Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: general grain crops
Practices
- Education and Training: extension, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research
- Farm Business Management: new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, feasibility study, agricultural finance, market study, value added
- Pest Management: field monitoring/scouting, cultivation
- Production Systems: agroecosystems
- Sustainable Communities: infrastructure analysis, sustainability measures
Proposal summary:
To help replenish the shortage of native seed for revegetation projects and provide farmers with a water-thrifty alternative crop, this project will test ways to establish a native forb for seed production. Edith Isidoro-Mills will compare direct seeding of Penstemon speciosus with use of transplants started in a greenhouse to see which method works better for establishing a stand and producing seed. The idea for using transplants was gleaned from California strawberry producers. Though costly, this labor-intensive method may prove effective for penstemon seed, which typically retails for between $36 and $260 a pound, depending on species, compared with alfalfa seed, for example, which retails for between $2.30 and $3.50 a pound. Isidoro-Mills plans to share what she learns with the newly established Nevada Wildland Seed Producers Association.