Portland — If there were any doubt about the diverse faces of Oregon agriculture, consider this: More than 175 prospective farmers have signed up for a one-day Small Farm School offered by Oregon State University Extension.

The program, coordinated by OSU’s Center for Small Farms, takes place from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 12 at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, southeast of Portland. A couple events are at the Clackamas County Event Center in Canby.

Workshops include horse handling and emergency vet care, tractor safety, soil testing, beekeeping and small engine basics, blueberry production, dryland vegetable farming, pasture management and more.

On-line registration is open through Thursday, Sept. 10.

Oregon’s small farms, especially in or next to urban areas, have found a market niche with high-end restaurants, roadside stands, farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription buyers. The state has more than 9,000 farms that are one to nine acres.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9

JOSEPH, Ore. — A group of farmers and Washington State University researchers are studying whether quinoa, a grain traditionally grown in the South American Andes, can be a viable cash crop in the Northwest.

In 2014 Ted Golder of Seal Rock, Ore., came to Eastern Oregon on an exploratory mission. He thought the climate would be similar enough to the Andes to grow quinoa. In a local coffee shop he met Jerome Geortzen of Joseph, who was also on the same mission. Last summer the two started quinoa test plots in fields around the Wallowa Valley.

Golder said he first became interested in quinoa when it became popular in health food markets a few years ago.

“A nutritionist friend of mine in Eugene told me the climate and altitude in Wallowa County is not that different than some areas in South America. Then I learned through Washington State University we really do have one of the most optimum areas to potentially to grow it.”

Golder and Goertzen discovered Washington State had a team of researchers led by professor Kevin Murphy who are working with farmers all over the Northwest to grow different varieties of quinoa.

Last year Golder and Goertzen grew test crops at local farms. Using seed from last year’s crop and a variety from Colorado, this year they have 300 quinoa plants growing in seven rows near a conventional wheat field that Golder said are doing quite well.

In contrast, they have 16 rows of quinoa growing at Patrick Thiel’s Prairie Creek Farm outside of Joseph overseen by Washington State University researchers.

“Quinoa is a good fit with what I do,” Thiel said. “We’ve always grown specialized crops.”

Thiel’s farm is organic, which is more along the lines of what the researchers at Washington State have in mind, Golder said.

“It’s a good fit with WSU — they wanted their test plots grown organically,” Golder said.

Thiel said he was impressed with Washington State’s researchers when they came to lay out the test plots and outlined a uniform regiment for watering and weeding.

“They saw a value in doing a trial here. They get great research information while we keep it organic and grow it in a unique enough area,” Thiel said.

Farming is always a gamble. Golder said last year the weather was more consistent as was the crop.

This year a wet May stunted the growth of the newly planted starts. Thiel said quinoa is physiologically designed to come out of its seed in five days and puts down a taproot.

“If it’s overwatered they will stress and not survive,” Thiel said.

Rows were replanted, pushing out the harvest well into September, Golder said.

Not needing much water may be a major plus considering the extended drought in the West.

“Water is getting tighter every day,” Golder said.

Thiel said in South America quinoa is planted in a field and left until harvest.

“One of the things they liked about that crop is you leave it in an environment where it is doing well by itself,” Thiel said.

Golder said working with Washington State is important to help determine what traits farmers will want in their quinoa crop.

“Do they want it to be easily spotted from other similar plants like lamb’s quarter? Faster maturity?” he said. “The techniques we are using to grow quinoa will be repeated next year with a strategy. We are only half way there.”

Thiel said he couldn’t emphasize enough how important it is that Washington State is involved.

“They’ve worked with potatoes for more than 100 years. I see the same with the quinoa. They know how to do it,” Thiel said.

MURPHY, Ore. (AP) — Deer got the munchies at an industrial hemp crop in southern Oregon.

The deer got by barbed-wire fencing a couple weeks ago and went through the hemp plants like high-powered mowers, the Grants Pass Daily Courier reported.

“Generally, I don’t think they like cannabis. They liked ours, though,” said Cliff Thomason, a real estate agent who is the steward of the first industrial hemp crop in Oregon, which was planted near Murphy by Thomason and his partners with Orhempco.

The company planted roughly 1,000 plants in the section the deer got into, and Thomason said there are only about 40 left.

Industrial hemp has a low level of THC, the psychoactive property of marijuana. Kit Doyle, another partner in Orhemco, said it’s high in protein and that’s likely why the deer went on a binge.

Orhempco has several crops of industrial hemp — each planted at a different time and is in a different stage of maturity. Doyle said the group expects to have other plants go to harvest that will produce hemp seed for sale.

The land is owned by Josephine County Commissioner Cherryl Walker and her husband, Martin Hill. Fellow county Commissioner Simon Hare also is a partner.

Only some of the crop is protected by the tall fencing needed to thwart deer. Doyle said a reason some crops were left vulnerable was because of the uncertainty surrounding the program. A bill in the Oregon Legislature would have put Orhempco out of business had it passed the Senate.

“We wanted to hurry and get in the ground and we didn’t want to spend a lot of money,” Doyle said. “Next year, if we decide to grow in the same place, we will have the necessary infrastructure.”

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — It’s been a smoky summer in Douglas County because of wildfires, and prescribed burns are about to add to the haze.

Farmers and ranchers use controlled burns to prepare their fields and pastures for the spring. The fires remove noxious weeds, brush, insects, and plant disease. They also reduce the buildup of flammable vegetation that can cause massive summer wildfires.

But the burns mean people will see more smoke. To lessen the impact, Kyle Reed of the Douglas Forest Protective Association says the burns are only allowed when conditions are favorable to keep smoke away from heavily populated areas.

To get a burn permit, landowners must prove they have the equipment and personnel to maintain control of the blaze. Fire trails are built around the burn site before the fire starts.

MONDAY, SEPT. 7

The “Timber Belt” running from Northern California up through Oregon and into Washington sustained an economic collapse and population loss similar to the “Rust Belt” and “Corn Belt” of the Midwest, but its recovery has been entirely different, according to the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

In a new report on demographic and economic trends unfolding in rural Oregon, state analysts detail pockets of resurgence, surprisingly hopeful statistics and unanswered questions of what comes next.

“All along the Timber Belt, people keep moving in” at a pace just as strong as the migration to urban centers such as Portland, state economists Mark McMullen and Joshua Lehner wrote.

“In general, these incoming migrants are different than the households moving out,” the analysts wrote. “Much of the time they are older and relocate to rural Oregon as they retire or reduce their work hours.”

The new residents of rural Oregon bring a “lifetime of experience” and wealth, “often in the form of California home equity,” McMullen and Lehner wrote.

“Figuring out how best to exploit the Timber Belt’s strong influx of retirees should be a top priority given such individuals are voting with their feet, in essence, saying they want to live in the area and be a part of the community,” the analysts said. “Overall this is certainly a good thing.”

Rural Oregon loses population during the “root setting” years of ages 25 to 34, when young adults are establishing careers, starting families and buying homes, the report said. Unlike most of rural America, however, Oregon is offsetting those losses with older migrants.

But for the young adults who stay in rural Oregon, McMullen and Lehner said statistics show children raised in rural Oregon, especially Eastern Oregon, have a good chance of succeeding in life.

Harvard University’s Equality of Opportunity Project found that a rural Oregon child born at the bottom income level had a strong probability of reaching the top level as an adult, the authors said. Among more than 700 communities nationwide, the Oregon towns of Burns, Condon, Enterprise, John Day and Lakeview were among the top third in fostering such success, according to McMullen and Lehner.

Bruce Weber, director of the Rural Studies Program at Oregon State University, said the state analysis is “insightful.”

If the “boom and bust” nature of rural economies “creates an environment in which children grow up with different expectations and different levels of investment in education, these could also reduce upward mobility,” Weber said in an email.

Meanwhile, economic recovery in Oregon has pockets of success and stagnation.

While Portland and its suburbs are popping again, most of rural Oregon has not recovered the jobs lost in the recession, the authors said. An exception is the Columbia River Gorge, which the analysts said has benefited from three major trends.

First, agriculture remains strong, mainly fruit, and higher commodity prices helped local farmers. Second, wind farm construction provided investment and jobs from 2007 to 2011, which included the depth of the recession. Last, the unmanned aerial vehicle industry — drones — has grown dramatically over the past decade. Insitu, a major drone manufacturer, is headquartered in Bingen, Wash., across the Columbia from Hood River.

“A large portion of such jobs are on the Washington side of the Columbia River, however the economic and population base in the gorge is on the Oregon side, where much of the consumer spending occurs,” McMullen and Lehner wrote.

Although not cited by name in the state report, Hermiston, in Umatilla County, rode out the recession to become the biggest and fastest growing city in Eastern Oregon.

In Hermiston’s case, a strong agricultural sector is a stabilizing base for the economy, City Manager Byron Smith said.

“However you want to phrase it, people still need to have food,” he said. “A lot of our economy is based on that, either the actual production or the processing of agricultural products.”

Hermiston farmers grow potatoes, onions, melons and multiple types of other irrigated vegetables. The area has several food processing plants, and attracted a DuPont Pioneer corn seed research station.

Finally, the city diversified its economy through growth in the transportation and logistics sector. Wal-Mart has a distribution center in Hermiston, and FedEx and UPS also have facilities in the area.

“That’s another piece of the economy that does well for us,” Smith said.

Online

See the Rural Oregon analysis at https://oregoneconomicanalysis.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/rural-oregon-2015.pdf

Oregon’s small urban farms have an out-sized place on the state’s agricultural landscape, but operators sometimes have trouble finding affordable implements that fit into tight spots and meet city sensibilities.

A Sept. 22 workshop at Oregon State University in Corvallis highlights tools specifically developed or revised for small-scale farms. The tools range from battery-powered tillers — with solar recharging panels — to hand carts with adjustable wheelbases that can expand or retract to match the width of crop rows.

The event includes an equipment showcase and demonstrations, a presentation on ergonomics, tool maintenance and sharpening and a panel discussion.

Businesses taking part include Green Heron Tools, Slow Hand Farm, BCS America, Johnny’s Tools, I Tech Designs and Carts & Tools. An OSU Small Farms Extension news release said people should bring in their hoes, pruners and blades for sharpening at $4 to $12 a tool.

Engineering students from OSU will attend and listen for senior project ideas.

Michael McGowen, whose Carts & Tools business in Corvallis was featured previously in the Capital Press, favors that sort of collaboration.

“I always felt like it was a good fit — agriculture and engineering,” he said. “OK, let’s get the two sides talking and working with each other.”

The event happens Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015 from noon to 6 p.m. at the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture, 844 SW 35th St., Corvallis.

Registration is $25. To register, or for more information, visit http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/smallequip or call the Benton County Extension office, 541-766-3556.

The 2012 Census of Agriculture counted 9,119 Oregon farms of one- to nine acres. Many small-scale farmers, especially new or beginning producers, either can’t afford standard or don’t need the size, fuel use and noise of standard farm equipment.

Funding for the workshop comes in part from the National Institutes of Food and Agriculture, under the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

COQUILLE — There are some very new faces at Coquille's football practices this fall.

COQUILLE — There are some very new faces at Coquille's football practices this fall.

BANDON — With the many changes it's undergone, it's time to take a fresh look at Coast Community Health Center.

BANDON — With the many changes it's undergone, it's time to take a fresh look at Coast Community Health Center. 

SALEM — Expansion plans at several Oregon dairies have caused a backlash among vegans and animal rights activists, but farm regulators lack the authority to consider many of their objections.

Likewise, the Oregon Department of Agriculture can’t do much about dairy industry concerns that publicly disclosed regulatory filings will expose farms to trespassing and vandalism.

As mandated by the federal Clean Water Act, the agency issued a public notice in June that five dairies are seeking to change their animal waste management plans.

Wym Matthews, manager of ODA’s Confined Animal Feeding Operation program, said such notices are fairly routine, but this one was somewhat unusual because four of the five dairies want to expand their herds.

After an article in Salem’s Statesman Journal described these plans, the agency received enough requests for a public hearing that one was scheduled for Sept. 2.

Previously, such hearing requests were rare, Matthews said. “I think the interest is new.”

Several of the people requesting a hearing identified themselves as vegan, he said.

The ODA can only consider comments that relate directly to whether the waste management changes conform with the Clean Water Act, not overall opposition to animal agriculture or CAFOs as being abusive, he said.

“The permit doesn’t regulate animal cruelty,” Matthews said.

The ODA also can’t consider comments that endorse particular management systems, such as organic or pasture-raised, he said.

Many of the comments made during the Sept. 2 hearing appeared to fall outside of the ODA’s purview, as they opposed CAFO expansion generally without identifying specific problems with the proposed waste management plans.

Some commenters mentioned antibiotics, which the agency does not regulate as a pollutant.

“They end up in the meat, in the manure and in the waterways,” said Niko Morozov, a college student.

Others objected to the amount of water used to produce milk, which also isn’t regulated under the Clean Water Act.

Nick Shipley, another college student, claimed dairy water use is excessive.

“Is milk really worth it?” he said.

The issue of animal welfare was also brought up.

“In an ideal world, we wouldn’t treat animals the way we do and have massive mega-farms,” said Laurel Hines. “My opposition is to the large farms, the farms that aren’t organic.”

Gavin Curtis expressed dismay with the practice of culling young calves for “bob veal.”

“These two- to three-day-old babies are torn from their mothers and then slaughtered,” he said.

During a July meeting of an advisory group for the CAFO program, some livestock industry representatives expressed worries that information contained in the waste management plans, such as the farm’s location and layout, will expose dairies to retaliation from activists.

Dairy and agriculture representatives later said a Statesman Journal article mischaracterized their comments as trying to hide information from the public.

Tami Kerr, executive director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, said they were simply worried about private information being misused and not about the contents of the waste management plans becoming public.

“We were asking questions and expressing concern for our producers,” Kerr said. “We’re not trying to hide anything. I’m a big fan of transparency.”

While ODA can redact confidential business information — such as financial data or experimental water treatment systems with patents pending — the bulk of these plans must be publicly disclosed under the Clean Water Act, Matthews said.

“We’re required to by law,” he said.

PORTLAND — The Cully neighborhood isn’t one of Portland’s celebrated areas, yet. Crime, poverty and neglected properties leave it a bit rough around the edges.

But an influx of self-described “homesteaders,” not hipsters, is transforming the Northeast Portland neighborhood into a hotbed of urban farming. The Side Yard Farm & Kitchen, founded by chef-turned-farmer Stacey Givens, is an example of that.

On an acre that once held an abandoned house, garbage and blackberry vines, Givens grows culinary herbs and organic vegetables for 14 high-end Portland restaurants, runs a catering business and hosts “nomadic” suppers for like-minded chefs, foodies and other friends.

Givens, who farms two other reclaimed city lots within a couple miles, said the business is making a profit.

“We’re doing pretty good, I have to say,” she said.

She has an unexpected partner in the venture: the USDA’s Natural Resources and Conservation Service. Using a $2,200 grant from NRCS, Givens purchased and installed a “high tunnel” hoop house on her newest site, at Northeast 48th Avenue and Simpson Street. The tunnel extends her growing season.

“I started tomatoes at least a month before I usually do,” Givens said. This winter, she expects to continue herb and vegetable production under cover.

Providing such direct, on-the-ground help is an intentional policy shift by NRCS. Since 2008, the agency has helped farmers install 139 high tunnels in Oregon, at a program cost of $830,000. Funding comes from the Farm Bill.

Extending the growing season in Oregon can conserve energy by perhaps reducing the amount of produce trucked into the state from California, said Dean Moberg, an NRCS basin resource conservationist for the Northern Willamette Valley and Northern Oregon Coast.

The grant program is open to all sizes of commercial food producers but specifically benefits smaller, diverse forms of agriculture that haven’t benefited from USDA programs in the past, Moberg said.

“That’s exactly it,” he said. “We’ve all seen the growing trend to local food production” such as farmers markets, CSA subscription farming and grocery stores aligning with local growers.

“The general public is more and more interested in where their food comes from, and they want to buy fresh, local food,” Moberg said.

Farmers can find a niche in local food systems, he said.

“Many of them are smaller operations, family oriented, and lot of them are new farmers, people who didn’t grow up on farms,” he said.

“And some of them are urban — it’s kind of a cool thing.”

The program isn’t for someone who wants to put a high tunnel in their backyard, Moberg said. Grant recipients must be involved in commercial food production; it’s not for people growing nursery plants, housing livestock or sheltering machinery. “It’s oriented to growing food in the ground,” he said.

Farmers who are interested in the grant program should contact their local USDA service center.

For Givens, the Side Yard Farm & Kitchen owner, the high tunnel solidifies her business and its connection with some of Portland’s top chefs.

The high tunnel is filled with tomatoes this summer, but she grows unusual herbs such as Rau Ram, a Vietnamese coriander, and purple Shiso, a relative of the mint family used in Japanese cooking. She grows cilantro, allows it to bolt, and sells the green seeds to chefs at $20 per small container.

In Portland’s edgy, experimental restaurant scene, it’s a ready market.

“It’s crazy,” Givens said with a laugh. “A lot of chefs I used to work with say, ‘Plant me this.’

“To me, herbs are everything.”

Flush with a splash of money from the Legislature after multiple lean years, Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences plans to hire up to 40 people by the fall of 2016.

First on the list are an Extension dairy specialist to work in the mid-Willamette Valley and a livestock and rangeland specialist to work in Morrow and Umatilla counties.

The two are among 19 faculty positions that will be filled by 2016; some positions are new and some involve replacement hires. Up to 21 full- or part-time support staff positions will be filled as well.

The hiring is due to the Oregon Legislature approving a $14 million budget increase for the College of Agricultural Sciences for the 2015-17 biennium. The funding increased the college’s budget to $118 million, according to OSU.

Dean Dan Arp said being able to hire faculty is a welcome change from the past few years. The college will undoubtedly be competing against other schools for the best talent, he said.

Both positions are assistant professorships within the college’s Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences.

The Willamette Valley dairy position hasn’t been filled for several years, Arp said. The fact that it’s one of the first to be filled with the additional funding coincides with the rebuild of the dairy program on campus.

In 2012, the dairy was shut down after cow manure leaked into a nearby creek. The program was fined nearly $7,000 and was forced to sell its herd of 120 animals while making repairs.

The dairy is back up and running, however, and among other things sells milk to the fermentation center on campus, which makes cheese.

The dairy search committee is headed by Troy Downing, an Extension dairy specialist based in Tillamook County on the Oregon Coast. Downing said he’s “thrilled” to see OSU add someone to work with dairies in Marion, Polk and other Willamette Valley counties.

Other OSU staff work with dairies as part of their duties, but due to attrition, Downing said he is the only full-time dairy specialist.

“The dairy industry has been served with very few people,” he said. “Really what’s been missing is someone to focus energy on the substantial dairy industry in the Willamette Valley.”

Downing said the dairy industry has been “extremely supportive” of OSU’s program.

Industry issues that deserve attention include animal welfare, wast management, soil fertility and workforce training, he said.

Washington and Oregon have joined five other states and the District of Columbia in coming to the defense of the new federal Clean Water Rule.

Twenty-eight states have challenged the rule, which redefines waters regulated by the federal Clean Water Act.

The opposing states, including Idaho, argue the rule would go beyond what Congress intended.

The pro-rule coalition, led by New York, argues the rule is based on sound science and will ensure uniform enforcement in all 50 states.

“Nationwide pollution controls protect downstream states from pollution originating outside their borders,” according to their brief filed Aug. 28 in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio. “They serve to prevent the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ that might result if jurisdictions could compete for industry and development by allowing more water pollution than their neighboring states.”

The other states joining in the brief are Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont. The filing asks the court to grant the states intervenor status in 14 separate petitions against the rule.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly picked the 6th Circuit Court to hear challenges to the rule, which have been field in several jurisdictions. The court rules on cases originating in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.

Nevertheless, a U.S. District Court judge in North Dakota, part of the 8th Circuit Court, granted an injunction Aug. 27 delaying the rule’s implementation in at least 13 states, including Idaho. Judge Ralph Ericksen is expected to make a further ruling on whether he intends the injunction to apply to all 50 states.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asserts the rule into effect as scheduled Aug. 28 in the other 37 states, including Washington and Oregon.

Ericksen agreed with opponents of the rule that it greatly extended the Clean Water Act, expanding its reach to intermittent streams removed from navigable waterways. In granting the injunction, Ericksen said it was likely the rule’s opponents would prevail in a trial.

An out-of-state bank claims that it owns radish seeds grown by more than 40 Oregon farms for a cover crop company that has not paid them.

Since March, numerous growers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley have filed grain producers’ liens against Cover Crop Solutions, claiming the Pennsylvania company owes about $6.2 million for radish seeds.

Such liens provide farmers with collateral in the event of a company’s bankruptcy filing.

Growers have said the company is apparently suffering financial difficulties due to an oversupply of radish seed in the market due to weather problems in the Midwest last year.

Northwest Bank of Warren, Pa., is now pursuing a lawsuit against farms that have filed liens, claiming that Cover Crop Solutions defaulted on a $7.2 million loan and that the bank’s security interest in the radish seeds supersedes that of the growers.

The bank is seeking to block the farms from moving or selling the crops off-site or taking back seeds that they have already delivered to cleaners.

At this point, a federal judge has denied two motions for temporary restraining orders filed by Northwest Bank, which is still pursuing a preliminary injunction. A hearing on that motion is set for Oct. 5.

Attorneys for the farms oppose a preliminary injunction against moving or selling the seed, arguing it’s prone to losing value due to the “short window” in which the radish seeds can be sold as a cover crop.

“If the price of the seed is depressed as a result of missing this market window, plaintiff’s interests will be harmed. No party would ultimately benefit,” the farms said in a court filing. “By contrast, if defendants are allowed to sell the seed now, then the value of the seed will be maximized.”

Because other farmers in the Eastern U.S. must plant cover crops in the fall, there’s only 30-45 days remaining to sell the radish seeds, the growers claim.

“Adverse market conditions could cause an immediate change in the market value of the seed reducing the value of the seed from over $1.15 per pound to $.25-$.40 per pound,” according to a court filing by the farms.

The farms argue that a preliminary injunction is unjustified because the bank won’t suffer irreparable harm if the seeds are sold, since the fundamental dispute is about money and not the crop itself.

“The best solution would be a business solution where the seed gets sold,” said Jill Foster, an attorney representing the growers.

The farms are assembling a team of litigators to prepare legal arguments countering the bank’s position, she said.

Northwest Bank’s case is “based on a misunderstanding of Oregon’s applicable agricultural lien statute,” so they shouldn’t be stopped from selling it, the growers said in a court filing.

If the preliminary injunction is granted, the bank should be required to post a $4 million bond to compensate the growers for their losses if they prevail in court, their attorneys argue.

In Northwest Bank’s complaint, the company claims it has filed the proper forms to “perfect” its collateral interest in the seeds while the farms have not.

Capital Press was unable to reach an attorney for Northwest Bank or the CEO of Cover Crop Solutions.

Local lakes: Anglers are still reporting good largemouth bass and panfish fishing along the South Coast. Two anglers recently had success catching largemouth bass on Floras Lake just south of Langlois. They were casting Strike King spinner baits near the…

Local lakes: Anglers are still reporting good largemouth bass and panfish fishing along the South Coast. Two anglers recently had success catching largemouth bass on Floras Lake just south of …

Nurseries should avoid inundating consumers with details about ornamental plants, as this information often discourages would-be gardeners from buying, according to a major nursery company.

Monrovia Nursery, a California-based producer with multiple growing locations, decided to forgo its usual advertising efforts last year to instead focus on consumer research.

The company gave study participants $300 in cash to spend on plants and then tracked their shopping activities, eventually compiling 6,000 hours of video.

One observation was made repeatedly: Overly complicated explanations by workers and on signs detracted from sales, said Jonathan Pedersen, the company’s vice president of business development.

“Many times we’re talking over the tops of their heads,” he said. “It’s turning them off. It’s overwhelming.”

It’s much better to keep it simple, particularly for shoppers who are focused on the appearance of their yard rather than receiving a lesson in horticulture, Pedersen said.

“Your dedicated gardener isn’t looking at this stuff anyway. They already know it,” he said.

Monrovia is taking its own advice by changing its labels, relying on icons that describe plant features — such as water and sun requirements — instead of lengthy written descriptions, he said at the recent Farwest Show in Portland.

Nurseries can also improve sales by showing consumers how to combine trees, shrubs and perennials for quick, easy projects that take a couple hours rather than the entire weekend, Pedersen said.

In the course of its research, Monrovia broke plant consumers into four distinct groups:

• Practical: These consumers comprise the largest group, representing about 45.9 percent of the surveyed shoppers, and they’re generally outcome-oriented and want plants that are easy to maintain.

• Dedicated: This group represents about 25.8 percent of shoppers and is basically the lifeblood of the nursery industry. However, dedicated gardeners are more likely to buy smaller, less expensive plants and then cultivate them. “They like getting their hands dirty,” Pedersen said.

• Zen: Representing about 15.8 percent of shoppers, this group tends to be younger and less price-conscious. They are more impulsive buyers and see gardening as a way to reconnect with the earth. They’re also more concerned about pollinators and neonicotinoid pesticides.

• Apprehensive: This segment represents the 12.5 percent of consumers who are afraid of failure and don’t enjoy gardening but feel social pressure to have at least some ornamental plants.

Monrovia has traditionally been focused on dedicated gardeners, but believes it can make in-roads by reaching out to practical and Zen shoppers as well, Pedersen said. “We need to tell them how much fun gardening can be.”

Over the long term, the nursery industry faces headwinds because household formation is expected to slow, he said. “Kids are staying in the family nest because of college debt.”

Big box retailers and other plant-selling outlets have reduced their growth and the nursery industry’s “penetration” of households has declined, he said. Last year, only 42 percent of households bought plants.

“Our product is not in as many households as we think it is,” Pedersen said. “People aren’t putting in the plants like they used to.”

For these reasons, the nursery industry must find new distribution channels — online, for example — and update its claims about the benefits of gardening to attract a younger audience, he said.

In one case study, improvements in the display of plants increased sales by 30 percent, said Carol Miller, group editor of Today’s Garden Center and Greenhouse Grower magazines.

Nurseries often rely on horizontal presentations in which plants are too crowded, she said. “How do you get started? All you see is green.”

Vertical displays are more eye-catching, and by including bags of soil and other items in plant presentations, nurseries can break up that monotonous appearance, she said. “If it’s all flat, it’s not going to be as pleasing.”