Agriculture in Bingham County

Agriculture

UI Extension, Bingham County offers a variety of agricultural programs and resources. Contact Reed Findlay to request upcoming class schedules and more information on any programs.  

Annual potato conference

Plan to attend the annual Idaho Potato Conference. This website lists schedules, lodging in Pocatello and registration for the event. You can also find the proceedings of past potato conferences.

Soil testing

The Analytical Sciences Laboratory at the University of Idaho can help you determine your soil's fertility. UI Extension, Bingham County has soil testing kits available. We can walk you through the process of taking a soil sample of your property. The results will be returned to you and we can discuss options for your soil. The lab also processes water quality samples and does plant analysis and veterinary toxicology.

Cereals program

UI Extension cereal specialists conduct research and provide information on diseases that threaten our grain crops. Information on area cereal schools can be found here.

Pesticide licensing and recertification

Many agricultural chemicals can only be used by trained individuals. Information on applying to become a certified pesticide user is found at the Idaho Department of Agriculture, including application forms, signup information, and annual recertification seminar class scheduled and locations.

Evapotranspiration (ET) charts

Proper irrigation scheduling is essential to high quality crops. The Agri-Met site lists water use charts for various crops in our area as well as for lawns and turf.

Weeds

Idaho has 70 species of plants on the noxious weed control list. By law these weeds must be controlled if you find them on your property. The Weed Science Society of America has set up a website to identify weeds you may have found. Links to common weed images as well as poisonous plant information and biological control of weeds are included.

Certified hay

Producers may have hay certified as weed-free through their county's weed control supervisor. Idaho Weed Awareness maintains this site listing certified producers.

Potato leafhoppers in alfalfa

There are many insects that live and thrive in our alfalfa fields. Many of them are beneficial insects that help us keep damaging insect populations low. The potato leafhopper is one of the insects that can damage our alfalfa crops. These insects are quite small, and you may need a magnifying glass to see them. They are yellow green and have a wide head with large eyes.

Recognizing leafhopper damage

Scouting fields is essential in controlling this insect. Use a sweep net and check various locations in the field. Young alfalfa stands are the most easily damaged by this insect.

Potato Leafhopper damage can be confused with drought. Following potato leafhopper feeding plants will be stunted and roots will be underdeveloped. Leaf cupping will also be evident. All this may appear as drought.

There are other signs of damage that are more indicative of potato leafhopper. This insect feeds by inserting its mouth piece at the tip of the leaf and sucking plant juices. This insect injects a toxin into the plant while feeding, which interferes with transportation of fluids and nutrients in the leaves. This causes the leaf tip to yellow in a v shaped pattern at the leaf tip.

Controlling leafhopper 

Insecticides can kill potato leafhopper, if populations are detected early. Leafhoppers can migrate from other fields after you have sprayed, so you may need to spray a couple times. If you did not detect this insect early and your field is already yellow and stunted the best thing to do is to mow your field. Then, if you detect hoppers on the regrowth, spray with insecticides.

If the crop is not at the stage you would like, such as 10% bloom, you should still cut it. A field of alfalfa that is heavily infested with these hoppers will not continue to grow and yield well. Therefore, it is best to cut if it is heavily damaged.

Penn State has developed a chart that shows what the threshold levels of hoppers are per sweep. It is based on plant height, cost of insecticide and the value of the hay. The chart only covers stands that are less than a foot tall. It is rarely a good economic decision to spray for leafhoppers when the crop is over a foot tall. It is recommended to just cut the stand at that height if it is damaged by these hoppers.

The potato leafhopper can be controlled if you take the proper steps and look for them early and monitor after each cutting.

Chokecherry gall

Chokecherry is a very common fruit tree in southern Idaho. The fruit from these trees is used to make chokecherry jam or syrup. The taste of the berries is quite bitter, but once made into syrup it is delicious.

Chokecherry’s can be identified by the leaves. The leaves are oval and alternate along the stem, 3 to 10 cm long, with sharp teeth, and are pointed at the tip. The most distinguishing characteristic of the leaves are the small reddish glands near the base of the leaf blade.

If you are going to consume any type of berry you find, make sure you get it positively identified as many berries in our area are poisonous.

Some misshaped chokecherry berries have been found in our area. The berries were long and rather large and had been formed into a gall. When cut open, the gall was full of red maggots. These cannot be used for food and will not make jam or syrup.

What has occurred here is that a small fly, a midge, has laid eggs on the tree. The eggs hatch into maggots, which burrow into the fruit of the chokecherry. Once inside, the feeding of these maggots caused the tree to form a gall in place of the fruit it would have otherwise produced. These large galls have no pit and are filled with liquid and maggots.

In order to control this midge you will need to remove all the galls prior to the flies hatching and destroy them and the maggots inside. The maggots will mature and hatch prior to the time when the unaffected berries mature. If you do not destroy the maggots early, they will drop to the ground, pupate and hatch out as adults ready to infest the tree the next year. Over the years the populations of this insect can increase to the point that most of the fruit is affected.

This year as you pick chokecherries, be on the lookout for the chokecherry gall.