When Gary Chastagner was a kid in the 1950s, his parents typically displayed their Christmas tree for about a week. The tree went up on December 24—often after he went to bed—and came down after New Year’s Day.
Now, consumers want fresh-cut trees that can be displayed for weeks without losing their needles. Chastagner, a professor emeritus of plant pathology at Washington State University, has spent more than 40 years helping Northwest Christmas tree growers improve their product. For his work, Chastagner earned the nickname “Dr. Christmas Tree.”
In this episode, Chastagner talks about working on solutions to Swiss needle cast disease in Douglas fir … » More …
Linda McLean got the idea during the COVID-19 pandemic when she was looking for socially distanced programing opportunities centered around food security and food sovereignty.
She held her first two Inchelium Red garlic workshops—one drive-thru and one walk-thru—in autumn 2020, giving out bulbs along with tips for planting, growing, and cooking them. There was so much interest in the garlic, known for its mild flavor and reddish color that appears as the bulbs cure, that she made it her mission. Since then, promoting Inchelium Red garlic has become a primary focus.
“The goal is to encourage tribal members to grow Inchelium … » More …
Abundant and essential but risky, yellow storage onions are a challenging, labor-intensive crop for commercial growers in Washington.
Weeding, done in part by hand, is essential to ensure the onions don’t have to compete for nutrients and can fully develop their pungent bulbs.
Thrips, tiny but rapidly reproducing insects that not only feed on onion leaves and other plants but also spread viruses, can reduce photosynthesis and overall production.
There’s not much to be done about the weeding, a necessary chore. But Washington State University researchers are working on behalf of growers to help control viruses, bacteria, fungal pathogens, thrips, and other pests. » More …
The Egg and I tells the story of life on a chicken farm near Chimacum in the early days of Betty MacDonald’s first marriage. She was a city girl, a fish out of water, trying to make the best of her new reality and responsibilities on the rural and rugged Olympic Peninsula in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
In 1945, she writes: “Then I gathered the eggs. Gathering eggs would be like one continual Easter morning if the hens would just be obliging and get off the nests. Cooperation, however, is not a chickenly characteristic and so at egg-gathering time every nest was … » More …
Washington State University researchers adapt livestock and crops such as potatoes, apples, and wheat to feed a more crowded, warming planet. » More ...
Louisa R. (Winkler) Brouwer (’17 PhD Crop Sci.) was one of three researchers at Washington State University who collaborated on “The History of Oats in Western Washington and the Evolution of Regionality in Agriculture.”
The 2016 study—written by Brouwer along with crop scientists Stephen S. Jones, director of the WSU Breadlab, and Kevin M. Murphy (’04 MS, ’07 PhD Crop Sci.)—appeared in the Journal of Rural Studies.
It was a precursor to her dissertation: “Building the Genetic, Agronomic and Economic Foundations for Expansion of Oat Cultivation in Western Washington.”
Recently, she discussed her work and oats with Washington State Magazine.
