TECH ON DEMAND brought to you by GrowerTalks

Creating Your Trial Plan

Our guest today is Jason Twaddell. Jason joins host Bill Calkins to tackle an important topic for all growers. In this STEM Rewind, he digs into the Why, What and When of trialing in an effort to highlight the importance of this critical piece of the growing puzzle. With margins getting narrower and the tolerance for inefficiency and shrink dropping to near zero, trialing and testing new genetics before replacing existing varieties is more important than ever.

Some of the topics he covers include trialing to solve problems and not just to evaluate what’s new; improving labor–intensive processes and the importance of an internal champion to maximize resources. Jason details the steps to take when implementing an effective trial strategy and also how to plan and prioritize to achieve the goals you set. This episode is appropriate for many roles in your greenhouse operation from management to section growers. Getting your team aligned when putting trials in place is critical to the whole process.

Audio Files: Resistance Management

RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT

FROM THE APRIL 2024 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY DR. RAYMOND A CLOYD

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: Resistance develops when pesticides with similar modes of action are continually applied to manage insect and/or mite pest populations below plant-damaging levels. It’s important to understand that pesticides don’t cause resistance; instead, pesticides select for naturally occurring resistance traits in insect and/or mite pest populations by removing susceptible individuals from the population.

Two strategies that may delay the onset of resistance developing in insect and/or mite pest populations are pesticide rotations (alternations/cycling) and pesticide mixtures (combinations).

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—April 2024: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_24_04/index.aspx

Watering: The Rest of the Story (Part Two)

We are once again joined by Ball Horticultural’s retired Senior Technical & Research Manager Dr. Will Healy. The topic continues… watering and water management. This is part two in a two-part series and hese two episodes work best in tandem so try to listen to part one—The Language of Watering—before jumping into this one.

 

In the first part, Will delved into the importance of speaking the same language of watering throughout the company and qualitative and quantitative ways to teach water management so that accuracy and efficiency can be achieved.

 

This episode takes it to the next level getting into specific plant demands, how to determine wet/dry targets, how to optimize any greenhouse for water management and even suggests an inexpensive gift for all of your production team members. 

The Language of Watering (Part One)

This episode of Tech On Demand, brought to you by GrowerTalks addresses one of the most basic tasks in a professional greenhouse, watering. But proving that water management is fundamental and critical, we are joined by Ball Horticultural’s retired Senior Technical & Research Manager Dr. Will Healy—one of the most experienced and knowledgeable experts in all things greenhouse production. He’s also a great storyteller, which you will learn throughout the episodes. And yes—episodes—because this one is a two-parter. Watering and water management is SO critical that we invited a PhD to help us learn as much as possible about it AND will spend two sessions on the topic. The first part will be all about The Language of Watering and this one is perfect to share with your entire production team and others across your organization.

 

As Dr. Healy will help us understand, speaking the same language of watering throughout the company is critical and there are qualitative and quantitative ways to teach water management so that accuracy and efficiency can be achieved. Getting watering right WILL reduce your costs and result in better crops. 

Gather your team, grab a pen and notepad and get ready for part one in a two-part session on watering. 

Audio Files: Scouting—Essential & Therapeutic

SCOUTING: ESSENTIAL & THERAPEUTIC

FROM THE APRIL 2021 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY PAUL PILON

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: Regardless of the types of crops being grown or the size of the operation, scouting is essential to any company that produces plants. This important routine shouldn’t only be viewed as a necessary task to detect pest and disease problems, but as an opportunity to get intimate with the plants in a manner that really lets you observe the plants closely and provides a great indication of how healthy they really are.

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—April 2021: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_21_04/index.aspx

Audio Files: Terrific Trade Show Prep & Follow-up

TERRIFIC TRADE SHOW PREP & FOLLOW-UP

FROM THE MARCH 2024 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY KATIE ELZER-PETERS

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: Attending trade shows costs a lot of coin. Whether you pay for a booth, ship plants and fixtures out to the show, and cover hotel rooms and meals for staff or you send staff (and pay for meals and hotel rooms and transportation), at a minimum you’re spending $1,000. But your outlay might be closer to $50K with a booth. Are you getting as much out of the shows as you could be?

 

Read the digital edition of GrowerTalks Magazine—March 2024: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_24_03/index.aspx

Audio Files: Avoiding Crop Contamination

AVOIDING CROP CONTAMINATION

FROM THE FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE OF INSIDE GROWER MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY DAVID KUACK

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: While food crop production in greenhouses or indoor farms might be considered safer than outdoor field production, plants can experience the same exposure to human pathogens regardless of where they’re produced.

 

The CDC reports many kinds of produce, including organic leafy greens, can be contaminated with human pathogens. According to the CDC, leafy greens produced with hydroponic or greenhouse-grown methods can also be contaminated with these pathogens at any point from farm to fork.

 

“Greenhouse and indoor farm growers think they are growing a safe product because they are growing in a controlled environment structure,” said Melanie Lewis Ivey, associate professor, Fruit Pathology & Fresh Produce Safety, and extension experience coordinator at The Ohio State University. “There is a difference between a controlled environment and a closed environment.”

 

RESOURCE:

The Ohio State University’s Fruit and Vegetable Safety Team offers an online course called “Good Agricultural Practices for Food Safety of Hydroponic Crops.” This self-paced course provides controlled environment food growers with the information and tools needed to implement best management practices to reduce microbial food safety hazards.

 

Read the digital edition of Inside Grower Magazine—February 2024: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/ig_24_02/index.aspx

Audio Files: Get Familiar with In-House Disease Testing

GET FAMILIAR WITH IN-HOUSE DISEASE TESTING

FROM THE FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY NICK FLAX

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: Since the naked eye cannot see bacteria or viral particles, test kits are really the only way to home in on exactly which pathogen you’re dealing with. The alternative is to send plant samples off to a lab equipped with similar, higher -resolution diagnostic tools, but this can be time-consuming and costly, depending on the lab. In the meantime, while you wait to hear testing results, the pathogen could be spreading further through your crops and cause more damage because you weren’t able to react sooner. If you had a test kit on-hand, however, this would give you a much better idea of how to appropriately manage your disease risk when you first saw symptoms and potentially head it off sooner.

 

Read the digital edition of GROWERTALKS Magazine—February 2024: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_24_02/index.aspx

Audio Files: What Does "Compatibility" Mean?

WHAT DOES “COMPATIBILITY” MEAN?

FROM THE FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE OF GROWERTALKS MAGAZINE

WRITTEN BY DR. RAYMOND A. CLOYD

NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS

 

EXCERPT: … integrating BCAs and pesticides is complex due to the various direct and/or indirect effects that pesticides may have on BCAs. For instance, any delay in the population growth of BCAs by pesticides (and even fungicides) can substantially affect the ability of BCAs to manage pest populations below economically plant-damaging levels. Another factor to consider is that combining BCAs with pesticides not only has to effectively manage pest populations, but also has to be cost-effective. Finally, we need to stop using the term “compatibility.”

 

Read the digital edition of GROWERTALKS Magazine—February 2024: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gt_24_02/index.aspx

Spring Prep: Plant Nutrition

Host Bill Calkins is joined by Dr. Josh Henry, a Ball technical service specialist with expertise in plant nutrition and fertility, to take you through a range of topics related to crop nutrition with the goal of setting you and your team up for success with spring production.

 

In this discussion, Josh covers an early-season checklist that includes water testing, injector calibration and the importance of having an in-house testing toolbox handy. Then he digs deeper into options for fertilizer—macronutrients and micronutrients—and tips for adjusting pH up or down. There’s a lot of great information packed into 25 minutes, so this is a perfect podcast to share with your entire production team.

 

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO PRESENTATION: https://youtu.be/EuAlb8BXuRo

 

Resources Mentioned:

 

Properly Conduct a Pour-Thru Test for pH & EC (VIDEO): https://youtu.be/WyJ2fgkng-8?si=jqmYt5L6IEbXIYdR

 

AlkCalc calculator for adjusting pH and Alkalinity (from e-GRO): https://e-gro.org/alkcalc/dist/index.html

 

Ball Seed Ornamental Plants Plug Growing Chart: https://ballseed.com/PDF/OrnamentalPlants-PlugGrowingChart.pdf

 

Fertilizer Injector Calibration (University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension): https://extension.unh.edu/sites/default/files/migrated_unmanaged_files/Resource000882_Rep928.pdf