Category: Water sanitation

How-to Video of the Week: Greenhouse Sanitation

Now that Victoria Day weekend has come and gone, many floriculture greenhouses find themselves with a rare period of empty compartments or benches before fall crops go in. Similarly, many vegetable greenhouses extending their growing period are facing their first crop clean out. Now is the perfect time to consider a thorough cleaning of your greenhouse to prevent pest issues going forward into the new crop. But this can seem like a daunting task.

OMAFRA and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre have produced a how-to video on greenhouse clean-out and disinfection that can help you know where to start.

Continue reading “How-to Video of the Week: Greenhouse Sanitation” →

Cleaning Out Your Greenhouse Today can Save You Pest and Disease Headaches Tomorrow.

Now that Victoria Day weekend has come and gone, many floriculture greenhouses find themselves with a rare period of empty compartments or benches before fall crops go in. Similarly, many vegetable greenhouses extending their growing period are facing their first crop clean out. Now is the perfect time to consider a thorough cleaning of your greenhouse to prevent pest issues going forward into the new crop. But this can seem like a daunting task.

OMAFRA and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre have produced a how-to video on greenhouse clean-out and disinfection that can help you know where to start.

Continue reading “Cleaning Out Your Greenhouse Today can Save You Pest and Disease Headaches Tomorrow.” →

Water Treatment: What System Should I Choose?

Water media filter in a greenhouse
Media filters can be an important step in water treatment: see this article in Greenhouse Grower.

This is the 6th article in a series about water sanitation. The goal of this series is to get you reflecting on your own irrigation system before a problem occurs. 

If you’re following our series on water sanitation, you saw that previous posts covered where problems are likely to occur in your greenhouse, the types of pathogens found in water, where and how to sample your water and getting and interpreting a DNA test for pathogens in your water.

This post covers water treatment options, and was written by C. Dayboll with input from Phytoserv and Soil Resource Group.

Continue reading “Water Treatment: What System Should I Choose?” →

Water DNA Tests: Pros, Cons and Interpreting Results

This post was written by S. Jandricic and A. Wylie.

Overhead boom irrigation

This is the fourth article in a series about water sanitation. The goal of this series is to get you reflecting on your own irrigation system before you are faced with a problem.  The first post covered where problems are likely to occur in your greenhouse ; the 2nd covered the types of pathogens found in water and the 3rd covered where and how to sample your water.

Once you’ve got your water sample, this post will cover why water DNA tests are useful, and how to interpret the results. This is the next step towards identifying and then treating your water issues to prevent unnecessary fungal or bacterial disease in your greenhouse crops, and potentially save you thousands of dollars in crop losses or fungicide applications.

These posts make good refresher resources, so make sure to bookmark them!

Continue reading “Water DNA Tests: Pros, Cons and Interpreting Results” →

Is Your Water a Source of Plant Disease? How to Sample and Find Out.

Old rustic water pipe with running drinking water and plastic bottle being filled up, aid concept.

After reading the previous posts in this series, you’re now aware of WHICH pathogens can be spread through your irrigation water, WHERE they can accumulate, and WHY that’s important.  We’re now moving on to posts covering WHAT you can do about it!

This post will walk you through how to sample water sources on your farm, and which tests you can run to determine if your water is helping – or hurting – your crop.

Continue reading “Is Your Water a Source of Plant Disease? How to Sample and Find Out.” →

Which Pathogens Should You Worry About in Your Water?

This is the second blog post in a series about water sanitation. The goal of this series is to get you reflecting on your own irrigation system before you are faced with a problem.  Posts over the next few weeks will focus on identifying problems, interpreting lab tests, on-farm disease monitoring, and water treatment options.  These will be good refresher resources, so make sure to bookmark them.

When it comes to talking about disease-related issues in greenhouse crops, one point of confusion is often oven WHICH pathogens CAN be transmitted by water.  Some are obvious – we all know Pythium is water-borne.  But what about other culprits, like Fusarium or Erwinia? Should you worry about these in your recirculating water?

Read more to find out when to suspect your irrigation water versus other factors when it comes to disease.

Continue reading “Which Pathogens Should You Worry About in Your Water?” →