Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Here's an example in my area of serious research to encourage local
growers. We've talked with Walser at the Alcalde organic farm, and this
kind of research does encourage local produce and helps the botttom line
for local producers to stay in business. We talked with a blackberry
producer there who does quite well, thank you, raising and selling a high
value crop on very small acreage. Local growers have to survive financially
or not grow at all. Appropriate crops and varieties for the area and
competitive pricing are part of that equation.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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Fruit specialist joins NMSU’s Agricultural Science Center at Los Lunas

  (Click for large version.)

  Date: 11/07/2006
Contact: Ron Walser, (505) 865-7340, rwalser@nmsu.edu
Reporter: Jane Moorman, (505) 249-0527, jmoorman@nmsu.edu


  LOS LUNAS – New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Science Center
at Los Lunas is entering a new era with the arrival of Ron Walser as the
urban small farm specialist.

Walser is NMSU’s fruit specialist and has been at the Sustainable
Agriculture Science Center at Alcalde since 2001, researching varieties of
fruit and berry plants that will be high value crops for Northern New
Mexico.

“With the help of the Alcalde staff I was able to get that program up and
running, so this is an opportunity to help develop a new program,” Walser
said of the position in Los Lunas that became available with Mike
English’s retirement.

His mission at Los Lunas is to extend and expand the research he did at
Alcalde to the Middle Rio Grande Valley.

“The Los Lunas center has focused mainly on field crop research, which
will continue under the direction of Tom Place, farm superintendent, but
with the increased urban development in the valley, the rural setting is
changing,” Walser said. “There is now a demand by small farmers and
backyard gardeners for high value crops that can be produced and utilized
at home or sold locally. NMSU decided we needed to expand the research here
to include such crops, including different varieties of fruit and berry
plants.”

An acre of high value crop could earn $10,000 or more for the farmer.
Walser said an example is a farmer in Espanola who has earned up to $30,000
on a third of an acre of strawberries by selling his produce at farmer
markets.

Determining which fruit and berry varieties will prosper in the Middle Rio
Grande Valley is Walser’s goal.

“I tell growers that we do our research here and make the mistakes so
they don’t have to. We want them to come see what works and then apply
the techniques on their farm,” he said.

Research will be conducted on traditional fruits, such as apple, peach,
cherry, apricot, plum, fig, quince, paw paw, table grapes, hardy kiwi and
persimmon, and berries, such as blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, currant,
gooseberry, blueberry and strawberry.

Walser also plans to study four varieties of berries that are new to North
American gardeners – sea berry, honeyberry, Cornelian cherry and
schisandra.

Tests of various varieties of these four berries will be done to see if
they are potential high value crops for the Middle Rio Grande Valley
climate.

“Sea berry has an orange berry that makes a nice ornamental shrub, which
also produces a fruit that is high in antioxidants,” Walser said.

While sea berry is new to North America, it is prized throughout Europe and
Asia for its nutritious fruit, medicinal value and attractive growth habit
and tolerance to even the most inhospitable growing situations.

“Honeyberry comes from Russia and Japan,” Walser said of the berry that
is also very high in antioxidants. “It is a small shrub that is a member
of the honeysuckle family. It produces an oblong shaped blue berry that
tastes like a blueberry.”

Cornelian cherry is a unique species of dogwood that is both a fine
ornamental and a producer of delicious and nutritious fruit that is larger
than, but tastes somewhat like, a sweet pie cherry. The available varieties
were developed in the Ukraine.

Schisandra, or more commonly known as magnolia vine, is a climbing vine
that comes from China and Russia. “The red fruit clusters like grapes. It
is high in vitamins and antioxidants and can be made into a medicinal
tea,” Walser said.

In addition to the fruit and berry research, Walser said the science center
will conduct a comparison study of vegetables planted on a drip irrigated
plot and the same size of plot that will be flood irrigated.

Once the farm’s plants are producing, Walser said the cash value of the
crops will be determined by obtaining prices of the produce at farmer
markets.

“We want to determine what types of produce will be the highest value for
the utilized growing area,” he said.

Walser brings more than 35 years of experience to his new assignment,
including lengthy stints with Extension in other states and consultancy
work in industry.

He received a bachelor’s degree in horticulture in 1968 from Brigham
Young University and a doctorate in crop physiology in 1976 from Utah
State. From 1976 to 1980, he worked with Extension at three universities:
Kentucky State University, Texas Tech University and Utah State. He taught
at Brigham Young from 1980 to 1993.

Prior to joining NMSU’s research staff, Walser worked in the private
sector, including five years as a horticultural field agent with two fruit
and vegetable growing and processing cooperatives in Chihuahua, Mexico. He
was associate Extension agent in Graham County, Ariz., from 1998-1999 where
he developed a very successful Master Gardener program.

In 1999 and 2000 he worked as a field representative and field manager for
Washington-based Windflow Fertilizer Inc. and for Radar Farms Inc,
respectively.

Walser said he wants to increase the visibility of the science center in
the community. He is working with the Master Gardener program volunteers
who will help at the Los Lunas center.

“We want people to come and get ideas and hopefully people will grow more
local food,” he said. “There is a tremendous population in this area
that can benefit from our research.”