Often called cover crops, green manures are simply fast-growing plants (usually annuals) that are broadcast as seed over an empty field or vegetable bed. With mature plantings, always layer the compost thinly around each plant's neck, trunk or crown, then pile it on more generously as you reach the drip line. Traditionally, mature cover crops were tilled in, but now that we know soil is alive, WSU soil scientists say that tilling is no longer a recommended technique. Good garden soil is a...

Published October 17, 2007 09:09 pm - WEST LAFAYETTE Farmers are facing pressure from sales representatives to place their seed orders earlier each year, but the problem with this is that the current year's yield trial information is not yet available, a Purdue University expert said. Published October 17, 2007 09:09 pm - WEST LAFAYETTE Farmers are facing pressure from sales representatives to place their seed orders earlier each year, but the problem with this is that the current year's...

Still, SunOpta is in an agriculture-based business and thus subject to vagaries of weather, crops and commodity pricing that even its hedging program can't fully neutralize. Around the same time, the company, new to the sunflower market, gambled on a seed, rushing it to farmers without taking its usual time for testing. The seed flopped, making the crop useful for little more than bird feed. It entered the fibre business just as food makers began responding to the Atkins diet craze and...

Because of some of the extremes in some areas, it might not be a record per-acre yield, but we have more acres this year, so we could easily surpass our total output, said Jensen, of Burbank. The stalk is really juicy (and) still trying to feed that ear because it doesn t know any different. Mike Carlson of Cargill inc., in Emery said the elevator has handled 5 percent to 10 percent of the total amount of corn to be processed there. We were really wet this spring, so we were probably three...

TOP STATEWIDE NEWS AP Photo Embryos lie in liquid nitrogen limbo in fertility clinics begging the question: Should they be used to research cures for everything from cancer to multiple sclerosis? Or is that destruction of life? Story . Talk . More News FLINT FORUMS Tell us what's going on in Flint Flint forum. TOP STATEWIDE NEWS AP Photo Embryos lie in liquid nitrogen limbo in fertility clinics begging the question: Should they be used to research cures for everything from cancer to...

Straw bale-gardening instructions typically tell you to use ammonium nitrate to decay the bales, but Bea just watered them a little between rains to stimulate the process. Local feed and seed stores typically carry this fertilizer, which entices microbes to feed on the straw, causing it to rot. Last year, Bea picked up the bales wheat straw, not hay straw, she emphasizes in January and planted in May but she's shopping for new bales now. The bales are supposed to decompose some before you...