Spring?!  I know it’s not but I do like seeing that witch hazel and some snow drops blooming on campus.

And that makes me think of aphids…really?  Well, since Sarah Jandricid reports that foxglove aphids produce more offspring at 50-60F than at higher temperatures, maybe we should be thinking about them.  Especially if you had foxglove aphids last year (they are the one’s with dark green patches at the base of their ‘tailpipes’).  Go look now!

Early – that’s the key word – and here it is in Michael Brownbridge’s article Prevention and Early Intervention:  The Keys to Biocontrol Success in Greenhouse Crops published in Greenhouse Grower

More aphids?  Dan Gilrein’s e-GRO blog post on aphids and calibrachoas (aphids do seem to love them!)

Spring cleaning?  I am trying to reduce the amount of stuff in my office and house (not that you can really tell yet) but the same is true for greenhouses, and even relates to IPM.  Reducing clutter might help figure out where the pests are hiding over the winter (sneaky weeds get everywhere!).

Hooray for alliteration! Premier Tech led me to Pythium and then to Penn State – who have a lot of useful information on plant diseases I hadn’t found before.  Noodle around on the website, there are some listed by crop and other under general diseases.

And back to Pythium – Here’s Penn State’s fact sheet and the one from Premier Tech  and their list of things you can do after planting to minimize root diseases

Just in case you get tired of me telling you about Integrated Pest Management (well, how could you?), here’s the word from Van Belle Nursery with a nice video, too.

Want to read something a little edgy?  Very comprehensive article on the causes of leaf margin issues from Paul Thomas and U of Georgia.  We usually see a few of these every spring!

Wonderful wrigglers?  Not worms but nematodes – the good kind!  A nice article from UMass on using beneficial nematodes.

Boxwood blight – I don’t even have to add the alliteration.  The original article and one where you can see the pictures (which are from Margery Daughtrey!).

Back to bee basics.  Grow wise Bee Smart  BMP’s for bee health in horticulture
http://growwise.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/HRI-Pollinator-BMPs-January2017.pdf

Rent a chicken?  There are a few chicken owners I know but they haven’t capitalized on their bug eating habits yet (that I know off) for greenhouses.

Wow, a lot to cover today!   Must be because it is spring!

Have a great week!