Schedule

The use of mycorrhizal fungal inoculants has gained popularity in the last few years in ornamental and horticultural production. Growers use mycorrhizal inoculants to enhance plant health by increasing water and nutrient uptake, promoting vegetative growth, reducing stress effects on the plants, etc. These inoculants are widely accepted as potential alternatives or complements to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This session will help growers understand how to use mycorrhizal fungal inoculants in their operation to improve plant health.

Healthy plants begin with good quality water. Neil will discuss why and how often you should get a laboratory water quality test. Learn how to interpret a laboratory irrigation water report – what factors should you really pay attention too (such as alkalinity, electrical conductivity, sodium, chloride, and nitrate) and which ones are less important. Neil will review how water quality factors such as pH can impact root disease susceptibility, pesticide applications and how to select appropriate fertilizers for your crops based on water’s alkalinity. Finally, learn how water quality can impact your long-term root-zone pH and electrical conductivity and how these can be managed with fertilizer selection and irrigation leaching fraction.

Dramm produces over 50 different machines to apply chemistry to plants. With novel chemistries being used for plant protection with, each with different limitations, understanding how these chemistries interact with spray equipment is essential to ensuring these products work properly without damaging equipment or causing crop harm.

This presentation explores the physics of spray application methods specific to closed environments. By understanding how spray behaves (and misbehaves), and by using simple coverage diagnostic methods, operators can improve their spray efficacy and productivity.

Ornamental Segment Lead Heidi Warner discusses how Nufarm’s mite rotation program controls mites at every stage and fights against resistance with three unique active ingredients.

Raymond will provide an introduction to biological control and then focus on the importance in developing quality assessments to ensure that biological control agents (BCA) are functional and will be successful in managing insect and mite pest populations in greenhouse production systems. Raymond will provide data related to quality assessment based on current biological control programs.

Find out how selecting the proper growing media and the right biological active ingredients can make a difference and influence crop health.

Proper selection and management of growing media can directly influence plant growth and overall crop health from beginning to end. With proper substrate selection and management, it is easier for growers to promote excellent root growth and development which is critical for overall plant health and success. Additionally, precision water management of substrates/containers at different times over the cropping cycle of plant production can aid in growth regulation (size) and post production shelf life of plants. As new substrates are entering the marketplace, understanding how they compare to traditional mixes (regarding water management) will also be discussed.