savage garden

I’ve been feeling a little bit guilty that I posted that winter interest blog just as we were all craving spring. I don’t know what came over me — a last blast of nostalgia for the long, cold, dark winter? In any case, I have two quick posts here to make up for it. This first post will highlight the awakening of spring in my backyard, and the second will follow with the front garden. The two gardens are quite different. The back is private, quiet and restful. In the summer, it is primarily dappled shade. If only I were able to keep to a theme, it would be a white garden, layered with shades of green. Since I have the common gardener’s inability to resist a beautiful flower, and so did Jason, there are other colors scattered throughout (as accents, I tell myself). The front garden is much more public. Although I don’t live on a busy street, people stop as they walk by and pull up in their cars as they drive by, to comment on the garden. It is big and loud and tall — when I give direct...

With new invasive species popping up, the need for growers to more closely inspect pests and damage is at an all time high. This has led to interest in on-farm pest identification . When it comes to thrips identification, specifically, investing in a microscope is a necessary evil. But a decent microscope is now a LOT cheaper than it used to be . Here, we’ve provided a video to walk you through what features to look for . The full post will also provide you with model numbers and links , to make microscope shopping easier! Microscope Buying Tips: All features referred to in our thrips identification key can typically be seen using a mid-quality dissection microscope. Your microscope will need to have a minimum 40X magnification . Though there are certainly other microscopes of equal or better quality available, we’ve verified the models we talk about in this video to make sure they are sufficient for identifying thrips. For more details not covered in this video, you can co...

The Expanded Energy Management program now provides support to commercial and institutional facilities in Ontario (including Greenhouses) to improve their energy performance with energy savings opportunities in two areas: Funding for hiring an Energy Manager Strategic Energy Management: Identify and implement long-term energy-saving opportunities. Continue reading to learn more and register here for the information webinar Wednesday June 4 th , 1-2pm Program Details The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) announced that Save On Energy’s Expanded Energy Management (EEM) program has expanded participation to commercial and institutional organizations. The EEM program now provides support to commercial and institutional facilities in Ontario to improve their energy performance with energy savings opportunities in two areas: Hire an Energy Manager : Receive funding to hire a dedicated energy manager, covering up to 50% of their salary up to a maximum of $100,0000 ...

This post was written by S. Jandricic and Nicole Berardi, OMAFA’s project lead on Crop Hub. If you are looking for pest management information, the Crop Protection Hub (Crop Hub) have you covered! Several new features and functionalities are available for the 2025 growing season, the most exciting of which is the new “sort by efficacy” feature. This allows you to sort products by how well they work for a single or multiple selected pests. Keep reading to see all the new features and how to use them. Table of Contents Table of Contents What is Crop Hub? New for the 2025 Growing Season Multi-pest select for “List view”: Better Printing of Specific Choices or Summary Tables Compare products easily Sort by efficacy What is Crop Hub? The Ontario Crop Protection Hub (or Crop Hub) is OMAFA’s resource for crop protection information. Crop Hub was initially released in April 2022, replacing OMAFA’s suite of crop protection publications. Since the initial release, the...

In case you missed it, earlier this week we talked about nutrient management and growth regulation/tracking for garden mums . This post will focus on which pests most often affect garden mums in Ontario , and preventative actions you may want to take. Keep reading to learn more. A tarnished plant bug feeding on a bud of chrysanthemum, which can cause petal distortion. Photo by OMAFA. Insect Pests on Garden Mums: Summer production for a fall crop can be challenging, but planning your pest management program ahead of time can help ward off issues. If you grow your garden mums inside for a significant portion of their lives, then you’re likely going to want to treat them much like a standard pot mum, when it comes to pest management. This includes predatory mite sachets and applications of products like BotaniGard , to prevent damage from thrips (both western flower thrips and onion thrips in Ontario). It may also include the use of preventative chemical applications for aphids ,...

This post was contributed to by OMAFA’s Greenhouse Floriculture Production Specialists past and present: Kathryn Russell, Abigail Wiesner, and Dr. Chevonne Dayboll. As we feel temperatures rising, summer is on its way – and so are garden mums! Although generally an easy crop,  there are several tweaks you can make to help save headaches AND money. This post has updated information to help you optimize your nutrient management and growth regulation/tracking in garden mum production. This post gives an overview of some tips and tricks for growing Garden Mums – if you would like more detailed information, have a look at the production guides from Ball Seed and Syngenta . Only looking for specific info? Click between sections: Fertilization Size Tracking Premature Budding Plant Growth Regulators (PGR) Fertilization One rule to remember is that if nutrients don’t stay with the plant, they can’t use it. There are a few schools of thought when it comes to keeping fertil...