The Scoop: GardenPilot app for your smartphone
Almost every gardener has seen a plant in a garden, book or nursery and wondered “Could I grow that in my garden?” Tesselaar Plants is helping to provide immediate answers…
Almost every gardener has seen a plant in a garden, book or nursery and wondered “Could I grow that in my garden?”
Tesselaar Plants is helping to provide immediate answers to this question and more by listing its collection of plants with a powerful online and mobile garden research tool called the GardenPilot.
GardenPilot is perfect for garden experts or those new to gardening because it features more than 13,000 beautifully illustrated plant information pages, along with helpful tips and advice from renowned gardening experts and plant breeders. Users can search for plants by category, branded collection or by relevant characteristics. For example, you can search for the award-winning Flower Carpet® roses or Carpet roses by navigating to “Roses” and scrolling through the A-Z list. You can also navigate to “Roses” and filter by branded collections, which will provide Flower Carpet roses as a choice.
While the tool is available as an iPhone application, any phone that has access to the mobile internet can access GardenPilot on their phone by visiting http://m.gardenpilot.com/.
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Research shows certain common weeds are now resistant to glyphosate (RoundUp)
Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the nation and a mainstay of weed control for both farmers and homeowners. But there is a downside to the product’s popularity. Scientists are increasingly concerned about the growing number of weeds developing resistance to glyphosate.
In a presentation to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials from the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) reported that nine weed species in the United States now have confirmed resistance to glyphosate. Among these weeds are strains of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), common waterhemp (Amaranthus rudis), giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida), hairy fleabane (Conyza bonariensis), horseweed (Conyza canadensis), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense), Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) and rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum).
“Unfortunately it is too late to prevent glyphosate resistance from developing,” says David Shaw, WSSA president. “It’s a problem that is already with us. The challenge now is to adopt effective management techniques that can keep resistance from spreading.”
The consequences of resistance are particularly troublesome for farmers who grow soybean, corn, cotton and sugar beet crops genetically engineered to tolerate glyphosate. Many of these farmers rely almost exclusively on glyphosate for weed control throughout the growing season. Using a single herbicide, though, increases the odds that the weed population will shift to resistant plants that are able to escape treatment and compete with crops for moisture and nutrients.
University scientists recommend a number of techniques for preventing or managing resistance. One of the most common recommendations is to rotate the types of herbicides used for weed control – making it tougher for weeds to adapt. Shaw says that initially many farmers were slow to recognize the seriousness of glyphosate resistance and to adopt this best management practice. However, educational programs in the last few years have greatly increased grower awareness and management efforts.
“One issue may have been the mistaken perception that adopting resistance management practices will cost more, since glyphosate tends to be very affordable,” Shaw says. “But studies show just the opposite is true.”
“When glyphosate was first introduced for weed control, its unique way of inhibiting protein synthesis and growth in plants led many to believe that resistance would not be an issue,” Shaw says. “Obviously that prediction was wrong. However, best management practices can slow the development of resistant weeds, and one effective approach is to rotate glyphosate with herbicides that work very differently.”
Most gardeners will recognize glyphosate as Roundup® – one of the many brand names for the popular herbicide. To delay the onset of resistance and maintain weed-free natural areas, flowerbeds and gardens, WSSA says homeowners should follow the same approach university researchers recommend for farmers. They should adopt a broad set of weed management tools and not rely on Roundup alone.
“By rotating the types of herbicides used and by complementing them with hoeing, hand-pulling, black plastic and other nonchemical weed control measures, we can prevent or delay resistance and preserve glyphosate as an effective weed control tool,” Shaw says.
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