- 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 and Barley Committee The Montana Bankers Association Cashman Nursery & Landscaping The Gallatin Gardeners Club and The Rocky Mountain Certified Crop Advisor Program.

(soft music) - Good evening and happy Halloween.

If you haven't guessed it, you are tuned to Montana Ag Live originating tonight from the haunted studios of KUSM on the very scary campus of Montana State University.

And coming to you over the enchanted Montana Public Television System.

I am Jack Riesselman, retired professor of plant pathology, also known as a moldy oldie mushroom around these parts, but we're here to have a lot of fun this evening, and also be a little bit serious and answer some of the questions that you have.

I'm gonna introduce tonight's panel.

They're a little bit different than you normally see, but as you can see, it is Halloween and we're going to enjoy that event as much as possible.

At the end of the table, Mary Burrows.

Mary is extension plant pathologist, and she also spends time as associate director in the Dean's dungeon also known as the department and our head of College of Agriculture.

We really joke about that because they do a very nice job over there.

And joining us as our special guest tonight, he does look a little bit like a beetle, but it's Jeff Lee Littlefield, and we know Jeff from before he does a wonderful job answering questions about bio-control.

So if you have questions regarding bio-control, especially of plants, weeds specifically hey, we've got two of them, world's experts, at least the West Coast experts on bio-control.

And Jeff and the lady sitting next to him.

Oh boy.

(laughing) Jane Manco.

Jane is an invasive pest specialist, weeds specifically.

I like to call her a weed scientist, but we're gonna ask him a little bit because we've had a question come in already.

What is that outfit and what does it represent?

I guessed a pineapple, but I was wrong.

And joining us again this evening, Abby Sayeed.

Abby is here talking about horticultural plants.

She has a special issue trying to develop pumpkins that are self carved so you don't have to cut them to yourself.

So folks, get those questions in.

We have two people answering the phone this evening.

They are Cheryl Bennett and Nancy Blake.

They're sitting over there, eagerly awaiting your questions.

So with that, Jeff, you're unique.

Tell us about your program.

- I work primarily on bio-control, Jack.

I run the containment lab on campus of MSU.

It's one of our fairly unique facility, only a handful in the United States.

Most of my work is involved trying to screen and release a new agents for a variety of weed.

So I'm working on white top at the moment, oxide daisy, common Tansy, a number of different weeds.

- [Jack] We do have a lot of problem weeds in this state and are there bio-control programs being researched on almost all of them?

- A large number of our designated noxious weeds have had some sort of bio-control program at one time or another.

So I think probably maybe two thirds of the noxious weeds have some sort of bio control or have been investigated.

Some are successful, some aren't, depending on the weed.

- Okay, so sitting next to you, I believe is a noxious weed.

And we're gonna ask the audience out there to guess what that noxious weed is.

So you can get your comments and we'll take comments tonight, talk about them.

And the first person that guesses what that is I'll buy him an adult beverage next time I'm in their town.

So call those comments in.

Mary, I have a question for you that actually came in earlier this evening and this is in relation to Halloween.

This person from Bozeman, who would like to know how do I prevent their cut pumpkin's from rotting rapidly?

- Yeah, so there's a number of ways you can do it but one of the most easiest and effective ways is to make like a 10% bleach solution and you can dip your pumpkin in it, leave it in there for a couple of minutes and they can last an extra couple of weeks.

I make my kids not carve until the last minute, but I'm kind of (indistinct).

- You know, I've heard of people that dip them in a Clorox solution.

Yeah, works pretty well.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

People, we're not getting a number of questions we should.

So we have two phone answers here, Nancy Blake and Cheryl Bennett so if we get a shot at them, they're really attractive individuals this evening.

So get those questions in folks, okay.

I have a question for Jane.

Is it too late to spray Cheatgrass and also what about Ventenata?

- Yeah, it's not too late to spray Cheatgrass or Ventenata it kind of depends what herbicide you're using.

If you're using a post emergent herbicide, like Imazapic, which is one of the more common herbicides to spray Cheatgrass or Ventenata it's actually a good time you want those plants to have two or three leaves.

And I think it's an okay time.

Those herbicides have both foliar activity and soil activity.

So even if they don't have a lot of activity this time of year, they'll still be in the soil in the spring to catch those individuals that emerge in the spring or, you know when the already emerged plants just start growing again.

So I actually have some research plots that I'll be spraying towards the end of this week.

Some Ventenata plants that we'll be treating with the Imazapic.

- Where is the hotspot for ventenata in the state?

- Yeah, so ventenata, we've been following it for about the last five years and the distribution of ventenata kind of follows I90 if you think about kind of running from the Northwest part of the state down through south central to south eastern Montana, those are where we have the largest infestations.

- All right, thank you.

- Jeff, a question from Missoula.

This person prefers not to use herbicides.

They would like to know where they can get bio-control agents for weeds.

They didn't say which specific weeds.

So in general, where do you get bio-control agents?

- The first thing I would do, depending on what weed you have is to actually go out and check your weeds and see if you have bio-control agents already.

A number of agents, especially for a spotted knapweed are well re-distributed and prevalent.

So I would look at what you have.

There's also a number of companies that sell more of the common bio-control agents for leafy spurge or spotted knapweed, Dalmatian toadflax.

You can purchase some of the more common ones.

If you're in Missoula, talk to the county weed district and county extension person.

Melissa Maggio is the bio-control coordinator, and she can set you up with sources of bio-control agents.

And also there's a number of high schools in the state that produced bio-control agents for sale and redistribution.

- So, my question is, are they economically as feasible as a herbicides to control most noxious weeds?

- [Jeff] It really depends on the situation, Jack.

Bio-control is usually used on a more landscape scale rather than an individual patch.

And usually a lot of our release sites are low value land, which is not really economically feasible to treat with herbicides over large areas.

- Sounds good.

Okay, we've had numerous calls and most people have been correct, and we do have a winner.

So Jane, what are you?

- I am yellow star-thistle.

(laughing) I guess, I mean, there's a picture of it on the screen right now.

This is a priority one noxious weed in Montana.

And actually, this plant is not established in the state.

It's a real success story for the state of Montana.

It has shown up over the years we'll find a plant here or there, or we've even found up to several acres infested with yellow star-thistle and the state has been very vigilant about looking for it and reacting to it and treating it soon after it shows up so we don't have any established infestations in the state.

- That's great, it really is.

- And I'm glad people ID-ed me, that's good.

And hopefully we'll never forget what yellow star-thistle looks like.

(laughing) It is a knapweed, it's a type of knapweed.

It has these bright yellow flowers.

And then you'll really notice the long spines that come off, the little cup that holds the flower.

So if you're ever out around the state and you think you see this, make sure you get in touch with your local extension office or the local weed district office.

- Okay.

I appreciate that and I might have a follow up question, but I wanna get one in here for Abby.

This came in from Bozeman here.

They would like to know which bulbs do you need to dig up and store over the winter.

And is there a trick to storing them over the winter?

- Yeah, so for bulbs that you wanna store, you wanna go for the tender bulbs like gladiolas, Cannas, Freesias, Calla lilies and Dahlias.

And the best way is to dig them up before the first hard freeze and try and get the soil off of them and be very gentle with them.

Because any damage that you do to those bulbs is going to impact if they're going to store over the winter and you wanna store them usually in a cool dry place, around 40 degrees.

So an unheated basement or something like that is a good place to store them after curing.

- Okay, thank you.

- I have a follow-up question for Abby.

It's kind of related, but it seems like as the fall goes on and we move towards the holidays, the amaryllis bulbs are a popular gift.

Can you plant those bulbs in Montana like after they flower inside during the winter?

- That's a good question and I don't know the answer to that.

I have never tried planting them.

I've always only grown amaryllis in containers indoors.

So, that's a good question, yeah.

- But you can keep them for years.

- Yeah, you can, and you can force their bloom when you want in that, you know, winter time.

- So it's the gift that keeps giving; you can use it over and over again.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, good.

- Okay, thank you.

Jeff, question from Polson, they have white top.

They would like to know, is there effective bio-control agent for white top?

What is white top?

- White top is a mustard, had some flights here I'm not sure if they can be put up or not, but it's early flowering mustard, white top comes from white flowers.

And if you get into infestations that you have fields that are completely white.

So this is one of my main projects.

Over the last couple years, I'm working with an aerial fire gall mite, which causes call formations in the flowers and eventually you can't stop the plant.

How effective it's going to be is really up in the air.

We've had some good success establishing it at three sites, actually one up in Charlo just recently this year, next year we plan to put out a lot more mites and I think it's going to be a good bio-control agent, but we do need some additional agents to be brought in to really knock back plant density.

This one is probably reduced flower and seed production quite extensively.

- Okay, thank you.

Mary, in line with Halloween this person would like to know from Billings, what is the scariest disease that you've ever run into?

And I wanna follow up with the one I have too.

- All right, I would say the scariest or most devastating disease I've seen is probably ascochyta on chickpeas because it can defoliate fields really fast and follow up close to me is Rhizoctonia on barley.

When you get a good green bridge situation and a cold wet spring.

- Okay, I don't disagree with that.

I've seen both, they're both very damaging, but I wanna go back a long time.

The most devastating one when I was working as a plant pathology was Dutch elm disease, and that was in the 70s and 80s.

I happened to be in Lincoln, running the diagnostic clinic at that time and we were running 25 to 30 samples a day, culturing for Dutch elm disease.

And from eight o'clock in the morning to five in the afternoon, all you heard in the mature parts of Lincoln were chainsaws.

It was really devastating.

So that's my two (indistinct).

- [Jane] (indistinct) spreading around Montana.

- We do, absolutely.

- Jack, may I ask a follow-up question since it is Halloween?

- Okay.

- Do any of these diseases cause issues for humans?

- Yeah, I mean, probably the most Halloween significant one is ergot on small grains and wild grasses because it causes hallucinogenic effects.

They actually first isolated LSD from ergot and people can sell ergot to pharmaceutical companies for a lot of different medications that people use now.

Another good one, just a lot of the molds and maybe head blight for cattle and pigs.

- But in line with what you asked back in the middle ages, people made bread out of ergot contaminated weed, and basically civilizations died from ergot poisoning.

So yeah, there are plant diseases that really affect humans.

- Yeah, they think the Salem witch trials were actually targeted bread.

- Abby, from Bozeman what is the best time to plant raspberries?

- You can plant raspberries in the early spring, as soon as the soil is workable or you can also plant them later in the fall, if you wanna transplant them later in the fall would work when the soil is still workable once that foliage, once that plant goes dormant.

That's a good time to do that.

- I appreciate it.

A couple of questions, one from Helena and one from Big Sandy and I'll turn this over to Jane and I know it's a tough question.

They both wanna get rid of bindweed, one in a lawn and garden situation.

The other would like to get rid of it organically.

So have fun.

- Yeah, well, this is a question that maybe several of us on the panel can address.

As if you've watched the show for any period of time you know that bindweed gets asked about a lot and it is very difficult to control it.

Once it's established, it has this creeping route and it's very difficult to get out of a lawn setting.

You can use broad leaf herbicides like Dicamba or 2,4-D or even brushing leaves with glyphosate but that may kill the top spec, but it's hard to get through the roots and really have an effect on a lawn that is totally covered with bindweed.

So the best way to manage it is find it early and control it then and then in other settings, there is a field bindweed mite that we were actually just chatting about a little bit before the show started.

So I don't know if Jeff and Abby, you wanna chime in on this one?

- I'll let Jeff.

- Okay, there is a gall mite, that folds the leaves and stunt the plant and we worked with that back in the mid 90s for the first, maybe 10 years, it was very successful in the states, spreading all around Eastern part of the state, almost everywhere you find bindweed you could find the mite.

Then the weather seems to shift a little bit, maybe a little wetter Springs and they have been less common in the state.

So what looked promising as an agent, it's really difficult to find, especially in wet years, they like mostly open dry sites.

So lawn situation, especially where there's irrigated they're not very effective.

We looked at them under organic situations and we did get some establishment but if you move south to say Colorado, and we were talking with Abby about how they're much more effective down there, maybe you can talk about your experience down there.

- Yeah, so I think it's pretty well established in Western Colorado where I was the field buying weed mite.

So it's looking promising, but I kinda just wanted to ask you too, how long would it take for you to start seeing the impact of introductions for something like the bindweed mite?

- Well (clearing throat) bindweed has a really extensive root system and they're pretty clonal.

So it takes a long time to see any sort of impact, I think.

I worked with rush skeletonweed and we've seen impact over a 10 year period.

Some of the knapweed agents took about 10 years before they saw.

And other agents like for biennials, you may be three to five years, so it varies on the system.

Bind weed probably a longterm.

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

Now, I don't like bindweed, you know, I've managed to get rid of it one yard we had, but it was a prolonged effort, you don't do it overnight.

Mary, this is a standard question we always get from Bozeman.

They brought their green tomatoes in and they put them in the garage to ripen, but they get soft and rot quite rapidly.

Any suggestions on how to ripen them more slowly in the garage?

Yeah, I mean, part of it starts when you're picking them 'cause some tomatoes when they're too white, if they don't have like a little blush on them or they're really green, they're not gonna ripen.

And then I probably wouldn't put them in the garage because it gets pretty cold, but paper bags or cardboard boxes and close them and put them somewhere cool, but not fluctuating temperatures and then check them, you know, every other day or so, and take them out as you need to.

- I always wrap mine in newspaper and that there is some anti fungal, anti bacterial logical in the ink that you have in newspapers and wrapping them individually in newspapers they'll last a little longer, but it's not sure final.

- Yeah, I've heard like put a banana in there to kind of... - It ripens them fast.

- Ripen them fast, but it might ripen more evenly if you're-- - That may well be true, absolutely.

- Does it also help to leave some vine with the tomato, like the tomato on the vine?

'Cause I had heard that before too.

- I think it does.

I've seen people pick the whole vine and put it in their garage.

Abby, you probably have more experience.

- Yeah, so that does help it ripen more but if you don't have that little bit of blush going in, it won't really ripe and very much even with the vine still attached.

- Okay, we have a question, several questions for weed control here.

Witchgrass, it's a good Halloween question.

How do you control witchgrass?

(laughing) - Oh yeah, I don't know a lot about witch grass.

I know that it's a warm season annual grass and it is native to north America.

So as a warm season annual, it germinates and emerges like mid summer and you'll start seeing the flower heads and seed heads develop late summer to early fall.

I mean, if you don't have very much of it, you can just pull it cause as an annual, it doesn't have much of a root system.

So pulling, hoeing... For chemical control, that's one I would have to look into a little bit.

- And your phone number is?

- My phone number is 9945513.

- Okay, thank you.

From Frenchtown Jeff, it's one of my favorite, is there a biological control for houndstongue, which is the weed that I despise more than anything else?

- Yes, there is a bio-control agent an approved agent, not necessarily.

So there is one agent that's trying to go through regulatory process, it's a seed feeder.

There's been one that we try to introduce actually Jim story, a number of years ago, it was not approved for the US but they released in Canada and it has moved on down south.

It's a route feeder, very effective up in Canada.

10 years ago, there was only a couple places in Montana that had it and just a survey for myself and Melissa Maggio.

It pretty much scattered throughout Western Montana away from Lincoln county, found it a few individuals all the way to Billings.

So it's kind of moving by itself and maybe it's probably had a little help along its way.

- Good, good.

- And I would add that we are working with Melissa Maggio with The Montana Biological Control Program.

We are doing some monitoring of that insect and looking for its impact on houndstongue populations.

And if it has any impact on native bore edges, that was one of the reasons why it wasn't approved for release.

It did some feeding on native bore edgers.

- Also, the testing was done up for the Canadian species and we have a lot more (indistinct) in the US so the testing wasn't really complete.

Also there's a little bit of spill over as populations spill they do feed on some of the natives for short periods of time.

So we're trying to, or at least Melissa is trying to identify species that might be of risk.

So we're not really actively suggesting that people move it around it seems to be moving by itself fairly effectively.

- Okay, thank you.

I'm gonna get to Mary here in a minute, 'cause I'm curious whether or not she's giving out Cheerios to the trick or treat us tonight but before we get there, Abby, this person doesn't say from where, but her crab apples were orange this year.

And is there a reason for that or is it just natural that some crab apples are orange?

- So the apples themselves were orange or-- - It says the apples were orange this year, why?

And if it's normal red crab apple I'd have no clue why it would be orange this year.

- Yeah, I'm not sure if they look healthy and they're just orange, I'm not sure why.

I haven't seen that before, that's interesting.

- Uh-huh?

- Yeah - Maybe we'll try to figure that one out 'cause I have never seen that myself.

Mary, what's with the Cheerio box here?

I mean, are you giving out trails to the kids?

- Well, it is a healthy snack, Jack.

- Is it, okay.

- But I am a cereal killer.

(stabbing the box) - [Jack] Oh, I see.

(laughing) In light with Halloween.

(laughing) Okay.

- I can also use a sickle.

(laughing) - You're scary, Mary.

- This is the fun thing I did all week.

- I told you folks we're having a good time here this evening I hope you're enjoying watching the program.

Jeff, this is not on a weed question, but this person from Missoula has a lot of slugs and I don't like slugs either and I hate to drown them in my beer.

So is there a biological way you can control them?

- Not really, Jack People have been investigating the use of deaf nematodes for slug control and snail control, but there's nothing approved for release so people rely mostly on chemical control.

But there are a number of insects, ground beetles and other things that do feed on slugs.

And if you maintain a diverse vegetation, maybe including maybe a few weeds in there, not bad weeds, but a kind of a diverse habitat for these natural predators that helps cut back on slug populations.

- You know, I don't think they were bad issue because generally they're worse than a wetter year, aren't they?

They are and we had a question here about weeds on a wetter year but, you know some populations of pests do better in dry climate some do better in wet climates.

This person from Missoula would like to know in drier years, do weed populations thrive or not?

- Well, I'll give the classic scientist answer and say, it depends.

(Jack laughing) I mean, weed suffer when it's droughty just like other plants do, but weeds typically have a pretty wide range of conditions that they can tolerate.

That's one of the reasons why they're weedy, right?

They can grow in a lot of different conditions.

So sometimes what you'll see, well, we saw it this past summer is everything else is brown and dry and the weeds were the only...

Some of these species were the only green things growing by the end of the summer.

So it kind of depends on the species.

Some of our noxious weeds and like our annual grasses they're adapted to dry environments so they do fairly well.

Another thing that we saw this past summer was that some weeds, not necessarily noxious weeds but just weedy species in general because they're the only thing green, like livestock started grazing them and caused some toxicity issues, you know typically livestock wouldn't even eat these plants because they're not very palatable, but when it's the only green thing out there, they may eat those.

So we did see some issues with toxicity.

We also know that some of our weedy species like species in the (indistinct) family, they tend to accumulate more nitrate when it's hot and dry.

And that can be an issue for livestock as well.

So we saw kind of a mix of some different issues with weeds and toxicity that we don't normally see in a wetter year.

- Okay, thank you.

I'm gonna throw a question to Abby and I'm gonna alert people in the studio that we're gonna bring up a picture of a couple people.

They used to be on this program we're gonna see if anybody recognizes them.

And again, the prizes, next time in your town I will buy you an adult beverage.

But before we get there, Abby what mow in height should they cut their lawn here in the fall?

- So, I would say that would depend on how much snow cover you have.

So if you usually have a lot of snow cover over the course of winter, you wanna mow your turf a little bit lower to about an inch and a half to two inches because that's gonna prevent a snow mold that ends up being a pretty big problem here in the spring.

But if you usually have areas that don't have very much precipitation, it's good to leave those mowing heights a little higher around three to three and a half inches because that protects the crown of the turf grass.

So when things get really dry during those cold winter months, that doesn't desiccate the crown and kill your turf plants.

- Okay, thank you.

Could we have a picture up on the screen of a couple of people that used to be on this program if you guys can get it.

Now, if anybody recognizes these people as I told you, you win the prize.

And again, you can call in the answer.

They're a couple of old timers, I think probably you might recognize them.

So anyway, right before we get there, Mary this pusher would like to know from the Highwood bench area, the winter went in pretty late this year.

Is there any issue with diseases with late seated winter wheat?

- No, I worry more about the early seed ones because if you had enough moisture you might get stripe blast and tan spot kind of started on it.

With an extended cold period we might get some snow mold in the spring, but it'll just depend.

- Okay, thank you.

Interesting question just popped up here on the screen and it's from Bozeman and I'm not sure anybody can answer it, but I think Jane might take a shot at it.

Does Montana have any vehicle entry inspection systems to prevent insects or diseases, or weeds coming into the state?

- Yeah, the first thing that pops into my head is the boat inspection stations that are scattered around the state.

And those inspection stations are looking for boats infested with invasive plants or invasive mussels.

I think there are also some programs that test seed coming into the state to make sure it's free of various pests.

- [Jack] We are not like California.

- Yeah, panel, do you wanna chime in on this at all?

- Montana CC Lab tests for weeds seeds in crop seeds, and natives as well.

- Okay, we kind of skipped around that one, but I think the basic answer is for the most part, no.

- For the most part, no.

Yes, but they're very specific programs looking for specific issues.

- Okay, on a specific issue, this question came in again from the Highwood area.

They've heard about an invasive snail in that region.

What's the current status of that, and Jeff is there any chance of a bio-control for that species?

- [Jeff] That's actually one of my side projects.

I've become a malacologist over the last couple years and it seems like most of the malacologists have-- - He's a snail scientist.

(laughing) - Yeah, snail scientist.

Actually most of the nail scientists are actually former entomologists.

Yeah, it was a fairly good year for the snail.

It's a massing snail, so when it gets hot and dry they crawl up on plants by the hundreds and they're about, full size, maybe a size of a dime.

So we've been trying to figure out what they're feeding on-- - This is the Eastern hits snail?

- The Eastern hits snail.

So it's probably been there for 30, 50, perhaps even close to a hundred years in the area.

So it's slowly spreading.

The main concern that if it gets into wheat, there's maybe regulatory issues with exports.

Right now we have seen some snails in wheat fields, but not high numbers.

And also if it gets into wheat, in large numbers there's also issues combining your wheat because you eventually kind of grind up your snails and kind of basically knot up the harvesting equipment, as the Australians would tell you.

- They're not marketable (indistinct) cargo, - They're a little bit too small for that and they also put to have a potential of carrying animal intestinal parasites.

So you have to be careful eating wild snails.

- I agree with you, although I do like (indistinct).

I like garlic too, so that's probably why.

- Jeff, maybe next year you can dress up like a snail.

I'd like to see that costume.

- Well, I thought about it, but I don't know I wouldn't be able to sit down.

(laughing) - And on that note, we had a comment from Craig in Paradise Valley and they said, "You look great."

And I think Greg probably has been drinking a little bit.

(laughing) But he also ask a question for Jane, what is a good way to control hoary alyssum in the fall?

- Ah, hoary alyssum in the fall.

If you're looking at chemical control, fall is actually a good time to do that.

Usually you'll get rosettes greening up in the fall and they're sensitive to 2,4-D or Medsol farm products.

You can also, you know, dig those or hand grab them.

So mechanical control is an option as well.

- Okay, I have a note here from our phone answer is that Dan Biggerstaff and Kevin Gardner won the photo guessing contest.

They were tied and they were Pete Fae and Pete was on this panel for probably the first 10, 15 years of this program.

And it was an earlier photo of myself when I was a little lighter weight.

And with that, Abby, what mowing heights should be... We covered this.

- We did.

- Yeah, here we got two questions there.

The other one that came in; when should crabgrass pre-emergence be applied and where in the state?

- Yeah, so crap grass pre-emergent usually in the spring around April, is their ideal time.

And that's gonna be your best bet to controlling crab grass before it takes hold.

And you wanna track the growing degree days to kind of time that application well but you can visit your local county extension office and they can tell you around that time of year.

- Most of the crab grasses, I understand that we have in the state is primarily in Yellowstone Billings area.

Maybe Jolliet, those counties.

Then it has moved into other areas with the warmer temperatures that we have.

- You know, I'm not sure I don't get any questions about it.

Abby might get more questions than I would.

And Abby, thanks for that answer 'cause it probably work on witchgrass too 'cause I think they're both warm season.

- They are both warm season annuals.

- Okay, we have another interesting question that I'm fascinated by.

Jeff, are there any bio-control agents used in Montana that are native to the state?

And this question came in from Polson.

- No, actually these in Montana, all our bio-control agents are foreign and primarily is because they've co-evolved with the weed and are host specific.

There are native insects that will feed on some of our noxious weeds.

For example, painted lady butterflies, really like (indistinct) and will move into a patch and really defoliate it.

Also for fuel bindweeds, there's a couple tortoise Beatles, some reddish, some are kind of pretty iridescent color.

They look like little tortoises out in the field and they can completely devastate a field as well, where it looks like it's been sprayed.

Unfortunately with these native (indistinct) they're not very persistent from year to year.

So you don't have any kind of long-term impact on the weed.

So if there's any native species that would probably be more in the path that you're in mind I think sands says what that some perhaps native Sclerotinia or pathogens that could be used.

- All right, thank you.

Mary, from Billings, this person has grown radishes for several years successfully other than for the flea beetles.

But this year, the inside of the radishes were black.

Any idea why that might be?

- Gosh, I don't know.

Do you know Abby?

- No, I have no idea, I've never seen that.

- A fan of (indistinct) might do that.

- Can it do that?

- Yeah, I think it will.

And I think that's uncommon, but if they over-water it, it's a fungus that occasionally will do that in radishes.

Uncommon, however.

- Yeah, I've never seen that in a home garden.

- I haven't either, but if you water heavily it could happen.

Abby, this person's tomatoes were thick skin this year more so than normally.

Is there a reason for that?

- I don't know.

I don't know why they would have thicker skin.

- This is stumped the panel right now.

(laughing) - Change of variety, possibly.

Some varieties are different than others and if it's not the same variety that could have been the answer.

So, all right, let's get to one that we can answer.

Jane, what is the best way to get rid of burdock?

- Oh, did you have to come to me when you said let's go to one we can answer?

Burdock, well, there's lots of options.

So burdock is a biennial.

So one year you're just going to get the leafy part of the plant, the next year it'll shoot up flower and produce those seeds on those sticky burrs.

So it does have a fairly deep taproot a large taproot, and that you can just dig it, cut it, et cetera, to actually kill the plant whether it's in that rosette stage or if it's starting to flower and forming the seeds you could do that.

Also once it flowers and produces the seeds, the plant dies so you could just collect those flower parts and, you know keep the seeds from spreading.

So yeah, a lot of hand digging, hand pulling, you can also treat it with herbicides.

I think 2,4-D and Dicamba products will work on burdock.

- It's a persistent thing.

- It is persistent, you could mow it as well.

You know, you could let it start flowering and then come along and mow it.

- Yeah, when I was in Wyoming, they were actually collecting Burdock and roots for selling to pharmaceutical companies for I assume, herbal type medicine.

So I'm not quite sure if people were still doing that.

- Yeah, I don't know.

You know, the local audubon society has done a lot of work in the Gallatin County area.

And I think some of the other more urban parts of the state as well.

The burrs on burdock can actually get into the wings of birds and if you go online, you'll find pictures of birds that have been, you know small songbirds that have been hung up on burdock plants.

So the Audubon society, the local chapter has been doing a lot of work in some of the more infested areas in the Bozeman area and it's really making a difference.

They're just hand pulling and cutting plants, you know to take the burrs off the plants.

- Okay, speaking of burrs while I have you up, this is from Roberts.

I think it's the first call we've had from Roberts.

She has a weed that dries into small prickly tumbleweeds, any idea what it is and can she control it with 30% vinegar, if you know what it is?

- I don't know what it is.

It could be a number of things, but the best thing to do would be to get a sample to your local extension office.

And if they can't identify it there, they'll send it on to the Scutter diagnostic lab.

- Okay, thank you.

Jeff, from big Sandy, I might know where this question or who this question is from.

Are there any biological control agents for organic crops?

- Probably the two weeds that could be controlled in organic crops would be (indistinct) and field bindweeds.

So we discussed field bindweeds already, probably in the state, not too much of an option, but for Canada thistle, there's been some studies looking to introduce or accidentally introduce rust disease which it's fairly widespread and common, but the rasp produces several different types of spores and they found one spores that's produced late in the summer, early fall that tends to be more effective at infecting the plants.

So they've been actually grinding up.

In fact Canada thistle plants and applying it in the fall to increase the infection of Canada thistle and Canada thistle race.

And they've had some fairly good success in controlling Canada thistle.

It's still on an experimental stage, but one problem that's just recently come up is that some of these bio-control agents, the ones I work with are regulated by animal plant health inspection service.

If you're spraying say a micro-herbicide that falls under the EPA and for this particular one for implementation right now has reverted to the EPA.

So there's some concerns about using it on a larger scale.

And right now they're trying to solve the issues of who regulates these types of organisms.

But there's some potential, I think, for an organic fields.

- That's good information to know.

I'm sitting here looking at you and I guess, I'm trying to figure out, are you imitating a Martian or is that some kind of insect costume that you have?

- Of course, this is an insect costume (indistinct) I work on one of my favorite projects.

So this has been Tansy ragwort up in the Northwest part of the state and over the years the forest service had brought in a (indistinct) moth and that's what I am.

So this defoliating insect.

This is my head capsule.

The white spots are actually my eyes.

These black things are just my head capsule these little orange things.

And that's what I look like out in the field, kind of black and yellow.

Tansy ragwort ports out alkaloids that are poisonous to a lot livestock, especially horses and cattle and the (indistinct) sequestered those alkaloids.

So these yellow stripes here are just kind of a warning sign letting predators know that I am distasteful.

If you look at the adults, if I turned it into an adult, they're black and red also a warning sign.

So yeah, these are my legs, my main legs.

You probably can't see them down here that's the adult, they're very pretty.

I have pro legs on my abdomen, you can't see them they're under there.

Yeah, so that's what I am today.

- I'm impressed, you went through a lot of work with that.

I would say I'd take that off beer drive through town.

- Yeah, I wouldn't go to any bar dressed like this.

(laughing) - Good, thank you.

Abby, you're dressed really nicely.

And tell us what your costume is.

- Yeah, I am turf grass and I am Creeping Bentgrass if I had to choose a turf grass variety.

But yeah, turf grass.

- Okay, I will tell you what, all you guys did a great job tonight, dressing up and we'll get back to that.

I have a question here.

Can I use bile control with other weed control methods such as grazing and herbicides?

That came in from hot Springs via Facebook.

- Yeah, I can answer a little bit of that.

Maybe Jane can elaborate a little bit more.

It depends on the weeds and probably our two main weeds are leafy spurge and spotted knapweed.

I think there's been some studies in the animal range department looking at combinations of grazing and bio-control grazing with sheep and goats seem to be fairly effective if used in say July.

It seems to cut down on equipment of new plants and new spotted knapweed plants and can augment the effects of bio-control.

Maybe a little bit on leafy spurge and that some of the leafy spurge.

Bio-control agents prefer a more open site and grazing or even chemical treatment might open up that site to make them a little more effective.

And use of herbicides is really dependent upon the timing and particular agents.

There's been probably some cases where you can adjust the timing to conserve what bio-control agents you have in the field.

Assuming you have kind of a residual population that can re-invade.

Anything you wanna add, Jane?

- That's great, Jeff the only thing that I might add is that if you are releasing biological control they recommend not spraying or if you were using targeted grazing, not doing that for a couple years after you release the agents to give so that the agents have plenty of food there to eat, and their populations aren't being limited by food source.

So if you're just releasing agents, you wanna not do any treatments in that area where you're releasing them so they have plenty of food to eat.

- Okay, thank you.

Mary, Interesting question and I think is applicable to a lot of people around the state.

It came in from Powell.

This person has what he believes is a scab on their potatoes.

Do they need to throw those potatoes away?

- No, if they don't like it, they can peel that part off and they're gonna be just fine.

- [Jack] It's pretty superficial.

- Yeah , it's very superficial.

- Okay, this is interesting.

And I don't know if we have an answer for it.

It came in from Galton Gateway.

Has anyone tried to genetically modify weeds to make it palatable for humans?

It's an interesting question if you think about it.

- Yeah, it is interesting.

I am not aware of anything.

I think part of the lack of looking at weeds with you know, GMO type research is expensive research.

And we usually reserve that type of research, more for food crops like, you know things we would wanna grow.

Like things we're already growing for food.

So the weeds, I think that research isn't quite as pursued or people aren't as interested with weeds because there may not be an economic return on that type of research.

- That's a good answer, I agree with you.

Okay, Abby, from Bozeman, here's another weird one.

This person made tomato juice from his garden tomatoes.

They say it has a smoky flavor.

Could this be due to the smoke from the fires and the valley this year?

- I have no idea.

- Neither do I.

(laughing) - I've burned my tomato sauce so it's had kind of a very different flavor.

- And that might be the answer right there.

And while I have you up, from Boston this person would like to know is it safe to plant European white Birch now?

They lost some in the past that were attacked by the Birch burrower.

Can you plant them in the fall or in the spring, which is better?

- You can plant them either in the early spring when the soil is workable or now once they're dormant, that's a good time.

But if it's going in a site where you had a previous pasture disease issue, I'd try and make sure that that was addressed before you end up exposing the new trees to the same issues.

- Okay, and we touched on this, it's coming back again.

This person would also like to hear a repeat on bindweed.

Is there anything biological that you can do to control bindweed?

They caught the end of the statement.

- No, there is a goal mite it doesn't seem to be very effective in Montana.

Although if you go south, there is.

Overseas we work with a laboratory (indistinct) out of Switzerland and they are investigating additional bio-control agents for field bindweed.

So there's some stem bars that might be promising in future.

At one time, the Canadians were working with a fungus for field bindweed control.

I believe it's a fungus and they were trying to register it.

I don't know what the status of that particular organism is and if it's ever got approval in Canada or if it's a suitable for introduction in - Alright, thank you.

Jane, from Glendive.

They want to know the status of milkweed in the state.

Is it a noxious weed and does it need to be controlled?

They're concerned about the Monarch butterfly.

- Yeah, Milkweed is not a noxious weed.

There's I think 12 species of milkweed native to Montana.

And it's not a noxious weed in spite of the name milkweed.

It's a very beneficial plant, especially for the Monarch butterfly.

So I always encourage people to not control milkweed and actually try to encourage its growth.

- As long as it's not in crop lands, specifically.

- Yes and it does have some toxicity, so it can be an issue for livestock, but there's ways to manage around that.

It's not really palatable.

- I agree.

Mary, we talked about this earlier (laughing) person from great falls wants to know where he can get wheat headbands like you're wearing?

- This is a custom job by our makeup artists Cordelia.

So I think you have to contract with her.

- Okay, quick question, thank you, from Helena and then I wanna bring out some of the staff tonight to show how much they've dressed up and entertained us this evening.

Should people be watering their Connor for trees yet?

- Yeah, you should continue.

If there isn't that much moisture on the ground, you should continue watering your conifers into the fall still, once or twice a month is good.

- What about deciduous trees?

- Generally you usually, once they go dormant don't need to add very much water to them but if you have no snow cover at all, it wouldn't hurt.

- Okay, sounds good.

Folks, we're done to the end of a very enjoyable evening.

Next week, Stephen Vantassle with the Department of Agriculture will be here with us to talk about pests.

But here's the rest of the crew tonight.

I want everybody to appreciate what a great job this crew does.

It's been a good evening and a lot of fun and it was their ideal to make us look like fools tonight.

And we were pretty successful at doing that.

So if you get a chance sometime, thank the crew from KUSM.

They do a great job for the state of Montana.

We'll see you next week, thanks for watching.

Good night.

- [Narrator] For more (indistinct) and resources visit montanapbs.org/aglive.

(country 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 Advisor Program.

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