Horticulture in North Dakota presents many opportunities as well as many challenges.  Fruits, vegetables, flowers and trees for home use are often the main focus, but these products can also become a wonderfully fulfilling home-based or commercial enterprise as well.  There are several examples of successful business ventures in North Dakota that are using horticultural crops for supplemental if not main income sources. The Williston Research Extension Center has extensive collections of trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers and is cooperating with several researchers at NDSU on commercially viable horticultural crops.

One of our newest projects involves growing small fruits for the fledgling winemaking industry.  Grapes are the main crop in winemaking, and the WREC, in cooperation with Dr. Harlene Hatterman-Valenti and Lisa Duppong of NDSU, has a collection of 16 different varieties of grapes, some useful for wine making and some for juices, jellies and fresh table grapes. These were planted in the spring of 2004 and all varieties did survive the winter of '04-'05, although several varieties were injured by the cold weather in the spring of 2005.  In an effort to provide better survival of the vines through the cold weather, a new project was initiated in the spring of 2005, with two varieties of grapes ( Louise Swenson and St. Croix) planted at three depths - 1, 2, and 3 feet deep to find out if  keeping the root systems warmer at the deeper depths will allow the whole plant to survive the winters.  These projects are funded with grants from APUC.

Other fruits that are used for winemaking are apples, plums, strawberries, raspberries, juneberries or saskatoons and rhubarb. We are growing several varieties of each, looking at survival, watering techniques, disease, insect problems and yields.  This project is funded by grants from Williston Basin RC&D and Wal-Mart. The apples and plums and one variety of juneberry are grown as dryland crops with no supplemental irrigation. The strawberries, grapes, raspberries, rhubarb and two varieties of juneberry are grown under drip irrigation using well water.

The named varieties of juneberries were donated by the Juneberry Patch in Harvey, ND. We are working with winemaker George Nickoloff of Culbertson, MT to help with quality and management issues for winemaking.

The plum and apple harvest have been poor in the last few years due to the late spring snowstorms that have hit right during blossom time. The juneberries in the windbreak produced a crop which was promptly devoured by robins as soon as they showed any pink.

Late snowstorms and bird predation led to our newest project, an investigation into high tunnel agriculture. High tunnels are unheated greenhouse type structures that use roll up sides for ventilation. They are used to help add growing degree days for tender crops during early spring and late fall, thus allowing for earlier harvests, extending the growing season, and possibly allowing for less hardy crop production. Birds can be excluded from crops by closing the structure or screening it. Crop management for insect and disease problems needs to be investigated further. The high tunnel and the small fruit projects are funded by grants from our local RC&D.

At least one question that was raised by potential growers has been answered. Small fruits must have supplemental water in order to survive year one. Strawberries need supplemental water provided on a regular and timely basis to produce quality fruit.  If the roots dry out, so will the fruit. The potential problems of using well water for irrigation on a long term basis will be investigated in the coming years.

Small fruits need wind protection to produce well. The WREC has been cooperating with the local NRCS for many years with a planting of experimental varieties of windbreak trees. Our latest windbreak was planted in 1997 and includes a study on tillage practices for windbreak establishment. The section with the plastic fabric mulch grew the best in the first few years, but now all treatments seem to be doing about the same. Another question we are trying to answer is whether planting grass between the tree rows is a good idea and if so, is warm season grass better than cool season grass? That study is being conducted by Dr. Joe Zeleznik of NDSU and Craig Stange of the ND NRCS with help from WREC's soil scientist, Dr. James Staricka. This study is in its third year.

Dr. Zeleznik is also studying shrubs for use as woody florals and we are helping to establish a demonstration planting of dogwoods and willows using four different types of weed control fabrics. That planting was done in April 2004 and already we can see differences in plant growth on the different fabrics.

We are cooperating with Dr. Ron Smith, NDSU Extension Horticulturist, and Barb Laschkewitsch on field trials of All America Selections of annual flowers, a tomato variety trial and a second planting of the World Collection of Daylilies.

Tomato harvest began on August 16, 2005 and ended on September 23.

The landscaping in the front of the Ernie French Center is an example of  Xeric planting, with Miscanthus sinensis, Calamagrostis acutiflora "Karl Foerster"  Blue fescue, Big Bluestem "Goldstrike", Russian Sage,  Helianthus, Gaillardia, Salvia, Snow in Summer, Missouri Primrose, Tree Lilacs, Camassia, and Sedums.  This planting is only watered by the runoff from the roof of the center.  Another flower bed bordering the parking lot holds a collection of various types of lilies, iris and hostas. 

We have an ornamental shrub trial which was planted between 1970 and 1990.  These mature shrubs are available to tour on a self-guided basis so that homeowners can see what these varieties might do in a home landscape.

For weed control, we do some tillage with both hand hoes and tractor or self propelled tillers. We take advantage of any grass clippings we can get for mulch and also use plastic mulches wherever they fit. We used some Preen in the All America Selections on any varieties listed on the label.

Robins have been our biggest pest to date on the fruit crops. Covering strawberries and juneberries has been the only effective method of protection for these crops. The juneberries had to be covered to the point that the robins could not get in under the covers where the strawberries only needed to be covered enough that the robins could not see them.  We erected a plastic mesh deer fence around the grape planting which has been effective so far in keeping both deer and rabbits out. We have not had high snow banks yet so do not know if the deer and rabbits will be able to walk over the fence in a snowy winter.  As of the fall of 2005, there had been no deer inside the fenced area.

The gardens are open to the public for tours from Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 Central Time. Any one desiring a guided tour should call ahead to arrange a time. Self guided tour packets can be obtained by stopping at the office located in the Ernie French Center.

¹ NDSU, Williston Research Extension Center, Williston, ND