Lambert and Media Qualities

 Choosing which potting mix to use can be a complicated task. With so many companies and mixes available on the market, how do you make a decision? Start your search with Lambert Peat Moss. Lambert combines different components, including EcoPeat wood fiber, into application-specific blends to eliminate guess work.

Components

Potting mixes come as a blend of several different components. Making up the majority of mixes are often sphagnum peat moss, wood fiber, coconut coir, vermiculite, and perlite, providing structure and physical bulk. Lambert’s peat-based mixes add two different forms of limestone to counteract the acidity of the base media. Starter charges of fertilizer are included and may be either conventional or organic. Finally, all potting mixes include a wetting agent to ensure uniform moisture distribution with irrigation. Different balances of these components will make a critical different in application. For example, LM-1 and LM-2 are two germination mixes from Lambert. However, LM-1 contains perlite while LM-2 does not, leading to different water retention and drainage.

Particle Size

Every potting mix should provide information on particle sizes. Potting mix producers such as Lambert provide detailed explanations of each class of particle size in terms of millimeters and best applications. Seeing words such as “super fine” and “fine” often indicate a germination mix or young plant mix, like you would see in Lambert’s LM-19. “Coarse” blends are often meant for larger pots or general-purpose production, such as Lambert’s LM-111.

Drainage and Water Retention

The differences between water retention and drainage are subtle but important. Mixes with smaller particle sizes or heavier on coco coir have better water retention, which refers to individual particle’s ability to hold on to water. Mixes with coarse particle sizes will have better drainage, which describes the ability of water to pass through the media. Lambert’s germination mixes, such as LM-18, would have very high water retention with low drainage, while a high porosity mix such as EPM-50 would have high drainage and low water retention.

Putting all this information together, each Lambert mix offers a summary of media qualities, components, and target crops. Reach out to your Griffin rep or GGSPro today to find out more!

Item Number	Product name	Size
149-006	LM-1	3.0 cf loose
149-008	LM-1	3.8 cf bale
149-0016	LM-18	3.0 cf loose
149-0018	LM-18	3.8 cf bale
149-0021	LM-19	3.0 cf loose
149-0023	LM-19	3.8 cf bale
149-0036	LM-111	3.0 cf loose
149-0038	LM-111	3.8 cf bale
149-0056	LM-6	3.0 cf loose
149-0058	LM-6	3.8 cf bale
149-0011	LM-2	3.0 cf loose
149-0013	LM-2	3.8 cf bale
149-0046	EPM-20	3.0 cf loose
149-0048	EPM-20	3.8 cf bale
149-0064	EPM-40	3.0 cf loose
149-0066	EPM-40	3.8 cf bale
149-0069	EPM-50	3.0 cf loose
149-0071	EPM-50	3.8 cf bale

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Bioline Aphid Control

 Beneficial insects, also called biological control agents, are available to control a wide range of common greenhouse pests; aphids are one such menace. The predatory insects available to control aphids are voracious and highly mobile; specific strategies can even be used with these predators to help identify which types of aphids are present.

Predatory wasps are a group of related wasp species that prey on aphids. They are parasitoids, meaning the adult wasps are not feeding on the aphids. Instead, the wasps lay their eggs inside of live aphids. When the egg hatches, the larva lives and grows as an aphid parasite until it is ready to emerge as an adult wasp and seek out new prey. As the larva grows, it consumes the aphid from the inside out, leaving a hollowed-out shell called a “mummy”.

Bioline Agrosciences offers several parasitic wasp species to growers dealing with aphids. Aphiline, A. colemani, target small species, while Erviline, A. ervi, and Apheline, Aphelinus abdominalis, target larger species. When aphid species are able to be identified, growers should choose the appropriate species of predator. Unfortunately, identification is often difficult. In these cases, aphid predators can be purchased and released in mixes that can help both with covering a larger range of aphid species as well as identifying the general type of aphid.

When using predator mixes to combat unknown aphids, efficacy assessment relies on mummy scouting. Each of the aphid predators mentioned produces a mummy with slightly different appearances. A. colemani produce golden-brown mummies; A. ervi produce more golden-yellow-green mummies; finally, Aphelinus abdominalis produce totally black mummies. Aphid mummies can be found anywhere aphids are typically found – undersides of leaves and on stems is typical.

Once a grower identifies which aphid predator is having the most success through observing mummy appearance, single-species products can be selected if desired, and applications can continue until control is achieved. Growers should look for evidence that 75-80% of observable aphids have been parasitized to consider their outbreaks controlled. Future outbreaks can be prevented by continuing low-level, consistent releases. For information on application rates, release protocols, and product availability, contact your Griffin rep today!

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Terpenes and The Hemp Mine

 

As the hemp and cannabis market has expanded and matured, more growers and consumers are broadening their knowledge of and interest in specialty terpenes. But what are terpenes? Are they the same as terpenoids? How can growers influence terpene production? GGSPro and The Hemp Mine have the answers to these questions.

Terpenes and terpenoids are secondary metabolites produced by many plants, not just hemp and cannabis. Terpenes are compounds made up of hydrogen and carbon chains, while terpenoids contain oxygen molecules or other functional groups. Both of these types of compounds are highly aromatic and are responsible for many distinctive botanical smells. For example, limonene, a terpene found in citrus rinds, puts off a bright, citrussy scent upon cutting into a lemon. Linalool, a terpenoid, produces the distinctive scent of lavender and some mints. Finally, myrcene is one of the most common terpenes and has an earthy, clove-like scent often found in hops or mangos.

 
With growing interest in terpene profiles and production, many growers wonder how they can boost terpene production. A number of products on the market claim to enhance terpene profile simply through foliar applications or drenches. However, research into terpene boosting products is, at this time, inconclusive. The strongest, most consistent factor influencing terpene profile is genetics. Every strain appears to have a consistent set of terpenes and terpenoids that it is able to produce. Through careful breeding and testing, new strains with refined terpene profiles and content are being developed.

The Hemp Mine’s focus on genetics has brought several terpene-rich strains to the market. THM’s Jack, FunDip, and Belle offer variety of terpene profiles. FunDip’s high diversity and overall terpene content makes it a great choice for high yields, while Jack has greater diversity in terpenes. Belle sits in the middle between higher yields and good diversity. Growers interested in these varieties and learning more about terpenes can purchase seeds and clones for this year’s growing season. Between the Hemp Mine’s excellent reference materials and GGSPro’s horticultural experience, the Griffin team has your questions covered. Reach out to your Griffin rep for more info!

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Light Deprivation Systems

 

Horticultural light deprivation is the practice of physically excluding light from reaching a crop in production. Inside of grow rooms in warehouses, this practice is as simple as turning off the lights. Bringing this practice to the greenhouse environment, however, requires some additional equipment. Black cloth, blackout cloth, or light deprivation systems can be deployed to a single bench or across an entire greenhouse.

When should light deprivation systems be used?

Use of a light deprivation system, aka blackout or black cloth, allows for a crop to be produced under short-day conditions year-round, regardless of ambient conditions. Effective light deprivation results in complete blackout under curtains, as even as little as 10 µmol of light can be enough to trigger photoperiodic responses in some crop species. Black out systems are necessary for year-round greenhouse production of crops that require a short-day period in their production cycle. Even if the natural daylength is shorter than the critical photoperiod for a crop, blackout systems provide an extra layer of protection from light pollution due to parking lots and streetlights. For urban and suburban locations, it’s good insurance.

Light deprivation systems can also make you a good neighbor if you are lighting your production space into the night at any time of the year. Some municipalities are instituting rules around light pollution, making black out systems an important part of your business plan.

What crops benefit from light deprivation systems?

Cannabis and Hemp – Cannabis and hemp require a critical photoperiod of less than 13 hours to initiate and continue flowering. Cannabis growers produce vegetative plants and maintain mother/stock plants under long photoperiods and “flip” to short photoperiods when ready to flower. For year-round cultivation, light deprivation systems are critical in the greenhouse environment during the summer. One consideration for summer production is climate control under the black cloth. Remember that fans will still need to run, so be sure to install a light deprivation system on your exhaust fans, too. By managing the climate and the photoperiod, growers can produce high-quality short-day crops in summer.

Ornamental flowers – Some ornamental flowers require short photoperiods for flower, while others require long photoperiods. Poinsettias, mum, petunias, and tuberous begonias are just a few of the crops with special lighting requirements under normal production cycles.  Black out cloth can serve to either suppress or initiate flower, depending on variety chosen.

Are you looking to retrofit your greenhouse space with a light deprivation system? Are you are planning a new structure and want to include a black out system? Either way, ask your Griffin sales rep about light dep systems from Advancing Alternatives. These systems can be installed externally or internally on freestanding greenhouses to keep light out or keep light in. Robust and automated, a system from Advancing Alternatives will provide trouble free service for many years. Click here to request a quote. 

Photoperiodism and nighttime interruption in CEA crops

 

Photoperiodism refers to the sensitivity of a crop to the length of lighting cycles during production. Specifically, the length of the dark cycle, “nighttime”, heavily influences flowering behavior in a number of crops. The distinction between light and dark cycles is an important one: growers developed “nighttime interruption” strategies to take advantage of this sensitivity. Growers employ nighttime interruptions during short-day conditions, like those found during winter. The day period is left along, but the night period is broken up into two shorter periods separated by a very low intensity light period. These periods can last two to four hours. Plants “see” short nights, resulting in a long-day response. For some crops, flowering is initiated; for others, flowering is suppressed.

Special photoperiodic lighting fixtures are designed to deliver low light levels of red and far right light, which have been shown to be most efficient for this type of lighting. In the past, incandescent bulbs were used, though the use of LEDs ensures that electrical consumption remains low, maintaining a low cost of use. TotalGrow’s Pure Flowering 200 Lamp accomplishes this lighting and energy-use goal beautifully. A single fixture can cover about 200 square feet with the low light required. Growers need significantly fewer photoperiodic fixtures than supplemental or sole source lighting would require.

Several economically important CEA crops grown in greenhouses and other controlled environments display photoperiodic responses.

Strawberries – Certain strawberry varieties have strong photoperiodic responses. June-bearing strawberries produce runners during long-day, short-night conditions, while flowers and fruits are produced during short-day conditions. Photoperiodic lighting can be used for runner production in these varieties.

Cannabis – Cannabis is a short-day flowering crop, with production emphasis on the flowering stage as the end product. Photoperiodic lighting would be used to keep plants in a vegetative stage, suppressing flower formation. Maintaining a vegetative state is important for mother plant production, but high light levels may not be required. Growers may also find that extending the vegetative stage in production plants results in larger plants at the end of the flowering stage.

Edible Pansies – Pansies are gaining popularity as edible garnishes for many specialty dishes. Pansies flower under long-day conditions, in contrast to cannabis. Using photoperiodic lighting through winter months in the greenhouse can produce long-day conditions for year-round flower production.

If you’re wondering where to start in developing a lighting plan and choosing the right fixtures, reach out to your Griffin sales rep or GGSPro! We can help you get started down the right path.

From Oregon State University: Figure 26. Periodicity of plants. Short-day (long-night) plants require a long period of uninterrupted darkness to flower. Long-day (short-night) plants require a short period of uninterrupted darkness to flower.

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IPM Month

 

What is IPM Month?
The Department of Pesticide Regulation is working with partners across the state of California to accelerate a transition to safer, more sustainable pest management. DPR is kick starting IPM Month this year to foster greater awareness and adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tools for sustainable pest management in agricultural and urban settings. IPM is any approach that uses the least toxic, effective method to solve pest problems, including using natural predators to manage pests, hand-pulling weeds, and using traps or baits to address pest issues.

DPR will share content on social media every day through the month of February to answer the question #WhatIsIPM and provide information about how people can practice IPM every day. Below are tools to help amplify and engage in this conversation. We look forward to continuing the conversation on social media this month!

How to Participate during IPM Month?

• Tag @CAPesticides on Twitter or Facebook

• Include #WhatisIPM hashtag so that we can start conversations and amplify posts across social media accounts

• Share graphics DPR developed for download – created just for our partners

• Additional materials such as videos on IPM can be found on DPR’s YouTube account and fact sheets on IPM at schools and childcare centers can be found on DPR’s website

Share Content and Engage with Your Followers
Ideas for sharing content during IPM Month:

• Use the content DPR created for you, include the #WhatisIPM hashtag and post!

• Retweet or reshare the content DPR is posting on Twitter or Facebook

• Share your own content with the #WhatisIPM hashtag to tell stories, post photos or talk about best practices for using IPM in urban settings, inside your home, landscaping projects, or in agricultural fields. DPR will retweet and share content you send out!

Questions?
Contact DPR’s Assistant Director of Communications and Outreach Leia Bailey with questions. Thanks for being a part of IPM Month!

California Department of Pesticide Regulation | What is IPM

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Vermiculite Alert

 

Times are tough for the media and soil industries. As with many products, international shipping issues are causing problems obtaining many media components; vermiculite is no different. Though the US does have some domestic vermiculite mines, many products are imported. The horticulture industry must rely more heavily on domestic sources, which can only ramp up production so much. This article will discuss what vermiculite is, what it does, and how growers may be able to meet those purposes with product substitutions and protocol changes.

Vermiculite is a mined product, gathered from special mines across the globe. In its raw form, vermiculite flakes look similar to bits of mica – they are thin, shiny, and lightweight. Once collected, vermiculite flakes are then graded by size and exposed to high heat inside of special furnaces. The flakes rapidly expand as trapped water vaporizes, resulting in the fluffy, flakey product incorporated into many potting soils and gardening products.

Once incorporated into media, vermiculite helps accomplish several goals:

1)      helps maintain soil aeration and prevent compaction.

2)      holds onto nutrients.

3)      helps to control moisture and prevent dry backs.

With these qualities, we find that vermiculite usage is most popular at the seedling and germination stage, helping to provide well aerated, moist environments with readily available nutrients. Many growers make blends of peat and vermiculite for a wet but aerated germination media, use a healthy layer on top of germination media to cover seeds, or direct seed into vermiculite. Without vermiculite, growers can still achieve these conditions with some careful planning.

Irrigation scheduling: Consider changing your watering frequency when moving away from vermiculite. Soils may dry down faster without this component; shorter irrigation intervals can help mitigate this issue.

Environmental Controls: Monitor your air temperature, air movement, and humidity conditions in your production space. These factors greatly impact how quickly media dry out.

Explore other medias: Be flexible with your production process as supply chain issues come and go.

Perlite is good for aeration but not for moisture retention. Perlite can be used for all size plants and pots and comes in a variety of grades (sizes).

Wetting agents, such as AquaGro 2000G or AgAide, added to irrigation water or media will help to maintain uniformity of wetness and help growers get the most out of each irrigation.

Peat-based medias are great choices for thirsty plants. This base has good general water retention but needs some help with aeration. Combining peat moss and perlite can achieve many of the same goals as vermiculite. Peat mixes with finer particle sizes are great for germination mixes, while coarse particles are better for larger plants.

Coir-based medias are increasingly popular and promote faster drainage. Mixes of peat, coir, and perlite provide a good range of drainage, moisture retention, and aeration conditions for growers to choose from.

Inert and stabilized medias like Grodan rockwool, Oasis foam, and Jiffy Preforma are great choices for growers starting from cuttings rather than seeds and provide optimal water holding and aeration conditions while providing structure for unrooted cuttings.

Lastly, changes in production protocols can lead to unexpected changes in disease pressure. Changes in media and environment often lead to changes in humidity and moisture content, which can lead to fungal or bacterial problems. Be ready to deal with these preventatively by incorporating or applying preventative treatments such as biofungicides and brushing up on your general sanitation protocols. 

 

Wetting Agents

74-1249 120lb AquaGro 2000g

74-1379 1 Gal Brandt Ag Aide

Soft Chemistry

71-13301 1 Gal BioWorks Cease

71-3040 1 Gal OHP Triathlon BA

71-1372 5 Lb Growth Prod Companion

Media

Media selection will be influenced by availability – contact your Griffin rep for more info!

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DOSATRON INJECTORS

 

Automation of nutrient and acid delivery is a big attraction in injector use. Users make up a single batch of concentrated fertilizer or pH adjuster, and injectors automatically dose irrigation water until stock has been depleted. Use of a stock solution is often a big space saver, as it can replace the need for large bulk tanks. For example, a 1:100 ratio injector treats 2000 gallons of irrigation water from the water supply using a 20-gallon stock tank rather than housing a 2000-gallon bulk tank on site. Use of injectors also simplifies solution prep, minimizing worker errors. Some products are suitable for direct-injection: the injector intake tube drops right into the product container. Sanitizers and some pesticides can also be applied through injectors, bringing great efficiencies to your operation. .

Ratio	Percentage	mL/L	mL/Gal	Oz/Gal
1:50	2%	20	76	2.56
1:100	1%	10	38	1.28
1:200	0.5%	5	19	0.64
1:500	0.2%	2	7.6	0.26
1:1000	0.1%	1	3.8	0.13

Different types of injectors present their injection capabilities using many different units; it is useful to be able to see how these unit compare to each other. Whether injecting based off of a ratio, a percentage, or a volume per volume, injectors can be relied upon to consistently deliver a predictable volume of product. The above table lists some common units and equivalencies.

Injector capabilities range from large to incredibly small injection amounts. Dosatron injectors typically have adjustable injection ratios, with common options being 1:50 to 1:500, and 1:333-1:3000.  Higher injection amounts are used for things like fertilizer or nematodes, normally applied at a 1:50 down to 1:200 ratio.  Very small injection amounts are often used for acids, bases, and sanitizers utilizing injector ratios down to 1:3000 ratio.

Different injectors and dosers work in different ways. Dosatron injectors are simple workhorses, requiring no electricity, making them a great choice for many applications, including field, portable, and in-zone use for CEA growers. Dosatron injectors rely on “positive displacement”, meaning injections ratios are consistent within acceptable flow rates and water pressure; the injection action is powered by the flow of water through the injector. Dosatron injectors are available in low flow rate and high flow rate models – growers should be aware of the gallons per minute (gpm) provided by their water pumps and the downstream need. From there, the equipment specialists at Griffin can help with specification.

This relatively simple equipment is a great base for a consistent nutrient delivery. . Depending on the plumbing strategy, these injectors can be “always on” when connected to flowing water. One pro tip we like to share is to plumb a bypass loop with a manual valve into the system ahead of the injector.  This will provide the ability to “turn off” an injector unit. Contact your Griffin rep for more info!

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