Pruning class set at UGA garden in Griffin

EVENT DATE: Feb. 25, 2011 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Learn to prune fruit trees and ornamentals at an upcoming course offered on the University of Georgia campus in Griffin, Ga. The course will be offered Feb. 25 and March 4.

In addition to proper pruning techniques, participants will learn what equipment to use, when to prune certain plants and techniques for creating a professional looking landscape. Participants will also learn pest prevention through pruning.

Taught by Bob Westerfield, a consumer horticulturist with the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the class will consist of both indoor lectures and outside hands-on demonstrations.

The one-day class will be held from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. either day at the UGA Research and Education Garden on Ellis Road in Griffin, Ga. The cost of the course is $39 and includes lunch and break refreshments. Pre-registration is required by calling (770) 233-5598.

By Sharon Dowdy
University of Georgia

-----
Community News You Can Use
Click to read MORE news:
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
Twitter: @gafrontpage & @TheGATable @HookedonHistory
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
Twitter: @artsacrossga, @softnblue, @RimbomboAAG @FayetteFP

Use deer-tolerant plants in your home landscape to keep wildlife at bay

Spring is the perfect time to add new flowers and trees to your home landscape. However, deer may love the new addition as much as you do.

“Deer like nutrient-rich plants, especially in spring and summer when does are pregnant or nursing, when young deer are growing and when bucks are growing antlers,” said Michael Mengak, wildlife specialist with the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “Fertilized plants, such as those in home landscapes, provide protein, energy-rich carbohydrates, minerals and salts.”

Asiatic lilies, jessamine, daylily, hibiscus, hollyhock, hosta, Japanese maples, pansies and roses are a few deer favorites.

Adding deer-tolerant plants to the landscape will keep deer at bay, says Gary Wade, a UGA Cooperative Extension horticulturist.

“A good way to prevent deer from browsing in landscapes is to plant ornamental plants that deer do not like to eat,” Wade said. “Deer generally do not like plants with pungent aromas. They also shy away from plants with prickly or rough leaves and plants with a bitter taste.”

Deer-tolerant plants to try include:
Trees: bald cypress, crepe myrtle, Eastern red cedar, ginkgo, pawpaw, pine, spruce and tulip poplar.
Shrubs: boxwood, butterfly bush, common witchhazel, gardenia, Japanese rose, junipers, oleander, pomegranate, primrose jasmine and yucca.
Ornamental grasses: fountain grass, lemongrass, pampas grass and sedge.
Vines and groundcovers: columbine, creeping lantana, junipers and thyme.
Herbaceous perennials and bulbs: African lily, amaryllis, bee balm, butterfly weed, Christmas fern, daffodils, elephant ears, foam flower, iris, lantana, marjoram, peony, purple coneflower, tarragon, toad lily and yarrow.
Annuals: annual periwinkle, baby’s breath, basil, California poppy, snapdragon and sweet pea.

“There is no such thing as a deer-resistant plant, and when deer populations are high and food becomes scarce, deer may feed on plants that are thought to be deer-tolerant,” Mengak said.

By April Reese Sorrow
University of Georgia

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Follow us on Twitter:  @GAFrontPage

Water-saving technology focus of new grant

Many ornamental nursery growers test to see if their plants need water by sticking a finger in the soil to see if it’s dry. Or, they just water them whether they need it or not. University of Georgia horticulturists have found a better way, one that requires less water, less fertilizer, less money and fewer dirty fingers.

Now they have the funds and collaborations to study more water-saving technologies. UGA is part of a national team that received a five-year $5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative Grant. The goal is to save water, increase efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts of ornamental plant production.

To do that, they’re developing “the next generation of tools to precisely monitor plant water use, allow for better control of irrigation water applications, increase the efficiency of water and nutrient use by ornamental growers,” said UGA horticulturist Marc van Iersel.

Water moisture sensors

UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty will use $520,000 of the grant to study affordable soil moisture sensors that can be used easily in greenhouses and nurseries.

Van Iersel has been working with sensors for six years. He’s shown that they work in his greenhouse and at test nurseries. And now he can make them feasible for growers.

He, along with UGA professors John Ruter, Matthew Chappell and Paul Thomas, will work in their greenhouses, nurseries and at test sites at Evergreen Nursery in Statham, Ga., and McCorkle Nurseries in Dearing, Ga.

McCorkle saw the impact of using soil moisture sensors in a study UGA did last year.

“They were watering the plants using normal practices, and we were using soil moisture sensors to irrigate the plants,” van Iersel said. “We reduced water use by 83 percent.

“There’s definitely the potential for drastic water savings. How much probably depends on a particular greenhouse or nursery, but throughout the U.S., it has the potential to save huge amounts of water,” he said.

Plant models

UGA faculty will also study the water needs of different plants, such as petunia, poinsettia, hibiscus and hydrangea. Cooperators from other institutions will then develop software that will predict how much water these plants use.

Growers will be able to enter information like plant type and age, greenhouse light levels and temperatures to tailor the software. They will be able to estimate how much water they will need for their plants.

“Hydrangeas will definitely be one of the plants,” van Iersel said, “because that is such an important crop, and it’s a plant that seems to need a lot of water. Growers have trouble keeping hydrangeas well-watered, and they’re often over-watered.”

Group effort

John Lea-Cox from the University of Maryland is leading the overall project, which includes engineers, plant scientists, economists and Extension specialists.

In addition to determining water needs, they will construct watering systems that greenhouse managers can use, understand and install themselves. By combining their expertise, this group aims to develop a commercially-available, affordable product within the next five years.

Other universities and research centers on the grant are Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, Colorado State University, Cornell University and the UM Center for Environmental Science. Commercial partners are Decagon Devices in Pullman, Wash., and Antir Software in Jarrettsville, Md. The grant will be combined with an additional $5.2 million in matching funding from various sources.

Economists will look at whether the system is effective and economical for growers, van Iersel said. The questions they hope to answer are how much water, fertilizer and labor are saved, is there less runoff, less water to treat? And how about labor savings?

Environmental impact

Van Iersel sees the project as more than just a way for the plant industry to save money by reducing water and fertilizer.

“It can be a way to decrease their environmental impact,” he said. “And that would benefit society at large.

“If we reduce water use in these greenhouses and nurseries by X number of gallons per year, what is that value to society? If we can reduce runoff from greenhouses and nurseries, how much money is society saving by not having to clean up that water?”

For more details of the project goals, the university teams and the commercial partners, visit www.smart-farms.net.

By Stephanie Schupska
University of Georgia

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

UGA research shows some plants can remove indoor pollutants

Some plants have the ability to drastically reduce levels of indoor pollutants, according to new research at the University of Georgia. Researchers showed that certain species can effectively remove air-borne contaminants, including harmful volatile organic compounds, suggesting a critical new role for plants in home and office environments.

Of the 28 plants tested, researchers identified five “super ornamentals”—those that had the highest rates of contaminant removal, a process called phytoremediation. These include the purple waffle plant (Hemigraphis alternataa), English ivy (Hedera Helix), variegated wax plant (Hoya cornosa), Asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus) and the Purple heart plant (Tradescantia pallida). Placed in glass, gas-tight containers, the plants were exposed to a number of common household VOCs, including benzene, toluene, octane, alpha-pinene and TCE. The work, funded by UGA’s Agricultural Experiment Stations, was published in the August 2009 issue of HortScience.

“The idea that plants take up volatile compounds isn’t as much of a surprise as the poor air quality we measured inside some of the homes we tested,” said Stanley Kays, UGA horticulture researcher and one of the study’s authors. “We found unexpectedly high levels of benzenes and many other contaminants that can seriously compromise the health of those exposed.”

In fact, harmful indoor air pollutants can cause a host of serious illnesses, including asthma, cancer, reproductive and neurological disorders—and more than 1.6 million deaths a year, according to a 2002 World Health Organization report. The VOCs emanate from furnishings, carpets, plastics, cleaning products, building materials like drywall, paint, solvents and adhesives. Even tap water can be a source of VOCs. The air inside homes and offices is often a concentrated source of these pollutants, in some cases up to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air, according to research.


Why some plants are very effective at remediation—while others show little promise—is a mystery. “That’s one of the things we want to learn,” said Kays. “We also want to determine the species and number of plants needed in a house or office to neutralize the problem contaminants.”

Kays, D.S. Yang and S.V. Pennisi at UGA collaborate with researchers at Konkuk University in Seoul and at the National Horticultural Research Institute in Suwon, Korea, “where scientists are substantially ahead of us in phytoremediation research,” said Kays. “My colleague, Kwang Jin Kim, has evaluated the ability of 86 species to remove formaldehyde in indoor environments.”

Not all VOCs are toxic, and plants themselves emit some VOCs, though most appear not to be toxic, at least at normal exposure levels. But Kays said a lack of information about chemical toxicity—and an affordable method for measuring interior air quality—makes assessing their presence and safety more difficult. Fifty million organic and inorganic chemicals are now registered in the CAS system, a registry that includes chemical substances identified since 1957.

Kays said simply introducing common ornamentals into indoor spaces has the potential to significantly improve the quality of indoor air, but further research could help scientists refine the concept.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page