Growing Potatoes in the Alaska Garden

Potatoes are a great crop for Alaska gardens because they are easy to grow and have a high yield per square foot. This publication includes tips on planting, growing, harvesting and storing potatoes as well as suggestions for cooking and preparing them.Steve Seefeldt, Extension Faculty, Agriculture and Horticulture. Originally prepared by Jeff Smeenk, Extension Horticulture Specialist, Bill Campbell, Agronomist, Plant Material Center, and September V. Martin, Research Assistant

Growing Potatoes in the Alaska Garden

Potatoes are a great crop for Alaska gardens because they are easy to grow and have a high yield per square foot. This publication includes tips on planting, growing, harvesting and storing potatoes as well as suggestions for cooking and preparing them.Steve Seefeldt, Extension Faculty, Agriculture and Horticulture. Originally prepared by Jeff Smeenk, Extension Horticulture Specialist, Bill Campbell, Agronomist, Plant Material Center, and September V. Martin, Research Assistant

Mie's Theories of Matter and Gravitation

Unifying physics by describing a variety of interactions – or even all interactions – within a common framework has long been an alluring goal for physicists. One of the most ambitious attempts at unification was made in the 1910s by Gustav Mie. Mie aimed to derive electromagnetism, gravitation, and aspects of the emerging quantum theory from a single variational principle and a well-chosen Lagrangian. Mie’s main innovation was to consider nonlinear field equations to allow for stable particle-like solutions (now called solitons), and he clarified the use of variational principles in the context of special relativity. The following brief introduction to Mie’s work has three main objectives. The first is to explain how Mie’s project fit into the contemporary development of the electromagnetic world view. Part of Mie’s project was to develop a relativistic theory of gravitation as a consequence of his generalized electromagnetic theory, and our second goal is to briefly assess this work, which reflects the conceptual resources available for developing a new account of gravitation by analogy with electromagnetism. Finally, Mie was a vocal critic of other approaches to the problem of gravitation. Mie’s criticisms of Einstein, in particular, bring out the subtlety and novelty of the ideas that Einstein used to guide his development of general relativity

Soil Sampling

This publication gives step-by-step instructions for sampling soil on your property. It gives the why, where and how of sampling, along with information necessary for having a sample analyzed.For more information, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service office or Jeff Smeenk at 907-746-9470 or [email protected]. This publication is a major revision by Jeff Smeenk of Soil Sampling, written by Wayne Vandre in April 1987. Reviewed by Jodie Anderson, Instructor, High Latitude Agriculture, School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Stephen Brown, Extension Faculty, Agriculture and Horticulture; and Gary Michaelson, Research Associate, Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, University of Alaska Fairbanks

MP 2010-04

The Allis Chalmers ‘G’ tractors have long been favorites with market gardeners because the model combines excellent toolbar visibility, overall maneuverability, and good fuel economy in a relatively simple mechanical design. Unfortunately, the tractor’s small size and unique style make it a prime target for tractor collectors. This means that buying repair parts for the model ‘G’s can be expensive, since the suppliers cater to the hobbyist-restoration market rather than those using the machines on working farms. Conversion of the tractor to electric power eliminates the excessive costs involved in repairing the engine with original parts. The farmer who originally converted a conventional Allis Chalmers ‘G’ to a solar-powered cultivating tractor received partial funding through a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Grant. He was very happy with the re-powered tractor and developed a website describing both the process of conversion and the resulting tractor (www.flyingbeet.com). The conversion of an Allis Chalmers ‘G’ to an electric (and ultimately solar-powered) cultivating tractor provides several benefits for the University of Alaska’s Matanuska Experiment Farm: ▷▷ 1) The Agricultural Experiment Station plays a leadership role in developing sustainable farming practices appropriate for Alaska, and using a tractor that does not operate on limited fossil fuels provides a working example of sustainable agricultural practices. ▷▷ 2) Among other duties, the tractor is used to cultivate inside 30’ x 96’ high tunnels where carbon monoxide would be a hazard to the operator. ▷▷ 3) The price of the conversion kit was only slightly more expensive than a replacement gasoline engine, and repair of the electric engine is considerably cheaper than repair of the gasoline engine

Hoop Houses in Rural Alaska: Twenty Questions and Answers to Get You Started

This publication addresses the most common questions people have when considering whether to build a hoop house. There is information on the sizes and shapes of hoop houses, the cost of building and/or shipping a hoop house, ease of construction, sunlight and heat requirements, advice on what kind of production to expect, and much more.For more information, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service office or Jeff Smeenk, Extension Horticulture Specialist, Agriculture and Horticulture, at 907-746-9470 or [email protected]. This publication was reviewed by Stephen Brown, Extension Faculty, Heidi Rader, Tribes Extension Educator, and Kendra Calhoun, Extension Instructor

Mycorrhizae in the Alaska Landscape

This publication explains how mycorrhiza, an important relationship between plant roots and certain types of fungi, can improve the plant's growth and provide protection from certain root diseases.For more information, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service office or Jeff Smeenk, Extension Horticulture Specialist, Agriculture and Horticulture, at 907-746-9470 or [email protected]. Reviewed by Stephen Brown and Robert Gorman, Extension Faculty, Agriculture and Horticulture, and Jodie Anderson, Instructor, School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Science

Are white-beaked dolphins Lagenorhynchus albirostris food specialst? Their diet in the southern North Sea

The white-beaked dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris is the most numerous cetacean after the harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena in the North Sea, including Dutch coastal waters. In this study, the diet of 45 white-beaked dolphins stranded on the Dutch coast between 1968 and 2005 was determined by analysis of stomach contents. Although 25 fish species were identified, the diet was dominated by Gadidae (98.0% by weight, 40.0% in numbers), found in all stomachs. All other prey species combined contributed little to the diet by weight (2.0%W). The two most important prey species were whiting Merlangius merlangus (91.1% frequency of occurrence (FO), 30.5%N, 37.6%W) and cod Gadus morhua (73.3%FO, 7.4%N, 55.9%W). In numbers, gobies were most common (54.6%N), but contributed little to the diet by weight (0.6%W). Three stomachs contained different prey compared to the others: one animal had taken 2250 gobies, accounting for 96.4% of all gobies found; one animal had fed on 29 small sepiolids; and one animal had solely taken haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus. Squid and haddock were not found in any other stomach. The overall diet showed a lasting predominance of whiting and cod, without clear changes over time (35 years) or differences between sexes or size-classes of dolphins. This study adds to earlier published and unpublished data for Dutch coastal waters and agrees well with studies of white-beaked dolphins from other parts of the species’ range, in the North Sea and in Canadian waters, with Gadidae dominating the diet on both sides of the Atlantic

Momentum space tomographic imaging of photoelectrons

We apply tomography, a general method for reconstructing 3-D distributions from multiple projections, to reconstruct the momentum distribution of electrons produced via strong field photoionization. The projections are obtained by rotating the electron distribution via the polarization of the ionizing laser beam and recording a momentum spectrum at each angle with a 2-D velocity map imaging spectrometer. For linearly polarized light the tomographic reconstruction agrees with the distribution obtained using an Abel inversion. Electron tomography, which can be applied to any polarization, will simplify the technology of electron imaging. The method can be directly generalized to other charged particles.Comment: Accepted by J. Phys.