Grower

Information and updates for nursery and greenhouse growers, including plant quarantines.

Respiratory safety can feel confusing when your work involves a mix of regulations. In this session, we’ll use realistic examples to show how the new respiratory safety guide from the MSU Dept. of Occupational Medicine and MSU Extension makes it easier to choose the right protective gear.

You’ll leave with tools you can use right away to keep your workers safe and your firm compliant.

Field Horsetail, also known as Equisetum, is a tough weed species in field ornamental production. It an herbaceous perennial weed which is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and it is a spore-bearing plant. At MSU, IR4 herbicide efficacy trial has been performed where several herbicides have been tested for Field Horsetail control. In this presentation, audience will get an overview of the IR4 Equisetum herbicide efficacy trial results.

Weeds belonging to the lower group of plants include liverwort, algae, moss, nostoc etc. These groups represent some of the oldest organisms on earth and play an important part in the ecosystems. However, in greenhouse and nursery ornamental production systems often, these weeds can cause severe loss due to high competition for limited resources and reduction in the aesthetic values of the crops.

Rooting hormones can be used to promote rooting of greenhouse herbaceous and woody ornamental cuttings. This session is designed to share the ins and outs to boost your roots during cutting propagation with foliar IBA rooting hormones. The speakers will also cover the crops that benefit from rooting hormones and those where its use is essential for rooting success

What are the options when seeds are scarce, cuttings won’t root, or disease risk makes propagation impossible? Biodiversity-focused plant tissue culture offers a critical solution for native plant propagation and restoration projects.

This session will break down tissue culture's potential in clear, grower-focused terms, explore a range of of conventional and unique project examples, and address the elephant in the native plant room: can cloned plants really yield greater biodiversity than seed alone? With the right approach, answer in some cases is YES!