'Roots in Research' Newsletter
WMREC Headquarters - Keedysville Facility - Yield Year 2022
We are proud to present you with the first edition of a series of annual newsletters showcasing the diversity of applied research and hands-on educational programming that happen at the University of Maryland Research and Education Centers across the state. These facilities provide a living-laboratory pace to carry out research addressing the real-world problems facing our farmers from issues like invasive species, climate change, economics, and environmental conservation. The information produced from these research projects is shared with the scientific community and directly to the public through journal articles, extension newsletters, and many other formats, but compiling summaries of all of the work done at each facility in one publication here gives a snapshot of how many projects are carried out at each research farm every year. Here, we have compiled reports on the 2022 projects at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center (WMREC) in Keedysville. WMREC is our western-most research farm, representing the unique climate and rocky but fertile soils of the Hagerstown Valley. This facility has historically supported mainly tree fruit research, but over the years has diversified to support work on grain, forage, livestock, and vegetables, while still supporting cutting edge work in tree fruit and other horticultural crops. We hope you enjoy reading about the breadth of different projects, and gain some insight on the value of the work carried out at the RECs each year.
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Keedysville Weather Station
Weather data for Keedysville is displayed on our website. The information can be displayed by month, or by the year in a
printable format. To compare weather data averages by the month or year, check out our website! If your research requires this data in a different format, please contact Susan Barnes and she will help to get the information you are requesting.
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Effect of Potash Fertility On Orchardgrass Yield
Andrew Kness, Senior Agriculture Agent | Erika Crowl, Senior Agriculture Agent Associate | University of Maryland Extension
Orchardgrass is a popular pasture and hay forage species and it requires relatively high fertility levels, especially in a hay system where nutrients are being exported from the field. To test and demonstrate the importance of potash (potassium) fertility in orchargrass plantings, we established a replicated trial at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center. Three orchardgrass varieties were planted in a prepared seedbed at a seeding rate of 22 lbs pure live seed per acre using a drop-seeder on September 27, 2021. Read more>>
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2019 ‘Buckeye Gala’ NC-140 Apple Rootstock Trial
Macarena Farcuh, Assistant Professor, Plant Science & Landscape Architecture
This NC-140 replicated trial was planted in Spring 2019. During the first growing season trees were set, trellises were built, and trees were trained to the tall spindle system as specified in the protocol. In year 2020 through 2022, we have almost 100% tree survival in this planting, except for one Gala tree grafted on G.935 rootstock that did not survive (thus in this rootstock we have 93.3% survival; Table 1). Trees continued growing well and we obtained a third crop this year. Read more>>
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Monocacy Hop's Arrival Adds Flavor, Potential to Local Beer
J.D. Willoughby, Frederick Magazine
Before Prohibition, Frederick farmers provided about 20 percent of all the hops to Baltimore breweries. At the time, the Cluster variety was popular because it was cheap and fairly easy to grow. But many farmers stopped growing hops during Prohibition to make way for other crops. Very few Frederick farmers grow hops on a commercial scale today. University of Maryland Extension hopes to change that with a unique hop to Maryland. Read more>>
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2022 Maryland Soybean Fungicide Efficacy Trials
Andrew Kness, Senior Agriculture Extension Agent, University of Maryland Extension
Fungicides are becoming increasingly popular in full season soybean production. Land grant institutions across the US and in surrounding states have robust applied research programs where industry ag chemical companies submit new products and formulations for testing for the management of soybean diseases; such a project has been absent in Maryland for several years, creating a dearth in knowledge of fungicide efficacy for our soybean producers in Maryland. This project provides data that soybean producers can benefit from Read more>>
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Evaluation of Growth-Promoting Products for Soybean Production
Andrew Kness, Agriculture Extension Agent, University of Maryland Extension
Soybean farmers have had many new products come on the market in recent years touted as growth-promoting products intended to help growers attain high-yielding soybeans. Many of these products contain growth regulators, hormones, humic acids, carbon, sugars, and/or fertilizer. Limited replicated university research has been done with these products to assess their application and utility in Maryland’s unique climate and growing conditions. This project looks at one of these such products, Take Off ST. Read more>>
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MARYLAND FARM & HARVEST (MPT)
Dirt! USDA-NRCS soil scientist, Dr. Annie Rossi-Gill, CPSS, shows how farmers adapt to different soil types, including MD State soil, Sassafras
Season 10 Episode 4, Aired: 12/06/22
Video has closed captioning.
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New Fruit from UMD Could Weather Changing Climate and Labor Shortages to Boost Grower Profits
This story originally appears on agnr.umd.edu/news April 13, 2023 - Kimbra Cutlip
Through careful crossbreeding and selection, University of Maryland researchers have developed what may just be the perfect apples for American growers trying to adapt to a changing world. The two new apples, a yellow and a red one are heat-tolerant, blight-tolerant, low-maintenance, easy to harvest and not least, delicious-tasting. Both have been approved for patents and are awaiting the final grant from the U.S. Patent Office. Read more>>
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Sweet Corn Sentinel Monitoring Network
Galen P. Dively, Emeritus Professor, Department of Entomology
Bt corn and Bt cotton producing insecticidal toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely adopted in the U.S. to control lepidopteran pests, which have resulted in major benefits to growers and the general public. However, resistance evolution in corn earworm/bollworm (Helicoverpa zea) populations has become a major threat to the sustainability of these crops. To detect resistance and implement mitigation measures before control failures occur, industry registrants of Bt crops are required to annually monitor resistance in target pest populations. Read more>>
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Emerald Ash Borer Biocontrol via Interactions with Native and Introduced Parasitoid Wasps
Devin Jameison, University of Maryland
The emerald ash borer (EAB; Agrilus planipennis) is an invasive beetle species that has wrought immense havoc upon ash trees in deciduous forests across the eastern US and Canada. First detected in Michigan in 2002, EAB was detected in Maryland just one year later, although the pest likely escaped detection for at least a decade. It is estimated that EAB has caused billions of dollars in environmental and industry damage (Kovacs et al. 2010). EAB adults are easily identifiable due to their iridescent, metallic green hue and body size measuring about 1 cm in length. Read more>>
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