PHC

OK, but why soil? Take a minute to picture a tree. Maybe even grab a pen right now and draw one out in the margin – I’ll wait. Some things you might note are the canopy shape, leaf-on or leaf-off, flowers or fruit and branching structure. Did you include the root system in your picture? […]

The name northern tooth, Climacodon septentrionalis, a common trunk decay fungus of urban maples, is a misnomer. The decay fungus is actually widely distributed in North America east of the Rockies and is found as far south as the Gulf states. Maples, especially sugar maple, are the most common hosts, but it is widely reported […]

A dirty dozen or so families of sucking insects are key pests of woody plants. Who are these sucking insects? Suckers belong to a large clan of insects called Hemiptera. More than 10,000 species of Hemiptera are found in North America alone. Most are terrestrial, but many, such as water striders, are aquatic. Some, such […]

The notion of “organic” with respect to plant culture dates back to 1940, when Lord Northbourne (Walter Ernest Christopher James), a visionary agriculturalist, coined the term “organic farming” in his book Look to the Land. His concept of organic farming centered on an approach to farming that was ecologically balanced and sustainable. The operative principles […]