Nov 8, 2019

Need Help Finding Solutions to Today’s Challenges? By Tim Hodson

Fighting pests and diseases in the greenhouse is a never-ending challenge for all growers. It is imperative to get to the root of these problems — the sooner the better.

Learning how to diagnose these types of problems through sampling will be addressed during the 2019 Michigan Greenhouse Growers Expo and Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market EXPO, which will take place Dec. 10-12, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In the “A Sampler on Sampling” session, a panel from the Michigan State University Extension will discuss how growers can learn to diagnose common plant problems by properly sampling for things like insect and disease presence, ethylene damage, water quality and leaf tissue analysis.

Jeremy Jubenville, a floriculture and greenhouse educator with MSU Extension, will address insect sampling and the different ways you can capture insects for diagnostic tests before preparing them for shipping.

“Diagnostics is a big part of trying to understand what’s going on in a greenhouse, especially if you’re running into production problems,” Jubenville says.

Getting More Social

Also during the 2019, there will be a session on “Ten Social Media Best Practices to Win More Customers.”

During this session, Ariana Torres from Purdue University will help growers learn more about some of the latest transitions happening in both horticulture and agriculture, and how to help businesses capitalize on them through social media.

The session will focus on various characteristics of a social media plan for growers and how businesses of all sizes can use the wealth of data that can be harvested by different social media platforms and tools to develop a strategy.

For more information or to learn more about these and other educational opportunities, please visit glexpo.com.

— Tim