November 2004

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UI Publications On Storing Gem & Ranger Russets & Organic Potatoes By Marlene Fritz, University of Idaho New publications on storing Gem Russets, Ranger Russets and organic potatoes are available this fall from University of Idaho Educational Communications. Gem Russet, released in 2000, is 10 days shorter in dormancy than Russet Burbank. It accumulates lower concentrations of fry-darkening glucose when stored at 48° Fahrenheit temperatures, but its glucose levels eventually surpass those of Russet Burbank when stored over time at 42 or 45 degrees. "Storage Management for Gem Russet Potatoes" includes a full discussion of Gem Russet's dormancy, sugar development and fry color as well as detailed recommendations for optimum storage. Ranger Russet, released in 1991, must be managed carefully to prevent high glucose levels, dark fry color and mottling. "Vine Kill and Long-term Storage of Ranger Russet Potatoes" discusses the potential for optimizing processing quality by minimizing the time between vine kill and harvest. It describes optimum storage temperatures and suggests a greater time lag between application of the sprout inhibitor CIPC and processing. "Ranger Russet tends to stand alone in terms of our vine kill recommendations," says co-author Nora Olsen, a UI Extension potato specialist. "It's also very susceptible to losing quality when it's exposed to cold temperatures. But we can store Ranger Russets with acceptable quality until June as long as we are familiar with some of the conditions that can compromise quality and try to avoid them." Both publications are based on three years of research conducted by UI scientists at Idaho's Kimberly Research and Extension Center. The third publication, "Organic and Alternative Methods for Potato Sprout Control in Storage," describes alternatives to CIPC for producers growing potatoes for organic markets or for overseas markets that prohibit CIPC use. Among these sprout suppressants are spearmint oil, peppermint oil, clove oil and hydrogen peroxide. These highly volatile compounds act by "burning" off sprouts and leave behind little or no residue. However, since new sprouts continue to develop, applications must be repeated frequently. The publication includes discussions of product effectiveness, application methods and precautions. "These alternative products work well, but you need multiple applications and a good understanding of your crop's dormancy break and sprouting patterns," says Olsen. For growers selling into high-priced markets, however, the additional effort and expense can be worthwhile. "Organic potatoes are a huge, ever-growing business, and there are a lot of questions out there about how producers can sell quality potatoes into markets that don't allow CIPC," she says. All three publications can be downloaded from http://info.ag.uidaho.edu. They can also be ordered from UI Educational Communications by calling Kristin Johnson at (208) 885-7982 or sending e-mail to agpubs@uidaho.edu. Yet Another Environmental Lawsuit From WAWG's Green Sheet The National Wildlife Federation (NWF)&emdash;with the Washington state affiliate among several others&emdash;has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that allowing haying and grazing on millions of CRP acres by FSA constitutes mismanagement by FSA. NWF slays FSA rammed the haying-grazing language down the throats of federal lawmakers. FSA consulted a panel of grassland ecologists before reporting to Congress; now the plaintiffs argue that the government mischaracterized some of the panel's input, part of which was an emphasis on NOT allowing haying-grazing on CRP land in Washington state. Again, a judge will decide. Study Finds Grazing Affects Plants, Water Flow By Ellen Crawford, North Dakota State University A North Dakota State University Soil Science Department professor's recent study shows that grazing affects what happens below the ground's surface. The study indicates rangeland that's heavily grazed for an entire season or not grazed at all has few species of grasses and forbs growing on it, the plants' roots don't go very deep and rainfall or snowmelt runs off the land instead of soaking into the ground, said Jim Richardson, chair of the Soil Science Department. However, when cattle graze an area for just a few days at a time, the land has a mixture of grasses and several forbs, and the plants have deep, well-developed root systems. The soil also appears to be a darker, richer quality with numerous pores that can store water. The latter type of grazing is known as rotational or managed grazing. Ranchers divide their rangeland into a system of several pastures, a process called cross-fencing, and move their herd from one pasture to the next. Ranchers usually keep their cattle in one pasture no more than about three weeks. The length of time depends on the size of the herd and other factors, including rainfall and how well the grasses and forbs have recovered from the last round of grazing. The cattle generally graze in the same pasture only two times per season. Richardson says rotational grazing is closest to the way the buffalo lived, staying in an area until the grass was gone, then moving on. The study explains what people have observed for some time about the effect of rotational grazing on rangeland, said Paul Nyren, director of North Dakota State University's Central Grasslands Research Extension Center near Streeter. " 'Where did the forage come from?' was always the question," he said. Short-term grazing helps plants grow because it releases carbohydrates stored in the roots, according to Richardson. The carbohydrates rise to the top of the plant to continue the photosynthesis process and quickly generate strong, new growth to replenish what the cattle eat. Nyren said the ability to capture moisture in the soil is vital, particularly in parts of the state that can't get through a grazing season without running short of water. If rainfall or snowmelt can soak into the ground, it's there for plants to use when they need it, and it's not causing flash flooding or erosion problems, he said. Areas with rotational grazing also develop better habitat for ducks, grouse and other wildlife, Richardson said. "I'd never go back to season-long grazing," said Gene Goven, a rancher and farmer near Turtle Lake who has been doing rotational grazing since the 1980s. He said he found that the prairie potholes on his land didn't fill as fast after a rain, but the water was clearer and water levels remained more stable between rains. He said he also discovered he can raise more cattle and let them graze longer and the cattle gain more weight under rotational grazing. Richardon's study is a follow-up to research he and others conducted on Goven's land in central North Dakota in the early 1990s. In the latest study, Richardson, with help from Jay Volk, an NDSU graduate student working on his doctorate in animal and range sciences, and about a half-dozen students and technicians from the university's Soil Science and Animal and Range Sciences departments, collected data in just 4 1/2 days during May on the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center. Natural Resources Conservation Service soil scientists helped by recording the field description of the sites where the team took samples. The research team did its testing in three areas. One site hadn't been grazed, another was heavily grazed and the third was part of a rotational grazing system. The team used a backhoe to dig a trench 60 to 70 feet long and about 5 feet deep perpendicular to the slope at each site, then took samples at various depths. Richardson said the researchers collected all the samples at about the same time to make sure they didn't run into any seasonal changes that might alter plant and soil conditions. "It took a huge crew of really hard workers," he said. The researchers are analyzing the samples and, so far, they're seeing about what they expected, Volk said. Their next step is preparing a paper on their findings and getting it published. Volk said he's also scheduled three talks on the research. One is during the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center's grass and beef day Jan. 19. He'll give another talk at the Society of Range Management's annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, in February. Richardson said the results are similar to what Extension range science researchers at Colorado State University have found. Wilting Befuddles Gardeners From University of Idaho HomeWise The houseplant is wilted and so is your confidence in your green thumb. On the one hand, you could be underwatering. On the other hand, you could be overwatering. Why are the symptoms the same?! "That's a very good question, and it shows why diagnosing plant problems can be difficult," says Bob Tripepi, University of Idaho horticulture professor. Let's start with underwatered plants, either in pots or in the landscape. Their leaves wilt because the water that keeps foliage firm simply isn't available for the roots to take up. Because the water that plants transport from their roots to their leaves also carries minerals from their root zones, the water-stressed plant can be mineral-deficient as well. That's easy enough to understand. The leaves of overwatered plants also wilt-a trickier concept for the layperson. Tripepi says it happens because plants need energy to fuel their internal transport systems. In order to make that energy from sugars stored in-or transported to-their roots, plants also need oxygen. Because oxygen is scant in flooded soils, overwatered roots produce very little energy. Here again, the plant's foliage suffers from both moisture and mineral deficiency and wilts, even though the roots are nearly awash in water. If your houseplant's leaves are wilted, consider how you've been watering it lately. Tripepi suggests carefully removing the plant from its pot and examining its root system. The root tips of healthy plants are white or light tan, while those of drought-stressed plants are more likely to be dark tan or shriveled. Waterlogged roots are usually dark tan, brown or black, with a glassy, translucent appearance; often, their tips will pull apart with ease if you pull on them gently. In addition, overwatered potting mix or soil can have an odd smell. "The appearance of waterlogged roots versus drought-stressed roots should be fairly different," he says. EU Sanctions Against U.S. To Be Removed From the Pulse Pipeline, a publication of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council The European Union has announced its removal of $4 billion in trade sanctions against American products. The action came in response to repeal of the U.S.'s controversial Extraterritorial Income Act and Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC/ETI) law, which allowed tax breaks for domestic companies that had been deemed illegal by the World Trade Organization. Passage of the repeal brings the U.S. into compliance with WTO rulings. American companies will have a two year transition period in which to wean themselves off the tax breaks they were receiving under FSC/ETI. However, the repeal goes into effect at the beginning of the year, and the EU sanctions will be lifted at about the same time. India To Accept USDA Phytosanitaries From the Pulse Pipeline, a publication of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council Shakun Dalal, the USADPLC's representative in India, has advised that the Indian Government agreed on Thursday to accept shipments of "peas and pulses" covered by USDA Phytosanitary certificates until December 31, 2004. The shipments will be fumigated with Methyl Bromide at the Indian port of entry. The temporary measure allows more time to develop a long-term solution to certification and fumigation issues. The USDA Phytosanitary certificate must show that the shipments are free of stem and bulb nematodes, pea cyst nematodes, and bruchids. Down Home Politics A farm mother was making dinner when she looked out the window to see her two boys completely covered with mud. "You kids stop throwing mud at each other!" she hollered. "Are you having a fight?" "No, Ma," one of her sons answered. "We're just playing politics."

Get Smart About Selecting A Credit Card From Montana State University News The intense advertising of credit cards seems nonstop: "Fixed Introductory APR! Pre Approved Credit Line! No Annual Fee! Transfer your Higher-rate balances and Save!" "Advertising hype for credit cards is one of the things that makes participating in our MSU Extension program 'Get Smart About Credit' a wise investment, not only for new credit card users but long-time users as well," says Marsha Goetting, Montana State University Extension Family Economics Specialist. "Credit is a useful tool," Goetting says. "It helps you purchase your dreams like a home or a college education. And, credit can be helpful in an emergency, with an instant loan at millions of locations around the world. Yet, the choices we make about using our credit cards and paying off our loans have a big impact on our lives for years to come." One helpful publication from MSU Extension is designed to help you discover hidden costs of some credit cards. "Selecting a Credit Card" is a fact sheet that provides a comparison chart with factors such as annual percentage rates, grace periods, minimum finance charges, transaction costs for cash advances and other fees such as those for late payments, inactivity, being over the limit, and missed payments. If you plan to pay your bills in full each month, the size of the annual fee or other fees may be more important than the annual percentage rate. The chart also provides information to help you compare the credit cards you have with those offered in the mail or over the phone. The goal of the publication is to assist consumers in finding credit cards with terms best suited for their spending and repayment habits, Goetting says. Selecting a Credit Card is one of the many tools to help you take control of your finances on the "Get Smart About Credit" Website at: http://www.montana.edu/extensionecon/family/getsmartaboutcredit/creditguides.html Avoid The Minimum Credit Payment Trap From Montana State University News "It's so easy to fall into the credit card minimum payment trap. Your bill arrives and you don't have enough in your checking account to pay it off. You sigh with relief when you see the small minimum payment due and quickly write a check. Next month the same thing happens. Before you know it, you feel trapped into making only the minimum payments every month," says the Montana State University Extension Family Economics Specialist. "Most of us don't realize the true cost of this monthly decision," says Marsha Goetting. "That's why the MSU Extension Service has developed a website to help Montanans 'Get Smart About Credit' and an educational packet 'Credit Cards: Avoid the Minimum Payments Trap.'" One of the tools in the packet is a slide card that shows the costs of paying the minimum on your credit cards. Let's say you have a balance of $4,000. If you pay only the two percent minimum payment every month, over time you would pay $13,843 for your debt, including $9,843 in interest charges. And, you would have to make payments for 34 years, assuming you don't charge more on your card, which is probably unrealistic in many families. However, if you doubled the minimum payment every month you would only be in debt for 10 years and pay $2,222 in interest, thus saving $7,621. Thanks to funding from the First Interstate BancSystem Foundation, Montana Credit Unions for Community Development and the MSU Extension Service, the first 700 Montanans who send their requests can receive a free educational packet containing a special slide card that reveals how much you are paying on credit card debt when you only make the minimum payments. Additional credit management tools are also available at the MSU Extension Get Smart About Credit Website at: http://www.montana.edu/extensionecon/family/getsmartaboutcredit.html To request "Credit Cards: Avoid the Credit Cards Minimum Payments Trap" packet write Marsha Goetting, Extension Family Economics Specialist, P. O. Box 172800, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, email: khayes@montana.edu., phone: (406) 994-3511. Raised Garden Beds Now Help Start Gardening Earlier In Spring By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Autumn can be a good time to make a raised bed for spring planting, as there are plenty of materials at hand this time of year to fill or make a new garden bed. A combination of compost, fallen leaves, crop residues such as mint hay compost, straw, manures, and chipped pruning materials can be put in a bed to break down over the winter. With a raised bed, you'll be able to plant earlier as the soil dries and warms up more quickly in the spring than adjacent ground. First, choose a well-drained site with a minimum of six hours of sunlight per day, preferably near a water source. Make the raised beds narrow enough that the center of each bed can be planted, watered and weeded from a footpath beside the bed. It helps to mark your bed-in-progress perimeter with string. Your raised beds don't necessarily have to be neatly contained by wooden boards, as the magazines show. Plants grow just as well on raised soil without the frames. Or scavenge materials at hand, such as old cement blocks, or pallet wood to shore your new beds up. To help the organic material in your new bed break down more efficiently, add an additional source of nitrogen &endash; manure or fertilizer. In the spring you can add a couple of inches fertile soil over the top of your composting raised bed, then plant your seeds. Putting a clear or black plastic tarp over the bed will trap heat and keep the rain from leaching out all the nutrients from your composting bed. Begin by shaping your materials into a bed with a shovel and rake. Shovel a walkway area, about a foot and one-half wide, to a depth of six inches. Add the excavated soil to the top of the bed. Finished raised beds should be at least eight to 12 inches higher than the paths. Level the top of the bed with a rake. For less muddy walking, add sawdust or bark to the paths between beds. In the spring, plant seeds or transplants so they are evenly spaced as the season progresses. Fertilize and water as needed. Keep walkways as dry as possible to minimize weeds. Place stakes at the corners of the beds to prevent the hose from dragging across plants. Make sure you keep track of soil moisture during the warm months, as raised beds dry out more quickly than conventional beds. Organic material constantly decomposes and disappears, so replenish your raised beds with compost regularly. Cover the beds with two inches of leaves, compost or a cover crop like crimson clover or fava beans each autumn or early spring where the climate is harsher. Turn under cover crop or leaves in spring, and plant again the next year. Once the beds have gone through the improvement process, rototilling should be unnecessary. Light spading or forking will be enough to create a suitable bed for planting. As time goes on, soil will keep loosening and you will be able to garden almost year round. The OSU Extension Service offers several publications related to raised bed gardening, composting, garden bed design and improving soils with organic matter for no charge on the web. Some are also in Spanish. Go to Publications & Videos to find a complete list. There, you'll find: EC 1247, "Gardening with Composts, Mulches, and Row Covers" EC 1533, "Basic Design Concepts for Sustainable Landscapes" EC 1537-S-E, "La Construccion de Camas Elevadas (Building Raised Beds)" EC 1540-S, "Algunos Materiales Para Mejorar el Suelo (Materials for Improving Your Soil)" EC 1544-S-E, "Como Hacer y Usar el Compost (Composting)" EC 1561, "Improving Garden Soils with Organic Matter" FS 246-E, "Constructing Coldframes and Hotbeds" FS 270, "Raised Bed Gardening" If you don't have web access, request a printed copy of the OSU Extension Publications and Videos catalog from Publications Orders, Extension and Experiment Station Communications, OSU, 422 Kerr Administration, Corvallis, OR 97331-2119. You can order printed copies of most of these publications from this catalog for a charge. Income Tax Tips For Sheep Producers From Tom Platt, WSU Extension With income tax season just around the corner, there is still time for small farm operators to take advantage of tax advice from a professional before the end of the year, says Washington State University Extension Educator Tom Platt. Platt invites small farm operators to join the Spokane Area Sheep Producers for their November 10 meeting where tax tips will be provided by David Buob, CPA with Leffel, Otis, and Warwick. Buob will offer small farm operators tips for working with their accountant, organizing and keeping business records for tax purposes, using deductions properly, depreciating versus expensing equipment, minimizing audit risk, and understanding recent changes in tax law as it applies to sole proprietorship farmers. The Sheep Producers' meeting on November 10 will be held at the Spokane County Extension Education Center at North 222 Havana in Spokane, just south of the Interstate Fairgrounds. It begins at 7:30 p.m. Buob's presentation will begin at 8:00 p.m. Area sheep producers and small farm operators are welcome. For accommodation of special need, or for more information, contact Tom Platt at 509/725-4171. Organic Matter Crucial To Healthy Soil By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Poor soil quality is the source of many plant problems in the typical home garden, according to Oregon State University community horticulturist Neil Bell and OSU soil scientist Linda Brewer. How do you tell if you have poor quality soil? The soil is dried and cracked in the summer. Digging holes in the soil is difficult whether it is wet or dry. Rhododendrons, hydrangeas and other shrubs wilt in hot weather, even with added water. Leaves turn yellow and have brown, dead sections on them, particularly on the south side of the shrub. Tomatoes and peppers get blossom-end rot, even if fertilized with calcium. Water tends to pool on the surface and drains slowly, or runs off the surface. Most garden soils suffer from a lack of organic matter. Bell and Brewer suggest the following easy ways to determine if your soil needs an infusion of compost: Look at the color or shade of your soil. Is your soil dark or light? Soils with adequate organic matter content will be dark in color, both because they have more humus, which is dark in color, and because they hold more water. Look for puddling and standing water. Soils rich in organic matter content and with good tilth allow water to percolate below the surface. Rub some soil between your fingers. The soil will appear to contain "crumbs" composed of mineral and organic particles. The crumbs are examples of aggregation, and are the result of sticky substances released by soil organisms such as earthworms and bacteria, after feeding on organic matter. Aggregation, a result of organic activity, is desirable because it generates soil structure. Use your nose: Soils with adequate organic matter content will have the rich smell of earth. Soils that have poor air circulation, a result of reduced organic matter content, may smell sour or stinky. Adding organic matter to your garden soil helps improve the ability of the soil to accept and store water. Amending your soil often means that you can reduce the amount of water a newly planted garden requires. If you apply organic mulch on the soil surface, evaporation will be further reduced, compared to with bare soil. Organic matter increases the activity and the number of soil organisms. Over time, a well-amended soil will supply more of the nutrients your plants require, thereby reducing fertilizer requirements. It also protects water quality and the environment. Soils amended with organic matter are a better sponge for water. More water goes into the soil, and less water runs off the surface. Because surface runoff is reduced, pesticides and fertilizers are retained in the soil, and prevented from washing off into nearby storm sewers, streams, rivers and lakes. Make compost in your backyard or use fresh organic materials from your yard. Because organic amendments are bulky and heavy and expensive to transport, look for suitable source amendments close to home. Local private or municipal composting operations offer a variety of compost products and usually provide delivery. Consider the types of farming, ranching or other agricultural operations in your area, and what types of surplus materials they might be producing that would be available at little or no cost. You might be able to arrange for bulk deliveries of these materials with a landscape supply or trucking company. If you need only half a "load" consider splitting a load with a neighbor. Locally available amendments may include yard trimmings compost from the local landfill, leaves from deciduous trees, crop residues, manures and manure composts, separated dairy solids, or grape waste from a winery.

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