Winter 2022
Agriculture
Winter 2022
Bad fungus
Not all fungi are good for plants or bees, or even people.
Anyone who has experienced mold outbreaks, wilting vegetable plants, or devastated flowers knows the destructive power of fungi. Washington State University researchers and Extension outreach specialists lead the fight against some these sinister fungi.
Fighting fungus in apples, pears under storage
Molds and fungi can wreck a good apple or pear.
Just ask Achour Amiri, assistant professor and researcher at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center in Wenatchee. He specializes in diseases that spoil tree fruit and he can be found working in packing rooms … » More …
Winter 2022
Touring the turfgrass
A tour of the Washington State University turfgrass research farm with director and plant biologist Michael Neff.
Listen to this episode of the magazine podcast, Viewscapes, on November 15.
Read more about plant biosciences research in “Just a small thing making a big difference.”
Winter 2022
Just a small thing making a big difference
From a simple plant comes big science » More ...
Winter 2022
A boatload of ideas for fungi
Fungi and mycelium provide a flexible, earth-friendly material for all kinds of products.
Washington State University student Katy Ayers built a world record-setting canoe out of mycelium, her MyConoe. That’s just the beginning of her ideas about materials made from fungus. Larry Clark, editor of Washington State Magazine, talked with Ayers about products made from fungi and mycelium, along with potential fungi items such as fishing bobbers and hunting blinds.
Listen to the podcast:
Find more podcast episodes, and ways to subscribe and listen.
Read more in “It’s fungi to the rescue” (Winter 2022)
» More …
Winter 2022
Oh, Christmas trees!
There might not be a perfect holiday tree but Dr. Christmas Tree has improved the options. » More ...
Winter 2022
Three cheers for fair food
Of course, the best place to get fair food is the fair itself.
But you can also make your own at home, putting your deep-frying, powdered sugar-dusting skills to the test with recipes for everything from corn dogs to funnel cakes.
Here’s a round-up of recipes to try if you can’t wait for next year’s fair fare.
Make your own fair food at home
The Spokesman-Review recipe-tested a couple of recipes for corn dogs Recommended: the Iowa State Corn Dogs recipe).
Make your own ketchup, mustard, and mayo to go with your corn dogs (Spokesman-Review)
Winter 2022
Talkin’ around the Christmas tree
The Pacific Northwest—particularly western Washington and Oregon—has historically been a major Christmas tree production region. Today, it produces about a third of the Christmas trees sold each year in America.
In general, there are two types of growers: large-scale farms producing trees for the wholesale market and smaller, often family-run operations for the choose-and-cut market.
Christmas trees around the United States:
The top Christmas tree-producing states are: Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington.
The average growing time is seven years, but it can take as few as four and as many as 15 to reach the typical height of 6 … » More …
Winter 2022
Fair man: Meet Greg Stewart
A friend sent him the quote “probably five years ago,” and it really resonated.
It summed up his feelings for agricultural fairs, declaring they “bring us together, and thereby make us better acquainted, and better friends than we otherwise would be. … the chief use of agricultural fairs is to aid in improving the great calling of agriculture … to make mutual exchange of agricultural discovery, information and knowledge; so that, at the end, all may know everything which may have been known to but one…”
It’s an excerpt from a longer text, and if you talk with Greg Stewart (‘71 Ag.) long enough—and he … » More …
Fall 2022
Smarter orchards
The promise and progress of intelligent automation at Washington State University » More ...