Digger magazine

Written to make you a nursery industry expert.

Hall of Famers give gift towards horticultural industry advocacy

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Oregon Nurseries’ Hall of Fame members Mark and Jolly Krautmann, owners of Heritage Seedlings and Liners in Salem, Oregon, announced a $25,000 gift to the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) in January. The gift was made “to honor the many people and relationships they have fostered in what Mark calls the craft of horticulture,” HRI said […]

March 2023: Water Outlook 2023

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The March 2023 issue of Digger takes a deep dive into the nursery industry’s use of water, the essential input for the propagation and growth of plant material. Columns: Growing Knowledge, an ongoing series provided by Oregon State University in collaboration with the USDA and in partnership with OAN. Download a PDF of this issue. Please […]

Finding your flow

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Today’s technology can automate every aspect of irrigation, saving labor and water, but it comes with a price With irrigation controls at your fingertips and data on soil moisture levels and plant stress a click away, today’s nursery producer has more control over plant health than at any time in history. And with labor and […]

High times for low-water plants

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Retail garden centers increasingly turn to drought-tolerant varieties that beat the heat The summer of 2015 was a turning point in the Northwest, which suffered the longest heat wave in 75 years. Portland had more days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit than any other year in recorded history up to that time. That year marked a […]

Ponds with new purpose

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Capturing more “free” water, containing runoff and reusing costly fertilizer are benefits of keeping nursery ponds in tip-top shape Like all irrigation systems, nursery ponds require maintenance for continued smooth operation. In addition to routine inspection, testing and maintenance of pipelines, pumping plant components and other mechanical components, most ponds will require periodic cleaning, regrading […]

Water, water everywhere?

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Western nursery associations team up to tackle the rising tide of water woes Glenda Mostek, executive director of the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association, has a colorful way of sizing up one of the bigger issues facing the Centennial State’s nursery industry. “Whisky is for drinking, water is for fighting,” she said, quoting a phrase […]

A farmland boom

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Despite soaring interest rates, farmland values in Oregon show no signs of slumping After a record sales year for nursery growers in 2021, the economic outlook for the industry remains mostly positive (McClellan, 2022). One of the main economic issues facing producers is the increasing cost of labor, as general price inflation and a tight […]

Water right transfers

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The future of water allocation in Oregon In this year’s water issue of the Digger, you’ve had an opportunity to read about the importance of this vital resource. In recent years, the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) has come under intense pressure from the press and Secretary of State’s Audits Division to better manage the […]

The lifeblood of our industry

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The Water Issue is one of the most pertinent Digger efforts to serve our membership. We hope that how we lay out the issues makes sense and provides some context of the dynamics we are facing at the state and federal levels. Our industry stretches the water resource farther than most of those involved in […]