General
Companies are increasingly substituting biodegradable plastics for regular plastics, given their environmental and socioeconomic benefits. The agricultural industry is no exception. Learn more...
Beware Signs of White Rot in Garlic and Other Allium Crops
White rot is a very serious disease of garlic and onion. This three-page Green Thumb publication will help you to identify the disease and prepare a defense against its growth in your garden,...
Any gardener gets discouraged when they see a dark, leathery patch develop on the bottom end of their vine-ripened tomatoes. The blemish indicates blossom-end rot, a calcium-deficiency disorder...
Conduct Your Own Garden Research
Want to know whether a new potato variety yields more than an old standard? This publication explains how to run scientific experiments in market or backyard gardens and interpret your results.
Controlando a las Tuzas en Idaho
Una de las alimañas vertebradas más destructivas y prevalentes de Idaho, las tuzas pueden controlarse restringiendo su acceso a las plantas de alto valor, inundando las madrigueras de tuza,...
Controlling Billbug Grubs in Lawns
This publication describes symptoms and control strategies for billbug grubs (larvae) in Idaho lawns. Nonchemical strategies include growing grass varieties that are resistant to billbug feeding...
Core Aeration of Lawns—Benefits and Procedures
Two issues that commonly reduce the health and attractive appearance of a lawn are soil compaction and the development of a thick thatch layer. Core aeration offers a solution. In this Idaho Green...
Empiece las Semillas Adentro con Éxito
Empezando las semillas adentro comienza con la programación para asegurar que sus trasplantes están listos para irse para afuera cuando el jardín está listo para recibirlos. Esta hoja de datos...
Encouraging Beneficial Insects in Your Garden
Discusses how to use beneficial insects for controlling garden pests, including how to protect beneficials, create habitat for them, and buy and release them. Includes drawings of common...
Growing Food Safely in Idaho School Gardens
This guide is created for teachers, parents, volunteers, school administrators, food-service professionals and everyone else engaged in youth gardening projects in Idaho. It is meant to serve as a...
Herbaceous Ornamentals: Annuals, Perennials, and Ornamental Grasses
How to obtain, plant and care for flowers, grasses and bulbs for the short-season garden. Includes detailed tables listing hardy annuals, perennials, bulbs and grasses suitable for short-season,...
This Idaho Green Thumb How-to fact sheet covers identification and control of hobo spiders, mistakenly referred to as "aggressive house spiders." These spiders can bite but are no longer thought to...
Idaho Master Gardener Program Handbook, 20th Edition
$55 Gardeners throughout Idaho use this basic gardening handbook as their text in the increasingly popular master gardener classes. Chapters cover topics such as basic botany, backyard composting,...
Idaho Spring Barley Production Guide
Barley is one of Idaho’s most important crops. Although its harvested acreage has decreased in the past twenty years, the state is still the nation’s top barley producer. Published in 2003, this...
La Mancha de la Hoja del Álamo Temblón y del Álamo
Esta hoja de datos para los jardineros caseros cubre los síntomas, el ciclo de vida y las medidas de control para la mancha de hoja, una enfermedad común y ocasionalmente severa de los Álamos...
This fact sheet for home gardeners covers symptoms, life cycle and control measures for leaf spot, a common and occasionally serious disease of aspen and poplar trees caused by fungi in the genus...
Managing Boxelder Bugs Around Your Home
A common nuisance pest in Idaho, boxelder bugs can become intolerably numerous. Learn their appearance, hosts and life cycle and ways you can manage them with and without insecticides. Authors:...
Managing Elm Seed Bugs around Your Home
The elm seed bug (Arocatus melanocephalus) in Idaho invades homes in July and August from surrounding landscapes where elm trees grow. Posing no direct threat to plants or people, they can still...
Managing Pocket Gophers in Idaho Lawns and Landscapes
One of Idaho's most prevalent and destructive vertebrate pests, pocket gophers can be controlled by restricting their access to high-value plants, flooding gopher burrows, trapping and poisoning.
Managing Voles in Idaho Lawns and Landscapes
Voles can be managed without chemicals or with chemicals called "rodenticides." Nonchemical approaches include eliminating vole habitat, excluding voles from sensitive areas and trapping. Toxic...
$2.50 The enjoyment of growing plants can be enhanced by using successful methods. This 20-page booklet covers seed selection, starting plants indoors, planting seeds outdoors, and starting both...
Propagation of Plants by Grafting and Budding
This handbook is well illustrated with clear photographs and drawings. It covers terms used in budding and grafting, tools and materials, grafting and budding factors, kinds of grafts, budding...
Propagation of Plants from Specialized Structures
Most plants reproduce from seed, but some — especially those that produce specialized stems, roots and leaves — grow or multiply from their own parts. Potato tubers or rooted runners generated by...
If not caught early, slime flux (bacterial wetwood) create unsightly stains on and disagreeable odors around a number of Idaho trees, typically cottonwood, willow and elm. Worse, it can also kill...
If not caught early, slime flux (bacterial wetwood) create unsightly stains on and disagreeable odors around a number of Idaho trees, typically cottonwood, willow and elm. Worse, it can also kill...
Spring Vegetable Planting Guide for Idaho
Idaho's diverse climate makes it a challenging place to grow vegetables, so if you're planning to start a vegetable garden this spring, this planting guide is for you. It provides basic, crucial...
Start Seeds Indoors with Success
Starting plants at home from seed is economical and rewarding. There's more variety from which to choose, which allows you more flexibility in planning your garden. Part of the Idaho Green Thumb...
The Care and Maintenance of Wood Shingle and Shake Roofs
Wood shingles and shakes can provide years of service if properly installed and maintained. Learn what kinds of wood make the best roofing material; how to protect against fungus, moss and lichen;...
Urban Farming For Healthy Water
Community-based agriculture and home rain gardens can help protect water with soil conservation and wise water use. In this University of Idaho Extension video, the Gathering Garden stands as a...
Urban Greenspaces for Clean Water
Stormwater runoff carries lots of pollution from parking lots and other impervious surfaces in urbanized areas. Greenspaces offer an opportunity to filter and treat stormwater through natural...
Vermicomposting relies on worms to produce nutrient-dense vermicast from recycled organic food waste and other natural materials. The project takes up very little space, making it a convenient and...
If you're interested in learning how to recognize Idaho's stinging yellowjackets, bald-faced hornets and paper wasps, check out this helpful Idaho Green Thumb How-To. You'll also glean a brief...
Weeds are opportunistic, but many of those found in Idaho lawns can be prevented and controlled. This Idaho Green Thumb How-To provides the basics about how to deal with these stubborn plants.
A poisonous noxious weed, white bryony grows rapidly and can smother and kill small trees and shrubs. Learn its characteristics and how to identify and control it in this profile of the viny member...