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MGANM February Meeting Notes:Chestnut Hypovirulence

The Battle Against Invasive Plants… and the Rewards

What’s in a name?

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben: A Review

MGANM February Meeting Notes: Chestnut Hypovirulence

by Nancy Denison, AEMG

It was another packed house at the BRNC February 5 for Dr. Carmen Medina Mora speaking on the American Chestnut and Hypo virulence. Dr. Mora is an MSU grad and continues to work in the MSU labs researching and studying Chestnut disease pathology.

The American Chestnut, Castana dentate,  a tall, large canopied tree with edible nuts was once widespread in the eastern US until wooden pallets from China introduced Chestnut blight which spread and began to devastate trees in the early 1900s. Research of European, Japanese and Chinese chestnut trees has offered hope and success in saving/creating a new strain which is much less susceptible to the virus.

MSU is now cloning rather than grafting these crossed trees and allowing the Forest Keeling Nursery in Missouri to grow the rootstock for planting in Michigan exclusively. Nearby Kewadin already has Japanese-European trees in production as does the NW Michigan Horticultural Station. It was interesting to hear that many cherry and apple growers have or are replacing their fruit trees with Chestnuts. Hypo virulence refers to the biological management of disease which researchers have found to be effective in controlling the virus from killing the chestnut tree and actually allowing the tree to heal itself.  

Dr. Mora’s presentation was enlightening and helped this very unaware backyard gardener (me) understand a promising trend for farmers, consumers and tree lovers. Thank you, Dr. Mora!

The Battle Against Invasive Plants… and the Rewards

by Ruth Steele Walker, AEMG

It’s a never-ending story — the battle against invasive species! Each year Scott and I do battle against several plant invasive species on our property.  In spring there is garlic mustard to pull, at any time of the year there is Oriental bittersweet to keep track of (while planning its demise come warmer weather) and in summer there’s the frustration of fighting the Oriental Bittersweet, tree of heaven and autumn olive.   We’re also removing some things that were planted before we got here like periwinkle and lily of the valley, some things our neighbors planted that have spread on to our property and some things that we planted before we knew better.

Given that fighting invasive plants has become an annual ritual, I was excited to attend this month’s Master Gardener Association of Northwest Michigan meeting where Emily Cook of the Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network (ISN) spoke.

The ISN covers our county, Leelanau, as well as Benzie, Grand Traverse and Manistee counties in Northwest Michigan.  They provide a host of services and work bees to help eradicate invasive plants from our area.  Their website really says it all: HabitatMatters.org.

Why bother with getting rid of invasive plants, especially pretty ones or ones that quickly grow and fill in a bare area?  It’s pretty simple.  Native plants feed wildlife, butterflies and the insects that are necessary for pollinating plants – including those plants that produce our food – and feeding the birds and butterflies.  Plants that grow quickly are likely to be aggressive enough to push out the native plants that are so important for keeping our world healthy and thriving.

Emily divided invasive species into four categories:  plants that were mistakes, like purple loosestrife and phragmites, plants that were prized for beauty before their invasive qualities were discovered such as buckthorn, Japanese barberry and baby’s breath;  plants that were a well-meaning oops, including autumn olive which was heavily promoted as a plant of choice in the 1970s and plants that provide food (and were  brought by our ancestors when they immigrated to this area) such as garlic mustard.

One of the great things I learned at Emily’s talk was that ISN keeps a Top 20 list of plants that qualify as invasive species.  This is important for me to know as a Master Gardener because if I’m giving out advice about planting, I need to know which species are problematic and have been identified as specific problems in our area of the country. 

What was disheartening to hear is that half of the plants on the ISN Top 20 list are still being sold for landscaping.  What was heartening to know is that ISN has a group of landscapers who have agreed not to include invasive species in their projects.  The group is called Go Beyond Beauty and identifies landscapers and nurseries that have committed not to use or sell high-threat invasive plants.  So far ISN has signed up eight nurseries on this list and there are 13 landscapers (two of which have nurseries on the list as well) that are committed to avoiding invasive plants. 

Currently ISN’s focus is on four invasive species: (pictured below)

1. Japanese knotweed, also referred to as Michigan bamboo.  If you find this on your property, Emily says, call ISN.  Do not move it or mow it!!
   

   japanese knotweed close-up growing in the UK background and texture. Photo by Dreamstime, permissions granted for the sole use of MGANM

2. Garlic mustard, the focus of annual pulls each spring.  The nice thing here is it makes a great pesto sauce and you can bag and dumpster any part you don’t eat.
   

   Garlic Mustard, Alliaria Petiolata
   credit: S.Callahan/Photri Images
   Photo by Dreamstime, permissions granted for the sole use of MGANM

3. Phragmites, which is prevalent along our shorelines in Michigan.
   

   Phragmites australis flower close to the lake in autumn. Photo by Dreamstime, permissions granted for the sole use of MGANM

4. Oriental bittersweet, known for its “kudzu effect” in covering trees and anything else in its path.
   

   Oriental Bittersweet. Photo by Dreamstime, permissions granted for the sole use of MGANM

If you’re on the fence about removing some of the invasive plants on your property check out some native gardens near you and see how beautiful native plants can be while providing a habitat for birds, butterflies and bees. 

What’s in a Name?

by Cheryl A. Gross, AEMG

It is time to begin making plant wish lists for spring!  Scour catalogues and books, think about adding new landscaped beds, refreshing existing landscaped beds, reducing lawn, benefiting pollinators and birds, oh my.  What plants will you choose? Knowing plant origins and names is very important if you want to be an ecological gardener superstar.

The very best plants for ecological support are native plants.  They developed here and have the intricate relationships between soil, climate, and insects that create the web of life.   Why do native plants matter? Insects create the biomass of food for baby birds. Adult birds prefer insects as well, but as adults can also feed on seeds and berries.  Insects are famously picky eaters. Some insects eat ONLY one plant, while a very few are generalists. Pollinators are required to help plants make seeds and fruit and our food.  The highest quality of nectar and pollen available to our pollinators are provided by native plants. For example, dandelions have only 40% of the nutrition of a native spring bloomer.  When visiting a nursery, buy “straight” native varieties. (To learn about which plants are native visit: michiganflora.org.)

So when visiting a nursery, it is best to buy “straight” native varieties.  The question becomes, though, how can you tell if a plant is “straight” and not a “cultivar” or a “nativar”  Well, ALL plants have Latin names. That name is their scientific descriptor. Many also have common names… or “nick names” and can have many of those. Let’s take Dicentra canadensis. It is also commonly called Squirrel Corn, Wild Bleeding Heart, or  Girls, (in relation to Dicentra cucullaria, also called Boys or Dutchman’s Breeches). Therefore, when shopping for plants, you really should know the Latin name.

Plant scientists LOVE messing with plants and creating “new” or altered plants. These are called “cultivars” because they have been “cultivated”. This includes, but is not limited to, different leaf color, different blossom color or size, or different berry size. When cultivating or “messing” with native plants, they sometimes call them “nativars”.  The problem is this: insects have a specific relationship with the native plant and we have no idea how any change will affect that relationship. The argument is that there is no science to prove that it is a problem. So until there is, cultivars of native plants should be considered OK. I don’t buy it. Science HAS gotten as far as to determine that changing a leaf from green to red changes the enzymes and the chewing insect that relies on that leaf is unable to digest it and that bees and other pollinators cannot access the nectar and pollen in double blossoms.

Here is the final tip. Look at the plant tag to learn whether the plant has been cultivated. Those plants generally have a third name in quotes. For example, if you want a Serviceberry, or Amelanchier laevis, it has many varieties, several second Latin names, and many, many common names. If you see a THIRD name in quotes, “Autumn Brilliance” you know it is a cultivar.  Don’t buy it.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben: A Review

by Kathryn Frerichs, AEMG

Once in a great while I am astounded by some new, amazing findings in medicine, genetics, botany, etc.  The revelations in Peter Wohlleben’s book The Hidden Life of Trees create one of those times. The works of natural scientists in recent years have revealed the role of mycelium and bacteria in the soil now called the Wood Wide Web.

Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels was reviewed in the Real Dirt previously. In it, mycelium is described to extend plant roots and exchange minerals and water for sugars from those roots.  Miles of threads of mycelium exist in a teaspoon of soil. The mycelium belong to the fungi family and the largest living organism on earth is a fungus that covers 2,384 acres and is dated at 2,400 to possibly 8,650 years old.  Plenty to be gobsmacked about with these discoveries. Then comes Wohlleben’s book to take us to that place of wonder and amazement regarding trees.

Wohlleben reveals how to observe that trees can, in fact, detect smell. The thorned acacia trees in Africa have been observed to ward off giraffes by secreting a bad tasting substance in their leaves tanking them from tasty to nasty.  The long-necked herbivores then trot off to a neighboring acacia and depending upon the wind direction, the trees will have already begun secreting that nasty-tasting chemical into their leaves too. The giraffes have figured out that the downwind trees can smell chemicals from neighboring trees and just move upwind to chomp on other unsuspecting trees.  Trees do, by deduction from this example and others examples, have to be able to “smell” or detect the odor the other trees emit. Some critics claim that Wohlleben’s writing becomes anthropomorphic. Whatever you may want to call it, smell or detect, trees are communicating via odor/smell. Man can be very egocentric in thinking that only the human species can ‘smell’.  I think more of us will pay attention to his work with his imaginative approach.

Peter Wohlleben explains how trees communicate through the air and through the Wood Wide Web (WWW).  Saplings that are living on the shaded forest floor are fed by the mother trees through their roots. The saplings can wait in the dark, so to speak, because the mother trees feed them for decades before an opening in the forest canopy provides the light to fuel their growth. Trees feed one another in times of illness too.  They use the WWW, also known as mycelium, to accomplish this feat. After a number of these examples, you begin to realize that a forest is not made up of individual trees but is a type of super organism. The parts are all interconnected and protecting one another. Trees, also, have the ability to detect artificial light at night  Eventually the light stunts their growth. They need to stop photosynthesis at night in order to rest.

A forest of trees operates in concert with one another by regulating their climate.  The leaves, or their solar panels, provide a cooling effect and feed and water the roots every autumn when they are broken down and become soil.   The depth of the soil increases over time. They can withstand wind storms by buffering each other to prevent being toppled over. By fall the trees have made and stored as much sugar as they can so they shed the solar panels to rot and become new soil for the next season.  Also, Mr. Wohlleben tells us that when man comes along to harvest lumber from these magnificent giant-coordinated organisms called forests, they cut down the oldest, largest most mature trees. Our old growth trees are the biggest carbon sequesterers we have. The first trees to be cut down in a forest are the largest ones ‘who’ are the most capable of helping us fend off climate change.  

I highly recommend The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben to Master Gardeners.   Besides being a delightful read, it is informative, teaches us to respect those giants of the forest living in the slow lane, and recognizes that trees are interconnected in ways we have not anticipated.  Communication, sleep, nurturance, and functioning as one organism make for better survival just as Darwin hypothesized.

Enjoy this wonderful book!

Another doping scandal… in your yard

by Cheryl Gross Advanced Extension Master Gardener

You have read the headlines about performance enhancing drugs in baseball and cycling.  The improvements to performance are temporary and the dangers are significant. Well, homeowners have been engaged in “doping’” their lawns and gardens for years and don’t even realize it.   Most lawn “care’” products- – fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides- -act a lot like performance enhancing drugs. They may make your lawn “look” better, but the results are temporary and the side effects are serious.

Any plant, whether a lawn or landscape bed, needs nutritious soil and the appropriate amount of sunlight and moisture to thrive. The soil is the “diet” of the plant.  It needs good food. The nutritious soil comes from organic material. When we fertilize, we give it a vitamin at best and a steroid at worst. We do not really “feed” the plant for strength and vitality.  A healthy lawn can compete fairly with the weeds and, for the most part, choke them out. A lawn on “steroids” can only compete as long as the grass plant has the chemical in its system.

Herbicides kill plants.  Used selectively they can be very useful in eradicating nuisance or harmful plants, such as poison ivy, from our lawns or environment.  Used broadly, they may miss the target and leave harmful chemicals in our yards to be spread to our kids, pets and tracked into our houses.  We don’t fully know the affect these chemicals have on us, but there is plenty of research looking into it.

Pesticides kill insects and animals.  Again, there may be a place for selective pesticide use.  However, broad use of pesticides may result in harming or killing beneficial insects and animals.  How soon after application is it “safe” for a child to play or an animal to lie on a treated lawn? No one really knows.

While it is your decision to use lawn care services or do it yourself and follow a manufacturer’s step plan, have you considered where these chemicals go once applied to your lawn?  They can both float on the breeze and runoff into our watershed. You and your neighbors breathe the chemical residue. The creeks, rivers, and lakes receive the excess. The plants and animals in the water are affected by the runoff.  Before you invest in any lawn or garden chemical, stop and think about it. Does your lawn really need to have artificial vitality? Do a few weeds really cause such offense? Is killing a few insects worth the risk?

Instead, look into ways to improve your lawn and garden diet.  Add composted organic material to feed your plants. Strengthen the entire ecosystem to encourage the plants you desire and discourage weeds.  Use only targeted herbicides and pesticides and be sure they are worth the effort and expense. Finally, seek out organically friendly products that address your needs without contributing to problems downstream.

Help is out there.  Contact your local conservation district, Master Gardeners, organic gardening center, or garden club.  Learn more about weaning your yard from chemical dependency and protecting our environment.

 

The Biochar Story

Coordinator’s Corner: Six-legged fall invaders

The Biochar Story

by Tim Overdier
Northport, MI

Biochar is a natural high-carbon soil builder. As the name implies, “bio” represents a biological coating on a “char” particle produced in a low oxygen burn (pyrolysis). Biochar (Fig. 1) is much like charcoal but rather than purposed for fuel, it is created for use as an agricultural soil amendment. Biochar’s unique electrochemical properties and high surface area (Fig. 2) adsorbs nutrients and greenhouse gases, increases nutrient and water holding capacities, and provides habitat for a diversity of beneficial soil microbes. Biochar can be processed from many types of organic wastes.

While the name “biochar” was only coined in 2005, this material was used by Amazonian Indians as far back as 2500 years ago.

A Spanish expedition In 1542 a Spanish expedition seeking gold and cinnamon put into the headwaters of the Amazon with a young Conquistador named Francisco de Orellana. On the way to the Pacific ocean, Orellana’s scribe, Friar Gaspar de Carvajal, recorded that the party encountered extensive and grand villages with ornate plazas, lush green fields, roads, and warehouses of stored exotic foods, corrals of turtles and manatees, ferocious warrior women, and tall warrior men painted black.

 

So remote was the Amazon, that by the time researchers of the late 19th century returned to the area there were no such villages. Carvajal’s writings were considered to be myth. Modern studies indicate that European-introduced diseases decimated the ancient civilizations by about 95 percent.

Since then geologists and archaeologists passed through the area in the 19th and 20th Centuries, found buried beneath the Amazon rain forest a soil called “Terra Preta” — Portuguese for “dark earth”. In 1874 a geology report by a Dr. Charles Hartt of Cornell described the terra preta soils as a “kitchen middens, created by 1000 kitchens over 1000 years”, indicating a loop of carbon recycling that returned refuse – cooking char, pottery shards, and bones– back into the soil to grow crops. Everything but the kitchen sink…

It wasn’t until after the advent of “soil science” in the 20th Century that more specific chemical and physical properties of terra preta were analyzed. In 1996, William Sombroek, a soil scientist from the Netherlands completed the first PhD thesis on terra preta, offering to the world the classic side by side photo of soil profiles (Figure 3.) with the dark, Anthropogenic or human-made terra preta next to the native tropical soil. The key ingredient Sombroek identified was the char, along with a host of diverse microbes that comprised the fertile, well-structured soil.

By contrast, the native tropical soils are highly weathered red clays, acidic, and lacking in organic matter and nutrients. The dark earth profile at over 15% organic matter enabled the cultivation of food crops that would not have been possible in the native soils. So while these civilizations that supported millions of Amazonian people disappeared, they may have left behind a soil solution to the carbon balance we now need for a sustainable future.

Northwest Michigan’s upland topsoils cleared for agriculture are typically 1-2 percent organic matter. They could easily become 3 to 5 percent with changes in management, including the addition of biochar.

Today, a high tech 21st Century worldwide biochar effort to improve the pyrolysis procedures, environmental monitoring, process engineering, marketing, and economics is underway. Education and public awareness remain a big factor for successful implementation of a future with appropriate biochar applications. Nearly 125 institutions worldwide are studying biochar, including 15 colleges and universities in the United States.

The International Biochar Initiative has successfully advocated for the inclusion of biochar into the proposed United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and at least 20 countries have supported the inclusion of biochar as a high-potential climate change mitigation and adaptation tool.

 

In 2018, Cool Terra, a U.S. company financed by Google, Exxon Mobil, JR Simplot, USDA, and others, are rolling out a high carbon, microbially inoculated, enhanced biochar. This product is the result of several years of filing 35 patents, field trials though Colorado State University and a California research firm. The granular product will provide farms, orchards, turf growers, and greenhouses with an incremental, high return soil amendment, that will help shift farms from the chemical treadmill to a more ecologically sustainable, set of soil building practices. This is just the beginning of biochar moving into the mainstream.

Other uses of biochar such as wastewater treatment, electrical cells, and hazardous material cleanup are being researched.

With our NW Michigan excess woody debris, a small fire, and a water source to douse the flames before the fire burns to ash, we can make biochar and make a difference in the carbon cycle and our local food. Figures 4 and 5 show results in my Northport garden in 2017 with biochar additions to 30 inches of depth.

There will be a two hour Biochar Workshop at Grow Benzie November 3, 2018 to introduce the process for NW Michigan gardeners and growers.

Biochar: be the change!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coordinator’s Corner: Six-legged fall invaders

Nate Walton, MSU Extension Master Gardener Coordinator

As the shadows lengthen and days get shorter, we start to see some six-legged friends sneaking around our windows, eaves, and soffits. This seems like a good time for a reminder about just who some of these insects are, and how you can tell them apart.

The fall invaders are all just following their natural inclination to seek an out of the way resting place to spend the winter. Unfortunately for all parties involved, what happens next is anything but natural.

The exterior side walls of our structures provide a very attractive array of nooks and crannies for these critters. The problem is that these nooks and crannies often lead into the interiors of our human dwellings. Three of the most common insects that we find doing this in Michigan are Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Box Elder Bug, and Western Conifer Seed Bug, and are all closely related insects in the insect order Hemiptera (true bugs).

Of these three, the newest to our area and most problematic by far is the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB). A great deal of information on identification and management of BMSB can be found on the website www.stopbmsb.org.

Keeping all three of these insects out of our structures can be a real challenge, but essentially consists of maintaining good seals around the exterior. Once they are in your house there is not much that you can do, other than remove them. Like many of the other insects in the order Hemiptera (True Bugs) these bugs have a piercing sucking mouthpart and they are capable of using it in self-defense. In other words, handle them with caution. They can be knocked into a bucket of soapy water, vacuumed up, or just left alone. Of these three insects, BMSB is the only one that is a garden or agricultural pest.

In case you are unsure whether the insects in your home are BMSB, I have prepared the following table and photo guide to help you tell them apart. The shape of their hind legs, overall body shape, and color can be used to differentiate these three fall invaders.

 

Common Name	Foods	Body Shape	Hind Leg Shape	Color
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug	Wide variety	Pentagonal	Long and thin	Mottled brown tan and white
Western Conifer Seed Bug	Seeds of conifers	Elliptical	Flat and broadened	Mottled brown tan and white
Box Elder Bug	Box elder and related maples	Elliptical	Long and thin	Black and red

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June 5th MGANM Meeting Notes

Black Swallow-wort and Monarch Butterflies

June 5th MGANM Meeting Notes

by Nancy Dennison, AEMG

Dr. Nate Walton, our MSU-E Consumer Horticulture Program Instructor, shared his knowledge of Smart Pest Management.  He explained how chemical pesticides were developed after WWII which worked for a while, then became ineffective and new pesticides were created. Thus new chemicals are constantly being developed.  These days we are on the lookout for organic and non-toxic (to humans, bees, animals) methods to help us control garden and yard pests. Nate talked about the Japanese Beetle, Squash Bug, Rose Chafer, and the Colorado Potato Beetle. He also discussed non- chemical ways of trying to control pest damage such as crop rotation, watering wisely, netting and modifying the plant environment.  Nate’s informative discussion was helpful and hopefully will lead us to better pest management in our gardens, small and large. Thanks so much Nate!

Black Swallow-wort and Monarch Butterflies

Identifying an Early Detection Invasive Species in Northwest Michigan

by Emily Cook, Outreach Specialist, Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network

There is certainly no shortage of invasive plants in northwest Michigan and most people are aware of the common species. Garlic mustard, invasive phragmites, Japanese knotweed, and autumn olive are just a few names that typically make one groan in frustration. These plants love to grow in disturbed areas, create dense stands, and out-compete many native plants which is detrimental to pollinators. However, at the Northwest Michigan Invasive Species Network (ISN), there is another category of plants known as “Early Detection” species. These are plants that have not yet been identified in the region but if they do appear, they immediately become a priority. The goal is to treat them as soon as possible, before they are given the chance to spread and become difficult to manage.

Early detection species in our region include amur cork-tree, black jetbead, butterbur, flowering rush, giant hogweed, and several others that are listed at www.habitatmatters.org. Another plant on that list is black swallow-wort and unfortunately, it was recently identified throughout the village of Kingsley after it was brought to ISN’s attention by a concerned citizen. Thorough surveying in the days following have revealed that the plants are growing beyond a single population and it will require community partnership to successfully tackle management.

Black swallow-wort grows extensively in southern Michigan and is found in Emmett County and into the Upper Peninsula. This population in Kingsley is the first one that has been identified in our region. While it shares the same characteristics as the aforementioned species that classify it as an invasive species, it has an additional trait that makes it especially concerning. Swallow-wort is a member of the milkweed family and acts like a “sink” for monarch butterflies. Even when native milkweed species are present, female monarchs will often lay their eggs on the invasive variety. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars are unable to feed on the plant and die.

Swallow-wort can quickly spread over an area if not managed and ISN needs your help to get started! Most of the populations in Grand Traverse County have been identified on private property and we are seeking individuals who are willing to advocate for the plant’s removal and to share ISN’s messaging in relation to swallow-wort and its potential impact on monarch butterflies. If you are interested in helping, please contact ISN Communications Specialist Rebecca Koteskey, rkoteskey@gtcd.org.

Identifying additional populations is also key and often, just as with this case, ISN needs input from community members! If you think you are aware of a black swallow-wort population, please contact us at (231)941-0960. Often called black dog strangling vine, it tends to climb around adjacent plants. One is more likely to notice it’s oblong, narrow, dark leaves which are somewhat waxy, over its flowers which are purple and tiny. Additional photos can be found at www.misin.msu.edu.

It is also important to note that there is a pale swallow-wort which looks and acts the same but has pale pink flowers – keep an eye out for this species as well!