June 2006

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OSU 25-Year Retrospective "Art About Agriculture" By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University The College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University is presenting a 25-year retrospective of its annual juried art competition, Art About Agriculture. This fine art exhibit, "This Bountiful Place: Art About Agriculture," will be on display at the Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Ave., in Portland from May 19 through Sept. 17. The exhibit will showcase original art from the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences Art About Agriculture permanent collection. Works draw from more than 25 years of juried competition, including drawings, fiber arts, mixed media, prints, sculptures and paintings, all from Pacific Northwest artists. "Reaching beyond simply illustrating agriculture in Oregon, 155 regional artists have created profound works of art that connect us to our agricultural landscapes and the related natural resources of the Pacific Northwest," said Shelley Curtis, directing curator of the Art About Agriculture collection. "Together, they let us experience the style and lore of the West, western landscape and light; agricultural practices and products that provide sustenance; people in relation to land and to toil; and the cultural diversity found in the Pacific Northwest." Accompanying the OSU exhibit will be the "Oregon Originals" exhibit, featuring the art of Amanda Snyder and Jefferson Tester. This exhibit opened at the Oregon Historical Society on May 12 and will be up until Nov. 27. Brenda Hood of Corvallis sponsored the retrospective, in part, with a gift in memory of her late husband, John Gordon Hood, enabling the College to publish an exhibition catalog in association with the Oregon Historical Society Press. The catalog includes essays and color illustrations of each of the 183 artworks in the retrospective exhibition, provenance for the artworks, and appendixes of volunteer jurors for the annual competitions the hosts for the annual tour shows. To learn more about OSU's Art About Agriculture program, go to: http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/art/ Damping-Off Disease May Be Fatal To Seedlings By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University If you've ever started your own vegetable plants from seed, have your vegetable seedlings come up, but then suddenly keeled over and died? Or maybe the seeds germinated, but then died before they emerged above the soil surface. The culprit may be a fungal disease called "damping-off." The fungi that cause damping-off disease frequently attack young seedlings or the seeds of almost any kind of vegetable, explained Cynthia Ocamb, plant pathologist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. These fungi are most likely present in any garden soil. Just after seedlings emerge from the soil they are vulnerable to attack by fungal organisms, usually at or just above the soil line. The infected stem portion becomes discolored, begins to shrink, then the seedling topples over. Newly planted seeds also may become infected with damping-off organisms. The seeds become soft and mushy, turn a brown to black color and eventually disintegrate. This condition is known as seed rot. The term damping-off comes from the falling over and dying of seedlings. The destructiveness of this disease depends on environmental conditions as well as the population levels of fungi in the soil, said Ocamb. Abundant moisture in the soil, high humidity and cloudy days are especially favorable for the development of damping-off, which is especially a problem when planting seed into cool, wet soils. Fungi that cause damping-off can also attack the new developing rootlets on older established plants, which may result in root rot. Affected plants exhibit wilting and poor growth. Conditions that foster vigorous seed germination and seedling emergence should reduce damping-off problems. Once seedlings emerge, decrease surface watering so that the soil does not stay wet and damping-off fungi will have a less conducive environment, explained Ocamb. You might have better luck watering from the bottom (into the tray holding the little pots with seedlings) after the young plants get their first set of true leaves. Keep the surface soil dry for as long as you can. Avoid frequent watering as it keeps surface soil too moist, promoting fungal growth. If seedlings are in flats or in cold frames, give them as much air and light as possible. The drier the soil, the greater light, and the better the air drainage, the less danger that damping-off will become a problem. Preventive measures work the best. Plant your seeds in a pasteurized planting medium. Avoid introducing the damping-off fungi to pasteurized planting media by cleaning all tools, pots and flats, in hot water (160 degrees for 30 minutes) or in chlorine bleach solution (one part bleach to nine parts water; soak for 30 minutes). It is important to use fresh chlorine bleach-water solutions. Don't use solutions that have sat overnight. Fortunately there are simpler remedies for damping-off when it does appear. If you notice damping-off, stop watering for a while. Allow the soil to dry somewhat around the plants. If seedlings are in flats or in cold frames, give them as much air and light as possible. The drier the soil, the greater light, and the better the air drainage, the less danger that damping-off will continue. But don't allow the soil around the seedlings to dry completely or the seedlings will die. For chemical treatments, visit OSU Extension's On-Line Guide to Plant Disease Control at: http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/articles.cfm?article_id=5 Western Cow-Calf Resource Manual Can Help Producers with Fall Decisions By Marlene Fritz, University of Idaho Western cattle producers who are weighing different approaches to managing and marketing their calves and cull cows this fall will find detailed discussions and worksheets in the recently updated "Cow-Calf Management Guide and Cattle Producer's Library." Published as a three-ring binder filled with more than 230 research-based fact sheets on all aspects of beef-cattle production, this manual is "the most complete set of up-to-date informative material available in the beef industry," according to University of Idaho Extension beef specialist Jason Ahola. It addresses such major topics as reproduction, nutrition, management, finance, genetics, drought, quality assurance, health and pasture. Material is peer-reviewed and revised annually by the Western Beef Resource Committee-a team of state Extension beef specialists and educators from 12 Western states. With an increased supply of calves expected to lower calf prices this fall, Ahola says now would be a good time for cattle producers to calculate the breakeven selling price for overwintering calves and the costs and returns of custom-feeding cattle-two worksheets included in the manual. Fact sheets that compare the advantages and disadvantages of retained ownership and a checklist on selecting a custom feedlot are also available. So is a fact sheet on feeding and marketing cull cows, which addresses the amount of price seasonality that is typically present in the marketplace and provides several tables to help producers estimate the financial gains they may generate by feeding out cull cows. The manual also includes several fact sheets on weaning management, rations for newly-weaned calves, and the pros and cons of five different weaning times, as well as more than 50 fact sheets on cattle health, including calf vaccination protocols and parasite-control options. The manual is available for $95 as a printed binder that includes a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM alone can be purchased for $35. Manual owners can also buy revised fact sheets each year. To order the "Cow-Calf Management Guide and Cattle Producer's Library," contact the University of Idaho Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at (208) 885-6345, cowcalf@uidaho.edu or http://www.avs.uidaho.edu/wbrc. Sample fact sheets can be previewed on the Web site. PNWPestAlert.net Tells When Pests Are Forecast By Marlene Fritz, University of Idaho Use of an electronic pest-alert service that e-mails its southern Idaho subscribers when agricultural pests are forecast, firing up or flaring is continuing to expand, with 438 current subscribers and nearly 31,000 site visits in 2005. "It's growing and we're excited about it," says Jeff Miller, University of Idaho Extension potato pathologist of the PNWPestAlert.net. "People like the information-on-time idea." Coordinated by Jerry Neufeld, UI Extension educator in Canyon County, PNWPestAlert.net was initially launched in 2001 for the Treasure Valley. The free service has since expanded to encompass information on pests and pest-management for crops throughout southern Idaho. Notices are posted by faculty of the UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and neighboring Oregon State University. Pest outbreaks reported by subscribers are verified by university faculty before alerts are e-mailed to users who have elected to receive updates on specific crops. "It gives our subscribers a head's up on problems they may not have been aware of and it gives them a reminder about pests that occur regularly," says Neufeld. Links take readers to detailed information on managing pests that are the subjects of alerts. Users confirm that the service is saving them time, money and crop losses and allowing them to operate their agricultural enterprises more efficiently. Just this past year: • A Treasure Valley potato grower says it helped him keep early blight in check and increased his yields by at least 50 hundredweight per acre. It also allowed him to keep using environmentally "soft" insecticides when aphid problems failed to develop. • A field representative in the Treasure and Magic valleys says it improved the accuracy and timeliness of his control recommendations for pests in onions and alfalfa seed. • An organic grower in the Treasure Valley says it allowed her to anticipate increased insect activity prompted by area chemical applications. • An eastern Idaho field representative used it to time insect sprays in corn based on accumulated heat degree-days and to inform his clients of the progress of late blight in potatoes and stripe rust in wheat. • A Parma fruit grower says that, while out scouting for one pest to which he was alerted, he found another he wasn't even looking for. • A California chemical manufacturer says it helped him anticipate needs and keep his inventory stocked and his customers' crops protected. • A Caldwell aerial applicator says it helped her stay prepared "because we knew which crops we would be spraying in the next few days." Approximately 71 percent of the Web site's subscribers are either agricultural producers or involved in allied industries, Neufeld says. User surveys conducted in 2003, 2004 and 2005 indicate that an average 10.6 percent of subscribers reduced the number of sprays applied to their crops, 27.8 percent improved the effectiveness of their sprays and 54 percent increased their field scouting to document pest levels before implementing control measures. This year's sponsors include the Idaho Potato Commission, the Idaho Alfalfa and Clover Seed Commission and the Snake River Sugarbeet Research and Seed Committee. To subscribe, go to www.PNWPestAlert.net and click on Join Mail Lists. Tractor Drivers Gear Up And Save Big Bucks By Annette Trinity-Stevens, Montana State University News Tractor pulling an air drill photo courtesy of Ag Tech Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta.BOZEMAN&emdash;"Tractor efficiency" may not be two words that make the heart beat fast, but "saving thousands" might be. As fuel costs continue to rise, farmers hitting the fields with seeding equipment like air drills can realize significant cost savings through fuel efficiency, said Tyler Lane, Montana State University Extension agent in Toole County. He teamed with other MSU Extension agents in the Golden Triangle area and researchers Lawrence Papworth and Reed Turner at the Ag Tech Centre in Lethbridge, Alberta, to bring Montana farmers the most recent research on optimizing tractors. From a tour of the Ag Tech Centre facility, the agents brought back the latest findings on adjusting tractor ballast, tires and engine speeds. "Ballasting your tractor for the load you are pulling saves fuel," said Lane, "but if you are already in the field, there are things you can do to cash in on fuel economy that require little or no down time. "Most operations have more tractor than they need for the implement that they are pulling," he continued, "so a highly efficient practice that they can apply on the fly is to 'gear up and throttle back'." According to Ag Tech Centre research, a four-wheel-drive 262 horsepower tractor consumed 13.8 gallons of fuel per hour at full throttle. The same tractor, run in higher gear at part throttle, consumed 9.8 gallons per hour, or roughly 30 percent less fuel. "If fuel prices rise again this spring to $3.00 a gallon, four gallons saved in an hour would come out to $12 per hour in savings," said Lane. "Conserving that amount of fuel while seeding 3,000 acres with an air seeder adds up to almost $1 per acre." In addition to finding the "sweet spot" in tractor engine rpm, the researchers recommended these simple efficiency tips: For best performance and ride, set all the tires on a given axle to the same pressure. (Measure tire pressure when the tractor has not been used for several hours.) If fluid is used for ballasting on a new tractor, equalize the fluid among all of the tires on the axle. Warm up your engine by starting slow in low gear (idling is not necessary). When shutting the tractor down for the day, wait for the temperature gauge to drop slightly. (Additional cool-down time is not necessary.) More research-based information on tractor efficiency to save fuel, reduce depreciation and minimize soil compaction is available through MSU Extension Ag agents. To locate the MSU Extension Ag agent in your area, visit msuextension.org and click on "directories." The direct link is http://extn.msu.montana.edu/Directory/Field.asp Contact: Tyler Lane, MSU Extension Agent, Toole County, (406) 424-8350, tlane@montana.edu, (or local MSU Extension ag agents, search http://extn.msu.montana.edu/Directory/Field.asp How To Start Your Own Cabbage Patch By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Mid-March through May is a good time to start early and mid-season cabbage seed indoors. Start seeds indoors at the early end of spring if you are on the coast. In colder regions of the state, start them about six weeks before the last frost or when your soil temperature exceeds 50 degrees. The most common cabbages seen in grocery stores are the green cabbages, including Danish, domestic and pointed varieties. But there are dozens of other varieties available in seed catalogs and in nurseries for the home gardener, including varieties of Savoy, Bok Choy, Napa, and red varieties. Ornamental cabbages, also known as flowering kales, are grown as fall and winter landscape plants and salad bar decorations. Savoy cabbage is stronger tasting, has a looser head than most green cabbages and has wrinkly leaves with ruffled edges. Bok Choy is an open Chinese cabbage with white or green celery-like stalks and shiny dark green leaves. Napa forms an elongated head and is pale green, with mild flavored delicately crinkled leaves. Some cabbage varieties are termed "early," meaning they are fast-growing, earlier maturing and smaller in size. "Mid-season" cabbages are larger, later to mature and must be well established before summer heat sets in. Transplant cabbage both early and mid-season starts into the ground in May and June. For a late fall, winter and spring crop in the milder regions of the state, "late" types can be grown. Sow seed for late varieties in May, and transplant them out in June through July. Chinese cabbage bolts with excessive exposure to cool weather in early spring and lengthening days, and is best planted in early summer for fall harvest. Transplants can also be purchased from your local nursery or garden store. Always select plants with stem diameters smaller than a lead pencil to reduce the risk of bolting. Set transplants outside during the day for a week to harden them before transplanting. Cabbage thrives in a sunny, well-drained, loam soil heavily amended with organic matter. Cabbage are heavy feeders and require uniform moisture. Keep soil pH above 6.8 to avoid club root, a damaging fungal disease. Space plants about 15 to 18 inches apart for optimal growth. Hot caps or floating row covers help early cabbages thrive. The floating row covers eliminate a lot of the pests on young cabbage like root maggot and flea beetles, which can completely destroy young seedlings. The Oregon State University Extension Service has tested and recommends the following cabbage varieties as performing well in Oregon: (early) Dynamo, Parel, Primax, Arrowhead, Capricorn, Farao, Tendersweet. (main season) Golden Acre, Bravo, Charmant. (late fall, winter) Danish Ballhead, Storage Hybrid #4, Blue Thunder. (red) Ruby Perfection, Regal Red, Red Acre. (savoy) Melissa, Savoy Express, Savoy Ace, Kilosa. Chinese Cabbage: Michihili, Monument, China Express, China Flash, (Pak choi) Mei Qing Choy, Joi Choi.

OSU Extension Publications Just A Mouse Click Away By Aimee Brown, Oregon State University The Oregon State University Extension Service is now delivering educational materials through an online publications and multimedia catalog. Just launched, the system lets Extension customers purchase materials ranging from booklets about finding in-home care for elderly family members to DVDs describing exemplary conservation efforts by Oregon landowners. "The real key to this system is the ease of use," said Evie Engel, one of the leaders of the catalog development, and Extension publishing specialist. "Customers can use a credit card to order publications online and have them delivered to their homes within a week. "There already are about 1,200 publications online, and we're continuing to add more each week," said Engel. In order to help customers have a better feel for what they are purchasing, each catalog entry includes a brief description. Many items can be viewed or printed without charge. The OSU Extension Service focuses on economic development, youth and family development, natural resource conservation and management and leadership development for all Oregonians, and is recognized as one of the United State's top-five Land-Grant University Extension systems. Visit the OSU Extension Service's new publications and multimedia online catalog at:http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/. Spruce Up Camellias With A Late Spring Trim By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Is your camellia bush looking a little bedraggled? Some older plants are so full of leaves and thin branches that they bear poor quality flowers. Others carry leaves burned by winter wind and low temperatures, making the shrubs look sickly. Spring is the best time for a camellia makeover. The best time to prune camellias is after they flower each year. Enjoy the blooms, then prune. The new growth begins soon after the blossoms fade, explained Jan McNeilan, consumer horticulturist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. Camellias can benefit from pruning every few years, to stimulate new growth, thin out some of the twiggy growth. A late spring pruning will also allow sunlight to penetrate the interior of the shrub. Also, by pruning, you can transform an overgrown shrub into a tree or a smaller shrub. To make a camellia bushier, home gardeners need to prune some branches back to the base of the most recent growth. Buds below the cut will grow into several new stems. Remove any scraggly, unattractive drooping or crossing branches. Huge old camellias can be renovated into an attractive tree in one year. Cut off all branches from the lower reach of the trunk. Cut out any rubbing or crossing limbs from the remaining upper foliage. Remove any weak or twiggy wood. Feed camellias with fertilizer especially formulated for acid-loving shrubs after bloom time and again in the early summer. If you want to safely convert your huge overgrown camellia into a small shrub, do it slowly, over three years' time. During the first spring, after blooming, cut it back to the desired height. New growth will sprout from the trunk and from the upper limbs. After the second year's spring bloom, cut the resulting shoots back to the height you want. The third spring, cut off the bushy crown to the height you prefer. Fertilize as described above. OSU Horticulturist Demystifies Climate Zones By Davi Richards, Oregon State University Do you remember your grandmother's lantanas in Louisiana with such affection that you figure they just must grow as well for you in the Willamette Valley? But of course they don't. Lantanas, according to the Sunset Western Garden Book, grow as evergreen shrubs in zones 8-10, 12-24, H1 and H2. Elsewhere, they grow as annuals. Most of the Willamette Valley is in Zone 6. So after losing your lantanas to a hard winter frost for the second year in a row, you might decide there might be something to this climate zone map business after all. Knowing what grows in your zone can save a lot of wasted time and effort, says Jack Stang, Oregon State University associate professor of horticulture. Gardening books commonly list the best zones for each plant they present. But knowing what zone you live in and what the "zone" means can be a little confusing, because there is more than one system of climate zones in the United States, including hardiness zones, heat zones and Sunset zones. Different systems map different factors that affect plant growth, such as temperature and precipitation, explained Stang. Plants can then be classified according to these factors and assigned to the appropriate zone. The most widely used climate zone map in the U.S. is the United States Department of Agriculture's Hardiness Zone Map. It is widely used and familiar to many, but it has its limitations, said Stang. Based on minimum winter temperatures, the USDA system may oversimplify the complexity of plant requirements. For example, the USDA classifies the Olympic rain forest into the same zone as parts of the Sonoran Desert. "The hardiness zone map is widely used because extreme low temperature is probably the single most important determinant of where a perennial can be grown," said Stang. "If it can't survive the winter because the temperatures normally drop below its ability to harden, then nothing else about the climate really matters." But the hardiness zone map is based on average low winter temperature, so in any particular year it is possible the temperature might drop to far lower than the average. "In December 1972, for example, the temperature in Corvallis dropped to minus-7 degrees Fahrenheit, killing plants of a number of species," Stang recalled. The hardiness zone map also doesn't account for the timing of low temperature events. For example, apricots don't produce well in Oregon west of the Cascades because although they can survive the winter, they bloom too early in the spring and the flowers suffer freezing injury, he explained. Just because a plant can survive the winters in an area, does not mean it will thrive there year-round. High temperatures during the summer are also a crucial factor in whether a particular variety of plant survives in a particular area. The American Horticultural Society has developed a heat zone map, based on the average number of days per year in which the temperature exceeds 86 degrees. The rationale is that above 86 degrees, plants begin to suffer physiological damage from heat. The American Horticultural Society and others are busy assigning plants to the heat zones, so gardeners will be better able to predict whether a particular variety will be able to survive their summer temperature regime. When you compare the hardiness zone and heat zone maps for most of the United States, the heat and hardiness zones are generally correlated. That is, places having a low average annual minimum temperature (hardiness zone) also generally have few days above 86 degrees (heat zone). The West Coast of the United States is an important exception &endash; the marine influence results in mild winter temperatures but also few days above 86 degrees. Last, but not least, are the "Sunset" zones. In the 13 western states, the Sunset Western Garden Book zone map has long been the most common climate zone used by gardeners and horticulturists. In addition to temperature, the Sunset zones also account for latitude, elevation, ocean influence, continental air influence, and terrain such as mountains and hills. The Sunset zones have recently been extended in the west to Alaska, southern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta and Hawaii. In the eastern United States, gardeners still most commonly use the USDA map, but a Sunset zone map has now been developed for the eastern U.S. as well. Stang advises gardeners to become familiar with the climate of their own particular location. For examples, in hilly areas, temperature can vary by a few degrees, which translates into the growing season differing in length by a couple of weeks and the rainfall might differ by several inches, all within a few miles. Plants that thrive in a garden on a south-facing slope may struggle and fade in the narrow valley on the north side of the same hill. The United States National Arboretum has an online hardiness map at: http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone To download the heat zone map in PDF format, visit the American Horticultural Society website at: http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm To see Sunset zone maps for your area, go to: http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/1,20633,845218,00.html Think About Birds Before Spring Mowing And Pruning By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University For the birds' sake, home gardeners should be careful when mowing and pruning in the spring and early summer, according to Dan Edge, Tara and Doug Robinson, wildlife biologists at Oregon State University. Trees, both dead and alive, shrubs, grass, riparian areas, bare ground and ground cover may all provide nesting habitats for wild birds in the late winter through early summer. Keep in mind bird nesting cycles when pruning and mowing in spring and summer. Resident birds, such as owls start nesting in the late winter. Birds of prey begin nesting in winter and their young typically do not fledge, or leave the nest until mid- to late summer. Migratory birds, including hummingbirds, start to come back from their winter holidays in February and usually begin nesting efforts in the early spring. Depending on the food supply, most songbirds will attempt to nest two, three or even more times during the nesting season. Some species can be nesting until mid- to late summer. Here are some hints from OSU wildlife biologists to help home gardeners avoid destroying bird nests and nesting habitat during nesting season. Wait until mid- to late summer or early fall to have trees limbed or trimmed, as dead or thick branches provide great nesting habitat. Hold off major pruning of shrubs until nesting season is over, or at least carefully check for nests before pruning. Leave tall grass in less traveled areas for ground nesting birds, such as juncos. Or before mowing, carefully check for well-hidden bird nests. Nests are often very well camouflaged. The best way to tell if there are any nests is to watch for birds that flush out of the tall grass or out of a shrub. Then check the place where the bird flew from - there may be a nest. Some birds nest in bare gravel on the ground, such as killdeer or nighthawks. Consider postponing your mowing until nesting season is over if your property contains or is adjacent to large grassy, wetland, riparian or meadow areas. Grassland birds such as western meadowlarks, horned larks, grasshopper sparrows, vesper sparrows and common yellowthroats fledge their young in June and July. Waiting to mow until July or August is best. If you have dead trees that don't pose an immediate safety hazard, you might want to leave these as snags or wildlife tress. Many cavity nesting birds including, hawks, owls, woodpeckers, nuthatches, bluebirds and swallows depend on snags for nest sites. Most of these species will fledge their young during July. Bluebirds may still be nesting until August. If you find a bird nest, do not touch the nest, eggs or nestlings. If you find a bird on the ground, leave it alone. The parent birds know where it is and are feeding it. Grass Clippings Are Good For Your Lawn By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University You can cut your fertilizer use by leaving those clippings on your lawn. Research in the Oregon State University Department of Horticulture has shown that the fertilizer application rate can be cut almost in half when clippings are returned to the lawn with a mulching type rotary mower. "And on climax bent grass lawns growing in clay soils, we have produced acceptable quality turf for as long as 12 years without adding any fertilizer at all," said Tom Cook, OSU Extension turf grass specialist. "People who use grass clippings to mulch shrubs and flowers are simply 'robbing Peter to pay Paul,'" said Cook. Mow your lawn frequently if you plan to leave the clippings, Cook advises. Your grass should be cut often enough so that not more than one-third of the grass blade is removed at any one time. That means mowing about once a week during the growing season, he said. Light, frequent mowing will not leave piles of heavy, wet clippings on the lawn. If the lawn is too high, you will need to rake clippings or the grass underneath may be smothered. Be sure to set the mower at the optimum height. Mowing grass too short can reduce its density and increase the invasion of other grasses and weeds. On the other hand, several problems may develop when grasses are cut above their optimum height, explained Cook. For example, Kentucky bluegrass is more susceptible to stripe rust and perennial ryegrass tends to shred if mowed above two inches. Colonial bentgrass will develop high crowns, and looked scalped and brown when mowed at two inches or higher. Despite rumors to the contrary, clippings do not promote thatch build up. Clippings break down quickly, often in a matter of a few weeks. However, thatch may increase as mowing height increases. For more information about mowing turf grasses, refer to Cook's OSU Extension publication, "Maintaining a Healthy Lawn in Western Oregon" EC 1521, on the Web at: http://http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1521/ Or call 1-800-561-6719 to order a printed copy. Monitor The Menu If Your Pets Eat Your Plants From HomeWise, University of Idaho Love your pets? Love your garden? Ever wonder if the two are compatible? Yep, you know your plants are sometimes at risk from digging, trampling or smashing dogs and from rolling, clambering and thrashing cats. But a lot of popular garden plants have their own ways of fighting back&emdash;ways that can sicken Fido or Tabby or, unfortunately, even kill them. Stephanie Etter, University of Idaho Extension educator in Canyon County, has developed a short list of plants that she cautions gardeners about. She advises Idaho gardeners to make sure their companionable critters aren't chewing on azaleas, black walnuts, bleeding hearts, foxgloves, lilies, rhododendrons, yews, grapes, onions, tomatoes or tulip and daffodil bulbs. Etter notes that: • As little as 2 tablespoons of fresh or dried yew can be lethal to dogs or cats. The alkaloids in yew affect primarily the heart, producing such signs as weakness, tremors, inability to walk, respiratory difficulty, acute collapse and&emdash;in dogs&emdash;seizures. • Animals that eat as little as one-tenth of one percent of their body weight in azalea or rhododendron leaves can show signs of poisoning by those plants' grayanotoxins. These signs include vomiting, drooling, weakness, central nervous system depression and erratic heartbeat. Seriously affected animals can die within a day or two if they're not treated. • The cardiac glycosides in live or even dead foxglove leaves, stems, flowers and seed can initially cause vomiting and diarrhea and can progress to a brisk, weak or irregular pulse, rapid breathing and a fatally irregular heartbeat. "Taken in the right amount, these alkaloids are similar to drugs that are used therapeutically to regulate the heart," says Etter. "But over that amount, they can become toxic." • Moldy nuts from the black walnut tree can cause rapid breathing, dilated pupils, frequent urination, convulsions and death in dogs; the potentially lethal toxin produced by this mold can also be found in compost piles and garbage. Pets that eat bleeding heart can suffer muscle tremors and staggering, and cats that eat lilies can succumb to kidney failure. Tulip and daffodil bulbs can produce diarrhea, vomiting, drooling and lost appetite in dogs. • The leaves, stems, flowers and unripened fruit of tomatoes, potatoes and nightshade plants can cause gastrointestinal upset and muscle weakness in canines and felines. "Quite a bit" of onions, garlic or chives destroy red blood cells, leading to anemia in dogs and cats, and an unknown number of grapes can cause dogs' kidneys to stop functioning. Your pets and your plants may have coexisted peaceably and uneventfully for years, and may continue to do so, says Etter. "But if you have a dog that tends to dig up the flower beds or a cat that likes to nibble on a lot of plants, you may want to be careful." For more information, visit www.aspca.org. In an emergency when you can't reach your veterinarian, call your nearest human poison-control center for free (1-800-222-1222) or animal poison-control centers for a fee (ASPCA-Animal Poison Control Center at 1-888-426-4435 or Animal Poison Hotline at 1-888-232-8870).

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