- [Narrator] 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, Cashman Nursery & Landscaping, The Northern Pulse Growers Association and The Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(gentle instrumental music) - Good evening.

You're tuned to Montana AG Live originating tonight from the studios of KUSM on the very dynamic campus of Montana State University and coming to you over the Montana Public I'm Jack Riesselman, retired professor of Plant Pathology, honored to be your host this evening.

And as usual, we again have an all women panel.

I will tell you, and as those of you who are watching so far this year, we are featuring women in agriculture.

And a little bit of history, when I started graduate school many years ago, there was not a single woman in Plant Pathology at the University of Nebraska graduate program.

Now at most universities, over half of the students and masters or doctorate programs are women.

And we're seeing that because they're really actively involved with agriculture.

We'll get into that tonight.

But first, let me introduce the panel.

Mary Burleson, Mary spends a little time in the Dean's office, but most of the time she's actually a plant pathologist with the extension surface.

If you have disease questions, anything to do with plants that don't look right to you, this is a good chance to call it in and find out what's going on.

Special guest tonight, Erika Rodbell, Erika is a graduate student in Entomology.

She's gonna be one of the next leaders in the next generation of people in agriculture.

So I thought it'd be nice to have a graduate student on, tell her what her goals are, things like that.

You'll learn a lot about educational activities and promotions here in the State of Montana.

Jane, Jane Mangold.

She likes to be called an Invasive Plant Specialist.

I prefer to call her a Weed Scientist, and we argued about that before the program and I lost.

And Abby Saed, Abby is our Extension Horticulturalist.

If you have questions tonight about horticulture, it's a great chance to ask him.

And answering the phone tonight, and the phone number will be on the screen shortly.

Without your questions, this program gets very boring.

So get those questions coming in.

The two phone operators tonight are Nikki and Joe Vredenburgh.

They're here in the studio with us and I thank them for coming in.

Erika, back to you, tell us what you do and what your program is here as a grad student at MSU.

- I started my PhD about three years ago in The plant Science and Plant Pathology Department.

And I study Insecticide Resistance mainly Pyrethroid Resistance in Alfalfa Weevil Populations in the Western region.

So I just got back from Oregon in Washington yesterday.

I'm still in recovery mode, but it's been fun.

It's been a lot of fun.

- How big a problem is the Alfalfa Weevil in the West?

- Well, if you're an Alfalfa Producer, it's pretty huge.

There are populations that are still susceptible to pyrethoids, which is really important to retain within the landscape.

However, we have also identified populations that are extraordinarily resistant to every type II pyrethroid that we have come across in the West.

- So pyrethoids, they are a type of insecticide?

- They are.

- They're actually relatively safe as I've been told.

- Yes.

- How extreme?

Is there any other insecticides that you can use for the weevil or is it just primarily the pyrethoids?

- Pyrethoids have been historically used for the past 40 years or so, but there is an alternative mode of action group, Mode of Action Group 22-A.

Which encompasses in Doxa Carb, which is the active ingredient of steward.

- And that is the only alternative for forage alfalfa producers.

So that makes it a critical problem.

- Okay, we'll come back to you because I wanna learn a little bit more about the Alfalfa Weevil.

I find it fascinating, but we'll go to Mary here.

And this question came in a couple weeks ago.

I grabbed it off of this technology machine called Slack in a computer?

And this person is on their fourth crab apple in 25 years, It's fire blight.

Any suggestions on how they can avoid it?

- Well, I think, Abby, you've got a good monk guide on resistant varieties that you can select and then sanitation, they might have a bunch of apples in the neighborhood around them that have fireblades.

So there are some antibiotics you can spray at the right time.

Those usually aren't recommended for homeowners.

I think the timing is pretty critical.

But, Abby, do you wanna comment anymore?

- Yeah, and if you do have it, you wanna just prune it out eight to 12 inches from below where you're seeing that kind of black indoor or the- - And clean your pruner between each cut.

- Yeah, you wanna clean those with alcohol between each cut.

- Yeah, I've lost my share of trees to fire blight in the time I've lived here in Montana.

The one thing that I find that really exacerbates the problem is if you have a sprinkler irrigation system that keeps them wet at night and they don't dry it out.

- Yeah, and over fertilizing the trees as well.

- Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Okay, Jane, this person from Facebook says there are rush grasses invading otherwise okay pasture.

I assume that rush grasses are not good for pasture or hay.

Any suggestions management-wise?

- Rush is, typically they're in wetter areas.

They like a little more moisture than most of our grasses.

So I wonder if it'd be interesting to know if there's anything going on there with irrigation or maybe change in groundwater or something that could be leading those rushes to, or leading to those rushes increasing.

I don't think they're typically as desirable to graze either.

So if there was some overgrazing, the rushes could be increasing because of that.

But I don't know for sure.

- Are they associated with salinity or why do you think the water is involved?

- Well, they tend to just like a little more water than like a glass.

- The amount of water?

- Yeah.

- Are they different than sedges?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Yeah, don't ask me too many questions about these grass like species, because I don't work with them very much, but yes.

Rushes are different than sedges.

Rushes are round, sedges have edges.

- Okay.

- And grasses have nodes.

- I'm not gonna go there.

I've done with my body over the years.

Erica, this person says, "What made you interested in an agriculture?

And why did you choose MSU as a place to go?"

- Okay, so I'm originally from Upstate New York.

I was not raised in agriculture at all.

So I got into agriculture because when I was studying abroad, I was struck by an oppressing question.

And that is, that when you go to conserve land, I was in a nature preserve in Tanzania.

And there was a lot of anxiety surrounding food production, and communities surrounding this nature preserve.

And in order for conservation to work, we have to retain those lands out of agricultural production, but who are we to say where agriculture can or cannot be produced?

And that set me off on my journey, which was to look into Sustainable How can we maximize the amount of food that we can produce on a smaller amount of land so that we can in turn preserve these natural spaces?

And so, I went to Iowa State, got my master's degree there- - [Lady] Plus Cyclones.

- That's right.

I did a co-major in Entomology and Sustainable Agriculture.

And soon after my graduation, I was offered a position here at MSU in Kevin Warner's Lab.

And I was really interested in it because it was a Western region problem, insecticide resistance.

And I was really interested in seeing how we can retain these tools for producers to use 'em to the future.

And so that's how I wound up here.

It was a cool project.

I enjoyed it immensely.

- It sounds like it's a lot of fun.

- It is.

- And it's a regional project.

It's just not Montana.

And I like that.

Abby, from Helen, everybody has rhubarb this time of year, or they should if they like rhubarb, custard pie, like I do.

The stalks are getting firm, sort of rubbery.

Is there anything you could do to help prevent rhubarb from, I'd say, maturing too early?

- I'm surprised that's a problem right now, but, yeah, I don't know how to prevent that.

- [Lady] Is that a water?

- It could be a water.

- [Lady] Or is it an old patch?

- Yeah, it'd be interesting to know if it was an old patch.

Sometimes those get woody, but, yeah, maybe just more consistent watering keeps it nice and- - Yeah, I cut some rhubarb yesterday and it was, I'd say if anything, a little tough.

- So could that be from the cold weather?

- That's a good point.

It very possibly could be.

Yeah, it is growing slower this year.

- I have a follow up question for Abby.

So my rhubarb, the stems are only about maybe six to seven inches long, but it's getting ready to bolt.

- Yeah.

- Is there anything you can do about that or are certain varieties more likely to bolt too early?

- I don't know if certain varieties are more likely to bolt early, but I would harvest it early if it's looking like that.

Mine is a little bit short right now, too.

And it's looking like that as well.

- Okay.

- So I think I'm gonna be making some rhubarb sauce sometime this coming week.

- Good.

All right.

I'll do the same.

- Make some rhubarb wine.

- I've never made rhubarb wine.

I'm more of a pie person.

- Yeah?

You have to try it.

All right, Mary, this is an interesting question.

I'm gonna throw it to you as it came in.

It's from Florence, and the caller has frog's eye in his grass.

Is there any way to manage it?

And can it be eliminated?

I know- - So frog's eye leaf spot?

- I think they're probably talking about something we only talk about once a year.

- Snow- - Fairy ring.

- Oh, fairy ring?

- So I've heard some people call it.

- Yeah.

Okay.

I've never heard it called that.

- [Man] That's an old term.

- Frog eye spots on soybean, so I was a little confused.

Fairy rings are just caused by decaying plant material underneath the soil, so anything you can do to make the amount of nitrogen in the soil more uniform.

So, we directed fertilizer applications.

There are some fungicides that can be applied, I think in the fall by a pesticide applicator, if they really disturb them or just kind of enjoy them.

- I think they're pretty.

- I think they're pretty, yeah.

- I don't worry about 'em very much.

- [Lady] No.

- Jane, we have several questions last week, one this week.

The one this week person wants to know whether or not you can control bulbous bluegrass by mowing.

You have some here.

Let's talk about it.

- Yeah, I did bring some bulbous blue grass with me today because I know, Noel, our diagnostician at the Scutter Lab's been getting a lot of this in.

It's very noticeable right now.

It's starting to get it's flowering heads.

The grass is a shallow bunch grass, but as it grows up, it gets these really kind of hairy messy unkempt looking heads.

And this has a little bit of time to mature yet before it actually produces these little, they're called bulbous.

And they're actually baby plants that just fall off the plant and can start growing right away.

There's no dormancy.

So it doesn't produce seeds.

It actually produces these bulbous.

At this point right now, it's probably, it's getting a little late to do too much of anything actually.

If you're going to treat this with a herbicide, you wanna do it before it starts getting all fuzzy and hairy messy looking up at the top of the plant when you just have the basal leaves.

The one thing I would say to not do with this plant at this stage is mow it because you will just scatter these bulbous that are forming up at the top of the plant.

And they're not seeds, they're actually baby plants.

And if you mow it, you're gonna toss 'em all over the place and they're ready to grow.

Yeah, this is a plant that seems to have been increasing across the West, especially Wyoming and Montana for the last probably eight years now.

- Where is it native to?

Just that I'm curious.

- It's native to Europe.

I think Europe and Asia, where a lot of our weedy species come from.

It's kind of an interesting story with this plant because it came to north America accidentally and it was actually explored as a turf grass at various times over the decades.

They've tried to breed it into make different varieties of it for a turf, but it's also never really worked for that either.

- Hmm.

It's not annoxious weed though?

- It's not annoxious weed.

- Okay.

- And it is a perennial.

It's not an annual, like our cheatgrass or Ventenat or Japanese brome.

It actually does have a perennial root system.

So it comes back year after year after from that root system.

But you can see, it's pretty shallow, and it's very early to green up in the spring.

- Don't tell me to pull it.

That's hard work.

- I pulled this, but it was kind of growing in a sandy area.

- Interesting question for Erika.

Why Entomology?

And I go back, I always figured, but in Entemologist when I was a kid, were those that were shooting hands with rubber bands, but what triggered you to get into Entomology?

- Well, I guess, opportunity.

I was offered a research fellowship where I did my undergrad at St. Lawrence University up in Canton, New York.

And it was to look at pollinating fly diversity, so syrphids.

And I really enjoyed the work.

I was out when the sun was out and I was home in the lab when it was raining.

And it was a wonderful mixture of field and lab work.

And I got to work in really diverse agricultural production zones.

And I got to see really cool diversity when it came to insects in these systems.

And I guess one of the issues with going to a small school is that you don't necessarily get exposed to many of these special fields.

So, Entomology was not a course that was offered.

And if it wasn't for this research opportunity that I had, I would never have known that I wasn't interested in insects at all, so- - There's always one or two people in a career that developed that really influences the direction that you're going.

My particular case was my Ecology professor at Carlo State many years ago.

I assume there's one or two individuals that really triggered your interest.

Am I right?

- Oh, yes, there's one in particular.

- You wanna mention that?

- Yep, Dr. Ashwini Bhide.

She's a botanist actually at St. Lawrence, and she really took a chance on me and it worked out in my favor.

- Okay, yeah, I figured, and I think that's a message to all students that somewhere along the line, you're gonna meet one individual in your college career that's really gonna have an influence on which way you want to go.

And right or wrong, that happens.

Anyway, back to Abby, this person wants to know do they need to do anything to transplants before they plant them?

And I'm not sure what kind of transplants they're referring to.

- Yeah.

So I'm thinking in general if you are raising seedlings indoors before you plant them outside, you don't wanna just, when the temperatures are right.

So usually, if they're those warm season ones waiting until early June for here in Bozeman, you don't wanna just put them out right away.

You want to kind of harden them off and get them accustomed to those outdoor temperatures.

So I usually set them outside for a few days during the daytime and then bring them back in and do that for about a week before I put them into the ground to get them well suited.

- What if they're really pop bound on some of these things?

Do you wanna loosen the roots on them?

- Yeah, you do wanna loosen the roots and kind of keep an eye on those pop bound ones.

Usually once in a while, I've had to do that with some where I've had to transplant them into a slightly larger flat and before putting them out.

- I have a feeling with this spring, this extended spring, we have a idiolated tomatoes in people's greenhouses.

- Oh, yeah.

- Do you wanna talk about how to kind of bury those or maybe some plants not to bury?

- Yeah, so tomatoes are great.

They have a adventitious roots.

So you can kind of, if you have like really long leggy plants that look a little bit spindly, you can bury them horizontally leaving a little bit up out there.

And the roots are gonna form from where you've buried that tissue, and that's gonna be a good way to help that plant get established and not be that spindly looking plant.

- Okay.

Thank you.

And a lot of transplants probably will be going in the ground this week because finally it looks like we're having some favorable weather for getting in the ground.

- It is gonna be Memorial Day though.

It always snows on Memorial.

- Yeah, usually Memorial Day snows.

You're right, Mary.

You've been here long enough to know that.

From Whitefish, and actually we have several questions about getting rid of goldfish.

What type poison do you recommend getting rid of bulbs?

We don't have the expertise here tonight to handle that, but I will try to get with the Stephen Vantassel at the Montana department of AG to be on the panel before this show is gone for the summer.

And Stephen, you can contact him.

He's in Lewistown.

Look him up on Montana Department of AG website.

And he'll give you all kinds of ways to get rid of these little annoying animals.

Jane, from The Great Falls Area, a person read about spraying a bacteria on cheatgrass and burned areas in Idaho.

Do you know anything about that?

- I'm guessing they're probably talking about the bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescence.

That is a cold loving soil bacteria that has been tested as a bio-control for cheatgrass.

And it was developed in Eastern Washington, and we've done field testing in Montana.

We had seven or eight sites scattered across the state and we followed those plots for four years and did not see any effect of the bacteria.

There's also been research done in Oregon and Washington on Rangeland by other researchers.

And they had similar results to ours in that we really didn't see an effect of that bacteria.

So the work that's been done in Washington, it's just, from what we've seen in other parts of the West, it doesn't seem to hold true to be effective.

- We also have a question I don't remember exactly from where, but they would like you to talk a little bit about the new cheatgrass herbicide.

- Yeah, there's a new product.

It was actually labeled for control of annual grasses, including cheatgrass and Ventana and Japanese Brome and Medusa head, which are all in Montana.

It was approved for use in Rangeland and natural areas in 2020.

The trade name is called Rejura.

The active ingredient is in Daza Flam and it's actually a pre-emergent herbicide.

So you would wanna put that on in kind of late summer, early fall, before we start getting fall moisture, that will stimulate the seeds of those annual grasses to emerge.

And we're doing quite a bit of testing with it at Montana State University with a variety of projects.

It looks very promising.

And one of the very appealing things about this product is that it does not affect already established perennial species because those roots are growing below where the herbicide hangs out in the soil.

- So that brings up my question.

Is it soluble?

And does it eventually go down?

- It is not very soluble, and that's another attractive aspect of this herbicide.

It binds very tightly to the soil in the top inch to inch and a half.

And it lasts a long time.

It has a lot of persistence.

So some of the work that's been done in Colorado, Wyoming, they're seeing three years of control of cheatgrass.

The work we've done with Bentonite, just north of Bozeman here, we've seen four to five years of control from a single application.

- Wonderful.

- Yeah.

- That's good.

Back to raspberries.

Mary assured the audience that after two years of not having raspberries, we would have 'em this year.

She lied to us.

So, Mary, can you tell us what's wrong with the raspberries?

- I'm also a victim.

(participants laughing) I was looking at 'em today and they're just barely leafed out and it's really inconsistent all over.

And we were talking about this before the show and Abby and I both haven't had raspberries for two years and I'm afraid this might be the third.

So I think one more freeze event, I don't know, it's pretty sad.

- Yeah, I wonder if some newer varieties are a little more- - I planted mine about eight years ago, so they're not ancient and it was Toby's recommended variety.

- Well- - Do you think it's just like abiotic environmental with the temperatures and... - It was fine this morning, this spring 'cause I went in and pruned a bit and I checked 'cause I was really nervous, but they're just really behind normal.

- Yeah.

- That's too bad.

It's tough to grow raspberries here.

Vinegar on garden weeds from Missoula.

Jane, does that work?

- Yeah.

Well it can.

So vinegar is, we call it a contact herbicide in that it doesn't move around in the plant.

It's just going to burn down the areas of the plant that it makes contact with.

So it works on small seedlings.

It can be effective.

It is non-selective, so it will hurt anything that it gets and comes in contact with.

It's also important to note that herbicidal vinegar is like what?

30% ascetic acid?

Does that sound right, Abby?

- Yeah, that does.

- And the vinegar on the shelf in your kitchen is like 5% ascetic acid.

So if you want to try to use vinegar, you need to use the herbicide concentration or strength of vinegar and you need to use it very carefully just like you would use a strong acid.

It's 35% ascetic acid.

So you wanna make sure you wear your protective gloves and eye protection.

- And clean your sprayers.

- Yes.

- Afterwards.

- And if you wanna kill alfafa grass for about three years, have your kids make volcanoes with baking soda and vinegar.

- Yeah.

- Right on the grass, it works like a charm.

- Okay.

Erika, this person from Townson would like to hear a little bit more about the research that you're doing on the weevil.

It's always been a problem in the Townson area.

So tell us exactly what you're finding so far.

I know it's preliminary.

- Right.

So, Kevin, my PI, he's my major advisor.

He and I published a paper last spring, basically saying that there is resistance to pyrothroids in Montana.

We identified three populations in Bighorn county specifically.

Now what we have found in the West is that there are resistant populations as well.

And they follow this really interesting pattern.

And that is that every type II pyrethroid we have tested.

So that would be Warrior, Mustang Maxx, Baythroid.

If there's resistance to one, there's resistance to all type II pyrethroids.

The pattern really gets interesting when we start looking at type one pyrethroids.

Now these are the original pyrethroids that were developed.

And what we found is that the resistance does not extend to them.

So if you have resistance to warrior, you won't have resistance to Baythroid.

So it's a really interesting pattern.

It's still preliminary.

We'll know a lot more by the end of the summer, but we've seen this pattern in Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, in Montana from last year and the first half of this year.

So certainly by the end of the summer we'll get our final data set and be able to publish something pertaining to it.

- Okay, educate me a little bit on the alfalfa weevil.

- Okay.

- Is it more of a problem on second cutting alfalfa than first cutting or third cutting then second cutting?

- In Montana, it would be the first cutting.

Yes.

- And it just slows down emergence, or what is a weevil actually do to the alfalfa plant?

- So in the early spring, when it becomes around average daily temperature, gets to be above 40 degrees, you'll start to see adult weevils get entering the field.

So you'll see them walking around eating alfalfa stems.

Once the daily temperature reaches about a high of 70 degrees pretty consistently, that's when they really explode on you.

That's when we start seeing the larvae really go to town on alfalfa.

And that is really dangerous if you're an alfalfa producer.

And the reason why it is incredibly dangerous for alfalfa production is that alfalfa weevil larva are the economically damaging life stage.

So the adults, don't have to worry about them.

They're not going to damage your yield at all, but what is going to damage your yield is their offspring.

And the reason for it is that the larvae only feed on the leaves.

And this is where the majority of the protein is found in alfalfa.

And if you lose your foliage, you lose protein content, which is extraordinarily damaging to the quality of the forage that you're selling to the market or feeding to your cattle, so- - Okay, thank you.

- I have a question for Erika.

- Just go ahead and ask her.

- So, Erica, for producers that have resistant weevils, what are their options for managing the weevil?

- Our current recommendation is to diversify your management strategy.

Now, depends on where you are.

I've talked to many of producers that do not agree with my recommendations and they're totally in the right to disagree with me on them because I don't know everything.

But what we do advise is that they employ a cultural control tactic like harvesting early.

Some producers are a little wary of this.

And the reason why is because the alfalfa leave a larvae, can feed under the windrows, meaning that after the hay is bailed and removed, you see totally decimated alfalfa stands out thereafter and I've seen it too.

But that's the major cultural control tactic that's currently being advised.

Another option would be to rotate to the doxa carb.

And this is concerning, right?

This is the only alternative mode of action group available for producers at this point in time.

And if we rely too much doxa carb or steward, is the generic name, or not the generic name, sorry, is the market name for it?

If we rely too much on that, then we risk losing that tactic of control as well.

So our current recommendations are to rotate as much as possible.

- Yeah.

That makes sense.

- And adhere to Integrated Pest Management Strategies as much as you can.

- And that's not only for alfalfa weevil, it's for weeds and it's for diseases so.

We get a lot of questions about pest problems and ornamental trees and shrubs.

Abby, tell us about this.

- Yeah, so this is a really great guide that was put together by folks in the Scutter Diagnostic Lab.

And this is geared towards people that are out doing scouting and looking at plant problems, looking at pest disease issues.

And it has some identification information as well.

So this is just an excellent publication that was released just a few months ago.

And so, if you are doing some scouting or if you are interested in learning more about some of the common pest disease issues that we have here in Montana, you can go to the MSU Bookstore and you can get this publication.

It's free.

You'll just need to pay shipping to get it shipped to you.

Or you can come by on campus and pick it up.

But this is a really great resource and it has a lot of just great information about the common pests and diseases that we have here.

- And unlike most smart guides, it probably won't be in the county office.

- Yeah.

This one's probably, yeah, not gonna be in your county office.

So, yeah, you'd wanna get it from the bookstore.

That's a very good point.

So while we have all these show and tells, pistachio bars with cream cheese and our favorite baker, we ask her all the time to come in because she always brings treat.

And guess who that might be based on the smile.

- I thought you liked me on the show 'cause I knew something about weeds, but I guess it's just- - You wanna be an invasive plants for themselves.

You don't wanna be a Weed Scientist, but we appreciate it.

And you do a great job.

There's no doubt about that.

Mary from Harvard, "This person has some winter wheat with regular holes near the base.

Any idea what might be causing that?

- Well, it's probably an insect.

As the leaf grows, sometimes you get an insect chewing, right?

As it's developing and you'll just get like sometimes six perfect little holes, a little different sizes based on belief expansion.

And that can be just about anything that pierced it with a style it or nibbled on it.

- Okay.

Jane, since we kind of embarrassed you do you wanna show us this other sticky weed that you have.

- Yeah, another show and tell.

So I brought another weed with me today.

This is Catchweed.

It's the genuses Asparagus and it is growing in the alley behind my house right now.

So it's easy to grab.

It's an annual broadleaf plant.

It's got really shallow roots.

You can tear this thing out of the ground with no problem.

And it's called Catchweed because it's lined with hairs that if you run your finger across this plant, it kind of catches your skin.

It feels kind of sticky.

So that's one way to know what you have.

Is it sticky in catching your skin?

The other thing is, well, a couple other things at this point, it is flowering.

It has these really tiny purple flowers at the tips of the stems.

And then as those flowers mature into seeds, it gets kind of a star shaped seed along the stem or a pod.

So I just wanted to bring this one because I see it a lot, especially in the urban areas.

I do get calls about it.

People have it in their wind rows and whatnot or their tree lines.

So it is around.

The best way to control it is just pull it out of the ground.

It's super easy to pull out because of those shallow roots, not a lot of root hairs there.

And otherwise, you could treat it with like a 2,4-D dicamba but you would probably wanna...

I think it would probably still be susceptible but you're also already getting some seed production.

- So I thought I knew what Catchweed was, but that's different than what my dog drags in from the pasture all the time.

And they call that Catchweed too, so what's that?

- Yeah, I think that's probably Catchweed Bedstraw, which is a gallium species, G-A-L-L-I-U-M. And that has more of a, the leaves are more in a whirl along the stem and it is even stickier than this catchweed.

But this is asparagus and the other one is gallium.

- Okay, I have the other one and it's definitely stickier than that, but again, it's easy to pull.

- It's also an annual and it'll pull right out of the ground.

- It's increased a lot in the last few years.

Any reason why?

- I don't know.

This seems to have increased as well.

- Okay, well, maybe someday we'll figure that out.

Mary, this is an interesting question from Outlook.

Do diseases increase insect activity or does insect activity increase disease pressure?

- Well, there are insects that can transmit diseases.

- Right?

- Such as my favorite SER viruses and some Also especially like the larva stages, if they feed on roots, then they'll get root rot.

In corn, the corn bore increases stock rot.

So basically, that wounding action.

- Yeah.

And that's very common.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

No doubt about that.

I've not heard of this before, but it's from Livingston and this person says they've heard that No Mow May and I don't know what No Mow May is, but it's a good way to improve lawns.

Have you heard of that before?

- Yeah, so, No Mow May is, it's a pollinator initiative.

And so, the idea is to not mow your lawn for the month of may so that the dandelions will grow but that can be a little bit challenging for your grass.

If you don't mow your grass for a whole month, the biggest issue with that is when you go to mow afterwards, you're probably taking too much of that the green growth off at once, which will shock the plant, can stress it out.

It can thin out your lawns a little bit.

So dandelions and other lawn weeds can be a great source of food.

A lot of different pollinators will visit lawn weeds like that.

But I would say a good balance would be, let's say your grass is six inches tall, you don't wanna take off more than two inches per mowing.

So you don't wanna mow it all at once and get that down to the two and a half to three inches right after.

- In Montana, should we No Mow June?

- Yeah.

Although my grass is already looking, it's like six inches tall right now.

Starting.

- Are you mowing your lawn in May?

I usually do one mowing, but I love the dandelion, so I keep them in the lawn all the time.

- You like dandelions?

- I do.

- Well, you live in a great area for dandelions.

There's no doubt about that.

There's no shortage in the Gallon Valley.

From Stanford, "Is there a chemical that can be used to spray white top that will not hurt other bushes nearby?"

- I'm guessing that's for me.

- You're right.

- That wouldn't hurt bushes.

Well, you could treat white top with 2,4-D. And if you're staying under the bushes and it's like volatility isn't an issue, I think it would be alright.

But there isn't a herbicide that you could use on white top if it came in contact with a bush that it wouldn't hurt the bush.

- Was that where you wanna wick it on or use like cardboard to block the bush or?

- Yeah, I don't- - Not do it on a hot day.

- Not do it on a hot day.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure if the question there is like if you get the herbicide on the bush or you're spraying under the bush, but you wouldn't wanna get it on the bush.

- You wouldn't want it right under the bush - Right?

- Yeah.

- Right?

I would mow.

- Mow it?

- Mow it.

- Yeah.

- Under the bushes and then treat it once you're away from the bushes.

- Okay, Erika.

It's an interesting question from constant.

This person wants to know how you select various fields to survey for the resistance to the pyrethoids and this person who had volunteered to have his field.

(all laughing) - Great.

Gimme a call.

- So do you have a marker or do you have to grow them out and spray 'em?

- So it depends on which.

There are two facets of what we do in the water lab.

First is, I go out and I collect the weevils and bring them back and determine the So I do about six to eight bioassays with So I need about 10,000 weevils, which is a lot.

And that helps me determine how extensive the degree of resistance is for that population.

And then if we have the time for it, because it's all condensed to about a two week period for us, it really is a bit of a stressful situation.

But my counterpart, he's the Research Associate in the lab.

He does an insecticide spray trial.

And essentially what we try to do is collaborate our findings.

So I go out first and then he follows.

And if we are lucky, we're able to collaborate our findings and also get yield data.

So we can see how the alfalfa stand is impacted by this defoliating insect species and how the quality of the forage is impacted as well.

So that's one aspect.

As for figuring out where we go and what we do, I usually rely on Extension Agents, at least that's how I've identified the populations in Montana that I've been to.

I work closely with Chemical Applicators across the west USDA personnel, Entomology Oregon State University and Arizona State.

And essentially, we go where they tell us to go.

And sometimes if we go to an area and I see a really decimated alfalfa stand, I'll beg to jump out of the car and take my sweep net and collect that population.

And so, we have some unknown populations as well through those efforts.

There's a lot of those, but in general, so Kevin and I are submitting a paper soon detailing the extent of higher thread resistance in the West.

And we have run bioassays with at least 70 populations.

So we've been all over the place.

- Okay.

Interesting.

That sounds like a fun project to me.

- That's great.

- From billings, this person has a cabin in Southwest Montana, they would like some advice for getting rid of spotted knapweed around the cabin.

Jane?

- Yeah, so spotted knapweed is actually a species that we have a lot of options for.

It's kind of Montana's poster child noxious weed.

We've done a lot of work on it over the years at MSU and UOM.

And we're kind of leading, we're the experts on that.

So lots of options, hand pulling.

If it's just isolated plants getting out there, this time of year and pulling, you can also mow spotted knapweeds.

So let it grow up and get to the point where you have flower buds just starting to open that's when you wanna come along and mow it and take it off.

You don't wanna mow it repeatedly every couple weeks 'cause it'll just grow three, four inches tall and still flower and produce seeds.

There's also different biocontrol agents.

So different insects, there's three or four of them that are very effective on spotted knapweed.

They won't completely get rid of the knapweed, but they will stress it and reduce its size, reduce its seed production, reduce its root mass.

And then there's a variety of herbicides that are all very effective on knap weed.

The trick with nap weed is, it does accumulate a lot of seeds in the seed bank.

So if you kill some adults ones, whether you're hand pulling, insects mowing herbicides, you're still going to have plants coming back from that seed bank.

So it is a fairly long term commitment 'cause those seeds can live 12 years or so in the soil.

- Okay.

- So if people were interested in these biocontrol options, where could they go to get them?

- Yeah, so the biocontrols, there's a couple species that are well established across Montana.

I'm guessing if this person's in Southwest Montana, they already have some of the lorraineous and leuraphou insects.

If they were interested, you can purchase.

There are commercial providers of these bio control insects.

There's also collection days where you can go out to a place as a group, they're organized and that's some of our Extension Agents and our Weed District Coordinators.

Hold these days, you can go out and collect your own insects and take them home with you.

So the kind of the go-to source for, that I would suggest the viewer reaches out to is Melissa Maggio with the Montana Biological Control Coordinating Program.

And the website is mtbiocontrol.org.

- Okay.

Thank you.

From Shelby, this person is interested in resistance, but they would like to know, are there resistance to fungicides in the state of Montana as well as resistance to insecticides, Mary that's yours.

- Well, I'll start with fungicides and I'll pass it to Erika.

We do know that Ascochyta blight on chickpea is resistant to the strobilurin or QiI fungicides.

We're concerned a little bit about metalaxyl and Pythia, which is a soil borne disease of many crops.

It has been reported in Washington and we've kind of been keeping a lookout and we do know that there's another species of Pythia that just isn't sensitive to it at all.

So just keeping an eye on that and nothing else, but I suspect there's quite a bit in tan spot.

So, Torry, in which we just haven't looked.

- Yep.

- And it's probably the same thing with a lot of the insecticide.

A lot of it hasn't been looked at.

- Yeah.

- And same with wheats.

- Yeah, there's quite a few species that have resistance to different modes of action.

It's an issue in crop production more than it is in range in Pasture Weed Management.

- Okay, we had a question last week and we really don't have anybody on the panel.

I don't remember.

Maybe Mary can answer this.

This person wants to know, "Is avian or bird flu still present in the state?"

And I think it is.

- Yes, absolutely our 4-H fair, we can't bring the chickens.

We're gonna be showing pictures of chickens.

- Interesting.

- Yeah.

- How widespread is it?

I'm just hearing 'em small pockets.

- I have not attended any of the webinars, but I know the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab is very busy with Carcass samples and I would assume it's widely prevalent.

- Okay.

A Facebook question for Abby, and this came in last week.

I wrote it down here.

I like this question.

What size containers should you use for potted tomatoes?

And can you use indetermined varieties in those pot?

That's a good question.

- That is a good question.

So for me, I like to have either anywhere between a five to 10 gallon container for tomato plants that gives them enough room to grow.

You can grow indeterminate tomatoes and containers, but you're gonna need to stake them up so that as they continue to vine, they can grow that way.

But aim for about a five gallon container for one tomato plant.

That's a good size.

- [June] And then put a little basil around it.

So you can just have something like crazy on the ground.

- Absolutely.

That's a great idea.

- Abby, what do you think about the containers that are wheeled so you can move them around?

- Yeah.

I mean sure, why not?

As long as they have good spot where they still drain from, drain that moisture, why not?

Tomatoes need a lot of that sunlight and sometimes if we have those shady areas, you might be chasing that sunlight a little bit with your tomato plant, so yeah.

- Yeah.

Good.

- Okay.

This is a question for Jane and it's kind of interesting.

It's from Victor.

The caller is curious on any information or resource about how people can use weeds like Mullen, plantain, catnip and dandelions to be productive instead of just spraying and getting rid of them.

- Yeah.

Well, a lot of the species that are here that are problematic, some of them were intentionally introduced for medicinal or culinary purposes.

So I don't know a lot about that, but there certainly are books and other resources about how to use different plant.

I mean, not just weeds but plants in general.

The one thing I would say is, if you are going to do any collecting and some of your own work with plants, make sure for sure what you're collecting so you're not getting something toxic.

And then also make sure you would be collecting from an area where no herbicides have been used or insecticides, so you're not ingesting any of those pesticides.

- Good point.

On that note, I have dogs that love to eat grass and I think most people that have dogs, they're gonna eat some grass.

And I spray it with 2,4-D. Is that gonna be an issue?

- I think, always read the label.

- I know.

- Most labels will say how long you should keep pets or humans out of an area after you use it, whether it's a herbicide or insecticide or fungicide, whatever, it might be.

A lot of times it's until the, for plants, a lot of times that re-entry interval is like once it's dried on the plant, but I think a safe rule of thumb would be 24 hours.

- I agree.

And I kinda watch that.

- Yeah.

- Just the dogs are kinda okay.

So anyway, Erika, this is a good question.

It comes from Bozeman, "Once you finish your PhD, what do you wanna do in the arena of agriculture?"

- That's a very good question.

Well, I'll just answer it broadly.

I am fascinated by taking a problem in the field and bringing it into a lab, figuring out what's going on and help identify a solution to the problem and testing it in the field.

Because one, a problem in the field may not be easily defined in the lab, and a solution developed in a lab cannot be easily applied to a field setting.

And so, figuring out what's going on and how to fix it is definitely one aspect of a career that I would absolutely love to have.

- That's fun.

There's no doubt about that.

Mary, from three forks, this color spruced here, has about 20% of the tree with brown needles.

Any idea why and what can they do?

And that's a tough question.

- That's a tough question to answer.

You need to know the pattern if it, yeah.

So I would give the diagnostic lab a call at (406) 994-5150 and ask for Eva.

- Yeah, Eva will- - She knows all about spruces and we'll want some photos.

- That's true.

Jane, last week from Butte, black medic.

This person says, "Help."

He spray with 2,4-D and they pull a lot, but none of it seems to work real well.

- Yeah, I have black medic around my garden beds and in my yard.

It's really difficult to get rid of.

You kind of gotta do it all, I would say herbicides, pulling, maybe some black tarping or like trying to cover it so it's not getting any sun for a season.

Abby, do you have any thoughts on it?

- Yeah, I think, yeah, mulching would be good in your garden beds.

Just you can use the black mulch or you can use wood chips about three inches deep or so, I would say that.

- Yeah.

Try everything.

- Yeah.

- Okay, well Abby's up, a Facebook question.

This has come in two or three times and we kind of glossed over a couple weeks ago.

This person would like to know, is it okay to transplant Sage brush?

- I mean, you can transplant Sage brush.

I don't know what they mean for if it's okay to do that.

- Well, I don't see any problem with digging somebody's Sage brush if you have permission.

- Yeah.

It depends on where you're getting it from.

But if you're relocating it from a place where you have permission to - One comment on that is, make sure you're trying to transplant small plants because those Sage brush roots develop.

The root is probably developing way faster than what you see above the ground.

And it has a fairly almost like a tap root, a very central root, and if you damage that or don't get enough of it, it's very difficult to transplant it and keep it alive.

- Okay.

Following up on that last question for Erika.

How long does it take to finish a PhD program?

- That's another good question.

It depends on your committee and how much they like you.

Oh, but and it depends as well as to like whether or not you have a master's degree beforehand.

I've found I've benefited a lot from having a master's degree before coming on as a PhD student.

This is my third year.

I have about a year left.

At this point, I've done all my qualifying exams as of last winter.

So it basically comes down to the research that I do, the quality of the data that we have and how confident my committee members are and my ability to be an Entomologist.

- Okay.

Again, more questions on gophers.

Stay tuned or get ahold of Stephen Vantassle.

Mary from Park City, Spruce has spots on needles and they're dropping.

Any suggestion there?

- Call Eva.

- Yeah.

You're passing for Eva.

- Well, I don't know if they're brown spots, if they're white spots, need a little more detail on that one.

I don't know.

Abby, I didn't know of any epidemics in park city.

- Not off the top of my head, but yeah I would say get it diagnosed with Ava.

- Okay.

We're about running out of time here.

Time to spray apples for worms.

You got 10 seconds.

- Yeah.

So contact your Local Extension Office and ask them about codling moth.

If you have worms in your apples and they'll be able to tell you what you need to do.

- Okay.

Folks.

we're out of time.

Erika, thank you for joining us this evening.

The rest of the panel, as always, and Jane, you're on two weeks so let us know what you're bringing to eat then.

- All right, then start thinking about it.

- All right.

Next week, Diane Charlton, Labor Issues in Agriculture.

Thanks for watching.

See you next week.

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