8
CapitalPress.com
July 21, 2017
Oregon
OSU’s dry farming project hosts field days in August
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon State University’s
dry farming project, which be-
gan when drought still gripped
much of the West, has expand-
ed to the point that 30 farms
are hosting field trials this year
on the prospects of growing
vegetables and orchard crops
with little or no irrigation.
Twelve Western Oregon
sites will host field days in Au-
gust, with visits available ev-
ery Tuesday — Aug. 1, 8, 15,
22 and 29. The cost is $10 per
person per date. Registration
and other details are at http://
smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/
dry-farm/dry-farming-collab-
orative
Amy Garrett, an assistant
professor who heads the proj-
ect for OSU Extension’s Small
Farms Program, said the idea
of reducing or even elimi-
nating irrigation continues to
draw interest from farmers
and gardeners across the coun-
try and even internationally.
This year, project participants
in Western Oregon are grow-
ing squash, melons, zucchini,
dry beans, tomatoes or corn
in 100-square-foot plots that
allow for replication and com-
parison of results.
Garrett, who has been re-
searching dry farming since
2013, said the project is 10
times larger than when she
started. The project’s Facebook
group, Dry Farming Collabo-
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press File
Amy Garrett, an instructor with Oregon State University Extension’s Small Farms program, with vege-
tables grown without irrigation in Corvallis, Ore., in August 2015.
rative, now has more than 270
members.
The program particular-
ly attracts small farmers and
new farmers, who are drawn
to growing food but run up
against one of agriculture’s ba-
sic problems.
“What started me off on this
path is that I work with a lot of
landowners who are on land
without water rights,” Garrett
said.
The most recent, or “ju-
nior,” water rights holders are
the first to be shut off during
shortages, and Garrett said
some people interested in dry
farming came to it after losing
irrigation in 2015. Others lack
the capital to sink a well or set
up an irrigation system.
In urban areas, master gar-
deners who are paying for ex-
pensive city water make up a
growing contingent of people
interested in dry farming, Gar-
rett said.
It’s not for everyone, how-
ever, and it’s not as simple as
keeping the sprinklers turned
off. Dry farming is best suited
for Western Oregon and West-
ern Washington, where the soil
soaks up plentiful rain from
fall, through winter and into the
spring. In addition, dry farming
requires careful site selection,
soil preparation and planning,
Garrett said. Seeds and plant
starts are planted deep to put
them closer to the damp soil
below.
Garrett said melons, peach-
es and tomatoes grown by the
dry farming method attain in-
tense flavor.
Allen Dong, who operates
Regulus Associates farm in
Elmira, Ore., west of Eugene,
is hosting one of the field day
events. He’s a former Univer-
sity of California-Davis irri-
gation researcher, and said dry
farming comes with trade-offs.
Dry farming hastens plant
maturity and shortens the sea-
son, he said, but yield decreases
in a linear relationship to water
availability.
Dong grows dry beans and
garlic for market, and dry farms
the garlic to help with disease
control. “I get a higher yield if
I irrigate, but it’s not very mar-
ketable when they get all that
gray mold.”
Plants don’t care where wa-
ter comes from, he said, and
will seek it out in the soil profile
if not getting it from irrigation.
“For people with no water
rights, they can do dry farm-
ing with no irrigation, but they
have to keep in mind there’s a
lot of competition for that wa-
ter stored in the soil profile —
mainly weeds.”
He said people trying to
dry farm must reduce planting
density, remove cover crops
that will compete for water
and make sure no tree roots are
snaking underground to steal
moisture.
He said a model of reduced
irrigation, rather than no irri-
gation, is a better choice for
farmers.
“There are things you have
to pay attention to with dry
farming,” he said. “You can
make a lot more mistakes when
you reduce irrigation, and still
come out ahead.”
Landowner blows whistle on plumeless thistle
EO Media Group
HEPPNER, Ore. — A new in-
vasive weed has been spotted for
the first time growing in southern
Morrow County.
Plumeless thistle, which has
previously been identified in
neighboring Grant County and a
few small locations in Wallowa
County, was recently found by a
landowner while out spraying for
other types of thistle in the area.
While it may look similar to
Scotch thistle or musk thistle —
with their distinctive rose-colored
flowers — plumeless thistle is
distinct from its fellow invasive
brethren. The weed can grow more
than 4 feet tall, with spiny leaves
measuring 4-8 inches long.
Blooms usually occur between
May and July, and each plant can
produce up to 1,000 seeds. Once
established, plumeless thistle can
degrade pasture land by crowding
out more desirable forage, making
it all but impossible to graze cattle.
Landowners who suspect they
may have plumeless thistle on
their property should call the Mor-
row County weed control office
at 541-989-9500. Early detection
and rapid response is key to con-
trolling the weed before it can be-
come widespread.
Plumeless thistle, a
state-listed noxious
weed, was recently
found in southern
Morrow County.
Photo contributed by
Dave Pranger
John Deere Dealers
See one of these dealers for a demonstration
29-1/#4N
Noted wine
climatologist
will head
program
at Linfield
College
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
In the wine world, and in the
curious niche it occupies in Or-
egon agriculture, it is big news
that a professor, a wine clima-
tologist, is moving from one
college to another.
Greg Jones, although as un-
assuming an academic as you’ll
find, carries that kind of heft.
Linfield College in McMin-
nville, Ore., in Yamhill County
where the state’s
wine industry
came of age,
announced that
Jones has been
hired to oversee
its Wine Educa-
tion Program.
The college of-
Greg
Jones
fers an interdis-
ciplinary minor
in the subject, which seems
unfair to previous generations
of college students.
Nonetheless, Jones is leav-
ing Southern Oregon Uni-
versity in Ashland, where he
directs the Division of Busi-
ness, Communication and the
Environment and is a research
climatologist with SOU’s Envi-
ronmental Science and Policy
Program. He’s considered an
expert on how climate variabil-
ity and change affect grapevine
growth and wine production.
The website Great North-
west Wine said Jones’ move to
Linfield is “international news.”
Tom Danowski, president and
CEO of the Oregon Wine Board,
described Jones as a “longtime
friend to Oregon’s grape grow-
ers and winemakers.”
“His stellar global reputation
for excellence in his field contin-
ually reminds us how lucky we
are to have him here in Oregon’s
wine community,” Danowski
said in a prepared statement.
Linfield President Thomas
Hellie said Jones has “earned
an international reputation for
his research on wine, climate
and the environment.” In a pre-
pared statement, he said Jones
is a “perfect fit for Linfield.”
Jones agrees. The opportu-
nity was unexpected, he said,
but came at a time when he was
ready for change and new chal-
lenges after 20 years in Ash-
land. The move puts him phys-
ically at the nexus of Oregon’s
expanding and well-regarded
wine industry, with 100 winer-
ies within 50 miles.
Equally exciting, Jones said,
is the chance to shape Linfield’s
wine education program. The
first task, he said, is to make
wine studies an academic ma-
jor in addition to a minor. He
said Linfield will not compete
with universities to crank out
winemakers, but instead will
offer a broad liberal arts over-
view of how wine functions as
a business and a sustainable ag-
ricultural enterprise.
He envisions students get-
ting a four-year degree in wine
studies from Linfield, then
perhaps going on to master’s
degrees in viticulture from Or-
egon State, Washington State,
the University of Califor-
nia-Davis or elsewhere.
Jones organized the indus-
try’s Terroir Congress that was
held at Linfield in the summer
of 2016, with about 100 scien-
tists attending from around the
world. Wine Business Monthly
named him one of the top 50 in-
dustry leaders last year as well.
The Oregon Wine Press chose
him Wine Person of the Year in
2009 and the website intowine.
com picked him as one of the
100 most influential people in
the industry in 2012 and 2013.
He’s one of 10 Americans hon-
ored for his work with the Por-
tuguese wine industry.
Jones, 57, said his interest in
wine climatology is a “chicken
or egg” question. His parents,
Earl and Hilda Jones, founded
Abacela Winery in Roseburg,
Ore., in 1995. It was questions
his father asked while starting
the Tempranillo varietal win-
ery that started Jones thinking
about the niche science of wine
climatology.