone that needs convincing that Horticulture is an art as much as a science I suggest the following exercise. Go to a major research university and wander through their Botany or Plant Biology greenhouses.… Continue reading this article “Art, Science, and Faith”
Sunday rant – the evils of chemicals
It’s days like this that I am so grateful to have this blog at my disposal!
It’s 7 am on Sunday and I’m just finishing the paper, drinking Earl Grey tea, and listening to NPR. Liane Hansen just finished an interview with Martha Stewart, who among other things was discussing healthy eating for the new year. She’s a proponent of organic food (as are many of us), and mentioned two reasons she doesn’t like conventionally grown produce. … Continue reading this article “Sunday rant – the evils of chemicals”
Pop Quiz!
Bet you weren’t expecting this on TUESDAY, eh?
Heh, heh.
Situation: these photos are from a grad student project. We wanted to create, observe, and record nutrient deficiency symptoms, so we grew the plants hydroponically in a made-from-scratch nutrient solution, containing everything except one particular nutrient. There were 12 separate batches of solution, one missing each essential mineral nutrient (N,P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, Mn, Cu, B, Mo, Zn – couldn’t exclude Cl as it’s too common in salts). … Continue reading this article “Pop Quiz!”
Chad and Jeff’s Excellent Nursery Adventure
About 3 months after I started my job in Minnesota I hired a technician to help me run the nursery and to manage research plots. His name is Chad and he stands about 6 foot 4, has shoulders that threaten to pop the sides of the skid steer loader whenever he enters it, and he knows his stuff because he needs to (and even if he didn’t know his stuff you’d be scared to tell him that because he looks dangerous with his frightening Fu-Manchu moustache). … Continue reading this article “Chad and Jeff’s Excellent Nursery Adventure”
My Favorite Class Project
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”