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Grow your best crop ever! Cultural and technical information for greenhouse professionals.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 22, 2025
Wednesday Oct 22, 2025
In this episode of Tech On Demand, host Bill Calkins sits down with Susannah Ball, fourth-generation owner of Ball Horticultural Company, and Seth Reed, Ball’s Global Sustainability Manager, for an inspiring conversation about what it really means to “do better” when it comes to sustainability in horticulture.
They break down how a 120-year-old global company focuses on people, community and the planet—from aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to empowering the launch of impactful initiatives at Ball companies around the world. You’ll hear how teamwork drives innovation, how smart sustainability can lead to resilience and why Ball chose this moment to release its 2025 sustainability report titled “Sowing Sustainability.”
Whether you manage a greenhouse or garden center, lead a team or just want to make your business more future-focused, this episode offers practical insights and plenty of inspiration to grow greener and stronger—together.
Read the 2025 Ball Sustainability Report (English & Spanish)
Sunday Oct 19, 2025
Sunday Oct 19, 2025
In exactly 30 minutes, Ball Seed Technical Services specialist Dr. Josh Henry covers garden mum production best practices, tips and tricks to help you avoid common issues experienced by growers. He basically offers concise “checklists” for you and your team to use during mum production—from propagation to finish. From managing all stages of prop to crop nutrition and environmental management to disease/insect control, this is an excellent overview that offers tactical solutions to help you produce your best mums ever.
WATCH THE VIDEO! https://youtu.be/nNlrEREN7lo
Josh mentions many Tech On Demand resources, linked below. Many of these and more can be found at https://www.ballseed.com/Products/Mums. Scroll to the bottom of the page for an Excel-based Growth Tracking Tool!
RESOURCES:
Properly Conducting a Pour-Thru Test for pH and EC (Video)
Why Mum Foliage Turns Purple (Video Short)
Fast-cropping Fall Mums (Video)
Garden Mum Podcast Miniseries PART ONE
Garden Mum Podcast Miniseries PART TWO
Monday Oct 06, 2025
Monday Oct 06, 2025
Ball Technical Services specialist Dr. Josh Henry joins host Bill Calkins to share best practices for producing ornamental peppers as part of the Tech On Demand series covering crop culture for key annuals and perennials.
From the importance of sanitation and purchasing tested seed to keeping temperature, light and nutrition up, Josh takes ornamental peppers from propagation through to finish to help you achieve success. He spends time on protocols for preventing INSV and TSWV as key diseases to watch out for, as well as bacterial leaf spot.
Resources:
Thursday Oct 02, 2025
Thursday Oct 02, 2025
Ball Seed Technical Services Specialist Chris Ferguson joined host Bill Calkins to share 5 tips to help you take calibrachoa production to the next level—and avoid some common pitfalls.
- Irrigation—water by weight
- Pinching—chemical vs. mechanical
- pH Management—not above 6.2!
- Thielaviopsis—know your spores
- Tobacco Budworm—scout and treat ASAP
Resources:
AlkCalc from e-GRO: https://e-gro.org/alkcalc/dist/index.html
Understanding Water Levels 1-5 (VIDEO): https://youtu.be/LBhc8_KlEBE?si=SimY3iTv72Izp9Rw
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025
In this episode, host Bill Calkins is joined by industry strategist and co-founder of A24 Consulting, Clint Albin, to discuss the artificial intelligence (AI) in the greenhouse and garden center industry. Bill and Clint explore the challenges faced by green industry businesses, including seasonal fluctuations and changing consumer behaviors and how AI can provide solutions to enhance customer engagement and streamline operations—what Clint refers to as “the front door and the overhead door”.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of integrating AI thoughtfully and creatively into existing processes, the need for immediate customer feedback and some potential risks associated with AI implementation. Clint shares insights on future Green Profit article and podcast topics related to procurement and local marketing strategies, highlighting the significance of innovation in the horticulture sector.
Some key takeaways from this episode:
- AI can empower businesses of all shapes and sizes.
- Our industry faces challenges due to seasonal business cycles.
- Customer visits to garden centers need to be increased.
- Immediate customer feedback is crucial for improvement.
- AI should not be applied to broken systems.
- The essence of abundance in AI can save time or make money.
- A policy on AI usage is necessary for each business.
- Understanding customer needs is always a key to success.
This podcast supplements an article series in Green Profit magazine.
Sunday Sep 28, 2025
Sunday Sep 28, 2025
Syngenta Flowers’ Dr. Brian Krug and Dr. Jamie Gibson join Tech On Demand host Bill Calkins to discuss the exciting world of begonias, focusing on both vegetative and seed varieties. They explore the latest introductions, production best practices and the importance of lighting and PGRs in growing high-quality begonias. The discussion highlights the growing popularity of begonias in gardening and their versatility in various applications.
One of the top new introductions at California Spring Trials in 2025 was iCandy, a vegetative series of hybrid begonias for quarts and up—with double flowers and dark foliage—and Brian spends time detailing production best practices before moving on to other vegetative series including Adora (perfect for baskets), Birthday Bash (more traditional, waxy foliage and double flowers) and Florencio (a boliviensis hybrid).
Then Jamie goes through tips and tricks for producing a few newer seed-raised series from Syngenta including Bossa Nova (boliviensis types), Bionic (large, interspecific landscape type) Tophat (early-to-flower interspecifics with huge flowers) and Limitless (tuberous).
For each series, Brian and Jamie discuss production recommendations from propagation through finish—including lighting protocols, PGR regimes, temperature requirements and much more. Strategies to reduce the risk of blind cuttings are also shared.
Resources:
Syngenta Flowers Technical Library (Search “Begonias” for culture on all varieties!)
Thursday Sep 25, 2025
Thursday Sep 25, 2025
Syngenta Flowers’ Dr. Jamie Gibson joins Tech On Demand host Bill Calkins to discuss best practices for growing high quality pentas—both seed and vegetative varieties. As Jamie said multiple times, one of the biggest keys to getting the most out of pentas is keeping them warm. But there’s a lot more to maximizing production and there are nuances to understand with vegetative types, like Syngenta’s Starcluster and Starcluster Cascades, as well as the seed range, which includes Beehive, BeeBright and HoneyCluster.
Jamie and Bill kick off the discussion with vegetative pentas in the Syngenta range—Starcluster and Starcluster Cascade. Jamie calls out some key attributes like huge umbels, thick foliage and major pollinator attraction before digging into propagation from URCs or callused cuttings. If you’re concerned about propagating pentas from cuttings, a good idea might be to bring in liners and just finish them in about 8 weeks or even start from enhanced, larger liners to cut off a few more weeks in production. Another tip is for growers in Northern climates to bring in cuttings after week 6 to reduce the risk of cold-chain damage. Remember, it’s a heat loving crop and receiving vegetative pentas after week 6 still gives plenty of time to finish the crop for Mother’s Day. Jamie follows production through finish and even teaches Bill a new term, “Xanthophyll,” the yellow pigmentation that sometimes makes pentas roots look like they’re struggling even though they’re completely healthy.
Then Jamie and Bill turn the page and start on the seed-raised types. Jamie suggests buying in plugs from experienced pentas propagators because nailing pentas plug production can be quite tricky. Transplanted plugs still need to be grown warm (66-75F), and it’s recommended to consistently test pH and make sure it stays above 6.2 and also consider adding calcium nitrate to keep the pH up and tone the crop. In terms of positioning the seed-raised series from Syngenta, Jamie suggests BeeBright for packs and smaller pots, HoneyCluster for quarts and Beehive for baskets.
Resources:
Syngenta Flowers Technical Library (Search “Pentas” for culture on all varieties!)
Tuesday Sep 23, 2025
Tuesday Sep 23, 2025
This Tech On Demand podcast episode is all about propagation, biosolutions and starting your crops strong from the earliest stages. Host Bill Calkins is joined by Kristen Fowler, a technical sales consultant with Koppert who not only works with propagators but spent many years in leading propagation greenhouses as a grower—so she’s no stranger to the importance of optimizing plants at the most critical times during production.
In this episode Bill and Kristen discuss the importance of cleanliness before and after young plants are received, tips for assessing cuttings when they arrive at your greenhouse (you don’t want to push poor product onto your benches), consistent scouting and working with suppliers to understand what’s been applied to young plants before they come through your door. They also dig deep into what biological products can be used during each propagation stage (some products work well under mist, and some do not) and a roadmap to follow for protection when roots emerge, mitigating insect and mite pest pressure early on and biosolutions to apply at the time of transplant. With such a strong understanding of the propagation environment, Kristen is keenly aware that the best way to introduce many biological strategies and hybrid approaches is to work within existing propagation processes and not change too many protocols—think tank mixes, boom applications and different options for different systems.
RESOURCES:
Koppert Consultants & Locations
Koppert Crop Protection Products
Koppert’s Side Effects Guide App
2025 GrowerTalks Biosolutions Guide
2026 GrowerTalks Insecticide, Miticide & Fungicide Guide (English)
2026 GrowerTalks Insecticide, Miticide & Fungicide Guide (Spanish)
Wednesday Sep 17, 2025
Wednesday Sep 17, 2025
Sustainability and environmental responsibility are high on the priority list for the Proven Winners team and their partners. Their new Eco+ plastic-free and industrial compostable pots are a key part of this plant powered package. Host Bill Calkins caught up with Proven Winners’ director of sales, Dave Konsoer and Danny Mishek, president of VistaTek—the award-winning manufacturing company behind the new pots and other plant-based, compostable products making their way into many industries.
Danny, Dave and Bill discussed all aspects of the new packaging from manufacturing and trialing to ensure integrity in greenhouse environments to seamless integration into crop production systems and the strong, branded retail presence for which Proven Winners is known. Dave clearly explains the reasons Proven Winners invested in the move to sustainable packaging and Danny articulated why a zero-plastic approach is not only responsible but becoming necessary due to new regulations being implemented in many states very soon.
Of course, the pots went through many iterations in development and functionality in greenhouse production and retail settings was non-negotiable and Dave stated there are no changes to how crops are grown in Eco+ pots and the brand messaging remains crisp and clear on the plastic-free material.
Danny explained regulatory changes coming quickly in many states and why bio-based materials and plastic-free pots like Proven Winners’ Eco+ will help growers stay ahead of “extended producer responsibility” laws. Plus, as Dave explained, consumers clearly want responsible packaging and look to Proven Winners as a leader in the gardening space. The company’s social media pages for gardeners are filled with positive comments about the new plastic-free packaging.
There’s so much fantastic information in this podcast and excellent discussion around the topic of sustainability. It’s steeped in real-world horticultural knowledge of supply chains, price sensitivity, production situations, tolerance for change and future plans. You really have to listen all the way to the end because the ideas and info just keep coming.
Resources:
What Environmental Sustainability Looks Like for Proven Winners
Proven Winners Eco+ Containers FAQ
Eco+ Grande Pot Manufacturing (Video)
Monday Sep 15, 2025
Monday Sep 15, 2025
Cost accounting is the process of calculating your fixed and variable costs of production and identifying on what products and activities you are spending your resources. It may not be glamorous, but taking the time for cost accounting can dramatically improve your business’s profitability.
Ball Seed’s senior business analyst Stephen Steiner joins host Bill Calkins for a quick crash course in “grower math.” Stephen discusses simple ways to calculate costs (fixed and variable) by sharing greenhouse production-based examples. Knowing the true cost to produce various inputs will help you and your team make the smartest—and most profitable—decisions.
This discussion is a condensed version of a much more in-depth presentation you can find HERE.
Stephen also recommends a series of GrowerTalks’ articles digging deeper into greenhouse cost accounting from many angles. You can find all of these resources and more HERE.