New Grant to LEAP into the Future of Labor Efficiency

University of Florida/IFAS researchers including Dr. Chris Marble (weed scientist) were recently awarded a USDA-SCRI grant entitled ‘Labor, Efficiency, Automation, and Production: LEAP Nursery Crops Toward Sustainability. The project's goal is to help nursery growers evaluate and potentially adopt new forms of automation, improve production efficiency, and reduce labor. Dr. Marble is working on evaluating the efficiency of different types of herbicide application equipment. For this research, he will investigate the accuracy, uniformity, and efficiency of different types of granular and spray-applied application equipment and needs nursery cooperators! All you would have to do is let us know when you plan on making a regular herbicide application and we can collect the data which we will share back with you. Another project goal is to determine how efficient different forms of applications are so growers can make more informed decisions before making equipment investments and/or adopting new practices.

If you would be interested, please contact Shawn Steed at ststeed@ufl.edu. An additional portion of this research highlights grower’s successes with different forms of automation. If you are willing to share information on any form of equipment, production methods, or other tools you have adopted that have made your nursery more efficient, we would love to highlight your success and learn from you.

Woody Ornamental Production Field Day Registration Now Open

Make plans to attend UF Extension's Woody Ornamental Production Field Day on May 31st, 2018 at the UF Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.  We have another great line-up of education and field demonstrations prepared for you.  Topics will include, chemical updates from chemical industry reps, pre-emergent herbicide trials on ageratum and tropical plants, updates from a plastic mulch trial, comparison of pH and EC collection methods for large container production and more!  The final agenda is now complete. The times will be 9:00 - 4:00.  Registration will include a lunch and CEUs (1 Core and 2.5 PRVT/O&T).  You can register for $55.00 now at this link to reserve your spot.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-woody-ornamental-production-field-day-tickets-45941613603

Here is the agenda for the event.
Classroom
8:30       Registration, set-up, conversations over snacks
9:00       Welcome, Introduction, Orientation 5 min.  (Mr. Shawn Steed)
9:05       Plastic Mulch Update 15 min.  (Mr. Shawn Steed)

Field Demonstration
9:25         Bio-Mulch for Containers 15 min. (Dr. Chris Marble)
9:40         Irrigation Using Leaching Fraction for Large Containers 20 min.  (Dr. Tom Yeager)
10:00 Nutrient/pH Monitoring in Large Containers 20 min (Mr. Shawn Steed)
10:20 Ageratum Control in Nursery Containers 20 min.  (Drs. Nathan Boyd/Chris Marble)

Classroom
10:45 Chemical Updates 30 min. (Various reps)
11:15 SWFWMD Permitting Process 40 min. (SWFWMD Staff)

11:55 Vendor Visits / Lunch

12:40 OSHA Fit Test 50 min.  (Mr. William Tomlin, USF Health)
13:30 Alternative containers 20 min.  (Dr. Andrew Koeser)
13:50 Break
13:55 Tropical Plant Herbicide Options 20 min.  (Dr. Nathan Boyd)
14:15 DOT Rules and Regulations update 40 min. (Tpr. Austin Daniels)
15:55 Summary/Evaluation (Mr. Shawn Steed)
16:00 Adjourn

We thank our sponsors, Diamond R, Southern Ag, Mosaic, FNGLA Tampa Chapter, BASF, Syngenta, SWFWMD, USF Health, USDA Southern SARE for making this event possible!

Flumioxazin Plant Injury

Dr. Nathan Boyd, weed scientist at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center and I have been working on tropical ornamental crop tolerances to preemergent herbicides as part of an FNGLA research grant.  He sent this picture of firebush BoradStar herbicide damage to me and thought I would share.  BroadStar can be applied to ornamental plants growing in containers, the field and in landscapes.  Mild spotting is a common reaction of tolerant plants with symptoms showing up 1-2 days after application.  Do not apply BroadStar to wet foliage, stressed plants, or some plants that can funnel the herbicide into leaf bases.  Below is his description of what is going on.

The active ingredient in BroadStar is flumioxazin.  This herbicide is a PPO inhibitor that is generally applied preemergence (before weeds emerge).  It can, however, damage plants when the herbicide comes in contact with green foliage.  When applied preemergence, the emerging seedling absorbs the herbicide and subsequently dies when the shoot is exposed to light.  Flumioxazin can also be absorbed by the root system of larger plants.  When this occurs the roots generally are not damaged as they are not exposed to light and do not contain chlorophyll.  Flumioxazin can travel through from the roots to the leaves.  Once it reaches the leaves where it is exposed to light the veins turn purple and die.  Leaf death follows soon afterwards.  Symptoms of flumioxazin damage include, purpling of the veins in the leaf, purpling or tissue death moving from the veins outward.

Pre-emergent Herbicides Inhibiting Asiatic Jasmine Growth

We have heard some word about Asiatic or dwarf jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) possibly being affected by different herbicides.  One savvy grower decided to check on things and did a demonstration plot to see what was going on.  The grower applied two applications of either Biathlon, FreeHand, Tower or Gemini and had a non-herbicide control plot.  Liners were potted at 1/10/17 and herbicide was applied.  The second application was on 3/30/17.  Each bed was treated independently. There were plenty of replications within the block, but there were no randomizations or replications of blocks (which might lead to potential errors due to the nursery layout, (i.e. light, irrigation, etc.).  However, I feel that the demonstration is useful to caution a grower about using certain herbicides in all cases.  The picture below shows a representative example from each bed.  Notice the overall size and length of the shoots.  The bottom half of the picture shows the view at the plot level.  Notice the amount of soil showing at the top of the pot.  The grower mentioned that the affected plants are stunted (almost like a growth regulator) and are weeks behind in production time.

UF/IFAS Extension is not making any recommendations with this data; just showing the results of the small-scale demonstration. The use of trade names or registered products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information.  UF/IFAS does not guarantee or warranty the products named, and references to them in this publication do not signify our approval to the exclusion of other products of suitable composition.  All chemicals should be used in accordance with directions on the manufacturer's label.  Use pesticides safely.  Read and follow direction on the manufacturer's label.

Amaryllis Herbicide Demonstration

I completed a short-term demonstration trial on amaryllis recently to determine a few safe preemergent-herbicides that might prove useful to prevent hand weeding since I couldn't find anything in the literature.  Eight different herbicides were applied over the top of three pots and then on another set of three pots herbicide was applied under the canopy of the leaf blades to see if there were any differences.  The rates were about twice the high labeled rate to make sure they would be relatively safe even with an over-application.  Only above ground plants were evaluated.  Herbicide injury could show up in slower growth rates, longer term growth, and root damage but these were not evaluated.
Here are the results three weeks after treatment application. Herbicides that look relatively safe were Corral, FreeHand, Tower, Snapshot.  Ones that caused injury were OH2, O-O Herbicide, Jewel, Rout, and OHII.  Almost all damage was in the axil of the leaves right at the base of the bulb (see red arrow in above picture).  There was less injury when herbicides were applied under the canopy but nothing was 100% injury free if it caused damage in the overhead trial (see red arrow at bottom right picture above).  It would be extremely difficult to apply these herbicides under canopy if there were any number of pots that would need to be applied and there would be no way to guarantee the application would be only to the soil.  As a caveat with this information, this was done in a limited number of plants in April in West Central Florida with overhead irrigation.  Data may be different with other environmental conditions, irrigation practices, media, etc.  UF/IFAS Extension is not making any recommendations with this data, just showing the results of the small-scale demonstration. The use of trade names or registered products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information.  UF/IFAS does not guarantee or warranty the products named, and references to them in this publication do not signify our approval to the exclusion of other products of suitable composition.  All chemicals should be used in accordance with directions on the manufacturer's label.  Use pesticides safely.  Read and follow direction on the manufacturer's label.    

Preemrgent Herbicide Field Trial on Recycled Potting Soil

I have been working on a field trial with preemergent herbicides at a grower's field and thought I would share the results from what we have seen.  This is reused recycled soil that has had various preemergent herbicides applied as soon as pots were filled. We did two plots for each herbicide and we only did one plot of non-treated control.  We took pictures at two and four weeks after treatment (WAT).  This soil suffers from an abundance of nutsedge which is not normally an issue in potting soils due to its propagation from tubers and not from seeds.  This happens to be prevalent due to the process of reusing the old soil.

Preemrgent Herbicide Field Trial on Recycled Potting Soil

I have been working on a field trial with preemergent herbicides at a grower's field and thought I would share the results from what we have seen.  This is reused recycled soil that has had various preemergent herbicides applied as soon as pots were filled. We did two plots for each herbicide and we only did one plot of non-treated control.  We took pictures at two and four weeks after treatment (WAT).  This soil suffers from an abundance of nutsedge which is not normally an issue in potting soils due to its propagation from tubers and not from seeds.  This happens to be prevalent due to the process of reusing the old soil.

Postemergent Herbicides for Use in Ornamentals

Removal of weeds that have already germinated with herbicides requires a postemergent herbicide. Generally there are limitations to what you can spray and not also kill the plants that you are trying to grow.  Here is a factsheet that might help you decide what kinds of herbicides you can add to your toolbox for dealing with weeds.  

Postemergent Herbicides for Use in Ornamentals (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wg059) is a 5-page fact sheet and is largely comprised of two tables: Table one lists postemergent herbicides that can be safely used over the top of some ornamentals when used according to label directions; table 2 lists postemergent herbicides that are registered for use around ornamental plants when applied as a directed spray. This factsheet was written by Jeffrey G. Norcini and Chris Marble, and published by the UF Department of Environmental Horticulture, November 2014.