History of Waltham Ag. Extension service?

[Rosalind]

This is a completely random question, you'd think I'd be able to find more info on the internet, but no.

I like to know the history of the things I'm planting, know when they were cultivated and how they were developed. It helps me make better-than-random decisions about what to buy, you know? Sometimes I get seed catalog descriptions that are a bit overoptimistic in their estimates for weather tolerance, but I know if I get a variety that was developed in Minnesota, it'll probably do well in Massachusetts.

A couple of times when I've gotten "Waltham" varieties of seeds, they haven't done too well. I know that Waltham, MA has had a USDA extension service and research facility for decades, and I had assumed that these varieties were developed at that site. Since they're about 20 minutes down the road from me, I figured, OK, this'll be fine.

Is there some other Waltham ag. extension service / research site out there? Are they referring to Waltham, Essex? How did Waltham broccoli, Waltham squash get developed?

 

[Reinbeau]

Nope, you had it right, it's the Waltham, Mass. Agricultural station, unfortunately, it got the budget axe quite a few years ago.

 

[Rosalind]

Ah, drats. Thanks, though.

 

[SewingDiva]

UMass Amherst has an extension service. They also do soil tests for a reasonable fee.

Phyllis

 

[Reinbeau]

Rosalind, they have trial gardens now at Elm Bank. Hopefully they will get their you-know-what together at Mass Hort and pull out of the financial mess they're in. Elm Bank is a treasure, I hope they don't blow it

 

[Rosalind]

Phyllis--Yeah, I was a grad student, ages ago, at ZooMass. I dunno, I was not so impressed with their stuff. They had a good guy doing some nice stuff with biological pesticides, but the students I used to get in soil microbiology, argh argh argh...and most of their teachers weren't a whole lot better, sadly.

Ann--So we can look forward to Elm Bank fruit/veggies? That would be cool.

You know, the most surprising thing to me is that all those big display gardens & stuff are free. Don't get me wrong, it's nice that they are free, but I grew up seeing Longwood Gardens, and I'm sorta surprised that they don't charge at least a nominal fee.

 

[Reinbeau]

I was thinking the same thing, but the gardens are on public lands (they rent it from the former MDC via a 99 year lease). I think there are politics involved. Plus other parts of the reservation are used by local towns for ball fields, and the whole park is a walking area. How would they charge for just the gardens; then you're into a huge investment in fencing, gates, etc. The logistics are daunting, I don't think you'll see it happen.