This year CSANR sponsored registration for several WSU students to attend the Tilth Conference. We will be posting reflections written by the students over the next several weeks. Please feel free to comment and give these students your feedback. My research work at Washington State University deals with environmental problems associated with big agricultural enterprises, […]
Can you see 17 species in this cover crop mix? Photo: A. McGuire. Cover crops are great. If I thought I could get away with it, I would just grow cover crops in my garden.…
Organic matter – the organic component of soil – is key to soil health. Organic matter serves as a reservoir of nutrients for crops, provides soil aggregation, increases nutrient exchange, retains moisture, reduces compaction, reduces surface crusting, and increases water infiltration into the soil. And organic matter is closely related to soil organic carbon, the […]
Is this better than an herbicide for the soil? Photo: United Soybean Board. In a past post, I argued for the use of an herbicide instead of tillage to kill a soil-building cover crop. My…
For years, researchers have been looking to polycultures, biodiversity in space, as a way to improve agriculture (Trenbath 1974; Tilman et al. 1997; Cardinale et al. 2011; Finney and Kaye 2016). Behind this research is…
Corn plants coming up among strips of wheat. Photo: D. Kilgore. WSU Extension is hosting an upcoming workshop on the basics of High Residue Farming on November 30, 2016, 9:30-3:30 in Moses Lake. Details for…
Vertical farm crop wall demonstration project. Where is the soil?Photo: State Dept. via Flickr cc There is a new style of urban agriculture appearing around the world. The efforts differ in details, but they all…
Monoculture of dry edible beans. Photo: A. McGuire. Many bloggers have it wrong, Wikipedia had it wrong, and when I found that Agronomy Journal got it wrong, I was compelled to write on the topic…
It is apple harvest time again in Washington State, albeit about two weeks earlier than normal in most places. This will be a large crop overall, and probably a record crop for organic apples. The projection is for a harvest of just over 11 million 40-pound boxes of organic apples. At 88 apples per box […]
Brendon Anthony is pursuing a Master of Science in the Horticulture program at Washington State University. As a child in elementary school I learned that the two basic requirements for the growth and success of a plant are sunlight and water. However, as I have undergone further schooling and research, specifically in horticulture, I have learned […]