- [Presenter] "Montana Ag Live" is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, (guitar music) MSU Extension, (guitar music) the MSU Ag Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture, (guitar music) the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, (guitar music) Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, (guitar music) and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(guitar music) - Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first episode of the 2024 "Montana Ag Live" season.

Coming to you from the KUSM Studios on the campus of Montana State University.

My name is Tim Seipel and I'm your host tonight.

I'm an extension specialist and we've gathered a great group of other extension specialists to answer all your questions about lawns, gardens, your agricultural fields, weeds.

And tonight, we're gonna focus a bit on fertilizer and we have Clain Jones who's joining us remotely online, and he can answer all your questions about fertilizer, soil fertility, and how to go about managing your soil health and soil fertility this season.

Also on the panel tonight, we have Joel Schumacher, he's an our ag economist and extension specialist.

Call in all your questions that you might have about economics and ag economics.

Next on the panel, we have Noelle Orloff.

She is an invasive plant species, diagnostician, and management specialist, and she's sitting in for Jane Mangold in some ways tonight who is on sabbatical.

But Noelle has a wealth of information and sees all your samples come through the Schutter Diagnostic Lab.

Next to Noelle, we have Abi Saeed, she's an extension horticulture specialist and she can answer all your questions about tree pruning, plants, native plants in your garden, pollinators, and things like that.

So, be sure to call in and ask those questions.

And I'm Tim Seipel and I can answer questions about your crop land weeds.

So, bring in any of those questions.

I'm gonna turn... And then, on the phones tonight, answering the phones, we have Judge Bruce Lobo and we have Nancy Blakes and they're taking all the questions that'll come in tonight.

So, I'll hand it over to Clain to talk a little bit about soil fertility in Montana, what to get prepped for in the spring and maybe what we should do in our agricultural fields.

Clain.

- Yeah, so thank you, Tim.

This time of year is the time of year that I am really thinking about soil testing.

Whether you're a gardener or you're a farmer, you're a crop advisor, between now and about mid-April is an ideal time to sample soil, send that soil to a laboratory, and then get your results back.

And when you get your results back, you can talk to your county extension agent, you can talk to me, and we will give you advice on how much to fertilize, when to fertilize.

If you're an organic gardener, what amendments to add?

So, soil testing, soil sampling is definitely on my mind right now.

I think it's the main thing to be thinking about.

Another thing that I like to talk to both gardeners and farmers and crop advisors about is some of the major differences that exist between the nutrients.

So, a lot of times, we just think, okay, nutrients grow plants.

There are certain nutrients that are very mobile within the soil.

Those include nutrients like nitrogen, sulfur, and chloride.

There's others that stick to the soil very strongly like phosphorus and metals.

And you might be thinking, well, why does that matter?

Well, it really affects where you put that fertilizer, that amendment in your soil.

If the nutrient doesn't move very much like say, phosphorus or iron, it needs to be with your seed or in your root zone.

If it's really mobile like nitrogen, you can put it on the surface, you can put it between the rows and the plants are going to find it.

So, those are a couple of things I'm really thinking about right now, Tim.

- Yep.

Thanks, Clain.

So, you mentioned soil testing.

If I'm a home gardener, where should I send my soil in to be tested?

Is there a good website to look for it?

Is there a standard lab that I might send it to?

- My first step would be to call or email your county agent.

Almost all county agents in the state have in their possession, a soil probe or a soil auger.

They almost all have connections with laboratories.

They know how to send these samples in and somewhat how to read the results.

And if they get stumped, that's not a problem, then they call me or send me the results.

So, I would start by contacting your agent, because they're going to have the tools to help you.

If you really wanna do it yourself, I have a whole bunch of what's called soil scoops and Mont guides that you can find on my webpage that tell you how to do it.

And you can, for example, take a soil sample in a garden with just a tulip bowl planter.

You don't really need anything fancier than that.

So, that's where I would start.

- All right, great.

Thanks, Clain.

So, the sun's shining in Bozeman.

It's a little bit, it's our first fall-spring that we'll have.

I think fall-spring ends at the end of the week and it goes back (panel member laughs) to rain and snow, mostly snow and we definitely need the moisture going through.

But I was out in the garden doing some stuff today, pruning some trees, and I was pruning my apple tree a little bit and I hope I get some more even fruit production.

But what trees, Abi, should be pruned this time of year and how should we go about doing that?

When do we stop pruning our trees in the springtime?

- So, usually, a good rule of thumb for pruning is for your dormant deciduous trees.

The dormant season like now is the best time to prevent any disease issues.

You can also see the structure of the trees better, plan out what this pruning is gonna look like to achieve your desired results.

You can see any kind of damaged branches, remove those.

You can easily see suckers or water sprouts, those vertical branches off of the base of the tree or a long lateral branches.

So, removing all those is a good idea.

The plants that you don't wanna prune right now are your early spring flowering shrubs.

So, usually, that's our lilacs and forsythia, because if you do prune those out, you're not gonna have those blooms.

- Mm.

- So, those, you would wait until right after they're done blooming to prune.

- Okay, thank you.

I have some compost, it's just now starting to thaw.

Clain, should I put compost on my apple tree?

Or, Abi, do you have any recommendations?

Should I put a relatively broken down compost around my apple tree this time of the year or fertilizer or should I wait and do that later in the season?

- I would say if you're applying compost now, it would be a fine time to do it around your apple trees or any of your perennial beds and things like that.

Yeah.

Any other thoughts, Clain?

- Yeah, no, I agree with that.

People add compost for a couple reasons.

One is for the nutrient availability in that compost.

The other, which I agree a little more with is they add it for soil structure, water It's great to work with.

And so, compost can serve two different purposes.

The little bit of nutrients will get released and feed your trees and shrubs.

But the bigger advantage I think, is that compost is gonna hold a lot of water during the growing season.

- Mm.

And, Clain, what kind of nutrient content does the typical compost have?

Is it high in nitrogen?

Do you need to add supplemental nitrogen or is it balanced in phosphorus and potassium too?

Or is it have more of one of those elements?

- Compost, especially when it's made from manure, is elevated in phosphorus and potassium and often relatively light in plant available nitrogen.

So, if you try to add compost as your only source of nitrogen, the problem is you're probably going to have to add so much that you're going to result in excess phosphorus or potassium.

So, what I would recommend doing if you add compost is to add something high in nitrogen that might be something like a blood meal or a soy meal, canola meal, feather meal.

Those are all very high in nitrogen and relatively low in phosphorus and potassium.

- Yeah.

Mm.

Ok- - So, Clain, just to follow up in terms of adding compost, I've myself made this mistake too, but can you overdo it in terms of how frequently you're adding compost into your landscape?

- Definitely.

And what I see for the most part when I view a garden soil test is really high phosphorus and potassium.

When I ask, have you been adding compost?

And the answer usually is, yeah, every year for 30 years.

And so, those phosphorus (Tim laughing) and potassium levels have built up to the point where they can actually be hurting the take up of other nutrients such as zinc or calcium.

And so, yeah, it's very easy to overapply manure compost, because it is so high in phosphorus and potassium.

I'd recommend maybe only adding it once every four years instead of what people often do, which is probably once a year.

- Mm.

All right, thank you.

That was very good information.

I'm gonna put that practice in my garden as well.

Joel, we have a question that came in.

Why did cattle numbers in Montana drop again this year?

And are we going to see herd rebuilding start to begin any time this year in the next couple years?

- Yeah, well, we just recently, USDA NASS, which does a lot of the statistical gathering, just released their January 1st inventory number - Mm-hmm.

- from Montana.

We dropped about another 2% in terms of our cattle numbers and over the last seven or eight years, we've dropped more than 10%.

And a big part of that is directly rated to drought.

So, when we didn't have forage and we didn't have hay production, producers just downsized their herds a little bit to manage through that.

It was a, probably an economical better decision than purchasing hay and shipping it in or feeding for a longer period of time.

You can actually watch some of the markets in terms of the steer to heifer ratio on some of the auctions to see whether we're starting to rebuild herds.

Obviously, you need more mother cows if you're gonna start to get those herd numbers back up and we haven't seen that yet.

One challenge right now for folks that are trying to rebuild a herd is just that prices are really high.

So, it's a great time to be selling.

It's not necessarily a great time to be holding maybe a heifer calf back to help increase the size of your herd.

So, we'll just have to wait and see to when we start to see those numbers come back and we'll have to see what forage production looks like in 2024.

- Yep.

But 2023 was a really a lot big forage production year in Montana, correct?

- Yeah, compared to '21 and '22, we had a lot better forage production across the board.

But of course, a lot of times, we come into years with some carry over hay, maybe have some residual stands of grass.

Coming into 2023, it was pretty dry out there and there wasn't a lot and there was some grasshopper issues in places too.

So, the bank was pretty well empty when we started '23.

We had a good year, not necessarily great, but it's one after two poor years.

So, I think if we have another decent weather year in terms of that, we'll have folks that have enough forage to start to rebuild.

- Okay, thanks.

Noelle.

We actually have a question that came in about this and I brought this plant in from my yard.

It is bulbous bluegrass and this is a caller from Billings who thinks he has bulbous bluegrass in their lawn and they would like to know what they should do about it or how they might go about managing it.

- Well, what a coincidence (Tim chuckles) that someone called in to ask about this plant that you brought in for me today, Tim.

So, I happen to have a couple pulled out of the ground.

This is bulbous bluegrass.

It is a really interesting little grass, because it doesn't reproduce by seed very often in Montana.

It makes little bulblets in the seed head that instead fall down to the ground and sprout roots from there.

So, it's not a seed necessarily, which is interesting.

If you wanna get rid of it in your lawn, I have a couple of ideas.

If there's not too much of it, you could go through and just hand pull it, if there's just a little bit.

The root system's really small, so it's easy to pull out of the ground.

I think also, if you kind of, I'm not sure, Tim, maybe you know this, if you mow it with your lawn throughout the season, does it go to seed below the height of the mower deck?

- [Tim] Yeah, actually I don't think it does.

- Yeah.

- So, you usually get it, it grows up and it gets to be about a foot tall, and then it'll make these bulbils or the small bulbs - Mm-hmm.

- that'll come out on it.

And I tend to just mow mine on the edge of the lawn, because it's not the, this part of the lawn's not well-developed and it's a really hot, dry place under a juniper tree.

- [Noelle] Mm-hmm.

- And I noticed that it is the first grass to turn brown during the season.

- Yeah.

- So, by 1st of June, even the middle of June, it's almost turning brown and starting to disappear.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then, by 4th of July, I don't even see it anymore - Yeah.

- really existing in my lawn.

It is one of the first grasses to grow in this time of year.

- Yeah.

So, I think if you can keep it from making those bulbils for a few years, hopefully it'll decrease the population over time, so it won't be able to reproduce.

And then, I don't have a great herbicide recommendation for this in a lawn.

Glyphosate or Roundup is effective on this plant for a spring application - Mm-hmm.

- like pretty early in the spring, but that's non-selective so it's gonna hurt your lawn too.

So, that's you know, would be a pretty drastic measure to take unless you wanna reseed that area of your lawn.

- Yep.

Thanks.

Okay, Clain, we have a caller from Gallatin Gateway who has 100 to 200 elk on his lawn and fields at this very moment.

Is the elk scat good fertilizer and should the elk scat be left on the lawn or raked up and distributed as a follow up too for Abi?

(Clain and Tim chuckles) - Good question.

- Yeah, great question.

So, yeah, scat droppings are all good fertilizer.

They're loaded with carbon, which helps our soil organic matter.

They're quite high in nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.

So, it is good fertilizer.

I don't know enough about chronic wasting disease to across the board, recommend working with elk species.

Maybe somebody on the panel does also know, I think we've only seen it in deer, but I just don't want to advocate a lot of touching of a product that maybe could be harmful.

So, I'll leave that as a caveat.

As far as raking it up or leaving it spread out, I'd prefer probably spread out, so it adds a little bit of nutrients throughout the lot.

- Yep.

You have any follow up on that, Abi?

- [Abi] Nope, I agree.

- Yeah, I think so.

I think you would have to have a lot of elk scat.

And then also, in elk scat, there's often weed seeds, live weed seeds in elk scat.

And another thing that can happen that comes up in the cropland weed world or the alfalfa world is elk can graze on a pasture that has been treated with a certain herbicide, probably picloram or some of these other molecules.

Those elk then go into the alfalfa field and urinate.

And when they do that, the herbicide passes through the elk and actually causes dead spots in the field.

- Mm.

- So, there are some, yeah, it can be complicated, I think.

But that was a great question.

We have a good question for another question for you, Clain.

Billings caller has seen commercial fertilizer companies starting to sell fertilizer for residential lawns and he is wondering if this is the best time to be fertilizing lawns or should he wait in later in the spring?

And I guess that's a question for Abi.

- Yeah, so I usually like to wait until the grass is starting to grow more actively, green up a little bit before fertilizing.

That's gonna give it the better boost.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, I would say right now might be a little early.

If it was my lawn, I would probably wait a little while.

- Yeah.

Clain, is there a risk if someone were to fertilize their lawn now, is there a risk when we get our spring rains and spring snows that you could lose that nitrogen or that fertilizer that you put on your lawn to run off or different things like that?

- Yeah, definitely.

And if that caller is talking about commercial fertilizer companies that generally make fertilizer for agriculture now selling also for residential, one downside of that is that those products are generally not slow-release products.

The typical garden fertilizer is a slow-release, meaning there's some sort of polymer on the outside that generally releases the nutrient slower.

So, that would be less of an issue.

If you have a steep lawn, yes, you have a chance of snow melt or rain pushing that nitrogen out to the curb, and then you lose it, or maybe leaching it down to groundwater.

So, I like waiting 'til mid to late May, like Abi said, after your grass has greened up, used up some of the nitrogen that's already there naturally - This is "Montana - before you apply more.

- Ag Live".

- Mm.

Great, thank you.

Okay.

Joel, we have another question that came in.

This is, how does federal raising or lowering of interest rates impact the ag economy and the ag economy in Montana?

- Yeah, it's a good question and one a lot of people have been talking about lately.

So, the Federal Reserve sets some rates that banks lend to each other at which isn't a rate that you or I necessarily pay, but it's related to a lot of rates that we see.

And that might be directly related to the cost of your equipment loan or an operating loan for an ag operation.

So, when the Federal Reserve moves rates a little bit higher or when the market is moving rates up a little bit, it discourages folks from borrowing as much, so encourages people to save and it's cooling the economy just a little bit by encouraging people to invest more in savings accounts and not necessarily go out and buy new equipment or expand and those kind of things.

So, rates going up tends to mean that the Fed is trying to put a little bit of a cool down or a slowing on the economy.

- Okay.

- If they're lowering rates, that's trying to encourage the economy along just a little bit.

And we've been sitting at a point where they've been fairly stable here for a little while, but there's a lot of talk about when the Federal Reserve might start to reduce rates.

So, as of right now, they've been steady for a little bit at a higher level than we had seen for the previous couple years.

But that could be something to watch, say going into summer and fall as if we start to see some of those key benchmarks rates start to be reduced a little bit.

- Okay, great.

Thanks.

We have a caller from Cascade who has asked, when is the best time, Abi, to trim your lilac hedges?

- So, right after they're done flowering is the best time to trim your lilac hedges.

If you wanna do a rejuvenation pruning and kind of, 'cause some people, you get your really leggy lilacs, it's only green in the top third and stuff and you wanna revitalize those.

I like to do a three-year pruning cycle for that.

So, the first year, you cut about a third of them up to the ground, and then the next year, you do the next third, and then the final year, you do the last bit.

And that helps fill it out a little bit more to rejuvenate.

But in general for general pruning, waiting until right after they're done flowering is the best time, I would say.

- Okay, thank you.

We have another question for Abi.

Caller from Martinsdale has just built a new house and would like to know what are the best trees to grow in his area?

- Hello.

- He would like rapidly growing trees and will withstand the windy area.

- Hello.

- So, that's a really great question to contact your county extension agent with.

One of the first things that I like to do if you've built a new house is getting a soil test before you plant anything in there just so you know what you're working with.

And knowing that type of soil can help you choose the type of trees that will grow best in that.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, I would recommend getting a soil test, and then now is, like Clain was saying, now is an excellent time to do that.

And then, in terms of recommendations for trees that grow really well, your county extension agent will know really nice suggestions for fast-growing trees.

But there are lots of awesome options that would, I would say, depend on your soil.

- Okay, thanks.

And maybe your position too, up on the bluffs - Exactly.

- above Martinsdale can be kind of a windy place there.

- Yes, - Mm-hmm.

- There's a lot of good limber pines right there between Two Dot and Martinsdale.

Great.

Okay.

We have, well, this might be a weird question and it might be a horticulture question.

Caller from Big Fork has nostoc algae taking over her yard last summer and expects it to return.

How can it be minimized, limited, or managed?

And maybe that goes back to soil nutrients too.

- Yeah.

We hear about nostoc a lot, especially during wet years in people's yards.

It's a bluegreen algae that kind of, not very noticeable.

It's like a little blackish film when it's dry outside, and then when it gets wet, it plumps back up and turns into these little globs.

And from what people say, I haven't seen this myself, but it can be pretty abundant in people's lawns from what I have understood.

- And from my understanding, it likes compacted clay soils too.

And so, if you have compacted soils and a lot of moisture, maybe regulating some of that moisture, but getting area aerated could probably help reduce the likelihood of nostoc.

- Yeah, that's what I understand as well.

And I've also done some reading into this and I believe, if you're doing nutrient additions to your lawn, I believe that a lot of excess phosphorus can encourage nostoc.

So, keeping that in mind - Mm-hmm.

- to limit it is also an option.

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Interesting.

Thank you.

I learned something.

I haven't had nostoc.

I've had a little moss problems.

- [Noelle] Mm-hmm.

- Is managing the nostoc algae and managing moss in your lawn a similar kind of strategy for both of them?

Or are they - Yeah, - a little bit different?

- they are.

Because they can be fairly similar in terms of the conditions that favor them, like the really moist conditions.

And moss specifically will grow opportunistically anywhere that your turf grass isn't heavily competing with it.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, areas usually in shady sections underneath trees and stuff where turf grass doesn't do well, that's where you end up getting more moss.

But it's similar addressing the compaction and health of your turf grass - Mm.

- can be a good way.

- What's the best way to address the compaction in moss- - Aeration.

- Aeration.

- Aeration and then if you haven't incorporated too much compost yet, you can incorporate some compost after you aerate.

That can help improve the soil.

- Okay.

So, I've been trying to use a weed, prostrate knotweed.

It often comes up in very compacted soils.

And we had a remodel spot where the soil got really compacted at our house.

And the last two years, the knotweed has just dominated the area and I couldn't get anything else to grow there basically.

But today, I was pulling that knotweed out.

And because the soil thawed and I pulled it out.

And the tap roots on that prostrate knotweed were almost a foot deep that I could pull them out with.

So, I was using a weed to get an ecological service done to reduce my compaction.

- Mm, mm-hmm.

- Okay.

(Noelle and Abi laughing) - You did that on purpose.

I'm sure.

- I did that on purpose.

Yeah, he couldn't control the weed, so he used it (Noelle laughing) for what it could do.

(Noelle and Abi laughing) Okay.

We have another question from Stevensville.

A caller says they have some land that was previously in pasture.

They're seeing two inch holes with trails in it and there are also mounds of earth further away from those holes.

What animal is causing this?

And we can't answer that as experts on this panel, but Stephen Vantassel from the Montana Department of Agriculture, you can find his website on the Montana Department of Ag webpage.

He knows all about that and has been a regular guest on this show and I'm sure he'll be back around again.

But in the meantime, I think it's probably the time to act.

So, I would really get in contact with Stephen Vantassel on that one.

Okay.

We have another question that came in.

Clain, I've heard the government created some regional food centers.

What is the goal of these regional food centers and who's involved in those regional food centers?

- Yeah.

So, Montana is part of a six-state region that Colorado State University is the lead institution on with some support from Oregon State as well.

In Montana, MSU is participating, but the Montana Department of Ag is the main lead here in Montana.

And the main goal of these centers, and they're starting out at least with a five-year timeline is to invest in businesses that are creating some value-added food products.

So, not directly on the production ag size, but maybe you're a company that's making oatmeal or mushrooms, or product that's going to a consumer or beef jerky or whatever it might be.

And to enhance the local supply chains, I think during COVID, there were some issues with the national supply chains and there were some concerns, shortages in greenhouses.

So, I think this is an effort to build up some of those businesses either that are just getting started into a consumer-ready product or they're already existing and they're looking to expand or grow.

And that's, I think, the main target market for these.

- Okay, great.

Do you have any examples?

What are some value-added food businesses in Montana?

I think we're big wheat cereal producers, we produce a lot of pulses.

What are some of our value-added products that we commonly see in Montana?

- Yeah, well, there's certainly some that you might expect.

You can certainly get oatmeal that was made here.

There's quite a number of small-scale meat processing plants.

So, whether you're getting hamburger steaks, beef sticks, beef jerky, those kind of products are all available.

But there's also things that maybe you wouldn't think of, whether it be lentil processing, and with some consumer products there.

And some of these products too might be jellies, jams.

It could also be fresh fruits.

So, it might be that you're growing carrots or apples and you're further processing 'em or just simply washing them in the fall and selling 'em to consumers in that way.

Those would all be eligible things.

And the Food and Ag Development Center Network, which is associated with Montana Department of Ag, they're really a great place to get started with the food center.

If you have a business like this and you're looking to expand or you've got a product you're looking to bring to market, there's about eight or nine of 'em scattered across the state.

And that's the best way to get started with these centers is to talk to them, tell 'em your idea and they can tell you a little bit about what resources and see if there's a fit that might help you grow your business in Montana.

- Great, thank you.

Clain, we have a caller from Helena who says the Epsom salt package that they have is states that it's good for fertilizer.

Is it?

And if so, how should the product be applied?

When should the product be applied and does it make everything salty?

And so, add salinity issues?

- Right, so Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate.

Magnesium, we don't really need in Montana soils.

Almost all Montana soils have plenty of magnesium.

There's a few exceptions on sandy soils west of the Continental Divide.

For the most part, we don't sulfate, there's quite a big demand for sulfate by crops and by garden plants.

A lot of areas in Montana have plenty of sulfur.

This would be where soil testing could help identify whether you actually need sulfur or not.

So, it might be valuable.

One thing that I've thought about with magnesium sulfate is unlike the major form of sulfate, which is ammonium sulfate and not everybody needs that ammonium and the ammonium can be acidifying, Epsom salts would not be as far as how to apply, does the caller indicate whether they're large acreage farmer or maybe a gardener at all?

- No, the caller wrote in, when should it be applied and how does it work?

Oh, how should the product be applied as well.

So, how should, yeah, how should the product be applied in this context?

If you're a - So- - in a gardener for example, and then maybe it's probably not scalable maybe for a large ag producer, but.

- Yeah, so first, you wanna find out, do you need sulfur?

And then, if you do, let's say that you need a 10th of a pound per thousand square feet, say if you're a gardener, you need to do the math, figure out how much sulfur is in your Epsom salt.

That's on the internet.

And then, you'd wanna apply and you'll find out it's probably not very much at all to meet a sulfur demand.

For a producer, the problem that I've seen and I've looked for this product, is it doesn't seem, I haven't found Epsom salt in a pelletized form that would go well in an air seed or I've seen it more crunched up as a finer salt, and so I don't think it would work for a producer very well.

- Mm.

Thank you.

That was interesting.

I learned a lot about Epsom salt.

Thank you for the caller for calling that one in.

We have a question for Noelle on weeds from Boulder.

Caller is asking if there are any animals whose digestive system kills weed seeds and when they eat those weed seeds?

- Hmm.

- [Tim] It's a very good question.

- It's a very good question.

- Do you know what the number one extension answer is?

It depends.

- I know.

I was formulating a it depends type of answer.

I think it probably depends on what the weed is that we're talking about, right?

- Yeah.

- Because all weed seeds are not created equal.

I will say, for at least some of our noxious weeds in Montana, if that's what you're wondering about, there is some research about specific weed seeds and specific animals and how effective graziness is on certain weeds and things like that.

So, if you have a specific question like that, I'd be happy to talk to you after the program if you wanted to get in touch.

- Yeah.

- About- - I think some weeds, especially ones with really hard seed coats, - Mm-hmm.

- those will definitely most easily passed digestive tract of animals and come out perfectly fine, right?

- Yeah.

- There's some things like chokecherries that need to go into a bird, be scarified, and come out the other side and be brought somewhere else.

So, yeah, it really does depend.

But some things like kochia, those are almost live embryos in those seeds - Yeah.

- and they only live for one year, so they may not pass through the digestive tract of some animals.

And I think it probably depends on its ruminant and what kind of stomach it has too.

I think it's a very complicated question.

Great question.

Thanks for calling - Great question.

- that one in.

Clain, we have another question, a follow up question to your sulfur fertility research.

This caller is interested in how does sulfur affect pulse crop production and what were some of the findings from your sulfur fertility research that you've done over the last few years?

- Yeah, so along with Perry Miller and a number of the faculty members at research centers, we did a seven-site, three-year study on lentils and we tested both potassium and sulfur on lentils.

We found almost no advantage of potassium on lentils.

But in a pretty sizable fraction of our site years, we did find that lentil produced more yield with sulfur.

We are now studying canola, spring wheat, and pea at three sites with sulfur.

And last year, we found that wheat at two of our three sites increased in yield by up to 20 bushels per acre with just five pounds or seven pounds of sulfur per acre.

And canola had an amazing sevenfold where the sulfur levels are very low.

So, as far as pulse crops, sulfur is needed for the growth of the plant.

Sulfur is also needed for that tricky process called nitrogen fixation where bacteria, the roots of legumes fix nitrogen.

What that means is they take nitrogen gas from the soil and convert it to a nitrogen form that plants can use.

And so, what we found in our lentil study was yield went up 20%, but nitrogen fixation went up something like 40% at least in one of our years.

And so, it can make a big difference for the current crop.

It can also leave more nitrogen behind for the next crop, and then producers can save likely on nitrogen fertilizer.

- Mm.

Thank you.

Abi, we have another caller from Helena who says she has boxwood and her leaves turned yellow last year.

How can she prevent this from happening this year?

- So, there could be a few reasons why your boxwood leaves turn yellow.

So, that would be maybe a nice one to either get in touch with me to figure out what the reason is.

Sometimes winter injury can cause those leaves to turn yellow and discolored, but sometimes it can be related with nutrient issues, and so it would be good to get to the bottom of why that's happening before advising in terms of how to prevent it.

A few things to keep in mind though for any of our evergreen type trees and shrubs right now, it's been really dry, so it wouldn't hurt to give them some moisture right now as temperatures are pretty warm across the state right now before things cool down again.

So, doing that, but then getting in touch with the Schutter Diagnostic Lab or your county extension agent to get to the bottom of why they're yellow in the first place.

- Okay, yep.

Does boxwood survive very well in Montana?

- It can survive it, so it's I think hardy up to zone five possibly.

So, maybe in the warmer parts of the state, it would do fairly well.

It does well in Billings, but there are definitely parts of the state where it would struggle to survive.

- Okay.

And so, in certain parts, the typical English hedge, - Mm-hmm.

- is boxwood hedge, is that the same thing?

- Yeah.

- If you think of the English garden- - It's very common.

Yes.

- But in England and in Europe, they have huge insect pest problems - Yes.

- with boxwood, - Mm-hmm.

- almost that it can't be used any longer as a hedge.

Do we have those same insect problems in Montana?

- We don't see as many of those insect problems with boxwood here.

Some of the examples in other states would be like leaf miners and things like that - Yes.

- and I don't see very much of it here.

- Okay, thank you.

Follow up question, Noelle, from a caller from Billings, wonders how bulbous bluegrass isn't spread.

Is it spread by birds?

Is it spread by wind?

How does it get into these places and how is it dispersed?

- Oh, that's a great question.

I wouldn't expect it to be spread by wind.

It's got a pretty substantial little propagule, so I wouldn't imagine it would blow around very well.

Certainly, if we're talking about agricultural situations, it can be spread in things like hay, for sure.

So, making sure you're using weed seed-free hay, if that's something that's available to you is a great idea to limit spread that way.

I could imagine a bird spreading it, but it'd have to maybe pick it up and move it instead of eating it.

So, maybe not so much.

I'll tell you, I feel like I see it growing into dense patches.

I bet a lot of the seed dispersal just happens close by.

And then, yeah, movement by things like hay, maybe mower equipment, things like that, I bet are ways that it could spread Great.

- the best.

- Thank you.

Let's see what we have here.

We can group some, we have a lot of questions.

So, Bozeman caller is asking if it's too late to trim their apple trees.

- Nope, it's not too late.

Yeah, now is the time to get your pruning, get your pruning done, especially while the weather's really nice this week before things cool down again.

Take advantage of that.

- Mm-hmm.

- Mm-hmm.

- What's your question?

- And then, we have a call that's come in, Clain, on fertilizers.

What's the most common type of fertilizer that's used in Montana cereals and how is it normally applied?

- So, that would be urea if we're talking to straight tons per acre.

Urea is probably applied four or five times as much as the next most popular fertilizer, which is likely a phosphorus fertilizer.

Most urea is what's called surface broadcast.

So, it means that a co-op or a fertilizer dealer generally will spread it with these rotating discs basically at the back of a large truck that carries that urea and it can spread up to 35 45 feet depending on the type of spreader that they own.

So, that's the most common.

Some producers have a way to put that urea below the ground surface if they have a herd seeder that allows that, that would actually be preferred, because urea undergoes a process called volatilization where the ammonia produced from the urea can escape to the atmosphere.

Once that urea is about two inches below the ground surface, that's very unlikely to happen.

So, does that answer the question, Tim?

- Yeah, I think that answers the question pretty well.

So, urea though, urea can lead to soil acidification issues, right?

Because I think we've talked about in programs in the past, you leave that hydrogen proton behind, which makes things more acidic.

Is there other types of fertilizer or other forms of nitrogen that can be used in Montana to prevent soil acidification?

- So, there are, but unfortunately, So, the other forms of nitrogen fertilizer would be things like anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, urea ammonium nitrate.

Turns out all of those acidify pound per pound exactly the same.

So, regardless of which of those you apply, you're going to get the same amount of acidification, which is a problem that we think is affecting up to maybe half a million acres in Montana with pHs below about 5.5, which is really detrimental to a lot of crops.

Those products that don't acidify, there's products like calcium nitrate, they tend to cost about three times as much per pound of nitrogen as urea.

So, I think most producers are going to apply urea and other products knowing that they acidify, but knowing that there's things they can do to decrease the amount of acidification, like grow legumes, like soil test, like apply nitrogen twice a year trying to match uptake better than just applying it all at once.

So, there are ways to mitigate other than buying a more expensive fertilizer.

- Okay.

- Clain, you mentioned prices a couple times in there.

We've had relatively high fertilizer prices since the Russian-Ukraine conflict started specifically in 2021 and somewhat in 2022 and into 2023.

Did you see producers trying to cut back and maybe apply a little less because the price was higher?

And does that put 'em in a different situation coming into this year's crop than they typically would be?

- Yeah, and I got a lot of calls in 2022, which was the highest of fertilizer prices by a lot, like prices about doubled or a little more in that year, because of the invasion.

I get a lot of questions, one of my answers is look at the economics, 'cause what happened that same year was wheat prices went up and so I think probably there wasn't as much cutting back as you might imagine, because there was that benefit of applying more nitrogen and making sure that yields were maximized.

- Uh-huh.

- Clain, do you know why?

Why is calcium nitrate so much more expensive than say, urea itself?

Is there a difference in the production process or how the fertilizer is made that makes the price different so large?

- Yeah, the amount of energy to convert those ammonium-based fertilizers like urea and ammonium nitrate over to straight nitrate is huge.

So, that takes a lot more energy and with energy prices being fairly high, that's largely what drives the price.

The other is that we're very, excuse me, we're very far from calcium nitrate suppliers, so it also means a lot of transportation to get here.

So, two major reasons why it's so much more expensive and I've had that question for years that actually just got answered for me recently.

- Hmm, okay.

Thank you.

We have a caller from Frenchtown who has new topsoil and asked when they should seed the grass into it.

- Okay.

So, grass grows, our cool season grasses is what mostly we wanna grow and they grow best at when soil temperatures are between 50 to 60 Fahrenheit.

So, measuring the soil temperatures.

And usually mid to late April is a nice time to start with your turf grass seeding, but measuring the soil temperature and kind of, that would be a good way to make sure.

But usually, mid to late April is a nice time.

- So, I take our digital food thermometer outside and stick it in the ground and measures the soil.

(Abi laughing) No, sometimes I do, but I wash it.

Is that a best way to measure soil temperature or how should we go about... How does a normal homeowner measure soil temperature?

- That's a cool strategy.

(Tim laughing) You can get soil thermometers too.

They aren't that expensive, if you're really interested.

Or you can, if you contact your county extension agent, they'll know what those soil temperatures are in your region most likely.

And because people are getting ready to grow things, so you can ask them and they can give you an estimate.

- Okay.

- But I like that food thermometer idea.

Creative.

(laughs) - I saw our food thermometer in the drawer was the same one in the soil catalog.

So, I thought, hey, I can just take it outside - It's basically - and use it.

- the same, yeah.

Why not?

(Noelle laughing) - Oh my.

(group laughing) - [Joel] And that's the earthy flavor of your steaks.

- Yeah, exactly.

(group laughing) You can taste the earth.

(Abi and Noelle laughing) So, we have a call from Kalispell who wants to know when to apply pre-emergent weed killer, now or later?

And the caller's area is free of snow.

I think that you're gonna have to call us back and give a little more information.

Are we talking lawn, are we talking crop field, or are we talking bare ground?

So, if you called us back and let us know that information, we'll give you some more details.

Or call Noelle Orloff.

- And maybe do you know what herbicide you're applying and what is it?

- [Tim] Yes, that would be good too.

Or what you intend to use.

- Yeah.

- Excellent.

Okay, let's see what else we have in here.

Another horticultural question.

I want to add clover to my lawn.

Tim already has clover in his lawn.

(group laughing) How do I start to do that, and then what are the repercussions of doing that in my lawn?

- So, clover works really well with turf grass species.

It's pretty easy to incorporate.

It would be too early to do that right now.

Usually when temperatures are between 65 to 85 is when clover will grow best.

So, I would probably wait until mid-May.

And you can just overseed that directly into your lawn and it will work well.

It'll germinate and it'll start to fill in any patchy areas.

To make it more effective in terms of your filling out with clover, you can aerate too and May is a good time to do that.

So, aerate and then add some of that clover seed and you can just directly overseed on top of your turf grass.

And in terms of ramifications, people are leaning towards, 'cause clover is a really great food source for pollinators.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, I would say if you like the look of clover in your turf grass, go for it.

- And what clover species, I mean, I know what I have - Yeah, good question.

- in my...

I have white clover - Yes.

- that's in my lawn.

- If you're purchasing clover seed to overseed in your lawn, it's going to be Dutch white clover, Trifolium repens.

That's the most popular, that's the common one that you will find.

- Okay.

- So, you're doing great for the pollinators, Tim.

- Yeah, they just showed up as a weed.

(Tim and Abi laughing) It is pretty good.

It likes slightly more compacted areas too.

- Yeah.

- I've been surprised about how much it likes compacted areas actually.

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

Thank you for that.

Okay, we have a... A Helena caller has a follow up information.

The only time to prune lilacs and preserve next year's bloom is within two weeks of the end of the current bloom.

- Mm-hmm.

- And also, is there a boxwood blight affecting his and neighbor's boxwoods which could be causing the yellowing of leaves?

- It is possible it could be a disease issue.

So, again, I'd recommend reaching out to the Schutter Diagnostic Lab and getting a sample sent and they can confirm if there's any disease issue and they can rule out if that could be the case.

- Yeah, there's an excellent extension agent, Mat Walter in Lewis and Clark County.

- Mm-hmm.

- You should definitely talk to him too.

And he might be able - Mm-hmm.

- to help with that and come out and take a look.

Okay.

Let's see what other questions do we have here to get through in our last five minutes.

(paper crinkles) Let's see.

So, we have one caller that says, what is a drought-tolerant shrub that I can plant into my yard in the Bozeman area?

- So, there are lots of options for drought-tolerant shrubs that you can incorporate.

In terms of resources of where to get them, I would say contact your county extension agent.

But off the top of my head, a few examples can be silver buffaloberry.

That's a really nice one.

Chokecherry, caragana.

Those are some three really good drought-tolerant shrubs that work really well for the Bozeman area.

- Okay.

What about in the...

Some people in Montana look to the Bozeman area and don't see a lot of drought and maybe we get more moisture than other parts of the state.

- Mm-hmm.

- Say if you were in Roundup for example, - Mm-hmm.

- or another place that's slightly drier, what would be, those same drought-tolerant shrubs?

- Yes, these ones would be really good for even drier land climates and drier landscapes than Bozeman.

So, yeah, they do well across the state, these three examples.

- Okay.

- But for more details, we have tons of options.

So, your county extension agent or your NRCS office has lists of a lot of our native plants do really well in those conditions.

So, looking at those native plant lists is a good source.

- Okay, thank you.

Okay, Noelle, we have a question that came in actually about hoary alyssum.

Last summer, this person realized that they have a lot of hoary alyssum growing in their yard in town, might be Bozeman.

We tend to have a lot.

The patch has been getting bigger and bigger every year.

Is there anything they can do about it?

And we talked a little bit about it.

And is it poisonous to livestock is one of the questions that came in on.

- Oh, great questions.

Okay.

So, hoary alyssum is...

I have Montana's noxious weed list.

Tim brought me one from his yard today, so I'm calling you out on that a little bit.

(Tim laughing) Sorry.

So, here is a seedling of hoary alyssum and it is toxic to livestock, which is one reason why it's on Montana's noxious weed list.

It is poisonous to horses and causes irreversible neurological damage, so that, it's good to limit the spread even from our lawn if we can.

Are there things we can do in lawns to manage this plant?

Yes, definitely.

One of my favorite things to do, I've had this plant in my lawn before.

Hand pulling works great on this plant.

It has a tap root, so it just has a long skinny root.

So, if you go out after it rains or after irrigation, you can really pull it out pretty easily and that's really effective way to control it.

If you have a lot, just go out for 10 minutes every evening or something like that and see if you can get a little bit of a handle on it.

It reproduces only by seed.

So, if you can keep it from going to seed for several years, that should help get a handle in the population.

I have noticed it will flower and set seed below the level of a mower.

- Yeah.

- So, mowing alone isn't gonna do it with this plant.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then, for an herbicide option, in a lawn, there's some evidence suggesting that early in the growing season, a 2,4-D application can be effective for this plant.

And that is something that you can readily find at the hardware store, an herbicide with that active ingredient in it.

- Okay, thank you.

Clain, quickly in our last minute here, someone was asking what is the best source of organic nitrogen for their home garden and how should they apply that?

And I think you touched on it, but just to follow up.

- Blood meal is about the highest nitrogen you can get, tends to pull in skunks.

So, I prefer something more like feather meal, canola meal, those types of meals are high in nitrogen.

You wanna look at the first number in the NPK, that's the amount of nitrogen, and go for a product that's high in nitrogen.

- Okay, yep.

Thank you, Clain.

And so, with our last 30 seconds, thank you to the panelists who joined us tonight.

If we didn't get to your question, we will get to your question in the next episode.

And be sure to send in some of those questions during the week, either on Facebook or also via email.

And we thank you all very much for joining us tonight.

Next week, Jack will be back and he will be talking about sheep with Brent Roeder, our sheep extension specialist.

So, call in next week and ask your questions about sheep and sheep ranching.

Thank you all for joining us.

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

(guitar music) - [Presenter] "Montana Ag Live" is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, (guitar music) MSU Extension, (guitar music) the MSU Ag Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture, (guitar music) the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, (guitar music) Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, (guitar music) and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(guitar music) (bright music)