Trivia Hoedown #9 September 29, 2007

The new term has begun, so we have a bountiful, if ever so slightly dry, hoedown this week.

1. Right now aphids are giving birth to the only males of the year. The males will mate with females and lay the eggs that will overwinter and emerge next Spring. Up until this point in the year, all the aphids that were chowing down on your plants were female and most of them were clones. A female aphid that you meet in July is pregnant with her clonal daughters, who, inside their mother’s body, are pregnant with her clonal granddaughters. Aphids give live birth up until the end of the season when they lay next year’s eggs.

2. Gorse, a spiny and now noxious introduction from Ireland, burns so hot because of its volatile oils that a fire that started on the coast of Oregon in 1936 nearly burned the town of Bandon to the ground. The fire could not be put out with water, and 1,800 homes were destroyed and 10 people killed.

3. I went to see a private garden yesterday that is 4 acres managed with no pesticides and only organic fertilizers. Not only can it be done, it was beautiful and is due to be featured in Sunset Western in the coming months. (More on this property later.)

4. I’m discovering this week that the differences between many maple species are so subtle, it’s tempting to try to identify every single one on campus before the midterm. That way, no matter where the Bataan Death March of Plant ID stops along the course, I’ll know the tree. It’s probably not going to happen.

5. To most of my readers, this will not be news: when you turn or clear an area for new planting or construction, you bring all the dormant weed seeds to the surface. That’s the reason for the sudden explosion of weeds, many of which you haven’t seen nearby recently, or ever. It’s like Christmas for weeds.

6. Buggy outreach, where you set up a booth with your beasties and encourage passersby to hold them, is delightful. There’s nothing like getting up one’s nerve to hold the big cockroach and then having it scramble up your arm and across your neck. The kid in question was surrounded by friends, so he was under extreme pressure to be cool and he was very courageous as I reached down his collar to retrieve his visitor. The random screaming and willies of other visitors to the booth were equally enjoyable. No little girl, you cannot hold the black widow.

7. Crane flies don’t eat mosquitoes, but yeah, it would be neat if they did.

8. New neighbors moved in recently and brought a mean case of Chainsaw Disease to their stand of 40′ poplars. It’s filled the street with resentment, but also anticipation for next summer. The trees were on the southwest side of the house and the new neighbor has no idea how hot our little hill gets in the summer. May you bake clean through in your house, lady.

9. I saw an Assassin Bug skating across the surface of a horizontal spider web yesterday. He wasn’t entangled, he was just cruising over it. It was during a walking lecture, so I couldn’t investigate fully – but it gave me pause.

10. When I’ve finished all 35 of the samples and you decide we need a larger sample, so we’ll do another 35, just give me a second to check my tears and ennui.

11. Remotes that you use in class to respond to lecture questions posed by the professor are about the dumbest things ever.

This Week is Eating Me Alive September 26, 2007

I’m in a first week flurry of classes and labs and club meetings and searching for misplaced things.

Something new is coming to the blog this week, in honor of fall and the Liquidambar which are just beginning to turn.

Wait until you see it, and you will know how committed I am to providing you with a quality blog experience.

Horticulture Booming in Oregon September 17, 2007

Oregonians spend almost 1 billion dollars on their gardens

COTTAGE GROVE – More and more Oregonians are looking no further than their own backyard for a favorite hobby. The state’s horticulture industry climbed ten percent last year alone, making it Oregon’s largest agricultural commodity.

At the 5th annual “Gathering of Gardeners” event, the Village Green Resort in Cottage was all in bloom. Cindee Eichengreen, the Moonstones Director of Horticulture says, “Our theme here is to motivate, educate and inspire gardeners of all ages and all stages including gardeners who have never gardened before.”

Events like these are drawing more and more people each year all throughout Oregon making our state one of the best for horticulture. Here in Lane County, Eichengreen says, “It hasn’t been too hot or too cold. We’ve had just the right amount of rain.”

Gardening in the Northwest is so popular nearly one billion dollars was spent on the hobby in 2006 alone. That’s record breaking sales for the 16th consecutive year.

Organizers say you don’t need to have a green thumb to make a successful garden. “Some of the best gardeners on my team are people who have never gardened before,” says Eichengreen.

The gardening industry is a rising star in Oregon. Industries like cattle, grass seed and hay used to be market leaders but now the gardening industry has grabbed 21 percent of the agriculture market.

Oregon’s top areas for horticulture production are Marion, Washington, Clackamas, and Yamhill counties. They account for 81 percent of all sales statewide.

From kval.com
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Oregon is #3 in nursery stock production nationwide, after California and Florida.

Restraining Order. Subject: Zucchini Sneak. September 15, 2007

He made another drop, and I looked at the bag and felt like crying.

Trivia Hoedown #9 September 14, 2007

This is a 2-weeks until the fall term starts Hoedown. Woot.

1. The chalcid wasps I am working with this week are so tiny, they fit inside a very small seed. The female oviposits in pollinated flowers – does she know which ones have been fertilized or do only the flowers with growing seeds support the developing larvae and subsequent pupae? – and when you dissect the flowers, inside the seed is a tiny pupae. The lab is so warm, they emerge within a day or so.

2. Disrupting pheromone, a substance that is used to confuse insects, smells so bad that when it gets spilled during a meeting, the resulting exclaiming and gagging will disrupt your agenda.

3. If one parks under a beech tree when the seeds are [violently] dehiscing, there will be miniscule dents all over hood.

4. Firefox thinks I made up the word “miniscule” but accepts the legitimacy of “dehiscing.”

5. Last night, I was sure the neighbors who are vintners, horsemen, and hay farmers had adopted cows. I was out with Diarrhea Dog (the lab, but you already knew that if you have labs) and kept hearing: Mao. Mao. Mmmmmaaaooo. I couldn’t figure it out, so while the dog did the dance of intestinal distress, I cocked my head and walked around trying to locate the ghostly bovines. If you live some place rural, you probably know what it was. Bullfrogs. Mao.

6. Bombus vosnesenskii males are so docile you can practically cuddle them. The worker females are also fairly calm, but the queen will open up a can a’ whoop ass on you when disgruntled. Fortunately, she’s very easily differentiated from the others.

A shorty this week. Most of what I’ve learned recently would put you right to sleep.

Bombus vosnesenskii R.
Yellow Faced Bee or Vos Bee
from whatsthatbug.com

Homegrown, Local and In-Season: the dark side September 2, 2007

This year, I’ve eaten much more in line with the above sentiment but have been chagrined to discover that it’s something of a challenge – and not in the way I expected.

In early summer, the strawberries were staggered and we had several handfuls a day for about a month. The birds helped themselves, and still we had plenty. They were fabulous on cereal or directly from the plants.

The cherries were next, and it was a so-so year for them. We had plenty for us and shared quite a few. They weren’t as good as previous years and only one of the two trees really bore a good amount of fruit. The dogs ate whatever fell to the ground.

A month or so ago, we ate blueberries by the pound as our 4 bushes all came into fruit at the same time. This wasn’t even a good year for blueberries. The flowers bloomed when it was still too cold and wet for the bees that pollinate them, so the harvest was sparse compared to previous years. Nevertheless, we were awash in Vaccinium for two solid weeks.

Three weeks ago, the peach tree simultaneously produced about 25# of the most delicious, incredible peaches I have ever had in my entire life. The tree looks like a decrepit twig, but I won’t cut it down because, really, fruit like that? Nectar of the gods. Sadly, much of it went to waste because a) there was no way I was sharing, b) my back was out and I couldn’t can it, and c) I can only eat so much stone fruit in a day. Live and learn.

The pear tree is bearing a good crop for the first time this year. The dogs are beside themselves and I keep finding stashed pears in the house. Yesterday, the lab brought me one and laid it on my pillow while I was still asleep. As soon as I made the sounds of waking up, she changed her mind and jumped up and ate it. I haven’t tried any of them myself yet; they’re just creeping up on ripeness.

Blackberries are also ready, so ready in fact that the smell of them is everywhere in the late afternoon.

Apples are looking good. I’ve thinned the crop a bit so the fruit can develop a little larger. As I recall, these are baking apples – not that it stops the dogs who will even eat crabapples, though they make faces.

Zucchini. Here’s where it gets ugly. The neighbor has brought over probably about 30# of zucchini in the past few weeks, as well as green beans, summer squash, and cucumbers. It was lovely and rustic the first time, but now my tiny kitchen is looking like a commercial set up with pans and colanders and knives and garlic strewn about. Both sides of a double sink are overflowing with zucchini, there’s more I haven’t unloaded yet, and I’ve already roasted two pans worth.

I think tonight I’ll wait in the dark on the porch with my shotgun. The freezer is nearly full and I’m wising up to the midnight zucchini drops.

What I didn’t know about seasonal eating is that it’s marked by periods of tiresome repetition: a few weeks of eating more of something you love than you really wanted, particularly if you plan and continuing to love it. Even blueberries get old after ten days.

Trivia Hoedown #8 August 30, 2007

1. In Darwin’s time, bumble bees were called humble bees. (Yes, I am reading journal articles from the 1800s – crazy.)

2. When you are gleaning seed and separating it from the chaff by hand in order to count each seed, you must breathe very gently and preferably direct your breath away from the dish you are working on or your seeds will be jettisoned to distant planes. And you will curse.

3. It takes about 6 hours for a brand spanking new exoskeleton to harden on a freshly molted Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. They are extra hissy during these 6 hours.

4. In 1910 in the UK, for a variety of reasons, the native honeybee population plummeted to just 10% of its previous numbers. It’s happened again there and other places over the years, and generally, they rebound.

5. The nectaries that many flowers have at the base of the corolla are partially refilled by atmospheric dew. Whether or not a particular pollinator can feed on the nectar depends on how far the nectar level rises within the flower. The morphology of the flower and the length of the pollinator’s tongue as well as its body and leg structures determine if the nectar will be available to that insect.

6. A honeybee with a full load of pollen carries upwards of 200,000 pollen grains. Some literature puts the number at over 300,000 grains.

7. Something as similar as different species of clover can be completely different reproductively. Pollen behaves differently, seed set is different, inflorescences bear little resemblance to one another. Trippy.

8. 95% ETOH will find its way into the tiniest wound on your skin and burn like the dickens. Then, just as you near screaming aloud, it evaporates and is gone.

I bet you a cup of tea it’s Pythium July 7, 2007

I’m not going to hoedown on schedule this week because most of what I’m learning at Famous Wholesale Nursery is how to tolerate abject misery. It’s hot, my feet hurt, and my enthusiasm is waning. Nevertheless, on I trudge. I keep thinking wistfully about people who intern in offices and stay cool all day.  But I can also picture the slot on my resume with this summer’s experience.

My stint in the research section of the nursery has extended into extra days here and there, and for this I am most grateful. I owe my mentor at school for preparing me with bench techniques and knowledge of conversions which have set the stage for my being invited back. Really, I should send him a fruit basket or something. Working with the cool burn of liquid nitrogen is far preferable to being bent over all day pruning 1-gallon Echinacea or removing by hand the liverwort from 3,000 tiny Lilacs.

Yesterday I learned DNA extraction and ELISA testing for Phytophthora and Pythium. I have a new respect for how long DNA testing takes: the extraction alone, with sample prep, incubation time, spinning and changing substrates, took over 6 hours. That doesn’t even include the PCR or sequencing that will have to wait until next week (when I will hopefully be invited back again). The ELISA testing was also no slouch, taking about 4 hours to incubate and finally win my bet: the orchid die back was Pythium which was my guess going in.

The person I work with in the lab likes to bet what results will be before we run tests. “What do you think the fresh weight to dry weight ratio will be?” “Which of these samples do you think will test positive for Phytophthora?” “I know what the leaching fraction will be – want to bet me?” I have generally been losing these bets with my very limited experience in these matters, so my Pythium bet was a sweet win. Pythium really does have a distinct appearance, like a tiny mower came in and bit off all your plants at the soil level, leaving the stems black and water logged. For once, I knew what it was as soon as I saw the plants.

In school, we are told over and over how the measure of your competence as a horticulturist will be made by the accuracy of your diagnoses. This is alarming, because any one symptom can be representative of a number of different things. Take yellow, burnt looking leaves. That could be nutrient deficiency, nutrient toxicity, wilt, overwatering, salt burn, sun burn, chemical burn, fungus, insect, virus, bacterial infection, chilling injury. Granted you have some hints in what the weather has been like, what the cultural conditions are, and knowledge of the plant and the area, but suffice it to say, it’s difficult to pinpoint a novel crop problem at a glance. The methodical approach works, but it takes some time. And time wise, it’s not terribly efficient to do bioassays and gene sequencing every time you have a problem.

That’s time I have though: I’d be happy to work in the lab every day until my last day at Famous Wholesale Nursery. I’ve laid some heavy hints. We’ll see if it flies.

Pesticides and the People #1: a pesticide primer July 1, 2007

In the year since obtaining my pesticide applicator licenses, I’ve learned a lot about different classes of chemicals and their associated risks. Prior to my training, I had been a very modest user of chemicals in the garden, but I had sold quite a number of products, and I’d done both of these activities with scant knowledge.

Pesticides refers to treatments targeted at any pest: rodents, insects, fungus and fungal plant diseases, weeds, birds, et cetera. They may be acaricides for mites and spiders, fungicides for fungi, vespicides for wasps, herbicides for weeds, rodenticides for rats or mice; all of those are considered pesticides. Mothballs are considered a pesticide.

All pesticides have signal words on the label.

Caution: For these chemicals, technically no protective gear is needed, but you still wouldn’t want to eat or drink eat them. They should be treated like strong household cleaners you have great respect for.

Warning: Basic protective gear needed is needed for these chemicals, such as a filter mask for granulated or powdered chemicals, gloves for liquids, or eye, nose and mouth protection for mists. They should be handled very carefully.

Danger: Feet, do your stuff. Pesticides in this class are generally only available to licensed applicators, but there are some exceptions, particularly if you have chemicals circa 1976 in your garage. They are toxic and can kill you in very small doses.

Despite the fact that a license is required to even purchase many of the more fearsome chemicals, there are some products on the market that demand your respect and your undivided attention when using them. Systemics are such a product. These are pesticides that are applied to the roots of plants to ward off diseases and insects from the inside out. These products should never be applied to anything you might eat (ever), and you should wear gloves when handling granules and protect yourself from inhaling the dust or fumes of these chemicals. At the nursery I worked at previously, none of the employees would use systemic in our gardens, though we sold a good bit of it. If you use these chemicals, read the directions carefully and do not underestimate their potency. Just because something is available to the general public does not mean it is not potentially toxic or even lethal to you.

Reading the directions and following them to the letter is good practice regardless of the product you use. The label will tell you the signal word, the recommended protective measures to take, the best time to apply the chemical, the associated environmental risks, the signs of poisoning. I never apply a chemical without knowing what to look for in the event that I am poisoned by it.

Pesticides work in a variety of ways: nerve poisons, stomach poisons, contact poisons, growth regulators and inhibitors, deterrents. By reading the label and knowing how the chemical works, your application can be most effective.

The associated environmental risks are an area where your responsible use of the product can mitigate the detrimental effects of the pesticide on animals, ground water, pollinators and people. For example, you don’t spray contact poisons in the warm hours of the morning or the early evening because that’s when bees are foraging. You don’t spray anything, ever, when it is windy, because you can poison yourself and others all while negating the effect of the chemical.

Finally, when you are disposing of pesticide containers, know what is required in your area.  The rules will be different based on where your water comes from (city or well).  Store containers safely away until they are removed from your property.

Clemson University has an excellent and comprehensive website here. You should know the basic information about any pesticide that you use, and you should also know that the EPA regulations apply to consumers as well as licensed applicators. Careful attention to safety is so important.

* Post edited for accuracy based on comments section – thank you!

They’re not widgets, they’re plants. June 30, 2007

This is what my propagation professor says to us, in this disgusted, long suffering tone, when we ask about why one plant is an exception to a rule that works for everything else. “They’re not widgets, they’re plants.”

I had a dream last night, and it felt like it lasted all night long: I’m in a huge factory and there are conveyor belts and steaming machinery and chaos everywhere. Newly extruded widgets plants march out completed and are boxed at breakneck speed. There’s a whistle and forklifts and screaming foremen. The green, perfect plants are the only living thing in the factory, and that includes the people. I keep trying to touch them, but they tear by on their way to the organophosphate shower or the pruning station and are just out of my reach. All night long, my feet hurt and I feel both sad and eager for the five o’clock whistle.

Deep.