Greetings!
Congratulations to... Metrolina Greenhouses for being named Greenhouse Grower's 2010 Operation of the Year and to Regina Coronado of Stacy's Greenhouses who earned the inaugural Head Grower of the Year award during the Evening of Excellence event July 12 at OFA Short Course. |
Proactive Poinsettia Production | |
With a little effort on the front end, your poinsettia crop can be protected from insects and diseases all the way through to delivery. Root Disease As you are sticking your poinsettia cuttings, use RootShield� WP (4 oz/100 gal.) or Granules (1.25 lb/cu. yd.) to shield roots from Pythium and other disease-causing pathogens for another 12 weeks. When potting up, use RootShield for root disease protection up through shipping with its 12 weeks of preventative control.
Botrytis | Foliar Disease Spray CEASE� as a preventative for Botrytis, powdery mildew and bacterial diseases. Use 4 qts per 100 gallons every 7 days. For a quick knock-down of powdery mildew with little residue, use MilStop� at 3-5 lb/100 gal. every 7-10 days. Insect Pests Whitefly is the most serious pest on poinsettias. Be
Silverleaf Whitefly | proactive and use BotaniGard� ES or 22WP at the first sign of insects (egg hatch or first larval instars). Apply at 5 to 10 day intervals. BotaniGard can also be used tank-mixed or rotated with Molt-X™ and/ or SuffOil-X�. Fungus Gnats can also be a problem for poinsettias. Apply NemaShield� the first week after sticking (one 100 million packet per 2200 sq.ft.). After 3 weeks, make a second application at the same rate for additional fungus gnat control, or under moderate to severe insect pressure.
|
BotaniGard and Biocompatibility (part 3) | |
This is the third segment in a series of excerpts from an article written by Kevin Cullum of Koppert Canada Limited.
APHAPIR (Aphidius colemani) parasitizing an aphid. Photo courtesy of Koppert Canada. |
Aphid control programs are often very similar to the whitefly programs. Once a large number of aphids are parasitized, BotaniGard can be sprayed over top to control hot spots or regain balance with minimal disruption of the parasites protected inside the aphid "mummies".
BotaniGard is also very effective in bridging the residual period from products such as Avid or Conserve into a biological program. For example,an Avid application would be done for thrips then weekly sprays with BotaniGard to keep the population under control until it is safe to reintroduce biologicals (no more Avid residue).
BotaniGard may decrease predatory bug populations, (i.e. Orius spp., Delphastus spp., and Aphidamiea spp.) often used to clean up hot spots. The grower would have the choice between using BotaniGard on the hot spot, or predatory bugs. Orius is used in peppers where it is introduced between weeks 8-12 and establishes in the crop for the remainder of the year. Prior to Orius introduction only predatory mites are used, so BotaniGard can be used until first Orius introductions. Predatory bugs in general are not used on a wide scale in most crops, other than peppers where Orius has a long history of use due to its ability to reproduce on pepper pollen. BotaniGard would likely be rated a 3 or 4 for predatory bugs with 0 residual on the "side effects" scale.
(Read next month's final segment on compatibility with beneficial mites and parasites.) |