Upcoming Greenhouse Grower webinar

Benchmarking: How Effectively Is Your Team Performing? Join us for a free webinar on March 23 Space is limited. Reserve your webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/210704024 Paul Thomas Charlie Hall Get a better handle on your bottom line profitability from the University of Georgia's Paul Thomas and Texas A&M's Charlie Hall in the latest installment in the Greenhouse Grower webinar series. One of the most difficult aspects of running a business is assessing the effectiveness of employees. There are many ways to do this, and each has social and economic consequences. In this webinar, Employee And Management Assessment, Paul and Charlie will present several techniques to evaluate individual and team performance, set performance benchmarks based on your company's situation, and establish the economic parameters to allow you to make fact-based personnel and task-staffing decisions. The establishment of supervisory team performance and upper management performance benchmarks will also be discussed. Even if you are a very small company, it is useful to know how well the boss is really doing. This 4-part series, Using Benchmarking To Track Your Recovery Performance, is designed to help you make more informed managerial decisions in the aftermath of an economic downturn that literally turned markets upside down. Title: Employee and Management Assessment Date: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

The Pour-Through Extraction Procedure: A Nutrient Management Technique for Nurseries

As part of your quality control and fertilization program, nurseries should regularly check the pH and EC (electrical conductivity) of stock grown in pots. Knowing these numbers helps you diagnose the level and availability of nutrients to the plants. You can save money by fertilizing as needed rather than on set schedule.

NCSU has just released a new publication which outlines the steps of the Pour-Through Extraction Method (opens as a pdf) to measure soil EC and pH. This technique is easy to learn and should be part of your regular routine.

Need help learning the method? Would you like an on-site demonstration of how to properly use ec/pH meters or pens? If so, please contact me and I would be happy to arrange a visit to your nursery.
My office phone 303/637-8016 or email brooke.edmunds@colostate.edu

Chrysanthemum white rust webinar

The Society of American Florists is hosting a free 30 minute webinar on chrysanthemum white rust. Learn to identify the signs and symptoms of white rust and how to protect your mum crop.
The webinar is offered on August 11th, 13th, and 18th at 10am and 2pm (EST). For more information and to register, click here.

Online Plant Propagation Course

Cornell University is offering an online plant propagation course this fall (it runs Sept 21-Nov 14). Along with online instruction, they will send you a complete kit for practicing propagation at home-including seeds and live cuttings! The cost is $350 and all the details can be found here.

Would you like to see CSU offer a distance education course in plant propagation?
	Yes
	No
pollcode.com free polls

If you are interested in other types of distance or online classes, please leave a comment or send me an email!

CSU Speciality Crops Field Day Aug 17th

2009

CSU – Specialty Crops program

Rocky Mountain Small Organic Farm Project

Field Day

August 17, 2009

1:00 – 4:00 pm

Topics: Small scale organic vegetable production systems for Colorado producers.

High tunnels:

• Tomato, pepper, cucumber cultivar trials.
• Winter greens production.
• Hay bale culture of strawberries.
• Challenges of growing blueberries in Colorado.

Field production:

• Cultivar demonstrations and evaluations. This year many of the cultivars being evaluated are from Colorado seed producers. Including melons, tomatoes, peppers, and a wide variety of cole crops and root crops.
• Hops cultivar evaluations.
• Comparisons of flame, solarization, and conventional tillage for control of field bind weed and Canada thistle.
• Comparison of paper, bio-degradable plastic, and plastic mulch.
• Drip tape – to re-use or replace?
• Preliminary results of rolling rye/hairy vetch cover crop for no till production.
• Annual forage crops in rotation with vegetables.
• The CSU CSA

Speakers: Dr. Frank Stonaker, program director.

Dr. Amanda Broz, perennial weed management trials.

Ali Hamm, Organic hops research update

Dan Goldhamer, Annual forage crops in rotation with vegetables update

Horton Nash, Jeff Arnold, Julie Zavage, Sarah Figgins, Steve Cochenour (student interns)

Location: Horticulture Field Research Center, Ft. Collins

Directions: Exit to east at the I-25 at the Mountain Vista exit (#271), proceed east across frontage road and enter the 2^nd driveway on the north side.

The address is 4300 E. County Rd. 51, Ft. Collins.

Sponsors: Colorado Department of Agriculture, Aurora Organic Dairy, , Sunshine Paper Co.

Registration: On site registration will be held immediately before the program. This is a free event.

Please indicate if you plan to attend the event by e-mail or telephone by August 10.

E-mail response to Frank.Stonaker@colostate.edu

Telephone response to 970-491-7068.

New book available-Diseases of Herbaceous Perennials

There is a new book available through APS Press titled 'Diseases of Herbaceous Perennials'. The authors are all plant pathologists and include Mark Gleason (Iowa State University), Margery Daughtrey (Cornell University), Ann Chase (Chase Horticultural Research), Gary Moorman (Penn State University) and Darren Mueller (Iowa State University).
The book is full of over 700 color photos and would be a wonderful reference text for growers of perennials (as well as garden centers, horticulturists and Master Gardeners).
You are welcome to stop by the Adams County Extension office and do some browsing before deciding to buy. We also have an extensive resource library for diagnosing plant diseases and insect problems that are available for growers to utilize. Please call ahead to make sure that we're in the office!

Contact info is on the sidebar------>

Information on new rainwater collection law in CO

There is a new law coming into effect on July 1, 2009 which regulates the use of rain barrels to collect precipitation running off roofs. There has been some confusion as how exactly the water can be used. The Colorado Division of Water Resources has put together a pdf document outlining the new rules.
In short: Here are the criteria, all of which must be met, for using rainwater:
1. The property on which the collection takes place is residential property, and
2. The landowner uses a well, or is legally entitled to a well, for the water supply, and
3. The well is permitted for domestic uses according to Section 37-92-602, C.R.S., (generally, this means the permit number will be five or six digits with no “-F” suffix at the end), and
4. There is no water supply available in the area from a municipality or water district, and
5. The rainwater is collected only from the roof, and
6. The water is used only for those uses that are allowed by, and identified on, the well permit.
Check the full pdf for all the details!

Basically, if your well isn't permitted for use in watering a greenhouse or hoophouse-you can't use the collected rainwater for this purpose. And you will need to submit an application for rainwater collection! If you use municipal water, then you're out of luck too, as this only applies to residential properties serviced exclusively by a well. Please contact the Colorado Division of Water Resources for all the nitty-gritty details!

Shine in '09 webinar series

Texas AgriLife Extension Service has been sponsoring a series of three webinars around the topic of "High Performance Management to Survive Turbulent Times". There is one remaining open webinar coming up on May 12 titled: Marketing Green! If you're not familiar, a webinar is like attending a live seminar but everything is done on your computer using an internet connection. You will watch a slideshow and listen to a speaker in real-time. Questions can be asked by typing them.
The two previous webinars in the series focused on 'Action Points to Survive the Downturn' and 'Differentiating by being Sustainable' (this last webinar will be on April 14th but is already filled up). Check their website to hear a recording of the previous sessions and see the answers to questions that were asked.

Would you be interested in having CSU Extension develop a series of webinars targeted to the greenhouse and nursery industry in our state? If so, what would you be interested in learning about? You can take the poll below and/or leave a comment if you have a specific topic idea in mind (like, "thrips management in perennial stock plants"). Select all topics that you are interested in!

What topic ideas would you like to see CSU Extension address through a webinar format?
	Sustainable Practices
	Marketing Ideas
	Insect Management
	Disease Management
	Labor Issues
	Water Issues
pollcode.com free polls

Point source pollution from greenhouses and nurseries

Here is a link to an interesting article just published in the Journal of Extension titled, The Use of a Non-Point Source Pollution Self-Assessment for Greenhouse and Nursery Operators in California. Raises some good points on greenhouses conducting their own monitoring for excessive fertilization waste and other pollution source points coming from greenhouse and nursery operations.
Want to learn more about pollution prevention? Check out this article from CSU Extension, Pollution Prevention in Colorado Commercial Greenhouses!

Upcoming Pest Management Conference, Feb 19-21

Are you interested in learning more about the newest greenhouse insect and disease management strategies? Consider attending the 25th Annual Pest Management Conference in San Jose, California, Feb 19-21. The conference is presented by the Society of American Florists (SAF) and Greenhouse Grower. The lineup of speakers look great!
For more information or to register visit www.pestconference.org