- [Woman] Montana AG Live is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU AG Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, the Montana Bankers Association, Cashman Nursery & Landscaping, the Gallatin Gardeners Club, and the Rocky Mountain Certified Crop Adviser Program.

(soft upbeat music) - Good evening.

You're tuned to Montana AG Live, originating tonight from the studios at KUSM on the very dynamic and vibrant campus of Montana State University and coming to you over the Montana Public I'm Jack Riesselman.

I'll be your host this evening.

Those of you who have watched the program in the past know how it goes.

You provide the questions to our very knowledgeable panel, and we will do our best to find a good answer.

And if you have comments or concerns, you go ahead and call those into because we'll share those with the audience as we go through this evening.

Without the questions, this is a pretty boring program.

So get the questions in and we'll have a lot of fun tonight.

We're gonna look a lot at bees, the pollinator situation in the state of Montana, along with anything else you guys really wanna call in with.

But before we get to tonight's program, I wanna introduce the panel.

On my far left really at the end of the studio or table here is Uta McKelvy.

She's a plant pathologist and she'd been on the program several times, very knowledgeable about plant diseases in this state.

So if you have questions concerning plant pathology, plant diseases, hey, call them in.

Michelle, Michelle Flenniken.

She's been here before.

She's the bee lady.

And we're happy to have her back.

And we always have a lot of questions about bees, pollinators.

So if you have those, please call them in this evening.

We'll take those questions and share them with the panel here.

Jane Mangold, weed scientist, noxious weed specialist, invasive plant specialist.

I like to call her a weed scientist.

So Jane, welcome to the program again.

And Mr.

Personality sitting right next to me, (laughs) Dave Baumbauer.

Dave is a very knowledgeable horticulturalist.

So if you have questions concerning horts, plants this evening, hey, phone them in and we'll get to them as soon as possible.

Taking the calls here in the studio is Nancy Blake.

And Cheryl Moore-Gough is taking them at home and relaying them to me via this nice technology called Slack.

So get those questions coming in.

Michelle, tell us about what you do here at MSU.

- So I'm a professor in the Plant Sciences Department.

And research in my lab is primarily focused on understanding the pathogens that infect bees and primarily viral infections is what we study.

And the long-term goal of that research is to mitigate losses that are associated with viral infection.

But a lot of our research program is just basic science as well.

How does a honeybee immune system work?

How do they combat viral infections?

And so we have graduate students in the lab investigating those basic science questions that are funded by the National Science Foundation.

We also work with Montana's beekeepers and monitor their health of their colony over time and look and see if we can find trends in pathogens that are associated with colony deaths.

So that's what we do in the lab.

- Okay, bee industry in the state is pretty good.

I mean, we're one of the top 10 honeybee-producing states in the country.

Dave, Michelle, you wanna comment on how important it is to the state?

- Yeah, Montana, like you said, ranks in the top 10.

In 2013, I think they produced over 15 million pounds of honey valued at over 30 million dollars.

And honey production is what we think of when we think of beekeeping, but really one of the major roles of commercial beekeeping operations is that they move their colonies to pollinate crops all over the US.

And the biggest example of that is the almond production in California, which requires over 1.8 million colonies for that pollination event every February and March.

And Montana's beekeepers provide about 180,000 colonies that they move down there in about Thanksgiving time for pollinating the almonds.

- Years ago that was kind of a free service that Montana producers would winter their bees in Central Valley, California.

But I'm told now through a friend of mine who is an almond grower that it costs between 150 to $200 per hive, and they need about one to two hives per acre of almond.

So it's changed a lot through the years.

- Yep, it's changed a lot through the years.

There are even be brokers that help navigate that interaction between commercial beekeepers and almond growers.

And, yeah, the cost of colony rental has grown, and that's because for almond to produce a seed, it's an essential that a bee pollinator visits.

There's absolutely no wind pollination.

So it's really important.

They have to work hand in hand.

And almond growers and beekeepers have got together over the last years and really worked together to mitigate some of those potential pesticide interactions in the almond groves because of how essential honeybees are.

So they've had to partner up as industries.

The beekeeping industry and the almond industry have really good communication amongst themselves so they can - Great.

- For the health of both the trees and the bees.

- It's a supply and demand thing.

If you think about almond acreage has increased drastically in the last 20 years - Right.

- With the health food industry, almond milk, almond flour.

And so the bearing acres have gone up and then, but the number of commercial beekeepers I think have been going down.

And so - Yeah.

- It's a big issue.

- So there's a couple things that play in though.

Water is really a limiting factor there, but then as we'll talk about more tonight, although the need for bees has gone up and then beekeepers themselves, there's lots of them, but they've been doing an increased job and really maintaining our pollination force.

So we haven't lost the overall number of bee colonies in the US because beekeepers have been working extra hard.

- All right, on the topic of bees.

I like this question.

It's from Bozeman and they wanna know why does a bee sting hurt so much?

Is it the toxin or whatever?

Come on guys.

(laughs) - Well, I don't know what it's exactly the venom protein is or the venom toxin is, but, yeah, it does hurt.

(laughs) So I just got stung harvesting honey last week.

So, yeah, I was reminded of that.

But I don't really know why other than that or what particular thing in bee venom makes it hurt.

Do you, David?

- Well, does it have to do with the histamine response?

- Well, for sure, your immune system mounts allergenic response that caused that localized swelling, but I don't know what's inside.

It's a foreign protein really being injected into you.

So it's really important to get that stinger out as fast as you can.

You can take Benadryl and stuff to mitigate the immune response.

And of course if you feel anything more serious than that, then you need to get to the ER.

- Okay, thank you.

Switching over to Jane.

And this is a question that we did not get to last fall.

This person from Anaconda wants to know can they use 2,4-D for weed control in potatoes?

And if they can't use 2,4-D, any suggestions for what they could do other than to hope?

- Yeah, well, help me out anybody else on the panel.

But 2,4-D is a broadleaf herbicide so it affects plants with broad leaves, and potatoes have broad leaves.

So I think it depends on what stage of potato production you're in.

You could use 2,4-D before there's any potatoes growing in the field, but I think once the potatoes are up, you wouldn't wanna use that 'cause you'd damage your potatoes.

- Yeah, and actually I believe that even if you spray and then you want to use those potatoes for seed, the hormone or herbicide is stored in the seed for the following crop too.

- Okay.

- So no 2,4-D on potatoes.

- I don't think so.

- [Michelle] It doesn't sound good for your mashed potatoes either.

- [Jack] No.

(panelists laughing) - How quickly is 2,4-D immobilized with soil contact?

- Well, so 2,4-D is active in the soil but it does have a short half-life.

I think the half-life is like 14 days.

- Okay.

- So it's not considered a long-lived herbicide with a lot of residual.

So that's why I was saying I think if you were like pre-plant or post-harvest, you might be able to use it but that's a little bit out.

You'd probably wanna talk to Tim Seipel, our crop weed specialist.

- [Jack] And he'll be on in a week or so.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

And We'll save that for him.

- Okay, yeah.

- Put him on the spot.

- I'll give him a heads up.

How's that?

- Don't do that.

- Don't do that, okay.

(panelists laughing) - Okay, interesting, this is an email question came in, and ironically, Uta also brought in a sample to show people.

And I saw the two go hand in hand.

This came in from Manhattan and this person says they noticed fist-sized, brown, hard lumps poking through their lawn.

And what could this be?

And, Uta, you can tell us what it is and show us what it is.

- Right, well, simply inspired by what I brought today, a good guess would be that this might be a crown gall.

And this is a crown gall that we received in the diagnostic lab.

It was dug up from root.

So what is a crown gall?

A crown gall is caused by a bacterium that occurs just naturally in the soil.

But if your plants, for example, the roots of your Aspen trees or any other trees have wounds, these bacteria can enter through the wound into the plant tissue and then they cause this kind of uncontrolled growth of the plant tissue.

So you could kind of imagine it like a cancer in a way.

And so this is what the swelling is that we have here on the crown gall.

And unfortunately, in terms of what can you do about it, there's nothing you can really do about it.

I would generally recommend try not to dig it up or cut it out.

You would also wanna avoid, for example, if you have it in a root and it's starting to poke through your grass like the person who emailed in said, like try and raise your lawnmower blade so you don't accidentally keep cutting this gall or any other roots that might be poking through your lawn.

And maybe long-term an idea would be to try and slowly raise the soil level, like try and cover it up.

So you kind of cover the root or the crown gall to avoid injury in the future, yeah.

And then in terms of if you use garden tools and they might have cut a crown gall-infected tissue, you wanna make sure that you sanitize them before you cut other plant material just so you avoid infecting more plant material.

- Will Clorox work pretty well for disinfecting?

- I think yeah, like 70% ethanol or your common, I think we all have sanitation wipes by now at home.

So that would work pretty well.

- So does?

- So does?

Okay, go ahead.

- Are you saying if you hit that with a lawnmower, you're actually spreading, you can spread it, or is it just damage the host plant?

- So I think let's say you have a lawn and you have several roots and one is a crown gall, you might hit the crown gall, and next you hit a root that hasn't been infected, so then you're like creating a wound and you're already having the bacterium on the blade.

So, but even if you didn't have crown gall, but you have roots poking through your yard, you wanna avoid hurting those roots, 'cause the bacteria that cause the crown gall, they occur just everywhere, so they just wait for the opportunity essentially.

- [David] Is it lethal to the tree?

- I would say it depends on how excessive it is.

I don't think generally it is.

It might girdle that root to a degree that the root dies off.

Or it could also occur actually on stems or branches, and I think if it was on a stem, like really big, that would probably be a bigger issue.

But I mean, I'm not saying my Aspen trees look awesome, but they're still alive so.

(laughs) It might be a slow death.

(laughs) - It is an interesting one.

It's been around forever and goes to a lot of different plants so-- - Yeah, you can find it everywhere.

- I usually get it on my cabbage.

And any of the cucumbers really have a tendency to get them.

Okay, from Great Falls.

I'm curious about this for myself.

Our wasp pollinators, this person sees them on her mint and marigolds.

So have at it.

- So they can be but that's not their major role.

They mostly are carnivores and eat little developing caterpillars or other bugs.

And they can even go into our bee colonies and try to get the larva there and get the honey.

So I would say they're inadvertent pollinators or maybe occasional pollinators, but they're not part of our main pollination forest, which is primarily honeybees, bumblebees, alfalfa leafcutting bees, and other solitary and native bees in the state.

But wasps aren't, they're not primary pollinators.

- [Jack] Which crops in Montana really rely on pollinators?

- Yeah, I think the most pollinated crops in Montana, of course the cherries in the Flathead Valley.

Of course if you're gonna make alfalfa seed if you are letting it seed out to make the seed, but also they're cut often before that stage.

Canola requires honeybee pollination.

I'm probably missing a couple here but those are some major ones.

- Sainfoin.

- Sainfoin, yep.

- Sainfoin, yeah.

- Any seed producer, well, not any, but a lot of the seed producers would require insect pollinators.

So when we think about, well, we don't eat the flower, we don't eat the fruit, but ultimately the seed needs to be produced.

So a lot of those brassicas, a lot of the cucumbers, they require-- - Yeah.

- Will require insect pollination.

The squashes, yeah.

- Yeah, your squash, melons, everything and then bumblebees are big for your tomatoes.

And so then, and they need of course some grounds to nest in, bumblebees do 'cause they live in the ground actually, not like the honeybees that we see in the colonies and the boxes.

So, yeah, a lot of the fruits, nuts, and vegetable crops in general need pollinators.

- All right, thank you.

An email question.

Dave, you can handle this one.

Are there additional steps a gardener in Eastern Montana, where it has been so hot and dry all summer, should take as the gardeners prepare for fall and winter?

So forth and so on.

It's been dry around most of the state, not only Eastern Montana.

It's all yours.

- So then the question is if you-- - [Jack] What do they need to do to get ready?

- What do they need to get ready?

And I don't know there's any particularly special thing to do, but if you're gonna do any kind of fall tillage, you're gonna wanna wait until after you either have irrigation capacity or some rain.

And so you want a little bit of moisture in the soil before you do any kinda cultivation or tillage so-- - [Jack] Okay.

- Dave, is there anything we should be doing different with like pruning fruit trees or I'm thinking about like raspberry canes?

- So a lot of that, right, if it's a traditional fall activity, that would probably be fine.

You might think about woody shrubs and trees about.

We wanna avoid encouraging any new growth at this time of year, but once we get past that point, maybe a little later in September, we wanna make sure that they go into the winter well-irrigated.

- Okay.

- Same thing with conifers.

But at this point if your trees are in the lawn situation, you're gonna be concerned about your lawn irrigation, keeping them too wet.

We want them to harden off because the last couple of falls we've had these cold snaps in October and it's just been really, really hard on them 'cause they haven't been fully hardened off.

And so we gotta get them hardened off.

Once they're hardened off, then we wanna make sure that the roots have gotten a good drink before winter really sets in.

- Okay, thank you.

From Nye, Jane, this person would like to know has there been any breakthrough in the control of leafy spurge?

They use 2,4-D and Tordon, but the still water valley is still very full of leafy spurge.

- Yeah, that area does have a lot of leafy spurge.

Breakthroughs, we're still kinda doing the same things with trying to integrate a lot of different tools because it is so challenging to control.

The viewer mentioned herbicide that he or she's been using regularly.

There is a newer active ingredient that people have been having some good luck with with leafy spurge.

It's the active ingredient is quinclorac.

It's Q-U-I-N-C-L-O-R-A-C. And it's sold in a variety of products.

But that's a herbicide that some of the long-standing leafy spurge managers have been giving a try.

- What time of year is it most effective to apply an herbicide?

- Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

- With this.

- Yeah, leafy spurge.

North Dakota State University, they're kind of the gurus of leafy spurge control.

They have a great publication that shows how the different herbicides for leafy spurge are all have kind of their own special timing when they're most effective.

I don't remember for sure for quinclorac.

But for the most part it's before you get flowering so that would probably be like in May.

At true flower, which would probably be June or so or in the fall.

So it kinda depends which herbicide you're using.

And I can't remember.

I look at the chart every time I get that question to just make sure I'm getting it right.

- Okay, thank you.

Uta, from Sydney area, this person is a durum grower.

They're concerned that they may have had some scab in there durum this year, and they would like to save it for seed.

Is that an issue?

And you might explain what scab is to the audience.

- Right.

Yeah, that's probably a good starting point.

Scab is also called Fusarium head blight.

It is a disease that is caused by a fungus called Fusarium and it affects small grains.

Specifically it affects the fluids of those crops.

And this fungus produces a toxin.

I mean, they can produce several toxins.

The most prominent one is called DON.

I stick with the abbreviation 'cause I'm really bad at pronouncing it thankfully.

And so this DON, there are thresholds how much DON is tolerated in the grain.

And so that might be a reason why the grower is not selling the grain but is considering to use the grain instead for seed for the next year.

And so really the answer is it depends.

I would suggest they send a grain sample to get tested as to how high the DON concentration is.

And from what I understand is that generally you can observe, you can observe decreased germination rate not necessarily because of the DON but simply because of the infection that the crop had.

And so you may need to adjust your seeding rate to make sure that you have a good stand to be able to compete with weeds.

My biggest concern with using diseased grain as seed is that you're running the risk of introducing this pathogen in the field where it may not have been present before.

And so these Fusarium species that can cause Fusarium head blight or scab can also cause root rots or seedling diseases.

And so that might be another reason why you run the risk of having a reduced stand in the next year.

So I would say send some seed off to a lab, see what the DON concentration is.

Maybe give me a call and we can talk about what might be thresholds for DON where you could plant it or not.

And if you think about using that as seed, you would definitely wanna use a fungicide seed treatment to really suppress what pathogen might be carried on the seed to really avoid introducing it or raising seedling diseases for your new crop.

- Thank you, and we've had issues with scabs through the years on and off here in the state.

Maybe not as bad as North Dakota but it's been bad enough for us.

- Wherever there's irrigation-- - Yes.

- Malt, barley, or spring wheat irrigated.

- Does it overwinter in the soil?

Does it have an overwintering structure?

- The fungus can overwinter in the soil, yeah.

And once it's established, it can definitely live there.

It has clematis spores that can live for a very long time in the soil.

And, yeah, I mean, if like, yeah, okay, the durum wheat would be spring-seeded but, yeah, it can live there.

- All right, thank you.

I like this one.

From Facebook, this person just found out that the big, beautiful bushes they have exploded in one corner of their pasture is actually Kochia.

(woman laughs) The horses love it, but unfortunately they have been pulling and mowing and whacking it.

What's the measures for knocking this weed out?

Best time for herbicide antidote for horses to detoxify it.

I don't think it is toxic to horses.

- I don't think so.

- No.

- Yeah.

I guess that question is for me, isn't it?

- I think it is.

(panelists laughing) - It's been a great summer for summer annuals.

- Yeah.

- So these are annual plants that germinate from a seed spring to early summer, and then they mature and produce seed and break off and tumble around about this time of year.

And the summer annuals just did great this year.

I think it's because everything else was so dry by the end of the summer.

But as far as what you can do for it, it sounds like the viewer is doing everything they should be doing for it.

Because it's an annual, you wanna try to control that plant before it sets seed.

And if you're doing that, whether you're cutting it, pulling it, you're preventing it from being there the next year.

So it sounds like they're doing everything that they can think of which is good.

As far as herbicides, you would want to treat that much earlier in the summer.

Probably, I'm not even sure when Kochia germinates and emerges, but that is the key time to control that plant when it's just a seedling.

And it is susceptible to some different herbicides.

It's also one of our species that has a lot of herbicide resistance.

It's resistant to multiple modes of action.

So sometimes depending on what you spray it with, the herbicide doesn't work.

So I would encourage the viewer to try to just mechanically control or hand pull.

And also - Let the horses eat it.

- And, yeah, and let the, I was gonna say the other thing too is just to try to keep your pasture as healthy as possible so those perennial species can compete with this annual Kochia.

- Okay, thank you.

This is an observation, a person from Kalispell has sent us.

And they say is that since canola has started to be planted in the Flathead, and there is a lot of canola in the Flathead, it seems that the bee population seems to have crashed.

Are these two related?

- Honestly I don't know.

And I haven't seen any data to that.

I think Alberta, Canada has the best bee research and canola.

Yeah, both of those things are really popular and ongoing in Alberta, Canada.

If the canola growers doesn't spray when the bees are active and things like that or doesn't chemically treat, then bees and canola can live together.

So I'm not really sure if beekeeper could have moved sites or something like that as well.

So without knowing more about that particular situation, it's not necessarily that canola, bees and canola can be work hand in hand.

And so without knowing more, I couldn't comment.

- [Jack] Okay.

- Don't the prairie provinces produce some of the highest yields because of canola?

- Yeah, bees forage on canola and it's a good nectar crop.

And as long as they mitigate the pesticide treatments, then they can live happily.

- Okay, I doubt if it's related.

I really, I think if you're growing canola, you should have more bees overall.

Dave, a quick question that came in from email.

This person from Billings wants to know how to prepare their trees, they didn't say which kind, in the yard for winter.

- Okay, so it's a bit of a rehash what we talked about earlier, but if they're in an irrigated situation, they wanna back off on the irrigation water, but you wanna make sure that you go into wintertime with adequate moisture in that plant.

And so, especially once the leaves start to turn on a deciduous tree, a broadleaf tree, then you don't have a risk of encouraging new growth.

So get the soil wet.

Evergreens are more challenging just because they continue to transpire water, and so you just wanna try to keep the soil moist so before the ground freezes up.

- I agree, and if you wanna prevent winter damage, conifers especially.

- [David] Yeah.

- You really want to water probably-- - [David] And no fertilizer in the fall.

- No fertilizer.

- [David] Yeah, we don't wanna do anything that encourages soft growth.

- Yeah, and on that note, we have another question here that I wanna jump on.

This person wants to know why are so many ash dying here in the state of Montana?

And I have talked to several people about this.

And back in 1983, we had a really hard frost early on, and it did a lot of damage to the Marshall's Seedless Ash and Summit Ash.

And at that time we moved a variety down from Alberta that was called the Patmore Ash and it was we felt more winter-hardy.

More recently the Patmore has had problems.

It just is not surviving.

So I think what's happened is a little bit of what you said.

People are watering and fertilizing ash trees a little bit too much.

There is a variety called Prairie Spire that's a Canadian line that has performed very well even when they've been fertilized and watered which they should not be at this time of year.

So I think it's a combination of extended growing season with ash and maybe a little bit of change of genetics.

This Prairie Spire is now I think one of the preferred ones.

So if anybody has comments on that.

What I'd suggest you do is those people who are going to be replanting those ash, talk to one of your knowledgeable nurserymen and they'll lead you down to have some of the better varieties and they'll educate you a little bit there.

And with that, let's go to Jane.

Facebook, there seems to be a lot of yellow toadflax showing up in Kalispell.

Is this something that should be controlled?

- Yes, yellow toadflax is a Montana-listed noxious weed, and it has all the traits of your typical noxious weed.

It spreads quickly.

And the more you get yellow toadflax, the less of other species you will have.

So I would say if the person wants to know more about how to control it, I would suggest they reach out to the county agent there and or the Weed District.

And if they can't help them, then they can give me a call and we can visit.

- Okay, and Jane loves to get phone calls.

Yeah, I know that.

Okay, I'm gonna swing over to Uta for a quick question here.

And then we have a couple more comments and questions regarding wasp and other pollinators.

From Billings, Uta, some of this person's tomatoes have black spots on the bottom.

What is it and how can they prevent it?

- Right, well, black spots on the bottom are typically related to what we call blossom-end rot.

That's a common abiotic disorder that we see in tomatoes, but also squash for example.

And so that is related to calcium deficiency, but more indirectly related often to plant stress and infrequent watering or very fluctuating water levels in the soil.

So that really impairs how the plant can take calcium up.

And so the plants, when they develop fruits, they need a lot of calcium in the fruit.

And so for example, you have your tomato plant, you water it, then you go on your 4th of July holiday weekend.

It's really hot, your tomato starts drying up.

The fruit is not getting enough calcium.

And so it starts developing this black leathery tissue at the bottom which kind of looks like a rot.

So really the best thing that you can do is use a soil that can hold moisture well, but not the kind of soil that holds it so well that you have kind of a swamp.

And maybe really be sure to water frequently so that you have not these extremes of like very dry, very wet soils.

Maybe consider mulching to kind of keep the soil moisture at a more even level.

And in some cases it could also be that the soils are deficient in calcium, although the Montana soils typically don't, but you could like throw your eggshells into (laughs), into the soil to kind of increase your But, yeah, it's probably mostly related to the watering.

- And it's highly variety dependent, right?

- Yeah.

- I mean, there's some varieties that no matter how well you grow them, it's really challenging not to have blossom-end rot.

And there's other varieties that don't seem to be as susceptible.

And a lot of the seed catalogs will have a little code in there that'll lead you that way.

So if you consistently have problems with blossom-end rot, given your soils or the growing conditions or whatever, you might think about a variety shift.

- I agree entirely.

And I've always had an issue with blossom-end rot, but this year I don't and I have no clue why.

And I'm not over-watering, I'm not under-watering.

But this year has been a good year for tomatoes.

- It has been a good year for tomatoes.

- Okay, here's a couple fun ones.

From Polson, are there parasitic bees who attack wasps in Montana?

This person thinks she's seen that happen at her home near Polson.

Anybody heard of anything like that?

- No, there are parasitic wasps and parasitic flies called forage flies that can attack bees.

And then wasps, as I mentioned earlier, can harass honeybee colonies and try to get in there and eat damaged larva or eat some honey.

But the other way around, bees to wasps, I've never heard of.

Have you, David?

- [David] I have not.

- Are there any of these wasps that look like a bee or some of the flies that look like a bee?

- Often you can get both flies and wasps that look like bees.

In general, bees have more hair on them so they look furrier than wasps while they're more shiny.

Wasps also have a more narrow waists than bees typically is another way.

And then I always say that wasps are the things that are bothering you at your picnics and things like that, not bees, and 'cause bees are just foraging on pollen and nectar.

And so usually, if it's something that harasses something like your picnic, it's a wasp.

(Jane laughs) - [Jack] We have plenty of those and yellowjackets.

Are the yellowjackets different than a wasp?

- They're a wasp.

They're just a kind of wasp.

- Okay, sounds like a plan to me.

And from Billings, another question about wasp.

This person has wasp problems in their strawberries.

They say wasp traps don't work.

Is there a mesh netting that would work?

Any clues?

You guys have any suggestions there?

- I don't know about a mesh netting, and certainly we use even wasp traps in the fall at the bee yard just to cut down on some of that bee harassment that we see.

But, David, have you heard of any mesh?

- So you could use a really lightweight spun row cover after the fruit is set but before it's ripe, and then that would also keep birds off.

But obviously you have to have pollinators get in there so you don't want to put this material on, but you can buy a really lightweight, and it's for insect control, spun row cover.

So it still lets in plenty of light, but it would exclude most insects.

- Yeah, on that note with strawberries.

I'm having a great fall crop of strawberries.

Is that unusual?

- [David] You are a lucky guy, Jack.

You got tomatoes?

- Am I good?

I do have tomatoes.

- There you go so.

- And on that note, we had a question in here, and I'm gonna comment.

My corn, I finished harvesting my corn by the 15th of August this year which is unusual.

This person says that their corn did not mature as rapidly as normal.

And they attribute it to the excessive amount of smoke that we've had in the state this year.

Your thoughts, is that possible?

- It's an interesting concept.

What's gonna drive maturity in corn is photosynthesis.

- But growing didn't need three days.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And so is it, but it seems like it was, it was not a cool summer.

- No, to me, mine matured rapidly this year.

And this person says theirs did not, so.

And I don't know if smoke would reduce that.

It'd be an interesting concept.

The answer is we don't know.

- We don't know.

- Okay.

Uta, from Bozeman.

This person has seen a leaf disease kinda brown spots on the leaves of her cottonwood tree.

Any idea of what it might be?

- Brown spots on a cottonwood tree, well.

(panelists laughing) - [David] What 30 things could it be?

- Yeah, well, what is it not?

Well, honestly there's a lot of reasons what it could be.

- There are.

- It could be abiotic like related to the heat and the drought, or it could be something related to a disease or pathogen, maybe a fungal disease.

It could probably even be some insects or arthropods that cause that.

I would really have to have a closer look and then pass it onto my colleagues to find the answer to that one.

- And at this time of year - So that one is getting the send in.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- This time of year you don't worry about it.

- Yeah, maybe just like, well, okay, so what I would say just for safety if it was a disease, maybe rake up the leaves and dispose of them.

Don't let the leaves lay under the tree.

If it was a fungal disease, the fungus might overwinter on those leaves and then reinfect the next year.

So that's one step and then just see if it comes back next year.

And if you see it, then like just send a sample in early in the season.

Often this late in the season, the plants are kind of simmering down.

They're starting to get rid of their leaves.

And with that plant tissue, we also often see like a lot of fungi or other organisms grow that don't really cause the spots, they just live off that plant tissue, and so it will be really hard this time of the year to really identify a disease, so.

- That's true.

We had a lot of stuff laying here on the desk and we're supposed to be talking a little bit about pollinators.

So, Michelle, tell us a little bit more about pollinators.

Dave, you're under that too.

Show us some of the research and the books that are available for people that are interested in that.

- Yeah, so one of the best things that audience members can do to help the bees, both native and wild bees and the honeybees that produce the honey we like, is to grow something that bees like that has nectar at all times a year, and those include phacelia, asters, bee balm, hardy geranium.

And at the hort farm where Dave and I work, we have a half acre pollinator garden site there that serves as a demonstration garden.

So if you're ever there in Bozeman, you can check out that.

And the Xerces Society is a great, and Jane is showing you the books from the Xerces Society that give you ideas about which kind of plants to plant.

And the Montana NRCS has a great guideline for that as well.

So planting things that bees and butterflies can get nectar and pollen from all year.

So you just wanna think about something blooming all year in your lawn.

And Dave, do you have anything to add?

- So if you wanna attract more pollinators to your garden, you wanna think about time of bloom as Michelle was saying.

And I think it's critically important to have the late blooming, so the asters, rabbitbrush, things like that.

And so most garden centers or it's not uncommon to go to a garden center now and see about pollinator-friendly plants.

They either have a special section or they'll have a tag that these are pollinator-friendly plants.

But generally, they have, purple and yellow flowers are preferred, and you'd wanna have them in clumps and not just like isolated or scattered about.

You're gonna get more, you'd have a more attractive presence if you have clumps of these different plants.

You wanna think about flower shape.

So here is, oh, that was from the pollinator garden.

So we have flower shape.

So like a bumblebee has a different pollinating mechanism than a honeybee does.

And there's other bees that have the ability to get in places that honeybees don't.

- [Michelle] Yeah, I was thinking at the hort farm, the thyme always gets visited - Yeah.

- [Michelle] And catnip and sainfoin.

Those bloom kind of all summer which is good too - Yeah.

- Just to have those around.

We see lots of bees on those.

- Yeah, and so the like oregano.

They love that.

Borage is a common annual that does really well on our garden.

So if you don't wanna commit to that, there's an annual phacelia.

There's also native phacelias.

And so I agree with Michelle.

This NRCS publication, I think it's called "Native Plants for Montana Pollinators" or something similar to that.

What's really excellent about that is it has not only the trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials that are attractive.

It gives you a calendar in there on their bloom time so that you could pick out of a variety of these things to get this season-long bloom and especially in the fall.

- [Michelle] Mm-hmm, yeah, I totally agree with that.

It's just important to keep something blooming all time.

- Oh, there it is.

- Here's a page from that Montana Guide and it's a really good one.

And all of these resources are listed on the Montana or the Montana State University's Pollinator Health Center resource page.

So we have a lot of great links there so that you can make your pollinator garden.

And even if it's just planting a few plants every year, that's great for the bees too.

Everybody's green grass lawns are not good for a bee.

So planting anything is good that you can.

So I encourage that.

- And with all those plants out there, you might even get little birds that fly around them.

- Hummingbirds.

- Those things.

- Yes, those things.

(panelists laughing) - The picture that was just shown with all the different flowers blooming is like, it's what's good for the bees is good for our eyes.

- Right, right.

- Generally speaking.

- Good for the butterflies.

- 'Cause it's just beautiful.

- Yep.

- Right.

- That looks very attractive.

- You have to be a little careful.

It's like I love growing sunflowers, but there are a lot of varieties of sunflowers that are pollenless.

- [Michelle] Yeah.

- And so then you know there's a pollenless, pollenless sunflower-producing nectar?

- I don't know, I don't know.

One thing that we have learned though I'd say from the pollinator garden is we planted yarrow early.

And I would not recommend that.

So do think about things that, try a good ground cover and that aren't gonna spread too much because if you plant the wrong plants early, they'll just take over and your pollinator garden won't be very diverse so-- - [Jane] And yarrow does that.

- It does that, yeah.

- Sad to say, yes, yeah.

- Yeah, it was a mistake.

So the audience can learn from my mistakes.

So don't get the yarrow too early.

- Sounds interesting.

On the bee subject, the pollinator subject, this person from Libby say they've seen very few bees, wasps, and or hornets this summer.

Do you think that's due to the hot dry weather and has the hot dry summer impacted insect populations?

Do you believe?

- I'm not really sure the hot dry weather would impact insects in general I think.

But I'm not sure about if there's been less bees and that.

Probably if they have less flowers in their lawn 'cause of the drought, then that would be certainly a factor, but I'm not sure.

Does anybody else have any other comments on that?

- Well, honey yields were pretty low this year.

- Yeah.

- And I think they just, the spigot turned off in June, the end of June.

And so we just did not have really strong nectar flows.

I'm gonna suspect that beekeepers in Montana, especially in the really droughty areas, are gonna be spending a lot of time this fall feeding bees so that they have adequate stores to get And so, yeah, I think that we just didn't have the nectar flow.

- I honestly don't think I've seen as many bees this summer as I normally do.

And we have the Russian sage and some plants that are normally very attractive to bees.

And again, yep, maybe just the heat and or lack of flowers for them to use.

Who knows?

- [Uta] Would the smoke affect the bees in some way?

- That's a good question.

- I mean, like it's not good for us, right?

- Yeah, I mean, anecdotally, when we go out there on those smoky days and the wind is kind of blowing in, they seem more agitated, but I think that's more just the anecdote than anything real.

And I think if it's sunny enough that they can see, 'cause bees use their sights to forage and come back, I think that they would still fly, but I'm not sure.

Have you noticed anything with the smoke, David?

- [David] No, I really haven't.

- Okay, move on to Jane from Sailor Lake.

This person would like to know if a thistle, let's say Canada thistle is sprayed with herbicide and the flower continues to develop, will the seeds be killed or not?

- Yeah, so I think the question is, yeah, if you're spraying a weed and the weed is dying, but maybe it has some seeds starting to develop on it, will those seeds go on to become viable?

And I'm going to give the typical scientist answer and say it depends.

So it kinda depends on how far along that seed development is when the plant gets sprayed.

If it's fairly far along, it could still go on and be viable.

And it also depends what herbicide you're using because some herbicides act faster in plants and some herbicides act slowly in plants.

So if you're using a more slow-acting herbicide, the seeds could still develop.

We did do some work a few years ago on hoary alyssum here in Southwestern Montana, where we had managers spray hoary alyssum.

It was flowering and some seed development.

We had like six sites across Southwestern Montana.

Then we went out and collected the plants to see if viable seeds were produced.

And we saw about a 60 to 95% reduction in viable seed production after spraying.

So that was really encouraging 'cause it looked like even though the plant did have some what looked to be pods with seed starting to develop, the herbicide did curb that development.

- And is hoary alyssum one of the, is that Canadian thistle or it's another kind of thistle or what is that?

- Well, hoary alyssum is a mustard.

- Oh, okay.

- But it is perennial.

- Okay.

- So if we're talking about, I mean, Canada thistle is a perennial aster.

So we just don't have good data on every plant that's out there.

And it's more anecdotal with a few studies sprinkled then here and there.

- But most herbicides actually wouldn't damage a seed that's already developed?

- Not if it's already developed.

And one kind of easy way you can tell if a seed is developed and viable, it's just a quick test, is if you just pinch that seed between your index finger and your thumb, and it feels hard and solid, then it's probably viable.

If it just feels kind of flat and somewhat soft, it probably doesn't have an embryo in there.

- Okay.

I'm gonna throw a little pitch in here.

Today is actually the last day to submit photos to the AG Live Show What You Grow Photo Contest.

If you haven't heard of it yet, make sure you sign up for the Montana AG Live newsletter or follow AG Live on Facebook to hear about upcoming contests and show details.

Visit montanapbs.org/aglive.

So if you haven't signed up for it yet, there's a lot of interesting things that you could learn from getting this newsletter and it's free.

This was an email question for Uta.

And this is a very common question.

It comes in every year so we're just gonna hit it once.

The needles on their pine tree started turning yellow and brown, and it's mainly the anterior needles closer to the stem but it's at every height.

What's happening?

- Right, this is, and that's why it's coming in every year, we call it seasonal needle drop.

And so this is not a disease.

This is just what evergreen trees do.

Even evergreen trees lose their needles eventually.

And so it depends on the tree and the environmental conditions.

So after let's say three to maybe five years, the needles will fall.

And so the way the tree grows is from the stem outward.

So the part of the stem that's close, the part of the branch that's closest to the stem is the oldest and has the oldest needles, so they start yellowing, and then over the winter, they will probably fall, and so then that branch will appear kind of naked next season, but as long as the tips are still green and the tops are still green, it keeps growing.

So nothing to worry about.

It's normal.

- It's a good segue to the new publication.

- Thank you, thank you.

- So you better talk about that one cause that's really well done.

- Yeah, so I brought along today a publication.

It has a very long title.

I'm just gonna call it the "Scouting Guide."

And we have a team of specialists and scientists at Montana State University that are focusing on producing and delivering information and resources for integrated pest management.

And so these specialists also work together to develop the "Scouting Guide."

And so there's some information on typical like trees and crops that are growing in Montana and then also pictures of diseases, symptoms, et cetera, et cetera.

And the great thing about this is that there's a stash of that at the MSU Extension Store.

And first come first served.

For now they're free.

So I really recommend this.

I'm gonna leave this in the studio but I have one copy at home by now.

(panelists laughing) So as long as the stash lasts, you are welcome to order one of these from the Extension Store.

It's really helpful.

It's a great resource.

- Yeah, it looks very well done.

Yeah, good job guys.

- It is an awesome book.

- What's that dried up green thing in front of you, Jane?

- Yeah, well, I brought a show and tell as well.

I brought a plant and this is chicory.

It is a non-native perennial plant that is kind of weedy.

Some people think of it as weedy.

Some people actually like to eat it.

Chicory is you can actually grind the root up.

This isn't the root.

This was just the base of the plant just above the ground.

But chicory, the root is ground up, and it's kind of used as a substitute for coffee.

But it is kind of weedy.

It can be three to five feet tall.

It has a very sturdy stem.

The leaves look like those of dandelion and the stem is hollow.

So you probably can't, I don't know if you can see that very well.

You can kinda pick it up in the camera.

And then it has these really interesting flowers.

It has a kind of a periwinkle blue to purple flower.

Now these flowers only live for a day.

So I picked this plant this afternoon when I was coming home from a hike, and you can see the flowers have already dried up, but I think we have a photo.

Hopefully we can pull up that.

So the flowers only live for a day, then they close up, and then there would be another flower on this plant that opens up.

But it's kind of common.

It's not a noxious weed.

Some people think it's weedy.

Some people think it's really pretty.

But I saw it today when I was coming home and I thought it'd be a good show and tell.

- So this is what they make coffee out of, chicory coffee, right?

- Yeah, it's a coffee substitute.

And I was reading a little bit online that during hard times like World War II, I think it was during the US Civil War, soldiers drank chicory coffee made from the roots of chicory.

- [Jack] Have you ever tried it?

- [Jane] I have had, yeah, I have, yeah.

- And did you like it?

Be honest.

- It wasn't bad.

I mean, if you needed a hot drink when there was nothing else to drink.

It's kind of like smoked coffee.

I mean, it has a smoky taste to it.

- [Uta] But does it have caffeine?

- It does not have caffeine.

- Does it keep you awake?

Okay, so it's just the taste then.

- So some people that actually like the flavor of coffee but not want the caffeine.

I have a sister-in-law that likes to drink chicory coffee 'cause she doesn't want the caffeine but she likes the flavor.

- She's not from Louisiana, is she?

- She is not.

- Okay.

- Nope.

- All right, just curious 'cause I know it's big down South.

- Yeah, yeah.

- All right, from Ennis.

This person has a bee that cuts a perfect circle in her quaking aspens, dogwoods, lilacs, so on and so forth.

Is there anything to be concerned about?

Are they beneficial?

Any idea what they might be?

- I would guess, and this is a good time to show the Montana Bee Guide, which you can access online that was done by Casey Delphia and others here at Montana State University.

Kind of in the center here, there's this leafcutting bee.

What they're doing is harvesting those leaves to make a little cocoon.

They're solitary bees and they'll deposit an egg and provision that egg that will develop into a larva and a pupa over time.

And so they'll live in the stems, but they align that stem like a hollow stem with a leaf and then lay their little egg in there.

And so I would guess it's a leafcutter bee, but unless David has any other ideas.

- No, that's pretty good.

- But I think that's pretty, pretty safe guess there.

And this is a great guide that you can access again online or via the Pollinator Health Center resource page to help you identify - Yeah.

- Some common bees in Montana.

- [David] Not gonna hurt your trees.

It's beneficial.

- Yeah.

- It's a pollinator, so, yeah, don't worry about that.

- Is it true that Montana has like of all the states, a lot of native bees like relative to other states?

Like we have a lot of high, we're a high bee diversity here.

- I know we have hundreds of different bee species in Montana, but I don't know how we compare with other states in general.

- Okay.

- [Michelle] And actually they're kind of working on that.

I know Mike Ivie and others are working on trying to characterize that, what is our bee diversity, and there's a lot of parts of the states that they just haven't looked.

I know Zoe Pritchard just did her masters on this, like just even looking to see what bees we have here.

I think we're under-studied.

- [Jane] Okay, so, okay.

- If you really are curious about it, I mean, you go to one of these pollinator gardens, and I've looked at flowers out there.

You see a lot of different kinds of insects on there.

It's pretty impressive.

It really is.

Oh, we're running a little short on time.

I'm gonna throw one out here for Jane.

And this has to be kinda quick.

This person would like to know, from Bozeman, are noxious weeds good or bad for pollinators?

And I suspect they're talking about Bozeman's city flower, the Canada thistle.

- Yeah, it depends.

That's not a question I can answer quickly.

- [Jack] Okay.

(laughs) - But I mean, noxious weeds do provide a lot of flowers for bees.

You'll see a lot of pollinators on are noxious weeds.

- [Jack] All right.

Dave, compost.

Spring or fall?

When do you put it on and how much?

- It's a good time to do now.

So probably your garden prep if you've got a compost pile.

I like to put it on in the fall and then you turn it under, but you don't need to bury it too deep.

So keep that compost on the top two to three inches.

And approximately an inch thick layer of compost is a lot.

So anywhere from half an inch to an inch.

Work it in the top two or three inches of soil.

- Okay, how do you know when compost is ready?

- So add a little moisture to it and if it doesn't heat up, you're ready to go.

- Okay.

With that folks, I think we're coming to a close this evening.

Next week we're going to have Ken Kephart who is superintendent at the Montana AG Experiment Station out at Huntley, he'll show up.

He's gonna inform us about what Montana seven research centers do and how important they are to the state.

Folks, thank you for being here this night.

I enjoyed it.

Everybody out there have a good night.

- [Woman] For more information and resources, visit montanapbs.org/aglive.

(soft music) Montana AG Live is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU AG Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, the Montana Bankers Association, Cashman Nursery & Landscaping, the Gallatin Gardeners Club, and the Rocky Mountain certified Crop Adviser Program.

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