Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/10/18/nati\
onal/a171211D88.DTL&hw=tribal&sn=002&sc=738

'Green Manure' May Protect Idaho Crops
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
(10-18) 19:42 PDT Fort Hall, Idaho (AP) --

Potato farmers in southeastern Idaho got a look at a possible
weapon to fight weeds, insects and erosion: oriental mustard-seed
plants.

That plant and others were on display Tuesday at the Fort Hall
Indian Reservation, where farmers are getting advice from the
University of Idaho on how to use biologically friendly agents to
boost the quality of their crops.

UI research and extension scientists planted the mustard-seed
plants in August. When they are cut in several weeks, what
remains of the plants will leach natural chemicals into the soil
that could keep crop-destroying pests away.

Pamela Hutchinson, from the Moscow-based school, led about 40
people on a tour of test fields this week in hopes that these
methods using what she called "green manure" — a term given
to plants grown to improve the quality of soil — will take
root. In addition to fighting off pests, such plants also can
smother the soil to keep weeds away.

"When we do things at the research station, we want things under
control," Hutchinson told the Idaho State Journal. "We've done
green manure trials at the station before, but nothing like
this."

She said the green manure approach has been used in Washington
state, but that the benefits are unknown in southeast Idaho.

Still, some farmers are using it.

John Taberna, a Blackfoot seed distributor, has been working with
green manure for several years.

"What the oriental mustards have is a chemical compound that has
a fungicidal effect," he said. He has 25 customers using green
manure crops such as mustard seed on 10,000 acres. "The majority
of the guys have purchased more every year. It's a learning
curve."

Worries over pesticides making it into groundwater on the Fort
Hall Reservation have led the tribe's business council to try to
reduce pesticides by 15 percent over the next two decades.

Tom Liddil, manager of Tribal Agricultural Resources, said other
Idaho farmers are watching the mustard-seed plant test.

"When we have a failure or we have a learning experience, it
costs us a lot of money and a lot of time," Liddil said. "The
real world met the university this time and it was perfect."

Grants from the American Farmland Trust and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency have made it possible for the UI
program to offer 50 acres of free seeds to three growers next
year on the reservation, and to the conservation districts for
Power and Bingham counties.
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Information from: Idaho State Journal,