Don’t miss the upcoming exclusive Guardian Network virtual training session on July 30th.
Designed specifically for Field Staff across Ontario who support the agricultural community. This includes agronomists, field service reps, soil & crop advisors, livestock & dairy specialists, equipment reps and others in similar roles.
Continue reading “Guardian Network Training: Suicide Prevention Training for Field Staff supporting the Ag Community”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 “Garden Mum Refresher 2025: Managing Nutrients, Size Tracking, and PGRs”
This post was written by Abigail Wiesner, Acting Floriculture Production Specialist, with content contributions from Chevonne Dayboll.
With Million Bells (Calibrachoa) having filled up the greenhouse, it’s a great time to revisit our production practices and explore new ideas. This post contains some back to the basic’s information and new innovations for our favourite spring crop.
Continue reading “Producing Million Bells – 2025 Update”
After my previous post outlining how Ontario growers may be experiencing resistance to Beleaf (flonicamid), several growers are experimenting with alternate aphicides (chemicals that control aphids) this spring. These growers tested products on small batches of crops at high rates, to look for phytotoxicity, and have passed on their results to share with the rest of you.
Keep reading to see which products are affecting which crops, and how you can help mitigate issues with phytotoxicity from insecticides.
Continue reading “Aphicide Awareness: Reports of Phytotoxicity on Ornamentals”This post was originally written by Abigail Wiesner, Acting Greenhouse Floriculture Production Specialist.
Check out the one-of-a-kind incentive program from Enbridge. Offering 3 times the standard rate for energy efficiency projects. Read on to see how you qualify.
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.
Continue reading “Strategic Solutions for Substrate Success!”This post was originally written by Abigail Wiesner, Acting Greenhouse Floriculture Production Specialist, with contributions from Chevonne Dayboll.
As we move through production for fall and winter crops a refresher for nutrient deficiencies feels appropriate.
No matter where you are in a cropping cycle, nutrition problems can be tricky to figure out. The good thing is they can be differentiated from disease or pest issues based on a few key observations:
Keep reading to learn more about different nutrient deficiencies and how to spot them in poinsettias and other crops.
Continue reading “Deficiencies Got You Down?”This post was written by Abigail Wiesner, Acting Floriculture Production Specialist.
In case you missed the recent GrowON presentation on July 22nd, by Dr. Youbin Zheng (University of Guelph) we’ve now uploaded to YouTube!
Continue reading “In Case you Missed it, GrowON Presents: How to use Light Spectral Combinations to Steer Plants”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 “Points for Points! Production Pointers for 2024 Poinsettias”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 “Garden Mums 2024 – Tips, Tricks, and Production Bits”