Preventing Issues in Your Spring Crops: Sanitation, Dips and Bio Tips.

P1010595 With the holiday season almost upon us, it’s time to turn our attention to Spring bedding crops. Although here for a brief window, the diversity of these crops means you’re bound to encounter some sort of disease and insect problems.

One way you can head off issues is to plan and prepare now. This post from January 2020 has important tips on sanitation for common spring crop diseases, dips and early sprays to prevent key pests, as well as tips on where to spend your biocontrol dollars.

Continue reading “Preventing Issues in Your Spring Crops: Sanitation, Dips and Bio Tips.” →

Dipping Poinsettia Cuttings to Reduce Whitefly 101: 2020 Edition

dipping cuttings — Dipping poinsettia cuttings to help lower Bemisia numbers was investigated and perfected by the Biocontrol Lab at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in Ontario.

Although we’ve been talking for years here in Canada about dipping your poinsettia cuttings in low-risk pesticides, some growers have yet to take the plunge.

This preventive technique improves efficacy of BOTH biocontrol and pesticide programs for Bemisia, since it lowers your starting pest pressure.

If you’re still unsure of how or when to apply cutting dips, check out the rest of this post.

Continue reading “Dipping Poinsettia Cuttings to Reduce Whitefly 101: 2020 Edition” →

Preventing Issues in Your Spring Crops: Sanitation, Dips and Bio Tips.

P1010595 With the holiday season over, it’s time to turn our attention to Spring bedding crops. Although here for a brief window, the diversity of these crops means you’re bound to encounter some sort of disease and insect problems.

One way you can head off issues is to plan and prepare now. This post has important tips on sanitation for common spring crop diseases, dips and early sprays to prevent key pests, as well as tips on where to spend your biocontrol dollars.

Continue reading “Preventing Issues in Your Spring Crops: Sanitation, Dips and Bio Tips.” →

What you NEED TO KNOW about Thrips and Whitefly Control: September Update

thrips and whitefly It’s that time of year again where two of our biggest crops cross over: fall pot mums and poinsettia. This means growers have to simultaneously keep an eye on the two biggest pests in the industry: thrips (usually western flower thrips) and Bemisia whitefly.

Here’s how things are shaping up with these pests and where they might be going.

Continue reading “What you NEED TO KNOW about Thrips and Whitefly Control: September Update” →

Now’s the Time for Whitefly Prevention: Registered Products for Poinsettia Dips

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Here in Canada, we’ve been talking for years about research on the highly effective method of dipping your poinsettia cuttings in low-risk pesticides to reduce starting whitefly populations.

Thanks to Dr. Rose Buitenhuis (VRIC), Cary Gates (FCO) and BioWorks, the label for BotaniGard WP has now officially been expanded to include dip applications. This now adds to our arsenal (see below for more dip products).

Read on for the current BotaniGard label and how dipping can help improve your Bemisia whitefly program this year, whether you’re using pesticides or biocontrol.

Continue reading “Now’s the Time for Whitefly Prevention: Registered Products for Poinsettia Dips” →

A new (biological!) tool to tackle Japanese Beetle.

See the original post by Jen Llewellyn at ONnurserycrops.wordpress.com.

japanese beetle_dave — Japanese beetles attack ornamental plants and make shipping out of Ontario more difficult.

It’s almost that time of year again – time for Japanese beetles to begin their flight and make exporting ornamental plants from Ontario more difficult.

But this year, we have a new biological insecticide is available for managing both the larval and adult stages of Japanese Beetle.

Read more on it’s use and availability.

Continue reading “A new (biological!) tool to tackle Japanese Beetle.” →

Poinsettia Prep Refresher

JF14 Now that poinsettias are safely tucked into their prop trays and the threat of Erwinia (Pectobacterium) is almost over, it’s time to think about other Poinsettia issues.

Root rots, nutritional issues, environmental stress and PGR mistakes can all be costly in this high-value crop. Read on for common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

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Powdery Mildew Being a Pain? Effective Products for PM Relief.

PMRoses4 — Powdery mildew on cut roses in Ontario.

With May’s weather continuing to be up and down, humidity control is a problem in the greenhouse, meaning Powdery Mildew (PM) is too. This pest is rearing it’s ugly head in crops like Kalanchoe and Dahlia.

We won’t cover the basics of PM here: biology, spread and prevention were covered in a previous post. Instead, we’ll focus on monitoring, and which control products to use once you’ve found an infection.

This post was written with help from Plant Pathologist Ann Zemke of the Chase Research Group.

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Fainting “Freedom Red”? Wilting “Whitestar”? Potential causes of Poinsettia collapse, solutions, and the importance of testing.

Wilting of a poinsettia plant on a bench of otherwise healthy plants could be Pythium root rot. But then again, it might not…

From now until mid-November is when you’ll most likely see plant losses in poinsettia due to severe wilting. These losses can be considerable: anywhere from 2-15% in Niagara operations in past years, with disease pressure seeming especially high this year.

Pythium may be considered the most “likely” culprit in Poinsettia in this area, but this isn’t always the case, and misdiagnosis can mean wasted fungicide applications. Read on for a list of likely suspects and appropriate control measures.

Continue reading “Fainting “Freedom Red”? Wilting “Whitestar”? Potential causes of Poinsettia collapse, solutions, and the importance of testing.” →

Managing Million Bells, 2017 Updates

Image result for calibrachoa plugs — Rooted Calibrachoa plugs. Photo from jparkers.co.uk

It’s that time of year again, when unrooted cuttings or rooted plug trays of Million Bells (Calibrachoa) are first arriving in the greenhouse.

When they go right, Calibrachoa are a relatively easy, staple spring crop. However, when million bells go bad, they go bad BIG time.

To help your crop turn out this year, Chevonne and I have compiled some info on how to prevent and deal with common issues in Callies.

Continue reading “Managing Million Bells, 2017 Updates” →