A Reminder about Fertilizer Injector Maintenance

Spring is here, and we know you’re busy! Here’s a quick but very important refresher on fertilizer injector maintenance. Ensure they’re working properly on a regular basis to avoid extra headaches.

How do I know if my injector is working properly?

Hopefully damage to foliage wasn’t your first sign things were a little off! Some things to remember:

The dilution ratio needed for each application should be known and adjusted as needed.
Remember that tracing dye in water-soluble fertilizers should never be used as an indicator of the actual strength of a fertilizer mixture.
If you are using multiple products or chemistries ensure they are compatible for tank mixing before running them through the injector.
If deviations greater than 5% from the expected setting occur, contact an irrigation specialist for assistance or repair. (But first, double check that math!)

Fertilizer injectors come in all shapes and sizes in the greenhouse.

There are two common methods to check if your injector is working as expected. Regular calibration is needed to ensure that an injector is operating properly. You should complete both methods listed here to ensure accuracy. Continue reading “A Reminder about Fertilizer Injector Maintenance” →

Improperly ventilated heaters & ethylene damage

Spring is on its way, and with cold nights and warmer days we are seeing a common spring problem – poor air quality damage on spring bedding crops. Symptoms, solutions and preventative measures are included in this 2017 update to a previous post.

Natural gas and propane are popular choices when it comes to heating a greenhouse. The products of burning fuel are carbon dioxide (CO₂) and water (H₂0); both compounds we know are good for your plants. However, combustion is often (if not always) incomplete, and impurities such as carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and ethylene (C₂H₄) are also released leading to poor air quality if your heater is not properly vented.

Typically symptoms from ethylene damage and sulfur dioxide damage can been seen fairly quickly after exposure.

Figure 1. Signs of ethylene damage include leaf curling and epinasty, seen here in A) New Guinea Impatiens and B) lettuce seedlings.

In the short term (a few hours to a few days), ethylene damage results in leaf curling, epinasty (leaves bending downwards from the petiole) and flower drop. If the stress continues over a Continue reading “Improperly ventilated heaters & ethylene damage” →

Hydrangeas: Getting the (right colour) blues

Forcing hydrangeas for Easter? Our friend Dr. Brian Whipker at North Carolina State University has released a great resource on managing nutrients to ensure your blooms are blue and not bluish-purple. Continue reading “Hydrangeas: Getting the (right colour) blues” →

Stalling out: Strategies for success

Starting to feel a bit bummed out by all this gloomy weather? Imagine how your poor plants feel! All clouds and no sun leads to lots of fun with production schedules, nutrition and proper plant development. Continue reading “Stalling out: Strategies for success” →

Low Light and High Humidity: Identifying Oedema

Figure one: Typical symptoms of Odema/Intumescence. — Figure 1: Typical symptoms of Odema/Intumescence.

Oedema or edema, also known as intumescence. This physiological disorder usually appears during periods of low light – from now through the fall, winter and into the spring. If you’ve noticed salt-like crystals, odd tumour-like growths or water-soaked spots on either side of your plant leaves this disorder could be the culprit (Figure 1). The disorder affects a wide variety of tropical plants and succulents. It can also affect greenhouse crops such as lilies, cyclamen, sweet potato vine, geranium, begonia, petunia, calibrachoa, ornamental peppers and other Solanaceae family plants. Continue reading “Low Light and High Humidity: Identifying Oedema” →

Summer School: Lessons learned from another hot, humid Ontario summer

Happy first day of fall! It was a dry, sweltering summer across Ontario, and I’ve heard from some growers that it was the most challenging summer they could recall in recent memory based on the heat alone. Oppressive heat and humidity pack a punch that leaves everyone feeling sluggish – you, your staff and your plants. While we won’t complain too loudly (winter’s coming!), learning from this year’s challenges will help in summers to come as we experience more extreme weather. Continue reading “Summer School: Lessons learned from another hot, humid Ontario summer” →

Now’s the time to be proactive about poinsettia nutrition

If you’re producing poinsettias this year, you are probably just about finished with potting up your newly rooted cuttings. Keeping an eye on your crop throughout the production cycle will help to identify problems early, and allow you to correct the problem before it gets out-of-hand. Consider this blog post your “cheat sheet” on identifying poinsettia nutrition related disorders. Continue reading “Now’s the time to be proactive about poinsettia nutrition” →

Keep those cuttings cool!

cool point — Ensure your cuttings stay cool in the heat, so they grow into “cool” mature poinsettias!

Environment Canada has placed most of Southern Ontario under a Heat Alert for the next few days. It’s the time of year for sticking poinsettia cuttings, and cuttings of any floral crop are susceptible to extreme temperatures. Plants are just like people, crank up the heat and they put all their energy into just surviving the conditions, not forcing roots. Stressful conditions at rooting can lead to poor plant quality and cause defects that will be seen later in production like poor branching and leaf deformities. Continue reading “Keep those cuttings cool!” →

Nutrient Deficiency Refresher

As we start to move into fall and winter flower crop production cycles, it’s a good time to go back through some basics about nutrient deficiencies.

No matter where you are in a cropping cycle, nutrition problems can be tricky to figure out. The good thing is they can be differentiated from disease or pest issues based on a few key observations:

If the damage is uniform and crop wide, it’s most likely a nutritional issue
If the damage is localized or more random, it’s most likely a disease or pest issue

Continue reading “Nutrient Deficiency Refresher” →

Supplemental Lighting Options for Bedding Plant Seedling Production

Happy spring! With the season in full swing, we know that growers are busy this month. I read an interesting article on the effects of supplemental LED lighting in bedding plants this week, and I’ve summarized it here with the key messages at the bottom of this post. It seems like an appropriate article for the season, especially if you are starting to think ahead to how you might improve production for the 2017 spring season.

Much of the LED lighting research done in ornamental plants has focused on finding the best wavelengths for plant production. This can vary based on the plant being grown, and the qualities desired. Before we dive into the study, let’s review some of the reasons why you might consider LED lights from a plant production standpoint. Continue reading “Supplemental Lighting Options for Bedding Plant Seedling Production” →