Roots in Research WMREC Headquarters - Keedysville Facility - Yield Year 2023

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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UMD Bee Lab and the New UMD Bee Squad

https://www.umdbeelab.com/ https://umdbeesquad.com/

About The Lab
The Honey Bee Lab at the University of Maryland has diverse personnel with multidisciplinary scientific backgrounds who bring a fresh perspective to solving problems. Research in the laboratory is focused on an epidemiological approach to honey bee health. We are proud to share our research into the major mechanisms that are responsible for recurring high loss levels in honey bee populations, such as pests and pathogens associated with honey bees, loss of natural forage habitat due to large monocultural croplands, and pressure from human induced changes in the environment.

Our team has led and managed the USDA APHIS National Honey Bee Disease Survey since 2009. We are also a major partner and founding member of the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), who collaborates closely with beekeepers from across the country to study and better understand the loss in honey bee colonies in the United States.

You can find Realtime results about these efforts at our database portals: https://research.beeinformed.org/state_ reports/

Click here to purchase UMD Honey 

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Optimizing Early Season Pest Management for Maryland Field Corn

Kelly Hamby, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Department of Entomology Maria Cramer, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Entomology

   Field corn insect pest management decisions begin before planting, including selecting hybrids with or without different plant incorporated protectants and/ or insecticide seed treatments. At planting, in-furrow insecticides can also be used. These products vary in their efficacy and residual control as well as impacts to beneficial natural enemies that feed upon pests. In addition, they redundantly target many of the same sporadic early season insect pests while potentially not controlling others. We compared pest management efficacy and pest pressure between an untreated control (bare seed), Poncho® 250 (clothianidin 0.25 mg/ seed) treated seed, and an in-furrow application of Capture LFR® (bifenthrin 13.6 fl oz/acre.)  Read more>> 

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Biological Control Introductions Targeting Spotted-Wing Drosophila

Kelly Hamby, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Department of Entomology

Since its introduction to the continental U.S. in 2008, spotted-wing drosophila (SWD, Drosophila suzukii) has become the key insect pest of soft-skinned fruit crops. It can make use of a relatively broad range of crop and non-crop fruits to feed upon and reproduce and populations can build very quickly. Therefore, it is very difficult to manage. After many years of testing in quarantined laboratories to evaluate the risks and benefits of a release, permits were approved to introduce a biological control agent that was found it in its native range: Ganaspis brasiliensis. G. brasiliensis are tiny wasps lay their eggs inside SWD larve.

The wasp larva feeds inside the fly larva, which continues to develop until the pupal stage before the wasp larvae kills it. After finishing development, an adult wasp emerges from the pupa instead of SWD. With the help of USDA’s Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit (USDA-BIIRU) in Newark, DE, we have been releasing G. brasiliensis and determining whether they are establishing and parasitizing SWD in non-crop areas and mixed small fruit plantings at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center.

Thus far, we have not only found the wasps we released, but also another wasp species, Leptopilina japonica, which parasitizes between 0-37% of the SWD pupae collected from different fruit at WMREC. 

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Research Update: Effect of Soil Fertility on Triticale Yield and Quality

Amanda Grev, PhD, Forage and Pasture Specialist, University of Maryland Extension and Jeff Semler, Principal Agent, University of Maryland Extension

It is well known that cover crops can provide many benefits in terms of soil health and nutrient retention, but in addition to this, winter forages can also serve as a high yielding and high quality forage crop for feeding livestock. Winter forages like triticale have been found to yield 2 to 6 tons of dry matter per acre and can produce forage with 180+ RFQ (relative forage quality) and 17 to 20% CP (crude protein). As a result, triticale silage has become a popular forage choice for many dairy producers to increase forage supply.

Given this, triticale has the potential to be not only a high quality forage but also a good source of protein for livestock, potentially even a more economical alternative compared to other feed ingredients such as soybean meal for meeting ration protein needs. Read more>> 

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How We Came to Have the ‘Monocacy’ Hop

Bryan Butler, Agriculture and Food Systems, Carroll County, University of Maryland Extension, 700 Agriculture Center, Westminster, Maryland 21157
Tom Barse, Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm, 8253 Dollyhyde Road, Mount Airy, Maryland 21771
Nahla Bassil, USDA-ARS, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, 33447 Peoria Rd., Corvallis, OR 97333
Kim Lewers, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Agricultural Research Center-West, Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory, Bldg. 010A, 10300 Baltimore Ave. Beltsville, MD 20705

Discovery
The hop plant was found in the yard of Green Spring Farm in Frederick County, Maryland, in the late 1960’s by veterinarian, Dr. Ray Ediger. Green Spring Farm is located at 10521 Old Frederick Rd., Frederick, MD, 21701-1955, at latitude 39.3123N, longitude 77.2341W, and an elevation of 106 m. Although this hop plant’s prior history, origin and age are unknown, Green Spring Farm has been continuously farmed by the family of Dr. Ediger's wife, Louise, since 1886 (more than 135 years). The farm is part of the original Carrollton Manor, once owned by Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Edigers took over farming at Green Spring in 1992 upon the death of Louise’s mother, Daisy Stull. Initially, it was a dairy and crop farm; the dairy cattle were subsequently replaced with beef cattle. Read more>>

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2023 Maryland Soybean Fungicide Efficacy Trials

Andrew Kness, Senior Agriculture Extension Agent, University of Maryland Extension, akness@umd.edu

JUSTIFICATION
Fungicides are becoming increasingly popular in full season soybean production. These trials provide data that soybean producers can benefit from, such as: fungicide efficacy for managing common fungal diseases of soybean, monitor fungicide resistant pest populations, and track the economic impact of foliar fungicide applications over multiple years and environments unique to Maryland.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1. Evaluate the efficacy of select foliar fungicides on full season soybeans grown on two research farms in Maryland by measuring foliar disease incidence and severity.
2. Determine any greening or green stem effects of the fungicides.
3. Monitor fungicide active ingredient efficacy over time and identify any fungicide insensitive foliar fungal pathogens.
4. Determine the yield impact of foliar fungicides and their economic impact.  Read more>>

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Do Slugs Detect and Avoid Ground Beetle Natural Enemies?

Kelly Hamby, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Department of Entomology                                                           Maria Cramer, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Entomology

Slugs choosing between two dark shelters in a laboratory choice test.

Multiple species of carabid ground beetle feed upon slugs and their eggs, helping reduce pest pressure by reducing the overall population. However, natural enemies can also reduce damage by causing pests to spend time avoiding getting eaten, reducing time spent feeding and/or population success. To determine whether slugs can detect and avoid their ground beetle predators, we conducted choice tests by providing slugs the option of two dark shelters one with and one without beetle chemical cues at the entrance. We collected live slugs and ground beetles from two research and education centers in the spring and summer. Slugs were used to establish a population for choice tests in the fall.

Chemical cues were extracted from fresh beetles using ethanol as a solvent and held in the refrigerator until the experiment occurred. Slugs detected and avoided the chemical cues from one beetle species, a carabid ground beetle that likely feeds on slugs. The slugs showed no preference for treated or untreated shelters for three additional species of beetle, a generalist predator that may feed on slugs, a primarily seed-feeding control, and another control beetle that naturally feeds on decaying vegetation, bark, and leaves. Therefore, slugs can detect and may avoid some carabid predators, potentially making those predators even more effective for reducing slug damage.

We would like to thank the Maryland Grain Producers and Utilization Board for providing funding for this work.

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Rootstock effect on ‘Buckeye Gala’ Tree Performance, Maturity and Fruit Quality

Macarena Farcuh (PI)

This study was conducted in an NC-140 replicated trial that was planted in Spring 2019 and consists of ‘Buckeye Gala’ grafted on 10 different rootstocks. 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. To date, we have almost 100% tree survival in this planting (except for one Gala tree grafted on G.935 rootstock). Read more>>

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Effect of Potash Fertility on Orchardgrass Yield: 2023 Research Update

Andrew Kness and Erika Crowl

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. Plots were 6 feet wide by 20 feet long. Each variety received three fertility treatments: 1.) 0 lbs/A potash, 2.) 45 lbs/A potash (based on soil test), or 3.) 200 lbs/A potash, based on the potassium removal rate of 4 ton/A orchardgrass yield. Read more>>
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Adapting to Climate Change

Excerpt from Momentum Magazine, Winter 2024 Edition
Kimbra Cutlip, Assistant Program Director, University of Maryland

Already feeling the impacts of climate change, many farmers need help adapting to unpredictable conditions now, as well as in the future, 

because climate change not only brings new temperature and moisture levels, but it allows pests and diseases to spread into new territories. Researcher Chris Walsh began thinking about that decades ago. Now, through years of careful crossbreeding, he has developed two new breeds of apples that address a growing suite of problems for apple growers.

His apples are heat-tolerant, blight resistant, low-maintenance, and delicious-tasting.

His apples are heat-tolerant, blight resistant, low-maintenance, and delicious-tasting.

While orchard fruits play a significant role in the world’s economy and diet, wheat and corn fill the nation’s granaries and provide a significant portion of the world’s calories. Both are facing environmental threats around the world.

After thousands of years of breeding for large grains and high yields, modern wheat lacks the genetic diversity essential to adapt to those

emerging threats. Fortunately, an international team led by Professor Vijay Tiwari has sequenced the complete genome of an ancient variety of wheat known as einkorn. This breakthrough allows researchers to identify genetic traits like disease- and drought-tolerance, and potentially reintroduce those resilience genes into modern bread wheat.

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