Farmers revisit mustard green manure field day

Tilling plant underneath soil has many benefits

MOSES LAKE — Several area farmers got the opportunity to catch up with mustard Tuesday morning.

For two hours, about 40 people gathered on Dale Gies' farm outside of Moses Lake for the Washington State University Grant-Adams County Extension 2004 Mustard Green Manure Field Day Tuesday.

"(It's) to give farmers information about these mustard green manure crops that we've been growing, both to improve their soils and to control some of the diseases in the soils, mainly for potato production," explained Andy McGuire, a Lauzier Agricultural Systems educator with WSU Extension.

Some of the benefits of mustard green manures include suppression of the disease Verticillium dahliae in potato production, increased water infiltration, improved resistance to wind erosion and suppression of nematodes.

Green manure is the practice of growing any crop and tilling it under the soil. McGuire explained that the practice is thousands of years old. Farmers would grow crops and then churn them under in the soil for the benefits that they would see afterward, for disease control and for physical characteristics of the soil.

"That's really what farmers are going for now — control of fungal disease and nematodes," he said. "We think that (mustard) has some specific characteristics that help in controlling those diseases."

Bill Schillinger, research agronomist with the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at WSU, said that McGuire's efforts are funded by the Columbia Plateau PM 10 project, a project specifically to do research on how to reduce dwindling particulates. He said the area is very prone to wind erosion, and so the school is trying to encourage anything that will help combat that.

"We view this as very important," he said of the field day.

"We're interested in this type of rotation in our onions," said Pasco farmer Jonathan Bauman, succinctly explaining why he was in attendance.

Western Farm Service field consultant Brad Bishop said he works with a lot of growers in the southern part of the Basin.

"(People should do something like this) to benefit their soil," he said. "(It's) good farming practices."

Extension office research technician Sally Hubbs said that field days like this Tuesday's excursion get information out to the producers to help them out with the planning of the rotation of their crops.

"This is just one more event that will help them produce better," she said.