Not Familiar with AFE’s Grow Pro Webinar Series? You Really Should Be!

While chatting with various growers and IPM technical reps this year, I realized some in Ontario aren’t familiar with the American Floral Endowment’s (AFE) Grow Pro Webinar Series. This is an excellent series that shares floriculture research funded by AFE, as well as other topics.

Previous webinars have focused on things like thrips and botrytis control, biostimulants, growing in reduced-peat substrates, and more.

A webinar I’ll recommend for January is one on oomycete pathogens, like Pythium and Phytophthora:

Ruh Roh, Root Rot! Managing Oomycete Pathogens in Floriculture Production

Speaker: Dr. Johanna Del Castillo, UC Davis
Tuesday, January 20th at 1PM EST
Oomycete pathogens remain a persistent threat in floriculture production, causing significant losses when conditions tip in their favor. In this webinar, Dr. Del Castillo will dive into the biology of Pythium and Phytophthora, how to diagnose root rot issues, and the most effective management approaches. Attendees will gain actionable strategies to improve root-zone health and reduce disease pressure in their operations. When you’re thinking “ruh roh,” it’s already too late—join us to get ahead of root rot and outsmart oomycete pathogens.

You can find out more about previous webinar recordings, upcoming webinars and registration (it’s free!) using this link: https://endowment.org/growpro

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!

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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!

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Introducing Ontario’s Crop Protection Hub – Your One Stop Shop for Pesticide Information for Greenhouse Crops

Are you a Canadian floriculture grower Planning your IPM program for Spring crops soon? Then look no further! Ontario’s new Crop Protection Hub combines pesticide data from a plethora of sources and combines them into one convenient location.

Types of data (for both chemical and microbial insecticides/fungicides) include:

  • Allowable pesticides by crop type (e.g. cut flowers, potted crops, unrooted cuttings)
  • Rates, REIs, and maximum allowable sprays per crop
  • Compatibility information with beneficial organisms
  • Efficacy ratings of pest management products for specific greenhouse pests
  • Recommendations for best use of products for each pest
  • Link to the most current pesticide label

Keep reading to find out how to access this new application.

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