Garden Mum Refresher 2025: Managing Nutrients, Size Tracking, and PGRs

This post was contributed to by OMAFA’s Greenhouse Floriculture Production Specialists past and present: Kathryn Russell, Abigail Wiesner, and Dr. Chevonne Dayboll.

As we feel temperatures rising, summer is on its way – and so are garden mums! Although generally an easy crop, there are several tweaks you can make to help save headaches AND money. This post has updated information to help you optimize your nutrient management and growth regulation/tracking in garden mum production.

Continue reading →

Your Yearly Explainer of Japanese Beetle Requirements: Get Those Treatments on Before May 15!

For those of you planning on shipping ornamental products out of Ontario anytime between May 15 and June 15, this is your yearly reminder to get your curative application of Acelepryn on BEFORE May 15! Recall that no pesticides are allowed when Japanese beetle (JB) pupae are present (generally, May 15-June 15 in Ontario). So, if you haven’t already curatively treated your plants that are about to go out the door (either after Aug 15 in 2024 or before May 15 2025) they may not meet shipping requirements.

For more details, check our our updated infographic for JB control products and timing to know what to apply when. Not sure if you need to treat for JB or not? This post also contains a decision tree and a quick reference table for applicable JB programs when shipping outside Ontario.

Continue reading →

In Case You Missed It: “Scouting your Ornamental Crops like a Pro” Webinar is Now Up!

If scouting has been a challenge for you or your employees in the past, you’re a new IPM scout, or you feel like you could use a refresher, then this webinar is for you!

This recorded webinar is applicable to garden retail centres as well as ornamental and some nursery crop producers. I cover topics such as how best to spend your time, tools of the trade, what data you should be recording, as well as tips and tricks from the pros!

Continue reading →

In Case you Missed it: UofF Webinar on Latest Thrips parvispinus Research

On March 12th, 2025, Dr. Alexandra Revynthi’s lab (University of Florida) gave an amazing update on what they’ve been working on with regards to Thrips parvispinus. A lot of this was important basic knowledge about their biology, such as development time and survival at high temperatures. There were also quite a few lab and small greenhouse trials looking at potential biocontrol agents.

Some of this will be information we build on to create effective IPM programs for Parvi in the future. But some of these findings, you could put into use right now.

You can go watch the full webinar using the link in the full blog post, or read my summary notes and see what I thought were the important take-aways.

Continue reading →

In Case you Missed it: a Demo of Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub

Still unfamiliar with Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub (fondly referred to as “Crop Hub”) and want to know more about it? This recorded webinar tells you everything you need to know.

In this video, we’ll walk you through examples on how to:

Look up products for specific pests
Compare efficacies of pesticides and fungicides for Ontario pests
Look up compatibility of chemical products with natural enemies
Print out lists of products for a specific IPM plan

Continue to the full blog post to watch the embedded video now, or go to https://youtu.be/v2SeHnd9qY0!

Continue reading →

Is Beleaf Still Working for Aphid Control? What We Know So Far and Alternative Chemicals for Spring 2025.

For those of you relying on chemical control for aphids in spring crops, some of you might have observed that Beleaf (Aria in the U.S.) has not been working as well recently, especially in green peach aphid (Myzus persicae).

This post will fill you in on what we know about potential resistance to flonicamid in aphids, and which chemicals are working.

Continue reading →

Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub Highlights: New Features

Hopefully, by now, many of you are familiar with Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub (fondly referred to as “Crop Hub”), a user-friendly tool to look up pesticides and their efficacy against floriculture insects and diseases in the Greenhouse Floriculture module.

Earlier this growing season, new features were released on Crop Hub.

Keep reading to see how these new features is to make it easier for users to view, compare and print crop protection information.

Continue reading →

Points for Points! Production Pointers for 2024 Poinsettias

This post was originally written by Abigail Wiesner, Acting Greenhouse Floriculture Production Specialist, with contributions from Chevonne Dayboll.

Christmas in July? Not quite, but poinsettias are making their way into greenhouses across Ontario, and they always arrive at the hottest time of the year.

Nutritional issues, environmental stress, PGR mistakes and early diseases can all be costly in this high-value crop. Read on for common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as well as links to pest management information in early production.

Continue reading →

Garden Mums 2024 – Tips, Tricks, and Production Bits

This post was contributed to by Abigail Wiesner, Drs. Sarah Jandricic, and Chevonne Dayboll.

As we feel temperatures rising, summer is on its way – and so are garden mums! This post has updated information to help you optimize your irrigation, fertilizer, pest management programs and more in garden mum production.

Continue reading →

Japanese Beetle Control 2024: Get your Japanese Beetle Treatments on BEFORE May 15!

For those of you planning on shipping ornamental products out of Ontario anytime between May 15 and June 15, this is your reminder to get your curative application of Acelepryn on BEFORE May 15! Recall that no pesticides are allowed when Japanese beetle (JB) pupae are present (generally, May 15-June 15 in Ontario). So, if you haven’t already curatively treated your plants that are about to go out the door (either after Aug 15 in 2023 or before May 15 2024) they may not meet shipping requirements.

Continue reading →