May-June 2018 Volume 38, Issue 3
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit #115 Albany, OR
Extending Knowledge and Changing Lives in Linn and Benton Counties
Extension Field Days a Great Place to Learn By 2010, three years into her research on the use of fish fertilizer in organic blueberry systems, Oregon State University Extension Berry Crops Specialist Bernadine Strik was finding that the rates growers were using were much higher than needed, and, in fact, were hurting yields. To show growers they might want to cut back on their fertilizer rates, she used a visual aid: field days. “I remember growers at field days, when we had that organic trial, point to our best treatments and say, ‘I wish I had 200 acres that look just like that,’” Strik said. Today, growers use two-to-three times less fish fertilizer than they did prior to Strik’s research, thanks in part to the visual aid available each July at the annual OSU Blueberry Field Day. “There is a lot of fast learning when you can visually see something; when you are able to show
By Mitch Lies, Growing Editor Photo provided by Mitch Lies
By Mitch Lies, Growing Editor
Diversity, Abundance on Display at Plant Sale
OSU Extension Berry Crops Specialist Bernadine Strik leads field day participants through blueberry plantings at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora at Extension’s annual Blueberry Field Day.
them, ‘Here are the plants that are fertilized with fish at the rates you guys are using, and these are fertilized at the lower rate of fish,’” Strik said. “And they go, ‘Whoa, I can see the difference.’” The Blueberry Field Day, scheduled this year on July 18 at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, is one of three berry-crop field days Strik hosts each year, and one of more than twenty field days OSU Extension puts on at sites
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around the state. Strik also hosts a Strawberry Open House each June, this year scheduled on June 6, and a Caneberry Field Day, this year scheduled on July 18, both of which are also held at the Research and Extension Center in Aurora. OSU Extension Weed Management Specialist Andy Hulting, like Strik, said the visuals available in field days are invaluable tools in passing along researchbased information that can
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Plant lovers will have plenty to choose from at the 2018 Benton County Master Gardener Plant Sale on May 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Benton County Fairgrounds. Kathy Clark, chairperson of the event, said attendees can choose from between roughly 9,000 plants. “We generally have about 6,000 garden plants and about 3,000 herbs, vegetable starts, and other edible plants, like rhubarb,” Clark said. “And we have a great diversity of plants, including flowering perennials for sun and shade, native plants, trees and shrubs, vines, grasses, and groundcovers.” Also available is expert advice. “We try and help people get the plant that they are looking for, in the place they are trying to fill,” Clark said. “If someone is looking for an ornamental garden plant
that is deer resistant, pollinator friendly and drought tolerant, for example, we can steer them to what works.” She added that the plants are grown naturally and priced conservatively. “We certainly want to sell our plants, and one way to do that is to have good prices.” Clark is among dozens in the Benton County Master Gardeners, an Oregon State University Extension Service program, who volunteer their time each year to put on the event. By the time attendees enter the fairgrounds, volunteer gardeners will have put in hundreds of hours of work, starting typically in October of the previous year. “We have grown and tended almost all of these plants,” Clark said. “We dig them, we divide them, we propagate them, we pot them up, and we start them from seed in the greenhouse.” About 25 Master
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Apply now for LCEA Legacy Scholarships, Benton County Master Gardener Plant Sale is May 5. Summer Food Preservation classes announced.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/linn
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