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Sustainable fertilizers and pest and disease control products get plants back to their natural roots.
THE plants in your greenhouse leak carbohydrates through their roots, attracting pathogens and disease. Imagine a first line of defense at the root, organisms that coil around the roots without harming them, keeping bad organisms away. That's exactiy how one class of sustainable disease control works.
Retailers and end consumers are driving demand for organic and sustainable products. In response, there are many new products on the market in fertilizers and pest and disease control that produce healthy plants and greenhouse workers, as well as a healthy planet.
Pest And Disease Control
Sustainable and even organic products and the way they are marketed have changed a lot over the last decade.
"The problem has been there have been so many bad actors that have come out with products that make grandiose claims of what they can do - grow bigger plants, bigger and better roots," says John Francis, director of marketing and technical services at BioWorks, supplier of RootShield, PlantShield, BotaniGard, TriCon and NemaShield controls. "Biologicals got the reputation of being snakeoils. They were overpromised and underdelivered."
Today, biologicals producers are trying to get the right ideas into growers heads about their products and how they work through trials and showing growers the benefits of biologicals.
First off, growers need to apply biologicals before there is a pest problem. "Biologicals are preventative, not curative," Francis says. "I think in the past some growers have tried them when they had a problem, and that convinced them the products were no good." If disease pressures get too high, it could be time to apply a chemical to control it.
Many growers using beneficials can go years without doing more than spot sprays of oil or soap now and again, according to Carol Glenister, founder and president of IPM Laboratories. "In the case where a pest does break out, the pests are susceptible to the chemicals...