Hort Talks in Manatee County

I am teaming up with Martha Glenn in Manatee County for a session on weeds.  We will be offering up to 4 CEUs in various categories (core and private) at the Manatee County Extension Office.  Here are the details and you can sign up with the link below.  My session is an update on our latest research with weed control.  Specifically, tropical plants and herbicides that can be used with them as well as control in the usual suspects.

Hort-Talks (4 hours of various CEUs)
Thursday, August 25th - Weeds, Weeds, Weeds - the legal but invasive kind.  9:00am - 1:00pm

$25 includes a mid-morning snack

Speakers include:

Dr. Paul Mitola, Field Training Coordinator, Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services will present on Core safety topics

Shawn Steed, Environmental Horticulture Production Agent, Hillsborough/Polk Counties, will discuss Weeds and their Controls

Dr. James Cuda, Professor Biological Weed Control, UF/IFAS Entomology and Nematology Depart, will show us how to manage invasive weeds sustainably with a focus on biological control.

Here is the link to register.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/commercial-hort-talks-tickets-31102747154?mc_cid=9eac086ba3&mc_eid=e616d8bed9

Good Thrips?

Not all thrips are bad!  Here is a great example of identifying your insects first before you spray.  You might just be helping your pest enemies get a stronger foothold.  The following publication helps identify a beneficial thrips that you might find in your production area that might be doing some good.  These thrips eat, other pest thrips like chili thrips, spider mites, whitefly eggs and psyllid eggs.  For more information please check out the new publication below.

 Vespiform Thrips, Franklinothrips vespiformis Crawford, is a predatory thrips with a pantropical distribution. The distinctive red, humped-back larvae and fast-moving ant-like adults are predaceous on small arthropods. In addition to being easily mistaken for an ant, this beneficial thrips is unusual in that it constructs a silken cocoon within which it pupates. Males of this species are rare. This species is sold for use as a biological control agent in botanical gardens, zoos, interior landscapes, research greenhouses, nurseries with ornamental plants as well as outdoors in subtropical regions. This 4-page fact sheet was written by Runqian Mao, Yingfang Xiao, and Steven P. Arthurs, and published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, March 2015. (Photo credit: Runqian Mao, UF/IFAS)
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in1083

Encouraging Beneficial Insects for Pest Control

I am hearing more and more stories of how producers are using beneficial insect to control pest population in production areas.  Here is a very short video of some ideas you might like to incorporate into your operation to enlist beneficials to help.  This video from GrowingProduce.com was made from Dr. Hugh Smith at our very own UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.  It mainly speaks to vegetable growers but there are some ideas that you can think about and possibly incorporate into nursery, greenhouse, or sod production.  Click on this link for the video. 

 http://www.growingproduce.com/video/pest-control/v-how-to-encourage-beneficial-insects-in-the-landscape/

Integrated Pest Management Update

Hillsborough County Extension will be hosting the Integrated Pest Management Update on January 25, 2011 at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm. The Integrated Pest Management Update Program is an award-winning statewide event that helps green industry professionals and nursery growers correctly identify pest problems and to utilize the latest, best management practices to treat them. This event cycles alternating years between landscape and grower themed issues. This year's event will deal mainly with landscape issues but would have numerous cross-over topics for growers as well. We try to help you put all the pieces of pest mangement together.

$2o.00 plus $2.09 online registration fee includes resource materials and refreshments at the event.

FNGLA, CCA, and FDACS, CEUs are Available!

Here are the topics below:

12:30 - 2:00 pm Distinguishing landscape disease & insect problems from environmental stresses
Landscape / Ornamentals – Dr. Catharine Mannion
Turfgrass – Dr. Young-Ki Jo
Palms –Dr. Monica Elliot

2:00 - 2:30 Diagnostic Tools
Utilizing a web based diagnostic and identification system (DDIS) for solving plant problems - Dan Culbert

Developing a plant diagnostic toolbox for use in the landscape - Ed Skvarch

2:30 – 3:30 pm Use of Biorational products for landscape & turf management – Dr. Eileen Buss

3:30 – 4:30 pm Vendor Presentations - The latest chemical industry updates on new products for the green industry.

If you are interested in attending this event please register and click on the link below

http://ipmu01252011.eventbrite.com/

For more information please contact Shawn Steed 813-744-5519.

Slower Growing Plants Help Inherent Defenses

It seems that nursery growers are in losing battle with insect pest and a rapid turn of plant crops. Here are the summaries of two articles I've come across recently.



Plants can either protect themselves or grow fast; but not both.



A recent published article in Science magazine by UC Irvine's Kailen Mooney et. al. came to the research conclusion that when plants have traits to grow fast, they are more prone to attack and need outside help from the attack of pests. The converse is true as well. A plant with slower growing traits favor more protection from insects that feed on them. It seems that faster growing plants are more tasty and preferred by plant eating insects.

Here is a link to a brief from the research from Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325143051.htm



Reduce fertilizer amount and reduce pest pressure.



This article was in NM Pro, March Issue. It was a summary of the researcher Andrew Chow and his colleagues work. They looked at reducing fertilizer inputs in rose crops and the pest status of introduced two spotted spider mites. They used 100, 50, and 33% of the recommended 15-5-15 Cal-Mag fertilizer and placed the same number of female mites on each plants and then grew them out. Mite egg count was 2 times higher with 100% fertilizer compared to the 50 or 33% fertilizer rate. Flowering shoots and quality was not compromised at the 50% fertility rate. This study showed that reducing fertilizer reduced the pest numbers and had positive monetary savings in sprays, labor, and fertilizer. The complete article was in Journal of Economic Entomology Vol. 102, Issue 5.

My take on these articles would be that if I had some plants that were insect magnets and I didn't need them produced for a market window, I might try to reduce the amount of fertilizer to them. Or even, spread out the production of this plant over the year and reduce the amount of fertilizer so that the slower growing plants would be reaching maturity throughout the year for sales. Then watch to see if the reduction of fertilizer reduced the pests to a non-economic damaging level. If you try this let me know how it works out!

Grasshoppers Abound

As you may have noticed lately, grasshoppers populations have increased substantially. They may have even increased to an economically damaging level at your nursery. The eastern lubber grasshopper is especially prevalent during this time of the year. These are the large ones that practically knock you down when they bump into you. I have scanned through some of the fact sheets on the IFAS EDIS (Electronic Data Information Source) to find some information on what you can do to prevent lubber grasshopper damage to your plants. The following paragraphs are taken directly from (EENY-006 Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, Romalea microptera (Beauvois) (= guttata (Houttuyn)) (Insecta: Orthoptera: Acrididae) C. W. Scherer and J. L. Capinera, originally published 1996, revised 2008) here is the factsheet if you would like further information http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in132

“Adults of Romalea microptera exist nearly throughout the year in Florida with their numbers dwindling during the fall and winter period. They have one generation per year, with eggs beginning to hatch in February in South Florida while the rest of the state usually doesn't see this species until March. Eastern lubbers, like all grasshoppers, grow through successive stages after molting. These stages (instars) are referred to as nymphs. Lubbers have a total of five instars before molting into the adult stage. The length of these instars vary slightly but average 15 to 20 days each. The highest number of adults can be observed during the months of July and August.

Females will begin laying eggs during the summer months. After mating, females use the tip of the abdomen to dig a small hole into a suitable patch of soil. Usually at a depth of about two inches, she will deposit up to 50 eggs contained within a light foamy froth. Each female will lay from one to three egg masses. These eggs will remain in the soil through late fall and winter and then begin hatching in March. The young grasshoppers crawl up out of the soil upon hatching and seem to congregate near suitable food sources. Lubbers are often found in damp or wet habitats, but seek drier sites for egg-laying.

Populations cycle up and down, possibly due to the action of parasites. The tachinid fly Anisia serotina (Reinhard) attains high levels of parasitism, sometimes 60-90%

The size of the eastern lubber grasshopper is a little misleading when one considers they require far less food material than most of the more injurious species of grasshoppers that are only one-third as large or smaller.

Grasshopper abundance can be regulated through management of the vegetation. If you deprive grasshoppers of their favored food, often they will leave or perish. Keeping the vegetation mowed is very helpful, as short vegetation does not often support grasshoppers
Lubber grasshoppers will often develop initially in moist areas around ponds and irrigation ditches, then later migrate to homes, yards, and crops. Rather than waiting for the grasshoppers to come to you, it is often best to take the battle to them. So check potential breeding or feeding sites for signs of grasshoppers. The young grasshoppers remain clustered in groups, but as they get older they are more likely to be solitary.

Grasshoppers are not easy to kill, even with insecticides, once they become large. Among the insecticides that will kill lubber grasshoppers are carbaryl, bifenthrin, cyhalothrin, permethrin, and esfenvalerate (note: these are the technical names, which appear in the 'ingredients' section on the label). You likely will have to apply the insecticide directly to the insects; the small amount of insecticide residue remaining on sprayed plants may not adequate to kill the grasshoppers.”

Along with chemical control there are a few biological control options that can be used. Nosema locustae, a naturally occurring protozoan that causes disease and death in crickets and grasshoppers and sold under the trade name Nolo Bait® and Grasshopper Attack®. This biological control is best used when grasshoppers are in the younger stages of maturation. With ingestion of the protozoan, the grasshopper reduces feeding activity and egg laying and between 60 to 90% will die. The next generation of grasshoppers can become infected with egg contamination from adult female grasshoppers. Derived from Eny-275. Microbial Insecticides. R. Weinzierl, T. Henn, P. G. Koehler and C. L. Tucker. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN/IN08100.pdf

The fungus Beauveria bassiana is yet another biopesticide registered for grasshopper control. This is a soil fungus that has a broad spectrum of insect control. It is sold under the trade name BotaniGard®. The spores of this fungus penetrates the insects cuticle and consumes it from the inside.

Remember to decide if the level of economic damage is sufficient to warrant control measures. Culturally, there can be some control of grasshoppers with disking in the winter time to expose eggs and mowing in the spring and summer to remove food sources for the grasshoppers to eat.

Integrated Pest Management Update

Pests are a perennial problem in the nursery and their proper identification and effective control are essential to best production practices. The University of Florida/IFAS extension is bringing you a great program on the latest and greatest from research and industry to help you in your combating pest at the production level.

We will be having our annual Integrated Pest Management Update in Balm at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center. The session will be half a day and will cover topics in the following areas:

• how to effectively scout your production area
• two economically important weeds
• weed management
• industry updates from our sponsors
• shipping plants to and from Texas
• chilli thrips management
• banker plants
• biorational pesticides

This is a really good line up and you should take away some good information to put to immediate use at the nursery. The cost is $25.00 and will cover refreshments, materials, CEU's for FNGLA, ISA, and FDACS pesticide licenses.

Here is the flyer for the program: http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu/Ag/AgOrnProd/CalendarPubs/PMUFlyer2010.pdf

And here is the link to register yourself online. http://ipm030910.eventbrite.com/

Palm Workshop

Here is an interesting opportunity for those of you who grow lots of palms. You may want to check this out.

Palm Management in the Florida Landscape

Date: Tuesday, October 27 and Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Time: 7:45 AM – 5:00 PM each day

Location: University of Florida - IFAS
Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center
3205 College Avenue
Davie, FL 33314

Registration Fee: $300, checks only, payable to the “University of Florida”

Reservations/Payment By: October 15, 2009 (or until class fills up)

Enrollment Limit: 40 persons. Enrollment will be limited to 3 persons per company
initially. If space is still available after October 15, this enrollment cap will be lifted.

CEUs applied for: ISA, FNGLA and FDACS (pesticide license)

Topics
(classroom presentations and field trip to palm groves on site)
Ÿ Diagnosing Palm Problems Ÿ Palm Insects
Ÿ Palm Anatomy and Growth Ÿ Palm Diseases
Ÿ Physiological Disorders Ÿ Normal Abnormalities
Ÿ Nutrient Deficiencies Ÿ Fertilizer Formulations
Ÿ Sampling and Leaf Analysis Ÿ Fertilizer Application Techniques
Ÿ Transplant Issues Ÿ Pruning Palms

Instructors:
· Dr. Timothy Broschat, Palm Horticulturist, Nutrition and Fertilization
· Dr. Monica Elliott, Palm Pathologist, Fungal Diseases
· Dr. Robin Giblin-Davis, Palm Entomologist/Nematologist
· Dr. Nigel Harrison, Palm Pathologist, Phytoplasma Diseases

For more information and to reserve your spot for “Palm School”, contact:
Dr. Monica Elliott
e-mail: melliott@ufl.edu
phone: 954/577-6315

Mite Control

Have you got problems with mites? Don't feel too bad. You are not alone. They are one of the most difficult pest problems to control in the greenhouse and nursery. They are extremely small, they reproduce within weeks, and hide under the leaves and in buds. Careful scouting is important in order to catch pest population before they get out of control. When scouting, mites can be seen by knocking leaves onto a surface of a white piece of paper on which you can see the mites moving. You can also detect mites with a hand lens and by the characteristic damage associate with their plant host. If you do have problems with mites, or want more information about them check out this EDIS publication from IFAS about mites and the means to control them. "Selected miticides for use on ornamental plants. " The article is written by Lance Osborne and Robert Stamps from the University of Florida. It details their biology, types, and control (chemical and beneficial). I hope this helps you in your efforts against mites. Here is the link to the publication:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/EP383