Seeds, Weeds, and Needs:
Farming Native Seed
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Great Basin Research Center Ephraim, UT
Therese Meyer, Jason Vernon,
Danny Summers, Tana Pickett
1/30/2008
Building capacity:
“ Meet
with potential growers
“ Teach about the need
“ Advertise the opportunity
“ Convince them to sign on
“ Follow through with education, support,
technical assistance
“ Buy their seed at a premium
Native Forbs: We need more
seed!
“ Non-native
grass and forb seed
abundant (crested wheat, alfalfa)
“ Native grass seed becoming more
available (western wheatgrass)
“ Native forb seed: scarce supply
What are Forbs?
“ Herbaceous
“ Not
flowering plants
shrubs
“ Not grasses
“ Examples: pansy (non-native);
globemallow, balsamroot (natives)
Why do we want more native
forb seed?
To restore herbaceous understory
“ Important components of the wildlife food
chain: vegetarians eat plants
“ Mule deer (Tier III)
“ Utah, Gunnison, White-tailed Prairie Dogs
(Tier I, II, II) [Black-footed ferret (Tier I)]
“ Greater, Gunnison Sage-grouse (Tier II, I)
“ Sharp-tailed grouse (Tier II)
“ Pygmy rabbit (Tier II)
“ Desert tortoise (Tier I)
“
Great Basin Restoration
Initiative
“ Funded
by BLM, Forest Service (Rocky
Mt. Research Station), DWR
“ Poorly managed livestock grazing
“ A century of wild land fire suppression
“ Drought
“ Conifer encroachment
“ Increasing fire frequency and intensity
“ Invasive weeds (cheatgrass, knapweed)
Squarose Knapweed
Cheatgrass, fire
Milford fire 2007: 350,000 Acres
Big Hollow, Salt Creek 2007
AOSCA program: Utah Crop
Improvement Assn.
“ Foundation
Stock seed
“ Buy-back program, contracts
“ Seed labeling
“ Tie-in to bid process for sales
Seed buy-back program:
“ We
provide stock seed
“ First lb. back to DWR no charge
“ Additional lbs. at 125% going price
“ Or sell on open market
Projected Per-Acre Income:
Globemallow Seed Production Per Acre at $35/lb
$10,000.00
$9,000.00
$8,000.00
$7,000.00
$6,000.00
$5,000.00
$4,000.00
$3,000.00
$2,000.00
$1,000.00
$0.00
36" X 18"
36" X 12"
22" X 18"
Row and Plant Spacing
22" X 12"
Private grower: T-tape, plant plugs 5/29/07
7/25/07 (two months later).
5.1 lbs produced by 8/15/07 (~4.66 g/ft)
L&H Seeds, Connell WA: Indian ricegrass
Flail-Vac
Seed Predation: Weevils
Use “No-Pest” strips while drying, storing seed
Seed cleaning equipment
Debearder
Other Potential Partners:
“ Resource
Conservation and
Development Councils
“ UDAF Specialty Crop grants?
“ Tribes
Research Advances
Seed retrieval study (stratification)
Globemallow plant spacing, harvest
timing (phenology)
Hedysarum inoculants (rhizobial
cultures)
Common gardens
Seed retrieval: fall planting
Seed Retrieval: Overwintered Sept 28-March 14
80%
%Dead
60%
%Hardseed
40%
%Imbibed
%Germ
20%
Species
CR
AC
HE
BO
BA
SA
PE
BO
2
SP
G
R
0%
ER
O
V
Seed Fate
100%
Spring planting
Seed Fate: Spring Planting; March-April
100%
Seed Fat
80%
%Dead
60%
%Hardseed
40%
%Imbibed
%Germ
20%
0%
EROV SPGR PEBO2 BASA HEBO CRAC
Species
Globemallow trial, Fountain Green
Timing of Harvest
Globemallow Harvest Phenology
60
Percent Germinati
50
40
30
20
10
0
Immature fruit (~3%
yield seed/fruits)
Medium fruit (~40%
yield seed/fruits)
Maturity Status
Mature fruit (~45%
yield seed/fruits)
Globemallow Spacing Effect on Seed
Production:
12”
4.97
grams/plant
18”
5.88
grams/plant
Globemallow Seed Production
Grams seed
Globemallow Average Per Plant Seed Production
at 18" Plant Spacing by Species
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
SPCO2
SPGR
SPPA
Species
SPPS
Hedysarum inoculants
Thank you!