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Cultivation
Elementary School gets a lesson in planting flower bulbs
The flower bulbs of Klaas Hogervorst brighten up a schoolyard
Between the autumn rain showers on Monday, the 4th and 5th-year children from the Antonius elementary school were planting hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, and crocuses around their schoolyard. Earlier this year, the elementary school won 1,000 flower bulbs as a result of partaking in the so-called ‘Soil…
Stimulatory effect of silver nanoparticles on the growth and flowering of potted oriental lilies
Nanoparticles exhibit unique biological activities and may serve as novel plant growth stimulators. This research consisted of a two-year pot experiment designed to find out if silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) might be used in the cultivation of Oriental lilies. In the first year, the effects of various…
Pyrethrum’s rich history in Kenya and old good days
Pyrethrum is a naturally occurring mixture of chemicals found in certain chrysanthemum flowers. It was first recognised to have insecticidal properties around 1800AD in Asia and was used to kill ticks and various insects such as fleas and mosquitoes. Six individual chemicals have active insecticidal…
"Floriculture can provide additional income for farmers"
The Hislop College flower show - the culmination of year-long floriculture undertaken by its department of botany - is a keenly awaited event not only by plantsmen but also citizens. Started as an extension activity by the department in the year 2003, the past and present keepers of its floriculture unit…
Australia: Scholarships looking to support growth & innovation of horticultural sector
The Australian nursery industry and broader horticultural sector are thriving. To support further growth and innovation within the sector, the industry must focus on the development of one of its most important resources – people. Hort Innovation using nursery industry levies and funds from the…
Problem-free Panicum Details: Cultural Conditions
Hoffman Nursery's head grower, Bill Hall, gave a well-received talk this summer on Panicum at Cultivate’19. Because so many of the company's customers grow Panicum virgatum in container production, they are sharing details from his talk in a series of posts. The first post focused on understanding the…
'Perfect Rose' gets through the summer well
In the rose test The Perfect Rose, which is running at Wageningen University & Research, the crop survived the summer well. This summer had three hot periods (June 23-25, July 23-27, August 23-27). In the rose greenhouse with cooling, during those periods the 24-hour temperature could be kept lower than…
India: Orchid farming is catching up in Telangana, but is it sustainable?
80% of India’s orchids are transported from Thailand. Barring a few North-Eastern states, orchid farming is considered to be a risky proposition because of the heavy investment required to grow the crop. The climatic conditions of Telangana are not conducive to the growth of the flower crop. However, a…
How LED and HPS lighting affects air and leaf temperature
As growers are educating themselves more on different lighting technologies, we have been faced with questions many times over about what effects different light sources have on temperature and crop production; what is the difference between Convection Heat and Radiant Heat? Anyone remotely familiar with…
Micropropagation's huge growth potential
Production of high quality planting materials is expected to grow by 5% to 10% a year. This growth is fueled by two developments: the increase in global demand for tissue-cultured industrial crops and food crops, like tropical fruits and berries, and the need for high quality planting materials. Yet,…
US (NC): Understanding switchgrass
The most common production concerns Hoffman Nursery hear about with Panicum are yellowing, rust, and slow emergence in spring. Yellowing and rust are often related to cultural conditions and management practices. In addition, as warm-season grasses, Switchgrasses are some of the last to emerge in spring.…
Ellepot and PROPTEC partner up: Ellepot Australia
New partnership to provide integrated paper-pot solution to Australian growers
As part of Ellepot's vision to be active in key regions globally, Ellepot is proud to announce its partnership with PROPTEC and Brad Skinner in Australia. Ellepot Australia will be supplying the market with the latest technology from Ellepot to provide a fully integrated paper-pot solution including…
Godfrey Dol about daytime humidity in semi-closed glasshouses
"No limit on humidity in semi-closed glasshouse"
A plant responds to low humidity by making large leaves. This meansthat low humidity creates a vegetative plant and that a grower can create a more generative plant by…
Nivolution to realise homogeneous greenhouse climate & major energy cost reduction
"Grower ought to focus on Absolute Humidity"
In case outside temperatures are lower than inside the greenhouse, while at the same time humidity levels are higher, opening the windows will not necessarily have the right effect. Even though real temperature levels might go down, humidity levels and therefore the amount of energy in the air, the…
US (MA): 2020 Easter lily schedule
The UMass Center for Agriculture, Food, and Environment reports that Dr Richard McAvoy, Professor and Extension Specialist for greenhouse crops at the University of Connecticut, has released his 2020 Easter lily schedule. The document can be found here.
Peony scientist breaks new ground for cut flowers
One of the world’s most popular flowers – the peony – can now be grown in hot climates, following a discovery that could disrupt the multi-billion dollar global cut flower industry. University of the Sunshine Coast Science graduate Krista Bogiatzis has found a way of replicating perfect winter conditions…
Increasing humidity in semi-closed glasshouses
How to prevent plants from becoming too vegetative?
Managing humidity provides the biggest challenge in learning how to work with a semi-closed glasshouse. So much so that Godfrey Dol, an expert on growing in semi-closed glasshouses, wants to spend some time discussing it. But before he gets into the technicalities of what humidity means in a semi-closed glasshouse,…
Genap focuses on local production
"If you want to grow sustainably, local presence is a must"
There is a worldwide call and necessity to store water. Genap, supplying water storage tanks to the agricultural and horticultural sector for ages, notices an increase in the demand and therefore focuses increasingly on local production. In November, production in Kenya started, while another production…
Young plant propagators pleased with Philips LED toplighting
Three North American growers recently shared the news of excellent results growing under Philips LED toplighting. After successful trial installations in 2016, Kalamazoo Specialty Plants, Lucas Greenhouses and Jolly Farmer all completed significant expansions of their Philips LED grow lights lighting for…
How to prevent momentum causing disappointing results?
Momentum can be a cause of disappointing results in the semi-closed glasshouse. So what is it, and how can it be prevented? Godfrey Dol, an expert on growing in semi-closed glasshouses, shares his experiences. Figure 1 below shows a bird’s-eye schematic view of a semi-closed glasshouse. Figure 1 Airflows…
Nutrient monitoring of garden mum
Chrysanthemums require medium to high fertility of 150 to 300 ppm N. Optimal substrate pH values for chrysanthemums range from 5.8 to 6.2. Chrysanthemums are susceptible to high substrate pH and soluble salts. Substrate pH above 6.5 inhibits iron availability and induce interveinal chlorosis (yellowing).…
"Choose the right soil analysis for in-ground cut flowers"
If you are using Saturated Paste Extract (SPE) to assess soil nutrients for in-ground grown cut flowers, you may be underestimating plant-available nutrients and applying fertilizers that aren’t needed. by Chevonne Dayboll, Greenhouse Floriculture Specialist, OMAFRA, Lauren Vanderlingen, OMAFRA Summer…
Nutrient monitoring of pansy
Pansies require low fertility of 100 to 150 ppm N. Optimal substrate pH values for pansies range from 5.5 to 5.8. Pansies can develop both low and high substrate pH disorders. If substrate pH drifts lower than 5.5, iron (Fe) and/or manganese toxicity occurs and is observed as lower leaf black spotting. Substrate pH values above…
Nutrient monitoring of poinsettia
Poinsettias require medium to high fertility levels between 150 and 300 ppm N, with the rate adjusted to take into account plant vigor. Optimal substrate pH values for poinsettia range from 5.5 to 6.5. If the substrate pH drifts lower than 5.5, plants will become stunted and color delayed. Substrate pH…
Kees Veldhuijzen about the Iribov project in Ghana
Make a real impact with good starting material
Iribov has had a production location in Ghana for a number of years. The location is used for the propagation of tissue culture. Most of the production will go back to the Netherlands for the customer network in Europe, but during the last three years the company explicitly also started to focus on the…
UK: Growing 100 percent peat free
Being peat free has been one of the highest priorities for Allwoods, but it has taken them much longer than they thought it would. The company first started moving to peat free composts over 10 years ago when they changed growing their young plug plants, they trialed various plug products and found the…
Joe Raju, Bumnong:
"This tray could guarantee 100% of seedling"
By comparing the results of a general seedling tray with their Fibroot tray, Bumnong USA found that the latter tray could get the crop about 20 to 50 percent higher when it was used for plants that had severe transplant shock or that the growth of the rootlet is not good enough. The team of Bumnong at…
India: Orchid Park developed by Horticulture Dept
An Orchid Park is being developed by the Horticulture Department on about 100 acres of land in Chhindwara district. Poly Houses will be developed by youth in this park. Land has already been earmarked for the park. Floriculture in this park will give a new identity to Chhindwara district. Under the…
The difference between semi-closed and pad and fan glasshouses
Pad and fan glasshouses have been in use for a long time. Most fruiting plants are prone to reduced quality and yield at maximum temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius. The cause is a reduced viability of pollen and as a result, the fruit will be soft, dull, misshapen and smaller in size. As fruit and…
“Almost two weeks ahead of time"
Summer heat accelerates Alaska peony harvest
Alaska peonies have a special place in the world flower market. Typically, growers in the 49th state have a window of time when the flowers aren’t being harvested anywhere else in the world. But, this summer’s record-breaking heat led to an early and fast harvest, leaving farmers here wondering what the…
A new growth-tracking tool and a mum selector let you grow the best garden mums from start to finish.
US: Ball Seed launches online resource for mum growers
Ball Seed, North America’s leading horticultural distributor, is pleased to launch the Garden Mum Growth Tracking Tool for its Ball Mums growers. The new tool simplifies growth measurements by providing a space to enter weekly plant growth into a formula, which then compares the crop to a projected…
How Alaska became a center of peony cultivation
When you think of peonies, Alaska wouldn't be the first place that comes to mind - until two decades ago. Patricia Holloway, a horticultural researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, remembers a conference held by the university in the late 1990s. "A guest speaker was a cut flower grower from…
Discovery of non-blooming orchid on Japanese subtropical islands
A group of Japanese scientists has discovered a new orchid species on Japan’s subtropical islands of Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima that bears fruit without once opening its flowers. They named the new species Gastrodia amamiana. The research team was led by Associate Professor Kenji Suetsugu of the Kobe…
Royal Van Zanten's lily bulbs story in New Zealand
In 1996, Royal Van Zanten planted their first lily bulbs in New Zealand. After 4 years, Van Zanten NZ moved to a new location on the South Island. The village of Rakaia in the Canterbury region to be exact. Their lily bulbs are grown by 2 contract growers with whom they have been working together for…
How does a semi-closed glasshouse operate?
There is much confusion on how best to grow crops in a semi-closed glasshouse. Godfrey Dol, an expert on growing in semi-closed glasshouses, shares his experiences. To explain the differences between a conventional and a semi-closed glasshouse, let’s have a look at how a conventional glasshouse exchanges…
NL: Flowers colour Artis Amsterdam Royal Zoo
Visitors to Artis Zoo in Amsterdam this year will once again be amazed by a colourful sea of SunPatiens. In the park, between the Indonesian ‘Minangkabause’ house and the Anoa pen (the small but surprisingly fierce dwarf buffalo), a mass of colourful flowers is a delight for the eye. This colourful…
Malaysian school pioneers orchid in-vitro propagation
Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) Kuching is the first school in Malaysia to have an orchid in-vitro laboratory to propagate local orchid species to ensure its species posterity. Sarawak Orchid Society (Saroso) president Zurenawatte Zaidel said that for a start, over 20 local orchid species are being…
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