6/11/2013 - By Matthew Shultz

Last month’s newsletter, Secret Growing Tips, had a very favorable response. As promised, this month will be a follow-up to those awesome tips for growers. Having spent numerous years in the field helping troubleshoot nursery problems, there are things I see that growers should or could do to improve their growing ability. So if you have not read last month’s Cuttings Edge, go check out our various blogs. There are many excellent articles from our knowledgeable staff on turf, landscape maintenance, insects, diseases and this monthly newsletter. Here we go:

1. Don’t be a ‘know it all’ grower! Why? Because you do not know it all. No one does. Keep yourself open to new ideas or concepts. Sometimes your ground crew finds ways to get the job done easier. Actually a lot of times. Go to short courses and trade shows. See what the competition is doing. Open your eyes. It gets old hearing, “I have been doing it this way for 20 years and have never had a problem”. Yes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it but planes have jet engines on them now and movies are in color. Adjustments can always be made to your already sound equation.
2. Irrigation - this is worthy of an entire newsletter. Pay more attention to your irrigation program.
   
   This is the most misunderstood concept for ALL growers. So here are some tips; the best time to overhead water is early in the morning. Plants going to bed wet are more prone to foliar diseases and such. Zone plants of similar irrigation needs in the same area together versus putting thirsty plants in the same block with root sensitive plants. A good grower spends a good part of their day opening and closing valves and adjusting the time clocks based on what plants need when. The grower should also monitor daily which areas need the next irrigation and which do not. When expanding or developing a nursery, put in a lot of control valves and zones. There is no easy way to do all of these suggestions, but if this is addressed properly, it will make a huge difference in your plant quality.
3. When should I spray chemicals? I get asked this all the time. Ideally from 6am-10am. Realistically? This depends on the size of your nursery, type of spray equipment and how high maintenance your crops are. With REI’s and other safety factors, many nurseries wait until the weekend. It seems to work for some. Certainly the type of spray also goes into the equation of when to spray chemicals. Spray oil, EC pesticides and strong nutritionals when it is cool. Mild fungicides ? Anytime, except 12 noon till 3 pm. Sometimes your chemical crew can do their drenching of root disease fungicides and/or nutritionals in the heat of the day. And then spray early morning or late afternoon.
4. Acidifying the spray water. Say what? Especially here in Florida, the pH of our well water is 7 and above. You should know the efficacy or ability of that chemical to do its job is best in acidic water. Some nurseries have done acid titrations to see how much acid of a known molarity it takes to get to 6.0. Let me make it easy on you, there are a lot of good pH adjusters out there or add 4 ounces of phosphoric acid to your 100 gallons of spray water and you should be good. Unless of course, your spray water is already 6.0 or below. Acidify when spraying herbicides, insecticides, miticides and fungicides. Many straight nutritional sprays already have an acidic component to them, so no need to acidify these (i.e. 20-20-20 or Epsom salts).

Well there you have it, combine last month’s ideas with this month’s ideas and you will have everything you wanted to know about growing, but were afraid to ask. An inside joke for us 50 somethings!