Archive for the ‘Organic’ Category

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MSU 2013 WSSA posters available

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

-E. Taylor-Hill

We just returned from Baltimore, MD (home of the 2013 Superbowl Champions) where we attended the 2013 Weed Science Society of America annual meeting. It was a great opportunity to look at weed related research from around the nation and beyond and to take a look at how the rise in herbicide resistant weeds seems to be impacting agriculture across the U.S. (look for a future blog on that).

Now that we are back I posted the 3 posters that we presented. Our topics included…

  • Influence of soil amendments on seed mortality of herbicide resistant Palmer amaranth
  • Volunteer glyphosate resistant (RR) corn control in RR sugarbeets
  • Cover crop influence on weed pressure in organic dry beans

Visit the Presented Research section to view the posters.

Posted in Cover Crops, Glyphosate, Herbicide Resistance, Meetings, Organic, Sugar beet, Travels, Weeds | No Comments »

2012 Harvests = Complete

Monday, October 29th, 2012

-E. Taylor

Last week brought our final harvest of the season. With the help of many hands (and a plot combine) all of the corn, soybeans, sugarbeets, and dry beans are done! Now let the data analyses and the planning for 2013 begin.

Taking volunteer corn out of sugarbeets for dry weights before harvest

Taking volunteer corn out of sugarbeets for dry weights before harvest

Threshing organic dry beans at the Student Organic Farm south of campus

Threshing organic dry beans at the Student Organic Farm south of campus

Posted in Crops, Organic | No Comments »

KBS Organic Field Tour

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

-E. Taylor

KBS Organic Field Day Sept 18 2012 (10)

Yesterday the Kellogg Biological Station hosted a tour highlighting the organic research going on at the station. I had the opportunity to show off our study looking at how cover crops influence organic dry beans. For 2012 the KBS location has thus far showed an advantage to having a large rye cover crop by preserving soil moisture. Beans in the rye plots emerged earlier and more uniformly than the other cover crop treatments. Through out the season the beans planted in rye plots were further along in maturity than others and are now drying down, while the other beans are just starting to turn yellow. We will see if the beans planted following rye had a yield advantage in this very dry year when we harvest in about 2 weeks.

Other highlights on the tour were the rye and hairy vetch segregated cover crop study  looking to improve nitrogen availability for sweet corn production (Caroline Lowry and Daniel Brainard), the organic soybean variety trial (Dale Mutch and Dan Rossman), and a study looking at greenhouse gas emissions in conventional and organic rotations (Dean Baas).

Posted in Cover Crops, Dry bean, Extension, Field Days, Organic, Vegetables | No Comments »

Making it rain

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

-E. Taylor

After many promising forecasts for precipitation turned up nothing we decided it was time to MAKE it rain. These dry beans planted at the MSU Student Organic Farm have been sitting in very dry soil for 2 weeks now, so it was time to take action to avoid losing a year of research.

Irrigating at the MSU Student Organic Farm

Irrigating at the MSU Student Organic Farm

Even drier yet was the plot at the Kellogg Biological Station, so we irrigated there today as well. These beans have been in the ground for one week.

Irrigating dry beans at the Kellogg Biological Station

Irrigating dry beans at the Kellogg Biological Station

Posted in Dry bean, Organic | No Comments »

Planting Year 2 of the Organic Dry Bean Project

Friday, June 15th, 2012

-E. Taylor

This week we began planting for the OREI organic dry bean project looking at how cover crops influence nitrogen availability, dry bean and weed emergence, disease and insect pressure and yields. We kicked off planting on June 12th  at the Student Organic Farm on campus. The soil is very dry, so we are hoping to get some rain soon to encourage emergence. Next week we will be planting at the Kellogg Biological Station and the four on-farm trials should be planted within the next week or so also.

IMG_2830

Posted in Cover Crops, Dry bean, Organic | No Comments »

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