Plant Virus Diseases

With all of the talk about the Zika virus these days, I thought I would do a brief blog about understanding plant virus diseases. Viruses are among the most primitive forms of life. Basically, what they are is a piece of DNA or RNA, usually surrounded by a coat of...

Media-Fertilizer Interactions

We all know that soil and fertilizer are interrelated. Potting media and fertilizer are also interrelated, both chemically and physically. The performance of one affects the performance of the other. Not infrequently, when I see situations where nursery crops are not...

The Sulfate Debate

In the last 30 days, I have had conversations with three different industry experts. One makes fertility recommendations for a competing fertilizer company. The second supervises the maintenance of about 25 athletic fields. The third oversees fertilization of well...

Thoughts on Iron Nutrition

Iron nutrition in plants is a very complicated subject. It’s difficult to get your head around it. One of the reasons is that there are many chemical forms of iron in soil, and they vary in their solubility and availability to plants. It can comprise up to 5% of the...

Understanding Phytotoxicity

In the pest management business, we apply pesticides in numerous ways for our clients. Spraying is extremely popular, although there are also granular applications, dusts, injections, fumigants, and other styles of applying pesticides in order to achieve control of...