Cranberries: A Little Fruit With Big Appeal

Cranberries are a little red fruit native to North America. They are raised on more than sixteen thousand hectares across the northern United States and Canada. And they supply a growing market.

Over two hundred eighty million kilograms of cranberries are grown in the United States each year. Wisconsin is the biggest producer, followed by Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey and Washington State.

The hard berries are boiled with sugar to make cranberry sauce, a traditional part of Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. They are also eaten dried, made into spreads, baked into treats, mixed with other flavors and pressed into juice. In fact, that juice represents more than sixty percent of purchases of cranberry products at markets.

Cranberries are one of only a few fruit native to the United States and Canada. The Cranberry Institute says a Revolutionary War veteran named Henry Hall started to grow them for sale in Massachusetts in eighteen sixteen.

Cranberries are harvested in September and October. They can be picked by a machine that strikes the plant to loosen the berries. These are usually sold fresh.

But cranberries are more commonly picked from their low-growing vines in a way that saves a lot of labor. This method is possible because cranberries naturally grow in wetlands.

Many farmers grow the vines in areas that are lower than the surrounding land. At harvest time, the beds are flooded. A machine strikes the vines. The berries break free and float on the water. Then they are moved to one end of the flooded beds and gathered by machine. These berries are usually processed.

Cranberries have a long history. The Cranberry Institute notes that Native Americans used them in ceremonies and as food and medicine. Today marketers point to research findings that suggest that cranberries can help prevent some kinds of infections.

But cranberry growing has raised some environmental concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency says wetlands are being destroyed in some cases to expand production. Other concerns involve the use of farming chemicals that could enter water systems.

Yet even critics agree that cranberries are better than some other kinds of development. Farmers usually protect their cranberry beds with surrounding forestland. And that means a place for wildlife to live.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mario Ritter
First published: December 6, 2005

Ethanol Fuel Opens New Markets for Corn

The American Midwest is known as the corn belt. Most of the nation’s maize is grown along that stretch of the country. The farmers who grow the corn have been very successful. So successful, they now face oversupply and low prices.

Most of the corn goes to feed animals. But some of it also goes into cars and trucks as ethanol fuel. Some farmers hope greater use of ethanol will drive new markets for corn.

Ethanol is made from plant matter that contains complex carbohydrates, or starch. Starch breaks down into simple sugars. And yeast organisms break down the sugars into alcohol.

Ethanol has a long history. It is ethyl alcohol, also called grain alcohol, the same kind found in alcoholic drinks.

Corn is not the only crop that can be used to make ethanol. Barley, wheat, even the leaves and stalks of corn, rice and sugar cane can be used.

In some parts of the country, fuel companies are required to add ethanol to gasoline as a way to reduce air pollution. The United States Department of Energy says many automobiles can run on ten percent ethanol without any need for changes.

The government has supported the development of vehicles with the ability to use a mixture called E-eighty-five. It is eighty-five percent ethanol and fifteen percent gasoline.

Some people may not even know that their cars and trucks have this ability. Many of these vehicles are common models made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.

A number of state laws support the use of ethanol. So does federal law. The Energy Policy Act of two thousand five requires the production of fifteen thousand million liters of renewable fuels this year. There are also tax reductions for ethanol makers, farmers and buyers of vehicles that can run on E-eighty-five.

Some experts, however, say they are concerned that using food crops to make fuel is bad policy. Some say it might use more energy than it produces. Others say using a lot of corn for fuel might shrink food supplies. But the process that separates starch to make ethanol, called wet milling, uses only part of the corn.

Plant-based fuels are not new. For many years Brazil has used fuel made with alcohol from sugar cane.

Related topic:
Scientists Study Switchgrass for Ethanol and Energy Production

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mario Ritter
First published: January 30, 2006

Norway Plans to Store Seeds of All the World's Crops

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to represent all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month.

The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on Earth.

An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his words, "the worst came to the worst."

Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above zero degrees Celsius. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high-security doors.

The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below zero Celsius. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mister Fowler says the proposed structure will be the "world's most secure gene bank." He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason.

Norway first proposed the idea in the nineteen eighties. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was permitted use of Spitsbergen.

New Scientist says the plan won United Nations approval in October at a meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: George Grow
First published: February 7, 2006

Producing Rubber from Sunflowers

Sunflower plants grow tall and produce a beautiful flower. The seeds are good to eat and produce a high quality oil for cooking. But scientists in the United States hope that sunflowers will also become known for their rubber.

The scientists are attempting to improve the quality and amount of latex from sunflower plants. Latex is made of rubber particles, water and other plant substances. It is a higher value product than solid rubber.

The scientists believe that sunflowers could reduce America’s dependence on imported natural rubber and rubber made from oil products. The United States imports more than one-million tons of natural rubber each year.

Katrina Cornish is an expert on how plants produce rubber. She works for the Agriculture Department in its Agricultural Research Service office in Albany, California.

Katrina Cornish notes that more than two-thousand-five-hundred kinds of plants produce natural latex. But she says few have the qualities that scientists want. Most plants are too small or grow too slowly. Others do not produce enough latex. Or the latex they produce is not good enough.

Sunflowers are large and grow quickly. Currently, latex produced from sunflowers is not good enough to be used to make products because of the quality and amount. However, the scientists hope to improve the situation in the future through genetic engineering.

Katrina Cornish and her team are experimenting with several different kinds of sunflowers. She is working with scientists from Colorado State University and Ohio State University. They are interested in the kinds of plants that produce the highest amounts of latex in stems and leaves. They are working with sunflower plants that grow in northern areas where most of the American sunflower crop is grown.

The scientists also work with other kinds of plants. One is the guayule [why-YOU-lee]. This is a desert plant native to the American Southwest. Katrina Cornish says Native Americans chewed the plant to remove latex for rubber balls and other goods. She says early automobile tires were made with guayule.

Last year a company working with her team opened a processing center. Guayule products will be made for people who get a severe health reaction to gloves and other goods made of other kinds of natural latex.

Related topic: Common or Annual Sunflower

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: George Grow
First published: February 10, 2004

Legumes Provide Nutrition for People - and Soil

Many different kinds of plants are part of the leguminosae group. They are called legumes. These plants can produce their own nitrogen. Beans are legumes. Peanuts are legumes. Alfalfa is a legume. There are also many different kinds of trees that are legumes.

As a food, beans are high in protein. Most beans also contain a lot of nutrients such as calcium, iron, phosphorus and niacin. Some beans contain amino acids and lysine.

The leaves of bean plants and other legumes also are high in nutrients. They are often fed to farm animals. Some farmers grow legumes especially for their animals. Cows, goats and other animals are permitted to eat the leaves on the plants in the fields.

Many farmers around the world know the value of growing legumes along with their main crops, or between harvests. The legumes replace nitrogen used by crops. They also provide a cover for the soil to help protect it from heavy rains and strong winds.

The roots of the legume plants hold the soil in place. This keeps the soil from being blown away by the wind or washed away by rain. The roots also loosen the soil. This lets the rain reach deep into the ground.

Legumes produce nitrogen through a process involving bacteria in the soil and nitrogen in the air. The bacteria form small growths on the plant roots. These growths are called nodules. They capture the atmospheric nitrogen that has entered the soil.

The nodules change the nitrogen into ammonia, a form of nitrogen that plants can use. The process is called nitrogen fixation. The bacteria needed for the process, rhizobia or frankia, are found in most soils. But if they are not present in the soil in a field, they can be "painted" on the legume seeds before the seeds are put in the ground. A local agriculture agent can show how to do this.

When planted next to fields, legume trees will add nitrogen to the soil. They provide shade and protect young crop plants from the heat of the sun. They provide firewood. And their wood can be used as building material. Some legume trees also provide medicines and chemicals for coloring cloth.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Bob Bowen
First published: February 21, 2006

Growing Vegetables in Shade

Farmers often feel they need a lot of sunshine to produce a good crop. But lots of vegetables grow well without much sun.

The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania published a report about this subject some years ago in its magazine Organic Gardening. The report said many different kinds of foods from blueberries to beans can be grown in the shade.

Some vegetables do need a lot of sun. A vegetable crop expert at the University of Maine advised putting these vegetables where they can get from eight to ten hours of sunlight a day. Tomatoes, melons, squash and peppers are among those that need the most sun.

Plants that produce root crops, such as carrots and beets, need from six to eight hours of sunlight every day. But leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, need only six hours of sunlight a day.

The Rodale Institute says a garden should be planned carefully especially if you grow different kinds of foods. For example, rows of vegetables should be planted in an east-west direction. That way, as the sun passes overhead, all the plants will receive an equal amount of light. This is especially important when the plants grow to different heights.

Nut trees such as filbert, hazelnut and yellowhorn produce well with only sun in the morning.

Some fruits also do well without a lot of sunlight. In the United States, blueberries, raspberries, and several kinds of pears need only a little sun each day. In Asia, the hardy kiwi grows well in the shade.

Many herbs grow well without much sun. Mint plants, for example, grow well in the shade. So do sage, dill, oregano, borage, chamomile and several kinds of thyme.

The owner of a garden seed company warned against removing shade trees. He cut down all his shade trees to provide more sun for his crops. But then he had to protect his summer lettuce from the heat of the sun by hanging a piece of cloth to provide shade.

Instead of cutting trees, he suggested putting plants that need a lot of sunlight, such as tomatoes, in containers. That way they can be moved as the sun moves.

Internet users can learn more about the Rodale Institute at rodaleinstitute.org.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Bob Bowen
First published: March 7, 2006

Wild About Cherries

There is something hard to resist about cherries. The small red fruit is a popular seasonal food around the world. In northern areas, cherry trees are just beginning to produce flowers.

The cherry is a member of the same family of plants as the rose. It is closely related to the plum. Like cherry trees, plum trees also flower in early spring.

Cherries are thought to be native to western Asia. There are two major kinds of cherries harvested in the world: sweet and sour.

Sour cherries are not eaten fresh because they contain little sugar. Instead, they are processed to make prepared foods like jellies and pies and to make alcoholic drinks. The United States is a major producer of sour cherries. Among the states, Michigan is the top producer.

Russia, Poland and Turkey are other important cherry-producing nations.

Sweet cherries contain much more sugar than their sour relatives and are usually eaten fresh. Washington state is the biggest American producer, followed by California and Oregon.

The United States, Iran and Turkey are major producers of sweet cherries. In the United States, production fell by twenty percent last year after a record harvest in two thousand four.

Fresh cherries do not store well. They must reach market as soon as possible. So they cost more than many other kinds of fresh fruit.

Farmers produce different kinds of cherries through the process of grafting. They take cuttings from existing trees and join them to related trees, known as root stock. The cuttings, called scions [SY-uhnz], grow into the root stock, so the two kinds of trees grow as one.

Cherry trees are also valued for their springtime blossoms.

Cherry blossoms are popular in many parts of Asia and Europe. But Washington, D.C., has some of the most famous cherry trees in the world. Japan gave the United States three thousand cherry trees in nineteen twelve as a gift of friendship. There were twelve different kinds of cherry trees, but most were a kind called Yoshino.

Years later Japan gave another gift of three thousand eight hundred trees. In the early nineteen eighties, the United States provided Japan with cuttings from the Yoshino trees in Washington. These cuttings helped replace Japanese trees lost in a flood.

Related topic: Cherries Boast Anti-Inflammatory Benefits

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mario Ritter
First published: March 27, 2006

Insects Devouring Your Garden? Call in the Ladybugs

There are plenty of insects that farmers hate. But there also are some they like. These protect crops against damage from other insects. A good example is the lady beetle, also known as the ladybug.

Lady beetles are a natural control for aphids. Aphids are tiny insects that develop colonies on plants and eat plant fluids. Aphids can also spread crop diseases. Adult lady beetles can eat fifty aphids a day. The young beetle larvae can eat hundreds of aphids.

Lady beetles are red, orange or black. They often have black spots, though some have light colored spots. Different kinds of lady beetles have different numbers of spots. There are lady beetles with four, five, seven and fourteen spots.

Many of the well-known kinds of lady beetles come from Asia or Europe. They now are common throughout the United States.

American scientists imported one kind of lady beetle, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, as early as nineteen sixteen. They released them as an attempt to control some kinds of inspects. Over the years, the beetle has become established, possibly helped by some that arrived with imported plants on ships.

Experts say over four hundred fifty kinds of lady beetles are found in North America. Some are native to the area. Others have been brought from other places. Almost all are helpful to farmers.

The Asian lady beetles now in the United States probably came from Japan. The Asian lady beetle eats aphids that damage crops like soybeans, fruits and berries.

In the southern United States, Asian lady beetles have reduced the need for farmers to use pest-killing poisons on pecan trees. This popular tree nut suffers from aphids and other pests that the beetles eat.

But some people say the Asian lady beetle has itself become a pest. Lady beetles have no food after crops have been harvested. It is time for them to prepare for winter. Normally this is in the ground, but it can also be in someone’s home. Some farmers also worry that the beetles may eat their late-autumn fruit crops.

Experts say Asian lady beetles may appear in large numbers in some years. But they say the insects are too helpful to consider pests.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mario Ritter
First published: April 10, 2006

Don't Know Much About Mulch?

Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made out of organic material, like crop waste. Farmers may keep the remains of maize or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. This is called conservation tillage.

Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Mulch not only protects the soil against wind and water damage. It also helps keep the soil from getting too dry, and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing.

Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil.

The United States Department of Agriculture says it is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut-up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds.

The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. Mulched areas usually warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down slowly in autumn. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil.

Mulch used to help moderate the effects of winter weather can be added late in autumn. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals will probably find another place to live.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: George Grow
First published: January 24, 2006

Fortified Sweet Potato Provides a Vitamin A Boost to Help Fight Malnutrition

The orange-fleshed sweet potato is rich in beta-carotene and helps to eliminate Vitamin A deficiencies in children and adults, a major health concern in Africa. While widely available in the West, this type of potato is not as common in Africa. During the past year, researchers from Kenya and other countries have introduced a new, bio-fortified type of orange-fleshed sweet potato as a way of reducing Vitamin-A deficiencies.

It is orange-fleshed sweet potato day at Lukore Primary School in the Shimba Hills of Kenya's coastal district of Kwale.

A visiting delegation of researchers, government officials and journalists is being treated to a variety of entertainment, all celebrating the virtues of the humble orange-fleshed sweet potato, which is among the highest natural sources of beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A.

In the school's compound is a small plot with rows and rows of orange-fleshed sweet potato plants. Teacher Jackson Nzivo Mwaniki explains that he and the students plant orange sweet potatoes and distribute the vines to parents and other homesteads in the area.

Mwaniki says that his school was chosen last year mainly because of the school uniform that the students wear, and that local residents are happy with the orange sweet potato.

"The shorts and skirts are green, while the shirts are orange," he said. "That is why it [the school] was given first priority. When they chose us, they saw even the area itself, it is a potato-growing area. When it was introduced to this area, they welcomed it very highly. The children were very happy about it, and they even started planting [the sweet potato vines] in their homes."

Lukore Primary School is one of several demonstration sites that researchers have chosen in the district to educate residents about the nutritional value of the orange-fleshed sweet potato and encourage them to include the food in their diets.

According to the World Health Organization, children who suffer from vitamin-A deficiency suffer a dramatically increased risk of death and illness as a consequence. In communities where the deficiency exists, improving vitamin-A status can, on average, reduce young child mortality by 23 percent and measles mortality by 50 percent.

About 45 schools in the Kwale district grow and distribute the vines to households. Roughly 40 percent of households in the district grow the orange-fleshed sweet potato.

Sammy Agili is a sweet potato breeder with the Nairobi office of the International Potato Center. He says that last year his center and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute introduced eight varieties of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes into Kwale District.

Up until then, people grew and ate predominantly white-fleshed sweet potatoes.

Agili explains that scientists are able to breed into the sweet potato varieties different levels of beta-carotene, sugar, and what is known as dry matter content (DM), which determines how moist or dry the sweet potato is.

"Consumers have different likes," he said. "For example, the children would like those varieties that are low DM and high sugar content. Now when you look at the mothers, their preference is quite different from men also. Men would like those varieties that have high DM, but slightly low sugar content. So we had a range of varieties which we introduced to them to select."

Agili says Kwale District has one of the highest malnutrition and Vitamin-A deficiency rates in Kenya, and that by introducing the different varieties of the orange-fleshed sweet potato, scientists are hoping to improve the area's nutritional situation.

Young children and pregnant and lactating women are most affected by Vitamin-A deficiency, which weakens the immune system and increases the chances of getting measles, malaria, diarrhea and eye conditions. About 70 percent of pre-school children in Kenya are believed to be Vitamin-A deficient, one of the highest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Scientists are able to breed desirable nutritious characteristics into the orange-fleshed sweet potato through a process called "bio-fortification".

Bonnie McClafferty is communications coordinator for Harvest Plus, an U.S.-based international research program that aims to decrease malnutrition by increasing the levels of vitamins and minerals in crops.

McClafferty explains that most poor people cannot afford to purchase a large variety of foods that may contain different vitamins and minerals, nor buy vitamin supplements, nor purchase food that is commercially fortified such as iodized salt.

"The concept of bio-fortification is that you use the powers of modern agricultural plant breeding to breed nutrition directly into the staple foods that poor people eat," she said. "The reason why this is important is that the predominant food of the undernourished are staple foods, up to 70 percent of the diet consists of either wheat or maize or cassava or beans, yet there is not a lot of micronutrients in those staple foods."

The International Potato Center's Agili says researchers will need to do follow-up studies in a year or two to see the impact of the orange-fleshed sweet potato on Kwale District's nutritional situation.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Cathy Majtenyi
First published: May 31, 2006

Switchgrass

Panicum virgatum


Alternate Name

Tall Panic Grass

Description

Panicum virgatum L., switchgrass, is native to all of the United States except California and the Pacific Northwest. It is a perennial sod-forming grass that grows 3 to 5 feet tall and can be distinguished from other warm-season grasses, even when plants are young, by the white patch of hair at the point where the leaf attaches to the stem. The stem is round and usually has a reddish tint. The seed head is an open, spreading panicle.

Uses

Livestock: Switchgrass is noted for its heavy growth during late spring and early summer. It provides good warm-season pasture and high quality hay for livestock.

Erosion Control: Switchgrass is perhaps our most valuable native grass on a wide range of sites. It is a valuable soil stabilization plant on strip-mine spoils, sand dunes, dikes, and other critical areas. It is also suitable for low windbreak plantings in truck crop fields.

Wildlife: Switchgrass provides excellent nesting and fall and winter cover for pheasants, quail, and rabbits. It holds up well in heavy snow (particularly ‘Shelter’ and ‘Kanlow’ cultivars) and is useful on shooting preserves. The seeds provide food for pheasants, quail, turkeys, doves, and songbirds.

Biofuel Source: Interest in switchgrass as a renewable biofuel resource has been increasing in recent years, primarily in the Southern United States. The Booneville, Arkansas, Plant Materials Center (PMC) and the Plant and Soil Science Department of Oklahoma State University (OSU) are cooperating to evaluate several upland types of switchgrass for use as a biomass energy resource. Selections of upland types of switchgrass have been evaluated by OSU for several years. The development of hybrid progeny with substantial heterosis for increased biomass yield will ultimately result in improved hybrid cultivars for the Central and Southern United States. The PMC is in the process of assessing several improved lines along with commercially available cultivars for dry-matter potential and environmental adaptation. Results of this study may contribute to producers cashing in on a growing demand for renewable fuels and a decrease on our dependency on fossil fuels.

Weediness

This plant may become weedy or invasive in some regions or habitats and may displace desirable vegetation if not properly managed. Please consult with your local NRCS Field Office, Cooperative Extension Service office, or state natural resource or agriculture department regarding its status and use.

Adaptation and Distributions

On suitable soils, switchgrass is climatically adapted throughout the most of the United States. Moderately deep to deep, somewhat dry to poorly drained, sandy to clay loam soils are best. It does poorly on heavy soils. In the East, it performs well on shallow and droughty soil.

Switchgrass is distributed throughout the majority of the United States, excluding the far west states.

Establishment

Switchgrass should be seeded in a pure stand when used for pasture or hay because it can be managed better alone than in a mixture. Its slick, free-flowing seed can be planted with most seed drills or with a broadcast spreader. In the Southeast, a planting rate of approximately 10 pounds PLS per acre is recommended. Seedbeds should be firmed with a roller prior to the drilling or broadcasting of seed. If seeds are planted using the broadcast method, the area should be rolled afterward to help cover the seed. When drilled, seeds should be planted 1/4 inch deep. No-tillage seedings in closely grazed or burned sod also have been successful, where control of sod is accomplished with clipping, grazing, or proper herbicides.

Phosphorus and potassium should be applied according to soil tests before or at seeding. Nitrogen, however, should not be used at seeding time because it will stimulate weed growth.

Management

To control weeds during establishment, mow switchgrass to a height of 4 inches in May or 6 inches in June or July. Grazing is generally not recommended the first year, but a vigorous stand can be grazed late in the year if grazing periods are short with at least 30 days of rest provided between grazings. Switchgrass is the earliest maturing of the common native warm-season grasses and it is ready to graze in early summer.

Established stands of switchgrass may be fertilized in accordance with soil tests. Phosphorus and potassium may not be needed if the field is grazed since these elements will be recycled back to the soil by the grazing animal. Apply nitrogen after switchgrass has begun to produce using a single application in mid-to-late May or a split application in both May and early July. Avoid high rates of nitrogen because carry-over could spur cool-season grass growth and harm young plants the following spring.

Switchgrass will benefit from burning of plant residues just prior to initiation of spring growth. Burning fields once every 3 to 5 years decreases weed competition, eliminates excessive residue and stimulates switch grass growth. Switchgrass used for wildlife food and cover should be burned once every 3 to 4 years to reduce mulch accumulations that inhibit movement of hatchlings and attract nest predators.

Under continuous grazing management, begin grazing switchgrass after it has reached a height of 14 to 16 inches, and stop when plants are grazed to within 4 inches of the ground during late spring, 8 inches in early summer, and 12 inches in late summer. A rest before frost is needed to allow plants to store carbohydrates in the stem bases and crown. Plants may be grazed to a height of 6 to 8 inches after frost. The winter stubble is needed to provide insulation.

With management intensive systems, grazing can begin in the first paddocks when plants reach a height of 10 inches and should not be grazed below a stubble height of 6 to 8 inches. Grazed paddocks need to be rested 30-60 days before being grazed again.

Pests and Potential Problems

Grasshoppers and leafhoppers can be major pests in new seedings. Some stands are impacted by damping off and seedling blight. Leaf rust occasionally affects forage quality.

Cultivars, Improved, and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

‘Alamo’ (TX), ‘Blackwell’ (OK), ‘Cave-In-Rock’ (IL), ‘Dacotah’ (ND), ‘Forestburg’ (SD), ‘Kanlow’ (OK), ‘Nebraska 28’ (NE), ‘Shawnee,’ ‘Shelter’ (WV) (cultivars); Grenville (NM) (informal release); Miami (Dade Co, FL), Stuart (Stuart, FL), Wabasso (Wabasso, FL) (source identified releases). Seeds are available from most commercial sources and through large agricultural supply firms.

Control

Please contact your local agricultural extension specialist or county weed specialist to learn what works best in your area and how to use it safely. Always read label and safety instructions for each control method.

Related topic:
Scientists Study Switchgrass for Ethanol and Energy Production

Source:
USDA NRCS Plant Materials Program

Walnut Creek, California Community Gardens

Use the following resources to guide you to community gardens in Walnut Creek, California.

Howe Homestead Park Community Garden
2950 Walnut Boulevard
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

Contact Ranger Art Janke for tours and information.
Phone: (925) 930-7731

"Offers residents a chance to try their hand at old-time country gardening. Current gardeners grow everything from food crops to ornamental flowers."

Got additional Walnut Creek community gardening resources to suggest? Please submit them via the "Comments" link below. Thanks for visiting!

Learning to Grow Better Nursery Plants

A new monitoring system developed by USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Ohio is teaching researchers and nursery growers how to grow better trees and horticultural plants using more precise, efficient and safe applications of water, nutrients and pesticides.

The system is the brainchild of a team assembled over the past three years by Charles Krause, research leader and plant pathologist in the ARS Application Technology Research Unit at Wooster, Ohio. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s principal scientific research agency.

Although the lessons learned in the research are still experimental, they’re already being adopted so rapidly by nursery operators that some in the industry expect the ARS monitoring system to be commercialized within the next few years. Nursery managers have reduced water use by 40 percent or more by applying these lessons.

The system monitors plant needs year-round, currently using 30 sensors for each of three sets of 50 trees. Tests are being done at Willoway Nurseries in Avon, Ohio, on Red Sunset maple, redbud, and Chanticleer pear trees. The sensors and a weather station linked to computer data loggers take readings—every minute, 24 hours a day, during the growing season—of measurements such as soil temperature and moisture.

The tests are being done with an increasingly popular production technique called “pot-in-pot,” in which potted plants are set inside holder pots permanently buried in the field. This especially lends itself to the new monitoring system, but is not the only technique that would work with it.

Excess water draining from the pots is measured and evaluated for quality and levels of wasted nutrients and pesticides. The system has shown that applying water at a slower rate several times a day reduces total water use and has revealed that the trees were being over-fertilized. It also promises to be the safest way to target pesticides, pumping them through hoses to individual spray nozzles attached to stakes in each plant pot.

For more details, see the February 2006 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Don Comis
First published: February 22, 2006

San Jose, California Community Gardens

Use the following resources to guide you to community gardens in San Jose, California.

City of San Jose Community Gardens Home Page
Phone: (408) 793-4165
Email: manuel.perez@sanjoseca.gov

"San José has nineteen community gardens located throughout the city. These year-round gardens are managed by volunteer staff and offer an opportunity for San José residents to have their own garden plot."

San Jose Community Garden Locations and Contact Information

Alviso Community Garden
Tony P. Santos and Wilson Way - behind George Mayne
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Berryessa Community Garden
Commodore & Cape Colony Dr.
Phone: (408) 793-4165

Bestor Art Park
S. Six and Bestor
Phone: (408) 793-4165

Calabazas Community Garden
Blaney Ave and Dandridge Dr, San Jose
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Cornucopia Community Garden
647 S. King Rd
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Coyote Community Garden
Tully at Galveston
Phone: (408) 793-4165

Emma Prusch Farm Park
647 South King Rd
Phone: (408) 926-5555

El Jardin
South King and Story Rds
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Green Thumb
Rhoda & Roewill
Phone: (408) 793-4165

Hamline Community Garden
Hamline & Sherwood
Phone: (408) 793-4165

Jesse Frey Community Garden
Alma & Belmont
Phone: (408) 793-4165

La Colina Community Garden
Allegan Circle - next to La Colina Park,
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Laguna Seca Community Garden
Manresa Ct. and Bayliss Dr
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Latimer Community Garden
Latimer & Hamilton Ave.
Phone: (408) 793-4165

Mayfair Community Garden
Kammerer and Sunset Avenues
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Nuestra Tierra Community Garden
Tully Road and LaRagione Ave
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Rainbow Center Community Garden
Johnson Avenue and Rainbow Dr
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Wallenberg Community Garden
Curtner and Cottle Aves, San Jose
Phone: (408) 277-2575

Got additional San Jose community gardening resources to suggest? Please submit them via the "Comments" link below. Thanks for visiting!

Scientists Study Feasibility of Switchgrass for Ethanol and Energy Production

Two switchgrass plants per square foot the first year ensures a successful bioenergy crop harvest in subsequent years. That's the threshold level for success established by an economic study by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and cooperators on 10 northern Plains farms in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Soil scientist Mark Liebig, at the ARS Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory in Mandan, N.D., worked on the study led by Ken Vogel, a geneticist at the ARS Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Unit at Lincoln, Neb.

As an expert in breeding and management of new, higher-yielding varieties of switchgrasses best suited to ethanol conversion, Vogel collaborates with many ARS labs in various regions of the country.

Liebig's contribution to the study was to quantify another potential switchgrass benefit: soil carbon storage. The study is a cooperative project with University of Nebraska economist Richard Perrin.

Switchgrass is a native prairie grass long used for conservation plantings and cattle feed in the United States. Interest in switchgrass ethanol has intensified recently as the federal government gains confidence in its potential as a bioenergy crop because of its wide adaptability and high yields on marginal lands. The northern Plains region was chosen first because the economics seemed most favorable there. Farmers can expect switchgrass yields to be high enough there to produce 100 to 400 gallons of ethanol per acre with current varieties.

Results from the main part of the study--the economics of growing switchgrass for bioenergy--are promising. Those results will be issued in May.

Switchgrass can be converted to ethanol just as cornstalks can. It also can be burned to produce electricity. Growing switchgrass for ethanol could bring new industries to rural areas.

As a perennial plant, switchgrass has the advantage of not needing annual planting and tillage. Skipping these can save soil and energy. It can also reduce sediment and other pollutant losses to waterways.

The study's seedling threshold results are reported in the January issue of Crop Science magazine.

Related topic:
Switchgrass Fact Sheet

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Don Comis
First published: March 10, 2006

New "Scarlet Royal" Seedless Grape Variety Makes Its Debut

If you love sweet, firm grapes, you'll want to try Scarlet Royal red seedless from Agricultural Research Service (ARS) grape breeders in California.

Young vines that will yield this delicious, oval-shaped grape already flourish in sunny vineyards in California, the nation's largest producer of fresh-market, wine and raisin grapes. And though Scarlet Royal vines won't be ready to harvest for another few years, their luscious grapes are well worth the wait.

That's according to ARS horticulturist David W. Ramming and colleague Ronald E. Tarailo, who developed Scarlet Royal and tested it for 10 years before determining, in 2005, that it was ready for commercial vineyards. They received a U.S. patent for the grape in January 2006.

Ramming and Tarailo are with ARS' San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center at Parlier, Calif., about 200 miles north of Los Angeles.

Scarlet Royal grapes have attractive, dark-red skin and translucent, pale yellow-green flesh. By ripening in mid-August, the grapes help fill the gap between the earlier-ripening Flame Seedless, America's favorite red seedless grape, and the later-ripening Crimson Seedless.

Scarlet Royal, Flame Seedless and Crimson Seedless have all resulted from ARS' grape-breeding program in California, now in its 83rd year.

One of the newer grapes from the team, Scarlet Royal likely wouldn't exist were it not for an exacting laboratory procedure called embryo rescue. Ramming pioneered the application of this technology for breeding seedless grapes.

The approach requires excising the tiny, wisp-like embryo from inside a promising seedless grape, then nurturing it with special nutrients, in petri dishes, to form a little seedling.

In nature, when two seedless grape plants are chosen as parents—as was the case for Scarlet Royal—their offspring usually produce grapes with embryos so minuscule that they can't survive without the help of embryo rescue procedures.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Marcia Wood
Photo: Stephen Ausmus
First published: April 7, 2006

New Muscadine Grape Offers Improved Flavor, Health Benefits

For those who love the unique flavor of muscadine grapes, there's good news. Stephen J. Stringer, a USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) geneticist at the Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville, Miss., is working toward developing new, healthful cultivars of this natural treat.

Growing wild from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico, and as far west as Missouri to Texas, muscadines come in varying shapes, sizes and colors. Most wild types have a thick, tough skin and a pulp that yields less juice than other grapes. Their aroma is often described as slightly musky.

Muscadines are grown commercially in the southeastern United States, where they are often called scuppernongs and are used primarily in juices, wines, jellies and preserves. They are valued for their high yields (8 to 12 tons of grapes per acre) and for resistance to pests such as phylloxera and nematodes, fungal diseases, and the bacterium that causes Pierce's disease.

Stringer is breeding cultivars with thinner skins, a crisp and melting flesh, high sugar content and increased concentrations of nutraceuticals, specific chemical compounds found in foods that may prevent disease.

Muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifloia Michx) are extremely high in total phenolic content. Phenolic compounds have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticlotting properties that may translate to cardiovascular health benefits. Muscadines contain other beneficial compounds, such as gallic acid and ellagic acid, not commonly found in high concentrations in other grape species.

Stringer is working toward a joint release later this year, with the University of Florida, of a new fresh-market muscadine grape cultivar that offers excellent flavor, high yield potential and extraordinarily high concentrations of ellagic acid. Other advanced lines with high concentrations of total phenolics are showing promise for release in the near future.

Stringer is also looking at production practices, such as determining the efficiency of growth regulators to develop bigger and seedless varieties of muscadines.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Jim Core
Photo: David Nance
First published: April 11, 2006

The Black Pearl Pepper: Beauty With a Bite

A new culinary ornamental pepper bred by USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Md., is earning accolades in the gardening community.

The eye-catching Black Pearl, released in 2005, was honored as a 2006 All-America Selections (AAS) winner. The award recognizes new flower and vegetable varieties that demonstrate “superior garden performance” in trials conducted throughout the country.

With moderately shiny black leaves and glossy fruits that ripen from black to red, Black Pearl offers a temptation few pepper enthusiasts can resist. ARS plant geneticists John Stommel, of the Plant Sciences Institute’s Vegetable Laboratory, and Robert Griesbach, of the U.S. National Arboretum’s Floral and Nursery Plants Research Unit, collaborated to breed this popular prize-winner.

How does a plant become an AAS winner?

The first step in breeding any new pepper cultivar is to select the desired characteristics -- in this case, dark leaves and densely clustered, round, black fruits.

It took years to refine Black Pearl’s striking appearance and spicy flavor. Once perfected, it underwent hundreds of trials to determine its response to different environments. Stommel and Griesbach tested Black Pearl with help from private-sector cooperator PanAmerican Seed Company, Elburn, Ill., which entered the plant in the AAS competition.

In trials, Black Pearl thrived in a variety of environments throughout the country. In addition, it resisted the ravages of drought, as well as of many insects and fungi. Robust, attractive and tasty, Black Pearl was a natural winner -- and the AAS judges weren’t the only ones to think so. Since it went on the market, more than 2 million seeds have been sold.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Laura McGinnis
First published: April 26, 2006

Two New Lilacs Debut at the U.S. National Arboretum

Two of the newest additions to an ever-growing list of original ornamental plants produced by breeders with the U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, D.C., are lilac cultivars named “Old Glory” and “Declaration.” They were recently released to the public by the arboretum, administered by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific research agency.

The 446-acre arboretum maintains and displays many of the ornamentals and flowering trees, shrubs and herbaceous garden plants found in cities, towns and home landscapes throughout the United States. To these traditional favorites, researchers there and in the ARS Floral and Nursery Research Unit in Washington, have added many of the superior new floral and woody nursery plants now seen in public areas, as well as in private gardens.

Old Glory and Declaration are two new Syringa cultivars developed in the arboretum’s shrub-breeding program. Bred and initially selected by the late USNA horticulturalist Donald Egolf and released by geneticist Margaret Pooler, they follow the release of the “Betsy Ross” lilac in 2000. Old Glory and Declaration are each suited to a variety of landscape uses, including as background plantings in shrub borders, as deciduous hedges, or for mass-plantings in larger areas.

Old Glory was selected for its abundant fragrant, bluish-purple flowers, rounded growth habit and disease-tolerant foliage. In 25 years of testing in Washington, it grew nearly 11.5 feet high and a little over 13 feet wide. Compared to other Syringa x hyacinthiflora types of lilac, Old Glory has shown good field tolerance to Cercospora blight and Pseudomonas syringae in warmer climates where these diseases are a problem. It has also shown better-than-average tolerance to powdery mildew.

Declaration was selected for its fragrant, dark-reddish-purple flowers, nearly foot-long flower clusters and open, upright growth habit. In 25 years of testing at the arboretum, it grew 8.5 feet high and about 6.5 feet wide and also is well suited to a variety of landscape uses. However, it is recommended primarily for traditional, cooler lilac-growing regions.

Both Old Glory and Declaration bloom in mid- to late April at the arboretum, which is located in Plant Hardiness Zone 7a and has an average minimum temperature range of 5 to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Planting stock should be available from a limited number of nurseries in 2006, and should be available from retailers in 2008.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Alfredo Flores
First published: May 2, 2006

Cherries Boast Anti-Inflammatory Benefits

If you love the taste and texture of sweet, juicy Bing cherries, now you have an even better reason to seek out the glossy, fun-to-eat fruit at your supermarket.

A study by USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Darshan S. Kelley and colleagues confirms that Bing cherries may help fight the inflammation of arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Kelley is based at the agency's Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, Calif.

For the research, 18 healthy men and women volunteers, aged 45 to 61, ate a total of about 45 fresh Bing cherries throughout the day for 28 consecutive days.

Blood samples indicated that levels of three telltale indicators of inflammation—nitric oxide, C reactive protein and a marker for T-cell activation, termed "RANTES"—dropped by 18 to 25 percent by the end of the cherry-eating stint.

Then, blood samples taken four weeks later indicated that volunteers' RANTES levels continued to decline. But their nitric oxide and C reactive protein levels began to increase.

Natural chemicals in cherries apparently work selectively, suppressing production of some of the body's inflammation-linked compounds, but not others, the researchers learned. For example, they found no significant decrease in levels of more than three dozen other markers of inflammation.

A smaller, shorter study of Bing cherries, conducted at the Davis nutrition center by Kelley and others and reported in 2003, also had shown a decrease in nitric oxide and C reactive protein levels. The followup investigation is apparently the longest yet conducted—with healthy volunteers who ate fresh cherries instead of extracts—to explore the anti-inflammatory effects of sweet cherries.

Kelley, retired ARS chemist Robert A. Jacob and ARS and University of California-Davis co-investigators published findings from the longer study in the April 2006 Journal of Nutrition. The grower-sponsored California Cherry Advisory Board of Lodi, Calif., helped fund the research.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Marcia Wood
First published: May 11, 2006

Alameda, California Community Gardens

Use the following resources to guide you to community gardens in Alameda, California.

Alameda Point Collaborative (APC)
677 W. Ranger Ave.
Alameda, CA 94501
Phone: (510) 898-7800
Fax: (510) 898-7858

APC Services and Special Projects

"The Community Garden was built by and for APC residents, students at a local charter high school, and neighbors. The garden provides healthy organic produce and a sense of one community among existing APC residents and their neighbors."

Maps and Directions to the APC Community Garden

Got additional resources about Alameda community gardening to suggest? Please submit them via the "Comments" link below. Thanks for visiting!

San Francisco, California Community Gardens

Use the following resources to guide you to community gardens in San Francisco, California.

City of San Francisco Community Gardens Home Page
Contact: Mr. Marvin Yee
Community Gardens Program Manager
30 Van Ness Ave., 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel.: 415-581-2541
Fax: 415-581-2540
Email: marvin.yee@sfgov.org

San Francisco Community Gardens Location and Contact List

Find gardens in the following neighborhoods:

Bayview - Hunter's Point
Bernal Heights
Diamond Heights
Excelsior
Eureka Valley
Glen Park
Hayes Valley
Marina
Mission
Nob Hill
Noe Valley
North Beach
Potrero Hill
Richmond
South of Market
Sunset
OMI
Telegraph Hill
Tenderloin
Upper Market
Visitation Valley
Western Addition

Got additonal San Francisco community gardening resources to suggest? Please submit them via the "Comments" link below. Thanks for visiting!

Berkeley, California Community Gardens

Use the following resources to guide you to community gardens in Berkeley, California.

Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative
P.O. Box 2801
Berkeley, CA 94702
Phone: (510) 883-9096

Berkeley Community Garden Locations:

People's Park Gardens
Bowditch between Dwight and Haste

Ohlone Community Garden
Hearst at McGee

Karl Linn Community Garden
Peralta at Hopkins

Northside Community Gardens
Northside and Peralta at Hopkins

Peralta Community Art Garden
Peralta Street near Hopkins

U.C. College of Natural Resources Garden
Walnut & Virginia

West Berkeley Senior Center — Senior Gardening
1900 6th St.

BYA Community Garden
Allston Way between Bonar and West Streets

South Berkeley Community Garden
MLK Jr. Way at Russell Street, behind Tool Library

Got additional Berkeley community gardening resources to suggest? Please submit them via the "Comments" link below. Thanks for visiting!

Community Gardens in Oakland, California

Use the following resources to guide you to community gardens in Oakland, California.

City of Oakland Community Gardening Home Page

Oakland Community Garden Locations:

Arroyo Viejo Community Garden
79th Avenue and Arthur Street cul de sac
Phone: (510) 238-2197

Bella Vista
Phone: (510) 238-2197

Bushrod Community Garden
584 - 59th Street
Oakland, CA 94609
Phone: (510) 238-2197

Golden Gate Community Garden
1068 - 62nd Street
Oakland, CA 94608
Volunteer Coordinators:
Claire Wings - (510) 655-2664
Jean Robertson - (510) 655-1653

Lakeside Horticultural Center - Kitchen Garden
666 Bellevue Avenue - third gate on the left
Phone: (510) 238-2197

Marston Campbell Community Garden
Between 16th & 18th Street and Market & West Street
Volunteer Coordinators:
Margaret Majua - (510) 286-2290
Dorothy Noyon - (415) 826-7284

Temescal Community Garden
876 - 47th Street
Oakland, CA 94608
Phone: (510) 238-2197

Verdese Carter Community Garden
Corner of 96th Avenue and Bancroft Avenue
Volunteer Coodinator:
Georgia Oatis - (510) 532-2283

Got additional Oakland community gardening resources to suggest? Please submit them via the "Comments" link below. Thanks for visiting!

Scientists Discover City Tree Grows Twice as Large as Country Clone

This is a story about a city tree and a country tree. Each started as an identical sapling of a common cottonwood, a fast-growing poplar. Scientists wanted to analyze the impact of multiple pollutants in the two settings. And they found to their amazement that the city tree grew twice as large as its country clone.

Jillian Gregg set about to find the worst, most polluted environment in New York City. There she planted a tree. She planted another in the Hudson River Valley 80 kilometers from New York. She and a team of scientists at Cornell University and the Institute of Ecosystems Studies in New York followed the test sites over three years to understand why the city trees grew bigger.

In both locations the plants grew next to atmospheric pollutant monitoring stations. "What we did was to separate factors above ground Vs below ground. So, we went to a series of urban and rural sites and collected the soil and took them all to the same place," she says. "We could [then] ask the question within each soil type, do plants grow less in New York City?"

The answer was no. No matter what soil they were grown in, they got the same results. City trees were double the size of their country cousins. "That result was consistent for 11 different soils, 8 different sites, 2 different transects and 3 consecutive growing seasons," she says.

The scientists then set out to study above ground factors that would account for the difference. When a number of experiments ruled out warmer temperatures and higher concentration of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, scientists turned their attention to the stunted trees in the country.

Jillian Gregg says the answer is a difference in chemistry in the atmosphere that favors city trees. "We found that the cumulative ozone exposures were higher outside the city center," she says.

Rural ozone starts in the city. Automobile and industrial emissions interact with sunlight to form ozone, which the wind blows into the country.

The difference between the city and the country hinges on nitric oxide - one of the primary precursors of ozone, which was found in high concentrations in the city.

Jillian Gregg explains that it produces a chemical reaction that causes urban ozone levels to drop to nearly zero at night and in the winter. "So ozone is continually created and destroyed and created and destroyed within the city, but when that same air mass goes to the country, the high ozone concentrations remained in the atmosphere for a longer period. So you have a higher cumulative ozone exposures."

Which Jillian Gregg says translates into stunted trees. She says the work is a cautionary tale of the effects of urban pollution. "It is important for us to understand that we cannot escape the urban pollutants by going to the country, the effects can have an even greater impact there," she says. "So, if we want to get away from all of these pollutants, we need to curb them at their source."

Jillian Gregg and colleagues from Cornell University and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies write about the work in the journal Nature.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Rosanne Skirble
First published: August 3, 2003

Coffee Plants Yield More if a Forest is Nearby

A study in Costa Rica shows that conserving tropical forests might increase yields of coffee, one of the world's most valuable export commodities. U.S. scientists found that coffee fields adjacent to forests had higher production than those farther away.

The economic value of maintaining tropical forests near farms might be much greater than previously thought. A team of U.S. researchers measured the output of 12 coffee fields on a big Costa Rican plantation and found that plots within one kilometer of a forest produced 20 percent more coffee than plots farther away. The quality of the yield was better, too, with 27 percent fewer small, misshapen beans.

The study leader, biologist Taylor Ricketts of the World Wildlife Fund, says the key to the improved harvest was increased pollination by bees from the nearby forest.

"Coffee does self-pollinate, but if you allow bees to visit and bring in cross pollen, it will yield better," he says.

Several studies from around the world have already shown this, but this new study in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences is unique because it measured the economic value of bee pollination to the plantation. Mr. Ricketts' team used data on the farm's yield and market prices to show that just two coffee plots nearest the forest helped boost the farm's income significantly. They yielded $60,000 more a year in coffee, because of the pollination of bees from the nearby woodlands.

"So that if they were cut down or destroyed for any other reason, that farm could expect to earn about $60,000 less than they had been so far," Mr. Ricketts noted.

In fact, the study found that the value of tropical forests can be greater than other land uses for which they are often destroyed. The World Wildlife Fund says that cattle pasture, for example, would yield only about $24,000 a year, less than half of what pollination services provide the coffee plantation.

Mr. Ricketts calls the findings good news for conservationists and growers, who sometimes are at odds over land use.

"What this means is that the goals of conservation and economic development are in some cases more aligned than we thought," he explained. "Conserving natural systems can benefit the species that live there and also the human communities that live nearby them."

Cross-pollination from birds, bees and other insects is of value to more than just coffee. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says two-thirds of the world's crops require it. But Mr. Ricketts and his colleagues point out that recent declines in wild and managed bee populations throughout the world have aroused concern, prompting the United Nations to create the International Pollinators Initiative. This is a program to coordinate scientific investigation on ways to conserve animal pollinators.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: David McAlary
First published: August 5, 2004

Stinky "Titan arum" Plant May Have Trouble Attracting Humans, Not Bugs

The plant "titan arum" has the biggest flower in the world, and also the worst smelling. One specimen in Pasadena, California, is ready to bloom [in 2002]. That is a rare event because it may happen only a few times in a plant's 40-year lifetime. Visitors to the Huntington Library and Gardens are bracing for an aromatic experience.

Nursery manager Theresa Trunnelle said the plant looks like something from a science-fiction movie. "Bizarre," she laughed. "It's very bizarre. It looks as though it's something from another planet," he said.

It is a large and leafy vertical pod, green and burgundy, one meter high. It will soon send up a flower two or three meters high and one meter wide.

Ms. Trunnelle said the plant has a number of names, both scientific and affectionate. "Amorphophallus titanum is the technical name for it. And we have a fond name here of 'stinky' or 'the stinker,' and we're referring to its seedling as 'little stinker.' It's more commonly referred to, though, as the 'corpse flower' because of the way it smells when it's at peak fertilization," she said.

The Huntington's specimen is from the rainforest of Sumatra, Indonesia, where most of the plants are located.

Ms. Trunnelle said the smell may be repellent to people, but serves another purpose in the natural world. "It's an attractant. It's a horrible smell. It smells like decaying matter, meat. It's been compared to a combination of decaying fish or meat, nutmeg and maybe some cabbage. It smells to attract, in nature, pollinators," she said.

The smell draws flesh-eating beetles and flies that carry pollen from one plant to another so seeds will develop.

Huntington curator Gary Lyons said the plants, while not officially endangered, face challenges as civilization encroaches on their natural environment. "And they are harvested for commercial purposes, used as an aphrodisiac, also as a vegetable," Mr. Lyons said. In addition, the corpse flower is used in herbal medicines.

Much is still unknown about the plant and so scientists at nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory are helping botanists by monitoring the plant to see how temperature, humidity and moisture in the soil affect its blooming cycle.

JPL's Kevin Delin said electronic sensors transmit information on this and other plants to scientists by way of the Internet. "We've been working with the Huntington now for about two years. There are a number of different microclimates at the Huntington, as you can see from the different gardens that are here, the Japanese Garden and the Desert Garden, and so it was an opportunity to test our instrument locally through JPL and actually do some useful work at the same time," Mr. Delin said.

But visitors are less concerned with this technical information than with the plant's impressive appearance and overwhelming odor, said Huntington curator Gary Lyons.

"They're amazed and if they're here soon enough to get a good whiff of the fragrance when it first opens, it can smell for maybe up to half a mile around. Fortunately, we don't have it in a small greenhouse when it flowers. If it were to flower in a very small, low-ceilinged greenhouse, you'd probably pass out from the scent," Mr. Lyons said.

The plant releases its odor suddenly and explosively. It blooms for about a day and then the event is over for another three or four years, or possibly longer. The most common reaction, said Mr. Lyons, is excitement combined with nausea.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mike O'Sullivan
First published: August 3, 2002

Sustainable Gardens Are Source of Food and Business in South Africa

One of the likely issues for discussion at the World Summit on Sustainable Development is the subject of food security: ensuring people at the greatest risk have a reliable source of food. One of the ways to reach that goal is to encourage even the poorest families to create self-sustainable vegetable gardens. One South African community has converted a barren plot of land into a thriving, sustainable food source and business.

Near the edge of a major roadway in Mkhuhlu, four women are busy at work in a series of small vegetable gardens. They talk about what to pick for their waiting customers.

They are part of a larger group of 25 women who, in the last seven years, have turned a desolate patch of earth into a prosperous vegetable garden and business.

Eunice Nyakana says the group started Bambanani Gardens as a way to feed their children.

She says she is happy today because she has food to give to her children. She says before they created the gardens she and the other mothers felt hopeless. They had no jobs and no money to buy food. Now, she says, even if they do not make money every day, at least they have food to take home.

Twice a week, Moses and Nancy Mathebula buy vegetables here to resell in their village, some 150 kilometers to the north.

As the women fill the bed of her small truck with vegetables, Mrs. Mathebula says she makes the long drive to Mkhuhlu because these women grow the best produce in the area.

"That is why I come here to buy here, because it is very better. And it is fresh. Fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh," said one customer.

Seven years ago, the women never envisioned getting paid to garden. When they asked EcoLink, a local environmental aid group, to teach them how to garden, they were simply trying to put food on the table.

For nearly two decades, EcoLink, with financial backing from Nestle South Africa, has worked with similar groups of women. They say this year, their community outreach projects, like Bambanani, will feed more than 100,000 impoverished South Africans.

EcoLink project manager Solly Mashego says now more than ever, it is important to teach people how to feed themselves. "Just because they cannot get employment somewhere, it does not mean they have to sit down and watch their children dying of starvation," he said.

Elsie Mpatlanyane, the team leader assigned to this project, says the example these women set is a powerful motivator in rural communities like Mkhuhlu. "I think it is important if everyone can copy from others and do the very same thing, maybe we will not suffer as we are suffering now."

The aid group EcoLink says as unemployment and HIV/AIDS continue to devastate South Africa's workforce, projects like Bambanani Gardens could mean the difference for many South African families between survival and starvation.

Source:
VOA News Service
First published: August 26, 2002

2000-Year-Old Date Palm Seed Sprouts into Sapling

Israeli scientists have successfully germinated a 2000-year-old date palm seed that has now grown into a sapling. Scientists say the ancient Biblical tree has properties that could have applications in medicine.

Israeli scientists are excited about this date palm's medicinal possibilities. Researchers at the Louis Borick Natural Medicine Center in Jerusalem grew it from a 2000-year-old seed. It and other seeds were found in the desert at Masada, the archeological site famous in Jewish history.

Dr. Sara Sallon, who led the project to resurrect the seeds, describes a colleague's reaction when the plant began to grow. "She said, 'There is a little green tip coming out of the crack', and we were kind of, 'What?' So, I just said, 'Just keep doing what you are doing'."

The palm is named "Methuselah," after the Biblical figure, who was said to have lived 969 years.

Dr. Sallon said these are the oldest seeds ever germinated. ”Historically, of course, it is fascinating to wake up something that has been asleep for so long, and the whole area that this opens up, that if you can wake up a seed after 2000 years, and get it to grow, there are a lot of possibilities in that area that we can also explore."

Dr. Sallon said the ancient date palm was used to fight infection, as a fertility treatment, and even as an aphrodisiac. She and her colleagues hope the palm still retains its medicinal properties.

The plant's DNA structure is being analyzed to find out. If the plant survives, and is a female, it will take nearly 30 years before it bears any dates. If it turns out to be a male, it will not bear fruit but will still be a curiosity to scientists.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Kimberly Russell
First published: June 28, 2005