NDSU Sets Fruit, Hemp, Vegetable and Woody Plants Field Day

Aug 21, 2024

The North Dakota State University Department of Plant Sciences will host a fruit, hemp, vegetable and woody plants field day on Thursday, Sept. 5, at the NDSU Horticulture Research Farm and Arboretum near Amenia and Absaraka, North Dakota. The field day will begin at 4 p.m.

“This event will showcase some of the exciting research being conducted in our horticulture department at NDSU and give field day participants a chance to see how some of the projects we are working on might be suitable for their gardens, orchards or farms,” says Harlene Hatterman-Valenti, NDSU Department of Plant Sciences professor and field day organizer.

The field day will include presentations on caterpillar tunnel grapes, high tunnel tomatoes, apples for fresh eating and hard ciders, hydro-mulching for weed control, evaluating new brassica cultivars for yield and stress tolerance, evaluating garlic cultivars, floral hemp research, grape and juneberry breeding research, and woody plant breeding research.

Source : ndsu.edu

Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.