This post was originally written by Abigail Wiesner, Acting Greenhouse Floriculture Production Specialist.
For the last few decades, growers in North America have been reading headlines about the steady decline of peat used for horticultural purposes across multiple European countries. With Canadian sources of peat, and trade primarily between the United States, local growers haven’t been severely affected by global changes in peat use and reduction trajectories.
Even though Canadian growers haven’t seen the same reduction of peat use in the local market, it doesn’t mean we can’t learn from Europe’s goals, decisions, and success stories.
Read on to learn about the benefits of trialing new components for your media mixes.
Fresh, delicious, hothouse strawberries in the dead of winter…can’t you just taste them? We would ALL love to see more local strawberries in our grocery stores, wouldn’t we?
Perhaps you’ve thought about growing strawberries in your greenhouse. Or you’ve dabbled in production already. Maybe you are a well-seasoned strawberry grower but eager to stay connected and continue learning.
If any of these sounds like you, you’ll want to check out an upcoming course on hydroponic strawberry production by Hort Americas.
For those of you who missed the summary on Floral Daily, an interesting study on pesticide labeling of ornamentals was just published by researchers and extension specialists at Michigan State University(1).
The MSU team found that people who buy ornamental plants (both indoor and outdoor) obviously want healthy, insect-free plants.
But, they also found that consumers value plants labelled specifically as “bee friendly”. Consumers in the study were willing to pay anywhere from $0.13 to $1.50 more per plantfor “bee friendly” plantsthan those labelled “grown without neonicotinoid insecticides“.
Bee foraging on a landscape plant. Photo by Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt, NCSU.
Given all the hubbub about neonics in particular, why didn’t “neonicotinoid-free plants” resonate with consumers? Well, it turns out many consumers don’t actually understand the term. Of the >2000 people interviewed in this study, 57% admitted outright they didn’t know what it meant, and 11% thought the term meant produced would any insecticides. The MSU researchers found that labeling a plant as “neonicotinoid free” may actually have a detrimental effect on purchasing.
Plant tag from a major store indicating the use of neonicotinoid insecticides.
Studies like this are timely, considering major box stores (Home Depot, Loblaws, etc.) are demanding labeling to satisfy public concerns. Information on which labels consumers best respond to can be used by growers producing their own labels. Additionally, this information can be factored into pest management decisions.
1. The original article can only be obtained through a University library subscription or by purchase from HortScience, here: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org. Or, I can tots get you a copy if you really want one.
