March 10, 2017

Greenhouse IPM update 3.10.17

Snow again!  And since they removed the Cornus mas from outside my window, I don’t have that friendly reminder of swelling buds to tell me spring is coming.  But it is, I know it IS!

Check those fertilizer injectors!  Who wants to find out they aren’t working by having plants show symptoms – and then trying to figure out why!  Thomas Ford in eGro says from his work “75% of the fertilizer injectors employed by growers in are greenhouses are not working properly”. We’ve already heard of one case in NY. Lots of information here.

Get the key to locking out pests (my, that’s kind of a stretch but it is Friday).  Leeane Pundt at UConn has a great post on key plants and key pests to help you inspect new plant material coming in and scouting it once it’s in your greenhouse.

Another on scouting guidelines and biocontrol options for the most common insects and diseases found in greenhouse crops.

And since a picture is worth a thousand words…illustrated scouting tips for lots of crops
Ornamental crops
Vegetable bedding plants
Herb bedding plants
Herbaceous perennials
Identifying pests and beneficials on sticky cards
Go UConn!

Think (no) thrips!  UMass’ post on reviewing thrips biocontrol 

Webinars and more webinars…
Our series on high tunnel and greenhouse vegetable IPM continues to grow.  The most recent one was just posted!

OMAFRA’s greenhouse vegetable IPM specialist on Heating, Lighting and IPM
March 30, 2017
Using biofungicides, biostimulants, and biofertilizers to boost crop productivity and help manage vegetable diseases – not just greenhouse but perhaps still useful!

Bees are still in the news!  One study from England I read said that most varieties surveyed in garden centers were unattractive to pollinators (actually measuring the number of visits by pollinators at the garden center itself).  While still low, those with some notation as being friendly to bees had 4x as many visits.  Hopefully this listing would fare better –  Bee friendly trees and shrubs

Yes, but can they learn to dust?  Bees are smarter than we thought – or else maybe they are training us.  Hmmm….

Courage in the face of cold!  It will be warm again!

February 26, 2017

Greenhouse IPM Update 2.26.17

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!

December 19, 2016

Christmas Tree IPM Update 12.19.16

Ah, the end is near – of selling trees, and the year 2016 – and for me, of the days getting shorter!  As the sun sinks below the buildings outside my window at 4:15….
I’ve heard the selling has been good and I hope that is true for all.

And to get ready for one of the presentations at the CTFANY Annual Winter meeting – or just to help you think of warmer days – an article from MSU on attracting pollinators.

It’s hard to compact frozen soil but once things start to melt, it’s easy (not that I think we should have spring quite yet).  MSU also has information on protecting tree roots from compaction – although it is aimed at a landscape audience it has good information.

A short one this time, but long enough for the season.  Perhaps I will actually get my tree set up this evening! Pretty early for me!

 

Another article from Paul Hetzler – this one on the Yule Log tradition!

Yule Logs

Paul Hetzler

Apparently, the ceremonial burning of a large chunk of wood on or near the winter solstice (Yule to the old Germanic peoples) may have begun as a Nordic custom in the 6th century, possibly earlier. Known as a Yule clog, Yule block, Christmas log and other variants, the Yule log was purported to bring good luck in the new year if it burned all day long without being fully consumed. A remnant was always saved, and used to light the following year’s log. Though the tradition is much less common today, it has not been completely extinguished.

Given the climate there, it is no surprise that the hardy folks in northern Europe thought the best way to observe a winter holiday was to light a tree trunk on fire and gather round it. That’s probably what I would have done, too. The French, on the other hand, put a whole new twist on the thing, inventing a delicious Yule log cake that they never burn, at least not intentionally. It took them a dozen or so centuries to come up with the recipe, but let’s not complain. You don’t have to go to France to taste the bûche de Noël—in Quebec you can find Yule logs that are works of art in addition to being delectable.

Popularly depicted as a birch log, to have a Yule log burn all day and still get leftovers, you might want another kind of wood. While birch is picturesque, it doesn’t compare with many other hardwoods in terms of the heat it gives off and how long it burns. All people are created with equal value, but with logs, not so much.

Heat value, whether it’s from coal, oil or wood, is measured in BTUs, or British thermal units. One BTU represents the energy required to heat a pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. And even though the U.S. is the only country on the planet not on the metric system, many other nations still use our BTU scale.

Firewood is usually hardwood, though that’s kind of a misnomer. Some “hardwoods” are softer than many types of softwood. Basswood and cottonwood, for example, have a BTU per (dry) cord rating of around 12 million, lower than that of white pine (16 million) or balsam (20 million).

As those who heat with wood know, hard (sugar) maple is the gold standard for firewood, at least in northern New England, releasing a whopping 30 million BTUs per cord. You’d have to burn twice as much butternut or aspen to get the same heat value. Hickory, beech, black locust, white oak and ironwood (hop hornbeam) come in just behind hard maple. The iconic paper birch has about 20 million BTUs per cord, respectable but not a premium fuel. Especially if you are banking a year’s wort of luck on having it last all day.

Of course there are other considerations besides BTU value in choosing firewood. Even though balsam heats better than butternut, it makes more creosote and throws a lot of sparks. Wood moisture content is also critical. When you burn wet wood, much of the wood’s heat value goes into boiling off the water. Fresh-cut elm is 70 percent water by weight; you’d get very little heat from that, assuming you could even keep it lit. Outdoor furnaces, because they have a blower, are capable of burning green wood. This might be seen as a convenience, but if you burn unseasoned wood in an outdoor furnace you’re spending twice as much time, doing twice the work compared to burning dry wood—how’s your back these days, anyway?

In the Balkans and parts of southern Europe the Yule log tradition lives on. If you’re one of the few Americans who will be burning an actual Yule log in an open hearth this year, you probably have a good chunk of dry hard maple or hickory set aside, plus a remnant of last year’s log with which to help light it.

But if that’s not your tradition, you can join millions of Americans who tune into the televised Yule Log Program on Christmas, now on the Web of course. That log apparently not only burns all day, but has done so since the program’s inception way back in 1967. I’m sure the Department of Energy is working to find what species of tree it’s from, because with just a few of those trees we could solve a lot of our energy problems.

May your holiday season be healthy and happy, and may your Yule log burn only if that is your plan.

July 12, 2016

Greenhouse IPM update 7.12.16

Too hot to think?  I hope not as there is lots of new stuff out there.  Turn up the fan and start reading!

New York State’s Pollinator Protection Plan is finished! It took a lot of people a lot of time to create.  What does it mean for you?  It has Best Management Practices for a lot of groups including Pesticide Users, Landowners/Growers, State Agencies, and Beekeepers. It includes funding for pollinator protection and IPM, invasive species prevention and eradication and farmland protection, research and outreach. Check it out!

What’s out there and coming?
Cucurbit downy mildew confirmed in Ontario, Canada  – and a new article from Meg McGrath (search for 2016 or scroll down to Cucurbit downy mildew)
Spotted wing drosophila all over NYS
Basil downy mildew – south and central NJ
Late blight on tomatoes – in Maryland
Impatiens downy mildew – in Maryland (maybe it is raining there)
I guess there is at least one advantage to drought.

Are they horror movies or tales of redemption?  You decide when you watch Koppert Biologicals’ videos of biocontrol agents eating pests.

Might you have mites?  At least some of them like hot weather.  I have them on my hops!  Griffin’s GGSPro has an article on two spotted spider mite.
And John Sanderson will be covering cyclamen and broad mites at the IPM In-depth (need a reminder?  There’s still time to sign up!)

Feeling stuffed up? Learn to unclog your drip emitters.

Have something to say?  EPA has a 60 day comment period on some pesticide registration language on combating pesticide resistance.  Find out more.

Need information on pest management for specialty crops like lavender?  OMAFRA has a blog for you.

What’s new in research?
Using far-red and blue light to reduce intumescence (edema) on tomato.

Using milk jugs, pest lures and a ‘stun pill’ to trap and kill cucumber beetles (not greenhouse but cool)-  (but what is the buffalo gourd powder in there for?)

Alabama has a new High tunnel I-book and it is free!  Granted New York isn’t Alabama but it might have some useful information and did I mention – FREE!

 

Have a wonderful week!