Progress 07/01/10 to 06/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The groups and people served by this project include container and field-grown producers of nursery stock, academic researchers, landscape contractors (installation and maintenance companies), students at post-secondary institutions, and the general public. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This research provided training activities for two undergraduate students helping with the research and for professional development for the Ph.D. student completing much of the plant tissue culture research. The undergraduate student learned and completed advanced professional skills, such as making tissue culture media and learning how to subculture plants in vitro. The students helped all year allowing her to attain very high proficiency with plant tissue culture techinques. The students also completed cultural practices on the field research projects. The students learned how to use supplemental liquid fertilizers, how to complete pour-through procedures to collect media samples for pH and electrical conductivity measurements and how to maintain container nursery stock. I often worked one-on-one with the students and mentored the student on ideas behind the research. This propagation research provided training activities for the graduate student completing the research for her dissertation. The graduate student learned and completed advanced professional skills, such as making tissue culture media, learning how to subculture plants in vitro, designing/planning experiments, and completing various types of statistical analyses. The graduate student attained a high proficiency with plant tissue culture techinques. I spent much time working one-on-one with the graduate student. Professional development activities for the graduate student included increased knowledge and skills in plant tissue culture and attending a national science conference where the student made a presentation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information from this past year's new research (tissue culture propagation results) are put on the Idaho State Department of Agriculture's web site for nursery research. In addition, the research results were put on a colleague's Facebook page that describes native plants and their uses. One presentation was made at a national scientific meeting this past year, and one presentation was made at a green industry trade show this year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impacts: This past five years we published six journal papers on research involving objective #1 developing propagation techniques and objective #2 developing cultural practices for container production of native plants. Two book chapters were also published during this time. For objective #1, I was a co-author on two papers that described methods to improve rubber rabbitbrush seed germination. The improved techniques described in the papers will help plant propagators to increase their propagation efficiency of rubber rabbitbrush; this species is important in desert ecosystems and can be used as a low input maintenance plant in managed landscapes. This species is difficult to propagate so our research results will help more plants to be produced. I was also co-author on a paper that described using grafting to overcome insect problems for native plants. For objective #2, we published three papers that demonstrated that composted cattle manure could be used in container potting mixes since the mixes lacked pathogenic microorganisms, as determined by identifying bacteria and fungi by their DNA present in the manure. Using composted manure as a partial replacement for peat moss will save nursery growers money by reducing production costs for potting mixes. In addition, some environmental groups consider peat moss mined from bogs as non-sustainable. Therefore, using composted cattle manure in potting mixes is more environmentally sound for production of landscape plants than the use of peat moss in mixes. New research in the last year of the project involved improving propagation of native herbaceous and woody plants by using tissue culture techniques. We improved shoot growth of western serviceberry shoots grown in culture in an attempt to obtain better rooting of shoots (if the shoots grew better). We are still completing experiments to improve mineral nutrition of the shoots in culture. A second species, firechalice, was established in tissue culture and multiplied rapidly by using different plant growth regulators. We have developed a tissue culture protocol that can now be used by plant propagators to reproduce this plant rapidly and introduce an improved plant selection to the public. Manuscripts are in preparation for this research. Accomplishments: The research completed during the past five years has resulted in a change of knowledge for propagation techniques for reproduction of native plants and use of alternative components in soilless potting mixes. For (1) developing propagation techniques, I was part of a team that found that rubber rabbitbrush seeds stored 2 to 5 months germinated the best compared to those stored for shorter or longer periods. In addition, seeds should be stratified for 60 days and not buried but receive sunlight for maximum germination percentages. In another study with native timber trees from South America, we found grafting susceptible scion species onto borer resistant root stock species improved scion resistance to the borer insect, Hypsipyla grandella. The two book chapters on micropropagation of woody plants published during the research period contained information discovered during the course of the research involved in this project. For (2) improving native plant production in containers, we completed research that involved trying to determine the optimum amount of cattle manure (either aged or composted) to use in potting mixes to produce maximum plant growth. Although we used up to 60% aged or composted dairy manure by volume, we found that around 30% was the optimum quantity to use to produce the best plant growth for native plants, such as mockorange, Rocky Mountain penstemon, oceanspray, a native monkeyflower, and snow buckwheat. We also found that composted dairy manure was much more salty than dairy manure that was anerobically digested and then composted. In addition, we found that composted dairy manure needed 9 months to compost and mature before it was ready to use in potting mixes. We also examined how the microbial community changed over time in the dairy manure as it composted over 9 months. The composting process appeared to eliminate enteric bacteria over time, yet as the composted aged, a number of bacterial species often found in marine or highly alkaline environments appeared in the compost. These changes in knowledge now can be applied and used by commercial nurseries, propagation specialists and commmercial compost producers. Nurseries and propagators can use the information generated from the various propagation studies to start reproducing native plants in larger numbers and produce plants with improved quality. Production nurseries can also use information generated from the dairy manure studies to start using composted manure in their mixes so that they can reduce production costs and produce landscape plants in a more sustainable manner. Compost producers can use the information to improve their compost products for nurseries and for the general public.
Publications
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Tripepi, RR 2015 Micropropagation of Woody Plants. In CA Beyl and RN Trigiano (Eds) Plant Propagation Concepts and Laboratory Exercises. Second Edition, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL pp.498
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Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this research program is mainly plant propagators, particularly those specializing in propagation of native plants. A second audience would be other researchers working with native plant propagation, especially those who specialize in plant tissue culture techniques. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This research provided training activities for the undergraduate student helping with the research and professional development for the Ph.D. student completing much of the research. The undergraduate student learned and completedadvanced professional skills, such as making tissue culture media and learning how to subculture plants in vitro.The student helped all year allowing her toattain very high proficiency with plant tissue culture techinques. I often workedone-on-one with the student and mentored the student on ideas behind the research. This research also provided training activities for the graduate student completing the research for her dissertation. The graduate student learned and completedadvanced professional skills, such as making tissue culture media, learning how to subculture plants in vitro, and designing/planning experiments.The graduatestudentattained a high proficiency with plant tissue culture techinques.I spent much time working one-on-one with the graduate student. Professional development activities for the graduate student included increased knowledge andskills in plant tissue culture and attending a national scienceconference where the student made a presentation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Information from this past year's new research (tissue culturepropagation results) are put on the Idaho State Department of Agriculture's web site for nursery research. In addition, the research results will be put on mynursery informationwebsite and put on a colleague's Facebook page that describes native plants and their uses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Native Plant Propagation: During the next reporting period, we will finish the experiments to improve the mineral nutrition of serviceberry shoots grown in culture. In addition, we will finish the rooting procedures for firechalice plants propagated in culture. Finally, we will attempt to establish two or three additional selected species of native woody plants in tissue culture to increase their propagation speed and efficiency. Potting Mix Study:\ During the next year, we will complete an experiment usingbiochar from composted cattle manure and from forest products waste residue (sawdust) to determine the effects ofeachtype ofbiochar on a native plant species grown in potting mixes amended with either material.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
IMPACT: This past year we published four journal papers on research involving objective #1 developing propagation techniques and objective #2 developing cultural practices for container production of native plants. For objective #1, I was a co-author on two papers that described methods to improve rubber rabbitbrush seed germination. The improved techniques described in the papers will help plant propagators to increase their propagation efficiency of rubber rabbitbrush; this species is important in desert ecosystems and can be used as a low input maintenance plant in managed landscapes. This species is difficult to propagate so our research results will help more plants to be produced. For objective #2, we published two papers that demonstrated that composted cattle manure could be used in container potting mixes since the mixes lacked pathogenic microorganisms, as determined by identifying bacteria and fungi by their DNA present in the manure. Using composted manure as a partial replacement for peat moss will save nursery growers money by reducing production costs for potting mixes. In addition, some environmental groups consider peat moss mined from bogs as non-sustainable. Therefore, using composted cattle manure in potting mixes is more environmentally sound for production of landscape plants than the use of peat moss in mixes. New research during the past year involved improving propagation of native woody landscape plants by using tissue culture techniques. We improved shoot growth of western serviceberry shoots grown in culture in an attempt to obtain better rooting of shoots (if the shoots grew better). We are still completing experiments to improve mineral nutrition of the shoots in culture. A second species, firechalice, was established in tissue culture and multiplied rapidly by using different plant growth regulators. We have developed a tissue culture protocol that can now be used by plant propagators to reproduce this plant rapidly and introduce an improved plant selection to the public. ACCOMPLISHMENTS: The objective of this past year's study with native plant propagation was to determine plant tissue culture techniques that could be used to propagate four improved selections of native species from Dr. Stephen Love's research program at the University of Idaho in Aberdeen, ID. The plants that we attempted to propagate by tissue culture were promising plants selections including: a dwarf selection of western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), three types of skunkbush sumac (Rhus trilobata), roundleaf buffaloberry (Shepherdia rotundifolia), and firechalice (Zauschneria garrettii). Serviceberry and firechalice stems used in tissue culture were obtained from Dr. Love by mid-February 2014. Serviceberry shoots were established on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, but firechalice shoots were tested for their ability to grow MS medium and woody plant (WP) medium. Buffaloberry and sumac stems were received in June, July, and September in attempts to establish shoot cultures of these species. A cytokinin (plant growth regulator - phytohormone) was added to the basal salt formulations salts to determine medium requirements for explant establishment. Stem explants from buffaloberry and the sumac selections were heavily contaminated with microbial species preventing establishments of these two species in culture. Therefore, we concentrated our experiments on the two most promising species (serviceberry and firechalice - based on their acclimation to the tissue culture environment) and completed more in-depth studies with these plant selections. For serviceberry, our goal was to improve shoot growth of stem cultures on MS medium. Experiments with different concentrations (up to four fold) of calcium, zinc, and different forms of nitrogen (ammonium or nitrate) were added to culture medium in different experiments, but the shoots lacked improved growth, as determined by the number of axillary shoots formed, shoot dry weights or shoot heights. Changing three mineral components, CaCl2, MgSO4, KH2PO4 in the medium, however, induced serviceberry shoots to grow taller and produce slightly more shoot dry weight than control shoots. Firechalice shoots established much better on MS medium than WP medium. The concentration of 4.4 µM benzyladenine (BA - a cytokinin) promoted establishment of the explants, completing Stage I of micropropagation. Different cytokinins (kinetin, 2iP, thidiazuron, and meta-topolin) were used at concentrations from 0 to 8.8 µM to promote shoot multiplication (Stage II of micropropagation). The two most effective cytokinins for promoting shoot multiplication were BA and meta-topolin with the latter growth regulator producing a taller shoots and a few more shoots per explant than BA-treated shoots. Besides looking for the best plant responses in culture, propagators must also consider the costs of the biochemicals used. The cost of meta-topolin ranges from $230 to $257 per gram (depending on the company selling it, whereas the cost of BA is about $5 per gram. The higher cost of meta-topolin fails to justify its use in commercial propagation since BA, which is about 51 times cheaper, promoted shoot multiplication almost as well as meta-topolin. Preliminary studies on root formation of the multiplied firechalice shoots (Stage III of micropropagation) were completed, and shoots of this species rooted easily without any phytohormones in the culture medium. Although more research is needed to refine the culture medium for serviceberry shoots, the information from this research will provide plant propagators with improved procedures needed to reproduce better growth of serviceberry shoots in culture. Improved shoot growth in culture should lead to more shoots formed and rooted for propagation of this species. In addition, the selected firechalice plant can now be reproduced quickly so that hundreds or thousands of plants can be grown and made available to production nurseries and subsequently retail garden centers.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Knerr, A.J. and R.R. Tripepi. 2014. Changes in bacterial communities in dairy manure during nine months of composting as determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. Acta Horticulturea 1034:399-407.
Knerr, A.J. and R.R. Tripepi. 2014. Changes in fungal communities in dairy manure during nine months of composting as determined by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. Acta Horticulturea 1034:409-415.
Love, S.L., R.R. Tripepi, and T. Salaiz. 2014. Influence of harvest timing and storage interval on rabbitbrush seed germination, emergence, and viability. Native Plants Journal 15:98-108.
Love, S.L., R.R. Tripepi, and T. Salaiz. 2014. Influence of stratification, light, and planting depth on rabbitbrush seed germination and emergence. Native Plants Journal 15:109-118.
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Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for my research projects are wholesale nursery producers of woody landscape plants, particularly those companies that use plant tissue culture for plant propagation or those who grow plants in containers. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project provided training and professional development opportunities for three undergraduate students, one Ph.D. student, and the laboratory technician. The three undergraduate students working on the research projects learned how certain types of plant growth data were taken. They also recorded the plant growth parameters and entered the data into the computer. The Ph.D. student completed much of the tissue culture studies, and this student learned how to make culture media, calculate different concentrations of additional salts and take data on in vitro shoots. This graduate student also learned about completing statistical analyses on her research. The lab technician improved her statistical analysis skills when completing analyses of the various types of data. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results from the biochar study were written in a research report and sent to the granting agency, the Idaho Department of Agriculture (ISDA). The ISDA puts the research reports on its web site for sponsored research and the public has unlimited access the research report. In addition, research results are described during presentations to the nursery and landscape industries and at meetings with the gardening public. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, a grant proposal will be submitted to complete another study that involves using different sources of biochar in soilless potting mixes since the organic matter source of the biochar is supposed to affect the properties of the biochar, which in turn should affect the growth of plants growing in the material. A grant was received to complete more studies on propagating selected plants of skunk-bush sumac and firechalice in tissue culture. The goal is to establish these two species in tissue culture so that the numbers of the selected clones can be built up rapidly to enable the plants to be released to the public.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Native landscape plants are used for many reasons, including reduced water and fertilizer inputs. The use of native landscape plants has caught on slowly due to limited availability from wholesale production nurseries. The research to be conducted under this Hatch Proposal involved examining methods to propagate, produce, or transplant native species, including herbaceous perennials and woody plants that can be grown in managed landscapes or used for habitat restoration. The goal of this project is to develop propagation techniques or cultural practices that enable nursery stock growers to produce native plants in an economical and environmentally responsible manner. A number of outcomes and impacts came from this project last year. First, the biochar product that was tested produced mixed results on its effectiveness for increasing plant growth of a native woody species, a native herbaceous species, and an annual species. Native mockorange plants grew the most when planted in a soilless potting mix that contained 10% biochar when compared to plants grown in a mix without biochar. Rocky Mountain penstemon growth was unaffected by the biochar in the potting mixes. In contrast, perilla plants grew best in a mix that contained either 5% or less biochar (by volume). The outcome of this study showed that the quality of the biochar will affect the plant growth, since the biochar product used in this study came from a commercial producer and the product seemed to have a high ash content. Another study involved tissue culture propagation of a selected dwarf clone of Saskatoon serviceberry. In this study, we found that the shoots of the clone grew and multiplied in tissue culture as long as the plant growth regulator, benzyladenine, was used in the culture medium. This growth regulator, however, prevented root formation when trying to reproduce whole plants again. Further experiments demonstrated that reducing the strength of the Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal salt formulation to 1/8 strength would induce root formation or using up to 10 µM naphthaleneacetic acid or 10 µM indolebutyric acid strongly improved the rooting response of in vitro shoots. This study demonstrated that plant growth regulators could be used to induce root formation to obtain rooting levels between 33 and 67%. Further research is planned to determine if different organic matter used to make biochar will have different effects on the growth of native landscape plants. In addition, different minerals are being used in the MS salt formulation to improve shoot growth and leaf color of Saskatoon serviceberry. If the shoot growth is optimum, then more shoots should form more roots thereby increasing propagation efficiency. Three presentations were made at green industry professional conferences last year and included proper pruning of landscape plants, proper maintenance of trees during nursery production and fertilizing landscape plants. People attending the sessions told me after the presentations that they planned to analyze their production systems to reduce pest problems, reduce pruning mistakes and try to decrease nutrient run-off to minimize environmental effects of landscape plant production. Finally, the Nursery Technical Resource Center had a total 20,880 visits from Nov. 2012 through Oct. 2013. The top five downloads for the year from the nursery web site were (in order): bacterial problems of stone fruit trees, aspen leaf spot, tree injury from deer antler rubbing, using bark/sawdust for mulches and soil amendments, and substrate CEC and C:N ratio.
Publications
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Outputs this past year involved testing organic fertilizers produced in Idaho to determine if the four products were useful for producing three selected species of herbaceous plants and one native woody species. Outputs also included a mid-term report and a final report from the experiment. The results from the organic fertilizer experiment (final report) were sent to the Idaho State Department of Agriculture who posted the report on its web site for public access. In addition, experiments on using plant tissue culture to propagate a dwarf selection on a native plant, Amelanchier alnifolia, have started. The work was in its very early phases by the end of December. Another output from the project was a web site that was maintained and updated during the past year. This web site is called the nursery technical resource center. Other outputs included making two presentations at the Horticulture Expo sponsored by the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association, and making five presentations for gardening groups throughout northern and southern Idaho. PARTICIPANTS: Robert Tripepi - principal investigator Mary George - laboratory technician Part-time student labor helped with experiments Partner Organization: Idaho State Department of Agriculture provided grant funds Collaborators: Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association Training sessions: (1) provided a hands-on laboratory exercise on site at two high schools in Idaho and at one site on the Moscow campus - a total of 48 students involved; and (2) provided five educational sessions for 96 Idaho gardeners on topics that included basic botany, grafting and budding plants, and plant tissue culture. TARGET AUDIENCES: Several target audiences were served by this project. They included green industry personnel, which meant producers of landscape plants (nurseries), companies that maintain managed landscapes, and greenhouse plant producers. Large companies, small companies, and sole proprietorships are target audiences of this project. The project also served gardeners throughout Idaho, and these gardeners were homeowners or apartment dwellers. Anyone mainly interested in gardening, landscaping, or home horticulture was served by this project. High school students were also target audiences for this project; science based programs were delivered to the high school students. The efforts to reach the target audiences included two presentations at a growers professional meeting, five educational presentations for adult gardening groups (three of which included hands-on laboratory exercises), and three educational presentations that involved hands-on laboratory exercises for high school students. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Many outcomes and impacts came from this project last year. First, the organic fertilizer experiment showed that only one of the tested products helped the four selected plant species to grow as much as a regular synthetic (commercial) fertilizer did. Unfortunately, the organic fertilizer had a batch consistency problem since a new batch of product received during the study stunted the growth of most plants and killed almost all of one species of plant (geraniums) used in the study. Use of the other three organic products resulted in much less plant growth compared to plants receiving the commercial fertilizer. We think that the other three products need to have their application rates increased to promote plant growth as well as the commercial fertilizer. The two presentations at the nursery conference were about identifying insects and diseases that affect landscape plants and isolating pests in fields rather than spreading them to all growing areas in a nursery. Individual people attending the sessions told me after the sessions that they planned to analyze their production systems to reduce pest problems while trying to minimize environmental effects during plant production. Finally, the Nursery Technical Resource Center had a total 15,089 visits from Nov. 2011 through Oct. 2012. The top five downloads for the year were (in order): bacterial problems of stone fruit trees, tree injury from deer antler rubbing, aspen leaf spot, using bark/sawdust for mulches and soil amendments, and substrate CEC and C:N ratio.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Research during 2011 involved two main outputs. One research project involved testing four all natural or organic fertilizer products that are produced in Idaho. Geranium, lantana, ornamental pepper, and mockorange plants were planted in 1-gallon containers and arranged on greenhouse benches. After an acclimation period of 16 days, four organic or all natural fertilizers were applied to the these species. The applied products tested were Clearwater Fish Fertilizer, Thrive, Kozgro's All Purpose Organic Plant and Soil Stimulant, and Chicken Plus. These products were compared against MiracleGro 24-8-16, the synthetic fertilizer. All plants were treated with 250 ml of fertilizer solution once every two weeks. Plants heights were measured every four weeks. The number of flower heads produced by each geranium plant was also recorded once a week, and the number and dry weight of ornamental peppers produced were also recorded at the end of the experiment. At the end of the study, shoots from all plants were harvested to determine their shoot biomass (dry weight). A second project involved determining the amount of sulfur to add to a potting mix amended with composted dairy manure to reduce the pH of the mix. Composted dairy manure was mixed to contain 50% composted manure, 10% sand and 40% softwood bark (v/v/v). In a preliminary leachate experiment, 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 pounds of S per cubic yard were added to the compost amended mix. In addition, FeSO4, or Al2(SO4)3 at rates of 0, 1, 2, or 3 pounds per cubic yard were added to potting mix to determine if these chemicals reduced potting mix pH more quickly than S. Pots were filled with medium amended with a particular rate of S, FeSO4, or Al2(SO4)3, and pots were placed on a greenhouse bench. For the plant part of the study, the potting mix consisted of 50:50 composted manure:bark by volume, and 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 pounds of S per cubic yard were added to the compost-amended mix. In addition, 4 pounds of gypsum per cubic yard were added to all the different sulfur rate treatments. Results from both of these studies have been shared with the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association's research committee and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. These reports have also been posted on the Idaho State Department of Agriculture's web site for the general public to access and review. PARTICIPANTS: Robert R. Tripepi- principal investigator, Mary W. George - scientific aide, Anne (Jenny) Knerr - graduate student completing research for a M.S. degree, Julia Christian - undergraduate learning about research. Idaho State Department of Agriculture was a partner organization since they provided grant funding for the research. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences included Idaho homeowners and green industry businesses, including production nurseries, greenhouses, and garden centers (retailers of home garden products). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The outcomes and impacts from the two studies provided interesting results. For the all natural fertilizer study, all four species treated with MiracleGro or Thrive produced the most shoot dry weight or plant height (if this parameter was significant). Plants treated with the fish fertilizer were the next largest in size, and plants treated with the Kozgro's product were smallest in size. Plants treated with Chicken Plus were excluded from the data analyses, except for geranium plants, since the concentration of this product was too high the first two times the product was applied, which resulted in severe damage to plant roots. Likewise, geranium plants treated with MiracleGro produced the most flower heads per plant. Ornamental pepper plants treated with MiracleGro or Thrive produced the most fruits and most fruit dry weights compared to the other treatments. Plants treated with Chicken Plus or the Kozgro's product required watering once or twice a week, whereas those receiving the other treatments were often watered every other day or daily during the hottest weather. The impact of this study was that two fertilizer products were found to be satisfactory, and they were Thrive followed by the fish fertilizer, whereas the Kozgro's product produced the least amount of plant growth for all four species tested in this study and it appeared to yield poor plant growth. In the second study that involved controlling potting mix pH, two different plantings of oceanspray plants (Holodiscus discolor) had to be used to get this experiment underway since the compost was too salty. For the leachate part of this study, none of the rates of S, FeSO4, or Al2(SO4)3 controlled the pH of the potting mixes, even when much more of these compounds were added later in the experiment. Oceanspray plants grown in compost-amended potting mix grew poorly regardless of the rate of S used in the potting mix. Gypsum added to the mix seemed to help the plants survive only a minor amount that was statistically insignificant, and some gypsum treated plants had better foliage color, but this improved plant appearance was inconsistent among the treatments. Adding a acid-forming liquid fertilizer toward the end of the study improved foliage appearance of almost all the plants, regardless of the rate of S used or the presence or absences of gypsum in the mix. The impact of this study was that this research showed using S, FeSO4, or Al2(SO4)3 was inadequate to control the pH of a potting mix made with 50% composted dairy manure since even high rates of these compounds failed to reduce the potting mix pH to levels that are required for optimum landscape plant production in containers. Results from both of these outcomes will benefit the nursery industry and homeowners who are trying to grow and maintain landscape plants in a sustainable manner.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project is new and only a few outputs have been completed. One interim research report and two final research reports - all for granting agencies - have been produced during the first six months of this project. Results from the research were sent to the United Dairymen's Association of Idaho and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. In addition, results have been discussed during one-on-one conversations with nursery stock growers during phone calls. PARTICIPANTS: Robert R. Tripepi - principle investigator; Mary W. George - laboratory technician; Anne J. Knerr - graduate student; Julia Christian - undergraduate student; Radley Peterson - undergraduate student; Calvin Walgamott - undergraduate student; United Dairymen of Idaho and Idaho State Department of Agriculture are partner organizations; Professional research education and training for Anne Knerr and science education and research development for J. Christian, R. Peterson, and C. Walgamott. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences for the organic fertilizer research are Idaho homeowners and garden centers as well as production nurseries and greenhouses. In addition, the Idaho companies producing the various organic fertilizers are target audiences for the research work. The target audiences for the microbial identification in cattle manure composts are dairy and beef producers in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest, potting mix producers, nursery and greenhouse plant producers, and plant customers (potentially anyone who purchases plants grown in a potting mix made with composted cattle manure). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Two projects have been part of this research effort. The outcomes from an organic fertilizer project demonstrated that the organic product were similar to a conventional fertilizer product. This research showed that the Idaho-produced products were safe to use on two flower species, one vegetable species, and one native woody species, but the products failed to yield superior plant growth. Resources were used to help grow and fertilize plants in field plots and complete extensive statistical analyzes of several types of growth data. The second project involved completing DNA extraction and amplification of DNA isolated from composted cattle manure to determine the different populations of microbes present in the compost. This research is being completed to determine if harmful or helpful microorganisms are present in cattle manure compost. This information will be provided to nursery stock growers and potting mix producers to demonstrate that the compost either has disease-causing microbes (for human or plant pathogens) or beneficial microorganisms. The new knowledge generated so far is that extraction and amplification of DNA from cattle manure compost is difficult but a particular DNA extraction kit did a good job of removing many of the interfering substances from the extracts so that relatively clean DNA could be obtained. The graduate student completing this research is just starting to obtain sequence data.
Publications
- Perez, J., Eigenbrode, S., Hilje, L., Tripepi, R., Aguilar, M., and Mesen, F. 2010. Use of grafting to prevent Hypsipyla grandella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae) damage to New World Meliaceae species. Pest Management 39:618-625.
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