Smart waterfront plants to enhance your shoreline
April 22, 2021
Plants that grow in, along, and just outside water play an important role in protecting water quality and providing habitat for many water loving critters.
Photo by Mark Bugnaski Photography
Living near water offers moments of serenity and beauty inspired by all aspects of the water’s edge. Imagine enjoying the dappled sunlight of a lake shoreline with towering aromatic white pine trees above with delicious blueberries and sparse Pennsylvania sedge below. These plants together with the sounds and cool breeze from the lake can bring a breath of relaxation that Michigan lakes offer. But these plants do a whole lot more than just dazzle our senses. They also protect the water and land.
Almond blossoms grow on a tree spur. More than 80% of the almond crop is carried on those short, compact vegetative shoots.
Spurs have been around for a bit with early examples used by the Roman Legions of Julius Caesar and more contemporary versions used by cowboys throughout the West.
There’s another type of spur found in the West, this one located in almond orchards where more than 80% of the almond crop is carried on those short, compact vegetative shoots called spurs. Each season a portion of that spur population, borne on the prior season’s wood, is responsible for fruit production.
DAP Tampa Fertilizer Index has nearly doubled since the start of the year.
Patton said the recent cold weather bogged down truck, rail, and barge transportation networks across the Midwest. This led to challenges for transportation networks to haul fertilizer from ports to Midwest areas. She said supplies were already low or depleted ahead of the winter season.
Demand for fertilizer began to ramp higher in late 2020 as farmers became optimistic about the 2021 growing season with futures prices of agri commodities rising. Many farmers capitalized on lower fertilizer prices back then and prepaid for a majority of their fertilizer needs for this growing season, Patton said. Additionally, with warm, dry weather during harvest, some farms capitalized on early harvest and good field conditions to apply nutrients.
Farmers, other agricultural professionals and interested parties who work with corn following a previous corn crop can attend a corn rootworm management webinar on March 26 at 10 a.m., hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the University of Illinois Extension, and the University of Wisconsin Extension.
“The strong winds of last summer’s storms caused damage to many corn fields. Inspections of those fields revealed that many continuous corn fields had roots severely damaged by corn rootworms,” said Virgil Schmitt, field agronomist with ISU Extension and Outreach. “Those damaged roots have caused many growers, input suppliers and independent crop consultants to re-evaluate the corn rootworm management strategies in those fields.”
As farmers were bringing in a bountiful harvest after three years of less than ideal conditions, there was a sense of relief after a roller-coaster year set off by the pandemic.
A year later, commodity prices have climbed out of the basement and are heading up to the attic. And with that 180-about face come higher feed prices as well as concerns over rising fertilizer costs and availability.
Last fall, Rabobank forecast that phosphate prices may be elevated through first half of the year due to accelerating commodity prices. Producers were encouraged to pursue fall applications as shortages of inputs could become a reality during spring 2021.