A win for malnourished children & GMO

A celebration of new technology.

Golden rice with Vitamin A vs normal polished white rice

Golden rice was developed to reduce child mortality due to vitamin A deficiency.  The science was developed and produced golden rice from 1980 to 2005.  Anti-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) advocates argued that this would cause major problems throughout the world if this technology was used.  This argument never considered the benefit of saving the 2-3 million children who die per year and the 500,000 children per year who become blind due to poor nutrition. 

Big companies are not evil.  Many of the technologies used are patented by various companies or individuals.  Syngenta AG has negotiated for all the necessary technologies to provide the Golden Rice Humanitatrian Board with the right to sublicense rice breeding organizations in developing countries free of charge. 

The new Golden Rice variety will also contain improved genetics and tolerance to some diseases to improve rice quality and quantity during production.  The golden color in the rice grains come from beta carotene.  Rice plants always produced beta carotene in the plant but it was not transferred to the kernal.  The kernals now contain beta carotene including lutein and zeaxanthin.  

Rice plants ready to harvest.

Dr Peter Beyer of Centre for Applied Biosciences, Univeristy of Freiburg, Germany and Professor Ingo Potrykus of the Institute for Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology constructed the grains missing biosynthetic pathway.  The first success produced 1.6ug of beta carotene in 1 gram of rice.  By 2005 the system was improved to supply 31 ug/g of beta carotene in rice.  This exceeds the dietary requirement of vitamin A in 100 to 200 g of rice.   They and Syngenta deserve a humanitarian award.

Kudos to modern science and the humanitarian efforts of all involved.  Millions of lives will be saved and millions more individuals will start life with improved health.  Check http://www.goldenrice.org/ also google Golden Rice.

Starting Plants Indoors

Alaska’s climate is too cold to grow sweet corn the conventional way.  They do not have enough growing degree days to get corn to mature.  Bryan, my brother, and his corn growing mentor have grown sweet corn successfully for many years in Alaska.  How?  He starts sweet corn in a greenhouse about one month before it is time to transplant in the garden.  When temperatures are finally warm enough, he transplants into the garden.  The corn is given a better chance by planting through holes in plastic.  The plastic does warm the soil creating a warmer microclimate for the corn roots.  The last key is growing the shortest maturity varieties of corn available.

Plants best started indoors and easily transplanted are tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, most flowers, watermelon and cantaloupe.  Plants best planted directly into the garden are peas, corn, beans, radishes, cucumbers, lettuce, carrots, beets, onions, leeks, and potatoes.  Are the terms seeding and planting interchangeable?  Seeding refers only to putting seeds into the ground.  Planting refers to putting plant parts, including seeds into the ground.

When is the right time to plant both seeds and plants?  Potatoes, peas, red beets, radishes, and onions grow great when seeded as early as the garden can be prepared to plant.  Broccoli, cabbage and other cole crops will survive very well in cold climates whether seeded or transplanted, as long as the indoor grown plants are hardened off before setting outside.  Corn, beans, cucumbers, melons, squash, tomatoes, and peppers should be delayed until all chances of frost are past and the soil is good and warm.  Lettuce, carrots, parsnips, and a few others are somewhat cold tolerant but shouldn’t be planted too early.

When starting seeds indoors make sure you use clean containers.  If you reuse old containers rinse in a mild bleach solution then rinse.  This is to control diseases.  Use a good potting mix.  The best potting mixes may not have the biggest name or cost the most.  Potting mixes with vermiculite, peat moss, and/or coir work very well.  Keep seeded pots moist but not overly wet.  If you have a cold location you may use a heat mat to keep soils in the 70 degree range.  When seeds are germinated and have true leaves, you may remove the heat mat.

The most important part of growing starter plants is to provide enough light to imitate sunlight.  Grow lights generally work.  Incandescent and fluorescent lights together provide a complete light spectrum.  Either alone provide an incomplete light spectrum.  If you have a greenhouse outside, natural light is the best, but due to the plastic intercepting some light rays and frequent cloudy late winter or spring days you should plan on supplementing with artificial light.  Plan to provide light for 14 hours.  Plants do need both light and dark.  Part of the photosynthesis process requires a dark period.  If plants don’t get enough light they get “leggy” which is spindly overly tall plants.  Professional growers often treat with a growth regulator to keep plants short.  Homeowners can’t easily buy these growth regulators and if you can they can be very tricky to use.

The time to plant varies based on where you live.  Still some items can be planted as soon as you can get into the garden, others after the frost free day which is often in May to late May in the northern US.  A good rule of thumb for many northerners is to plant frost sensitive plants on or after Memorial Day.

When in graduate school I transplanted some broccoli plants a couple of days before my second child was born.  That week end was a whirl wind weekend as well as a colder than normal weekend.  If the broccoli plants were hardened off they would have survivied but they froze.  The busy weekend meant I didn’t get them covered or pay attention to the low temperature forecast.

BONUS – Check out these designer pumpkins. 

http://vegetablegrowersnews.com/index.php/multimedia/photos

The Garden Doc

Nematodes and other garden problems

Modern vegetable production uses fumigants to clean the soil from many soil diseases, nematodes, and some weeds.  Fumigants are often quite toxic and often applied as a gas into the soil.  The soil may be covered with plastic to hold the fumigant in the soil to better kill the pathogens.  After a period of time the fumigant either dissipates and/or decomposes.  Then the plant is either seeded or transplanted into the soil, often through holes punched into the plastic.  The results are improved plant growth with less disease and often free of damaging nematodes.

Forked carrots caused by nematodes

Nematodes are minute round worms that live in the soil and often infect plant roots causing slow plant growth, forked carrots and other maladies.  They are so small they are usually not visible to people and there are numerous species.  Some common nematodes are cyst, root knot, lesion, dagger, and sting nematodes.  There are a few foliar nematodes and others cause medical problems in humans and other animals.

So, what can you do?  Most home gardeners do nothing and accept the damage.  There is a solution that will give your garden a great advantage.  Members of the brassica family such as mustard, turnip, and radish plants produce natural chemicals that can control or at least limit the damage from nematodes and plant diseases.  The diseases that may be controlled are verticillium, pythium, fusarium, rhizoctonia aphanomyces, and fusarium. 

Mustard plants in flowers

These plants are cool season annuals that can be planted in the fall as a cover crop or in very early spring.  When the mustard plants are chopped up and tilled into the soil, they decompose.  The decomposition releases glucosinolates which act as a biofumigant.  The plants, especially the mustard should be chopped and tilled before or at flowering time so the seeds don’t mature.  Mustard plants can be a weed that easily gets out of control.  Using these plants as a natural fumigant will not inhibit the growth of vegetables and the food grown will be perfectly safe to eat.

Tillage radishes

Turnips and tillage radishes can be planted in the fall and grow very well before freeze up.  (Don’t use the small round radishes)  The long cylindrical radishes grow quickly and produce a taproot that will grow deep into the soil improving the soil characteristics.  The deep root when decomposed creates channels that help handle soil water.  Turnips will grow similar to tillage radishes but don’t grow as deep.  When the turnips and radishes are tilled they also release chemicals that help control nematodes.  Tillage radishes and turnips can be seeded in the fall and generally will grow enough to be effective in improving next year’s garden.  Do remember to chop well and till into the soil.  If you choose to grow them as a cover crop, they do provide animal food and are grazed.  You, also, can eat them if you desire.

The Garden Doc

The Color of Food

Years ago two east coast chicken companies waged a battle over whether raw chicken, you buy in the store, should be white or yellow in color.  Dr. Baldwin at the Virginia State University Research Station in Painter, VA conducted research on growing marigolds for the purpose of feeding the flowers to chickens and the chickens would be yellow in color.  It works.  A medical mystery book from years ago had a story about a person who went to the doctor because he was turning orange.  He drove a lot and ate carrots while driving.  The solution was to quit eating so many carrots.  The orange color in carrots and marigolds is mostly carotene.  Green vegetables may contain many of the following colors but chlorophyll usually masks all the other colors. 

Nutritionists always say to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.  The chemicals that give fruits and vegetables their bright colors are some of the most potent antioxidants people can obtain as well as many being studied for anti cancer treatment and important for other vital parts of the body such as the eyes.  Search some of the colorants below and be prepared to be amazed at why they are being studied.

 

Red Fruits & Vegetables

Lycopene is a bright red carotene commonly found in tomatoes.  Anthocyanins are red purple or blue.  They are flavinoids in purple corn, berries, and eggplants.

Orange & Yellow Fruits & Vegetables

Beta-carotene is red or orange, and commonly found in carrots.  Also called terpenoids.  Flavinoids, also called bioflavinoids are the yellow color in citrus, tea, wine & chocolate.  Quecertin and hesperidin are flavinoids.

           

Green Fruits & Vegetables – Green covers up most other colors even when they are present.  

Cholorphyll is green and changes light into glucose in plants.  It is not known to be that active in human health.  Lutein is yellow but found in green plants where chlorophyll covers the yellow.  Zeaxanthin is red to orange and is one of the xanthophylls and important for eyes.  Beta-carotene – See above

Blue & Purple Fruits & Vegetables

Lutein – See above

Zeaxanthin – See Above

Resveratrol is bright red or brown and found in grapes and other fruits.  May extend life and prevent cancer.

Flavonoids - See above

Anthocyanins – See above

White Fruits and Vegetables

EGCG or Epigallocatechin gallate is clear to yellow and is a potent antioxidant

Red Beets – Betalains are a different class causing the red in beets but can also be yellow.  In some plants they replace the anthocyanins.  Betacyanins are red to yellow and Betaxanthins are yellow to orange.  Betanin is a potent red color.  All are antioxidants.   

The red color from beets is often used to color other foods.  They are considered healthful and have/are being studied for cancer control and other healthy benefits.  There is a subtle side effect from betacyanin in beetroot which may cause red urine and poop in some people who are unable to metabolize betanin. This is called beeturia.  If you ever come home from a party and pass red urine the red punch may have been colored with beet juice.  (I apologize for a little coarseness but these are facts.)

The Garden Doc

Gardening myths

The intent of this blog is to pass on important information not quote others but I came across the following thoughts searching for information on a work topic.  The information is too good not to pass on to readers.   Here it is word for word. 

The Garden Doc

By Robert Cox, Horticulture Agent, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension
Many consumers assume that products on the store shelf must have been tested to prove their claims.  Certainly, fertilizers have to meet nutrient content requirements, and pesticides are rigorously tested for safety before EPA registration.
For some other garden products, however, no such testing is required before sale to the public.
A good example is vitamin B1 (thiamine), often sold to "prevent transplant shock" and "stimulate new root growth" when planting trees, shrubs, roses and other plants.  A study in the 1930's provided the basis for such claims.   Pea roots cut off from the plant were placed in a culture medium in the laboratory.
The researchers knew that thiamine was normally found in roots, so they put thiamine in the culture medium and found that root growth did occur.  Vitamin B1 is manufactured in Plant leaves and sent to the roots, but if roots are cut off and placed in a petri plate, vitamin B1 stimulates growth of the roots when it saturates the culture medium.
Planting trees in a soil environment, however, is vastly different from a laboratory culture.  Most important, gardeners aren't in the habit of cutting off the root system when planting. Several studies using intact mums, apple trees, orange trees, pine, tomato, beans, pepper, corn, pear, watermelon and squash have failed to demonstrate that vitamin B1 treatments provide any type of growth response.
Some "root stimulator" products contain a rooting hormone and fertilizer along with vitamin B1.  These materials may increase rooting and growth, not the vitamin B1.
The bottom line: While root stimulator products are not necessary for transplant success, if you do use one, make sure it contains a rooting hormone and fertilizer rather than just vitamin B1. The vitamin B1 is for marketing purposes rather than actual effect.

Sulfur

Sulfur is claimed to "reduce alkalinity."  When applied to our soils, sulfur must be oxidized by soil bacteria to the sulfate form; then sulfate reacting with water forms sulfuric acid.
In our soils, the bacteria responsible for sulfur oxidation are sparse, so the reaction may take many months or years.  If sulfate is formed, it just reacts with the lime (calcium) usually prevalent in our soil to form gypsum (calcium sulfate).   The bottom line:  Don't spend a lot of money on it unless a soil test shows that your soil has low lime levels.

Gypsum

Gypsum is claimed to "break up and loosen clay soils."  Again, in the Front Range area of high calcium (calcareous) soil, this is a local myth.  Gypsum (calcium sulfate) added to clay soils having high sodium replaces the sodium with calcium, a much more desirable soil condition.  The sodium is than leached out of the soil with water.
Locally, however, clay soils already are high in calcium.  High sodium soils are rare along the Front Range.  Adding calcium to a soil that does not need it is a waste of money.  Additional calcium in the form of gypsum, a salt, will only make soils more saline.

Wound Dressings

Wound dressing for pruning cuts have been shown not only to be unnecessary, but many actually inhibit callus growth over the cut.  Tars, emulsions, asphalts and waxes can dry and crack, especially in Colorado's climate.  When water gets behind the crack, disease may be promoted rather than prevented.
The best treatment of a pruning cut is not treatment at all. Many people expect to treat tree wounds just like they would treat cuts in the human body--with a dressing.   the public expects to see tree wound treated in some way, usually with a black "sealer."  As a result, one city tree crew, knowing that dressings are not helpful but also aware of public expectation, applies a thin coat of black spray paint to pruning cuts.

The Myth of Day Watering

Still showing up in some popular garden literature is the notion that "day-watering can burn plants."  The notion says that sunlight is "magnified by the water drop on the leaf to cause a leaf burn.
Anyone who ever burned ants using a magnifying glass and the sun knows that the magnifying glass did not burn the ant if it were placed directly on the ant.  Rather, it had to be held a distance (focal distance) from the ant to concentrate the sun's rays enough to burn the ant.
If this notion were true, all gardeners would cover all their plants prior to every rainstorm.
Farmers would not be able to prevent widespread "leafburn" after rain clouds gave way to sunshine.  The root of this notion may have come from the effects of applying poor-quality water high in dissolved salts.  As water drops evaporated from leaves,the salts left behind could cause a leaf burn.
These are but a few of many claims and examples of conventional wisdom offered to the gardening public.
Ever since gardens were planted, observations and anecdotal claims have been offered to improve garden success.  Some of these may be myths in Colorado but good advice in other areas of the country.  Be cautious of label and advertising claims for garden products and skeptical of what you hear--and read!

The Trees in Your Yard



Did you ever wonder why the trees you have in your yard are there?  When our family moved into our first house we bought, there was a stump about 10 feet from the road and 10 feet from the driveway.  The previous owner had cut it down because it had branches that somewhat limited his view of the road.  I replaced that with a 3 to 4 inch caliper maple I selected from a nearby woods and bare root transplanted in the same location.  Twenty five years later it is a 15 to 20 inch beautiful tree with high branches that set of the corner of the property. 

Ash tree lining a city street

Much of the country from Minnesota to Missouri, and Tennessee to New York are undergoing a tree transformation not of our choosing.  The rest of the country is going to be affected where ever ash trees grow.  The emerald ash borer is chewing its way through America’s ash trees.  Twenty to forty years ago many streets were lined with beautiful elm trees.  Dutch elm disease has caused most of those to be replaced, 

Dead Ash from Emerald Ash Borer

including the beautiful trees lining my mother-in-law’s street in Aberdeen, S Dakota.  Previous to any of our memory the major forest tree in much of the Eastern US was the chestnut tree.  Chestnut trees succumbed to chestnut blight. 

An Emerald Ash Borer and tunnels under the bark

The lesson to learn when putting trees in your yard is to choose a variety of species so when the next tree malady occurs you will not loose all of your trees.  Cities are replacing ash trees with a variety of trees.  No more monoculture of trees lining the streets of the USA.  You should make sure your yard is not a monoculture.  The reasons ash trees replaced elm trees were, they were hardy, grew fast and had gorgeous foliage with beautiful fall color.  Until emerald ash borer, they were considered the perfect tree.

If or when you lose your ash tree consider this advice from Beth Corrigan of the Morten Arboretum near Chicago.  Make an assessment of the sun, soil condition, and space.  “It’s tried and true: put the right plant in the right spot.  Does the space get full sun? Only west sun?  Is it near a downspout?  High and dry on a berm?  This data will help you find a tree that’s happy in your yard.  There will always be another pest or disease coming down the block.  A healthy tree will resist attacks better than one that’s stressed.”  Other thoughts to consider are:  Do you want to shade your house or patio?  Screen an ugly view?  Or do you want a tree to just look pretty?  Will the mature tree fit the space?

For the ash tree you have now, if you don’t want it or it is unhealthy remove it and replace it with a better tree for that location.  If you want to keep your ash tree, get it treated.  You can pay a professional to treat the tree for about $200.  You can treat it your self for $10 to $40 based on size.  The product to choose from are either Merit based products with several Brand names, many from Bayer Advanced or Safari based products from Green Light.  Safari based products are Emerald Ash Borer Killer or Tree & Shrub with Safari.  Most Safari products are granules and Merit based products are liquids.  Both are easy to apply.  You will have to make an application every year.  If your tree is already infested you may salvage the tree if it has lost less than 40% of the foliage.  If it is in bad shape remove it.  Dead ash trees don’t stand for very long.  They have large branches fall and whole trunk will eventually fall possibly causing damage to cars, houses, and possibly people. 

Home yard with multiple tree species

The Garden Doc

Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD

January 11, 2012

An article came out showing what may be causing millions of bees in hives to quickly disappear from their hive.  A picture of a small fly on a bee may show the cause.  The fly lays its eggs in the bee, the eggs hatch, the larvae grow, the bee gets disoriented, flies out of the hive towards light and dies.  The larvae mature and the cycle continues until the hive is empty.  How could this go undetected for this many years?  Science is a never ending learning process.

This may solve the question causing CCD or cause more confusion as to the cause.  Previous to finding this fly scientists from many major Universities thought it may be a combination of a virus with honey bee mites aggravated by some carry over disease or pesticide damage.  Science has not been able to link any direct cause to CCD.  Bees like all other animals have ectoparasites (insects that live on other insects or animals) and diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. Most of the ectoparasites and diseases are well understood and beekeepers treat hives to control these maladies.  Pesticide science is good at providing instructions to nearly eliminate bees being killed or damaged from insecticides.  The best way to maintain good hive health is to have a good queen and a good strong hive.  The survival of the fittest rule, rules.  There are treatments for most of the diseases and parasites. 

How does this affect you and your garden?  Some of the garden vegetables do not need bees to pollinate.  Most produce originating from a flower needs pollinated.  Some are self pollinated, some are pollinated from other insect species other than the honey bee, but some do produce much better yields if honeybees are in the area.  These crops are apples, blueberries, strawberries, cane berries, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and the melons.  Many crops like onions will produce a good supply of vegetables, the onion bulb, but need pollination to produce seeds which are not eaten.  

I keep a few colonies of bees and through the years have had great success overwintering bees, even in the state of Wisconsin.  Three years ago I may have lost all my hives to CCD.  Beekeeping is a fascinating hobby with extremely sweet rewards.  This past summer my 5 hives produced over 60 lbs each.  The excess honey I can’t use is sufficient to supply The Downtown Grocery which is a store that offers many unique foods including a good supply of organic produce for those that desire that life style.

The Garden Doc