Washington Area Meeting - July 12, 2006

Summary

On behalf of the International Plant Propagators' Society I'd like to thank everyone who attended our Area meeting in Washington. I hope it was a worthwhile day for all. Our meeting took place on July 12, 2006. It was strictly a nursery-tour style meeting. It ran between 9am and 6pm. We had 28 attendees.

I would also like to thank everyone who contributed to our meeting. Briggs Nursery sponsored our lunch and Lawyer Nursery contributed many hours to the planning and logistics. Thanks also go to Dr. Rita Hummel and Dr. Gary Chastagner at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center for taking the time to seek and share with our group.

Brigg's Nursery
Our first stop was Brigg's Nursery in Porter, WA. Briggs has been in production for 94 years, beginning as a small fruit crop operation in 1912 under Orson Briggs. In 1980, Bruce Briggs ventured into micropropagation and in 1985 the nursery built one of the first commercial-scale tissue culture laboratories in the US. Today, the Tissue Culture (TC) lab is the beginning for 95% of Briggs Nursery's production.
Third generation owner Gary Briggs acquired a 400-acre property in Porter, WA as the city of Olympia grew around their original nursery site. Throughout the 1990's the transition from Olympia and the production on the new site accelerated. As of June of this year, the company is consolidated entirely on the new site.

Dan Meier, Production Manager speaking to IPPS tour group.

We were able to tour their new 54,000 square foot Conley structure, where the acclimatization and aftercare of the TC plants and standard propagation take place. This is situated next to their new TC laboratory which is nearly double the size of the Olympia lab. We also toured some of their liner production before departing to our next stop. They spoke to the issue of Sudden Oak Death (SOD) and some of the steps they are taking to try and prevent it from entering their facility.

Briggs Nursery: above left, Liz Phillips and Lynne Caton show the tour group their new facilities. Above right: The IPPS tour taking a look at some of the growing range at Porter.

Lawyer Nursery
Our second stop was Lawyer Nursery in Olympia, WA. It was established by David and Esther Lawyer. The couple began growing grafted fruit trees and Amelanchier alnifolia shrubs in 1956, in Plains, Montana, primarily as a hobby. In 1959, they incorporated and began growing trees on their 45 acres.

Bob Buzzo welcoming IPPS to Lawyer Nursery.

In 1979, John Lawyer, their son took over management of the nursery. The nursery expanded and became a significant supplier of seed propagated liners of woody trees and shrubs for the wholesale nursery industry. The Olympia Nursery was purchased in 1988. It now incorporates 175 acres of farmland. The Olympia site has enabled the company to grow a much broader range of woody plants. Lawyer Nursery also has an operation in Central Washington for production of fruit rootstock and budded fruit and shade trees, which was acquired about 7 years ago.

We were able to tour the Olympia Nursery and see some of the beautiful sandy loam soil that enables them to produce their quality bare-root stock. Over the past 5 years, they have added several greenhouses for softwood cutting propagation and plug production of several conifer and deciduous species. They are in the process of developing a shade structure to help acclimate plug crops prior to transplanting as well as a production area for certain crops which are better suited for small containers rather than bare root production.

Above left: Touring the propagation greenhouses at Lawyer Nursery. Above right: Shawn Speidel, Propagator for Lawyer Nursery explaining their boom irrigator for the outdoor propagation area.

Washington State University-Puyallup Research and Extension Center
Our third stop was the Washington State University Puyallup Research and Extension Center. WSU-Puyallup is a university center located within fifty miles of 60% of the state's population. The Center's 125 faculty, staff, and graduate students from 11 academic departments address complex biological, ecological, and social issues.

The 160-acre main campus is comprised of laboratories and offices, state-of-the-art greenhouses, a Master Gardener demonstration garden, 6 acres of certified organic farmland, and several acres of agricultural and natural resource plots. There are an additional 160 acres of research plots including turfgrass, berry breeding and disease, and poplar research at WSU Puyallup's Farm 5.

Our first presentation was by Dr. Gary Chastagner, who gave us an update on Sudden Oak Death (SOD). Although P. ramorum is currently not thought to be established in the Washington landscape, it has been detected in 33 western Washington nurseries since the summer of 2003. Dr. Chastagner reviewed his research with us and showed us a new, quarter million dollar biocontainment facility they have in Puyallup. This facility will enable them to address critical research questions relating to the establishment, host susceptibility, spread and management of P. ramorum. Click here for more information on the WSU Sudden Oak Death Program.

Dr. Gary Chastagner, WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center

Our second presentation was given by Dr. Rita Hummel, who led us through her landscape planting trials and her hybrid pear trial orchard.

The landscape plantings evaluate the effects of compost and bark mulch on trees and shrubs in the landscape. "A longstanding recommendation in the landscape industry calls for the incorporation of compost or other organic material into a large area of soil prior to planting trees, shrubs, and other plants."(Hummel) This experiment began in June of 2001, and will be a long-term project to study this recommendation and its merit.

Dr. Rita Hummel leading the tour through her landscape planting trials.

The hybrid pear trial orchard was established in November of 1993 and 1994. Five hundred hybrid Pyrus (pear) trees were planted. The trees were grown from seed of crosses made by a Landscape Plant Development Center Technician using the Pyrus collection growing at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon. The goal of the project is to develop varieties of small-statured pear trees with superior landscape characteristics that are tolerant of environmental and biological stresses. IPPS tour participants were given an opportunity to judge trees for Dr. Hummel. She is taking feedback from groups such as ours to help with their evaluation process.

IPPS touring Hybrid Pear Orchard in Puyallup.

I would like to thank everyone at Brigg's Nursery and Lawyer Nursery, and Dr. Rita Hummel and Dr. Gary Chastagner at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center for taking the time for our group to visit.

Area Meeting Committee
Many thanks go to the people who helped make this meeting possible: Borek Busta, Lynne Caton, Bob Buzzo, and Shawn Speidel. The volunteers and sponsors are what make our meetings possible.