Investigating Salal – By Jovanna Talarico (Winter 2023)

Gaultheria shallon is a common understory shrubs in the Pacific Northwest that has proven difficult to grow at the SER-UW Native Plant Nursery. Currently, it is proposed that insect pests are responsible for these species’ inconsistent growth behavior. This project intends to investigate this species to provide the nursery with more sustainable caretaking approaches in order to source hardier plants for the local community. The goals of this project included assessing current plant conditions, researching diseases and common growth issues, communicating with other nurseries to determine their methods and treatments surrounding active growth, and proposing and applying different treatments to observe plant response.