New App for Home Gardener Insect Identification

New App Can Identify this Critter for You!
Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Scientists at Clemson University have developed a new app designed to allow home gardeners the ability to identify insects plaguing their garden.  The app called IPMLite costs $9.99 is and is available for both iPhone and Android platforms.  The app also gives tips about garden maintenance and timing.  The app’s name comes from IPM which stands for integrated pest management; a new movement in professional horticulture utilizing organic pest control, predatory insects, and scheduled maintenance to minimize insect damage without trying to eradicate the bugs entirely.

A Peach of an Orchid: Dendrobium Unicum

I have loved plants for decades now. The intrinsic beauty in a flower, the shapes of their leaves, even the delicate microscopic structure of a trichome I find to be alluring. My breadth of interest is vast; from vegetables to dahlias, from roses to orchids. I am a volunteer judge with the American Orchid Society & I travel the world judging orchids. I am addicted…my wife says “I have a problem!”  I say “I have a passion!”  I grow hydroponically, I landscape, and I grow in a greenhouse, indoors with grow lights, and of course in the great outdoors. I would like to regularly share with you some of my most prized flowers and plants. Today the picture above is of Dendrobium unicum. It is a species indigenous to Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Thailand. It grows wild in the tropical rainforests of these countries at an altitude of 800 to 1500 meters. It grows best in temperatures between 65 – 85 degrees Fahrenheit, mounted to a small piece of cork or wood, and likes to be watered daily. The reward for proper culture is an abundance of 3” flowers that have the most delightful aroma of fresh peaches and cream. I love the intricate venation inside the lip and the delicate stellate flowers (star shaped.) I hope you’ll check back soon to see what else is blooming.

New Ballast from PurGro is a High Tech Marvel!

The new 1K4 Flip Ballast, 1000 Watt MH/HPS Ballast With Built-In Lighting Controller from the geniuses or should I say genius (our buddy Greg) at PurGro is sleek and stylish delivering performance and features beyond its competition. The 1K4 boasts an impressive list of features:

• 4 individually dimmable ballasts
• Built in flip box option
• Wires directly to a 30 amp 240v breaker without a lighting controller
• Lights MH or HPS Lamps
• All digital
• Only digital ballast to be repairable

Those are all great features, but we have come to expect more from PurGro after the GroBot so here is an additional feature that will blow your hair back:

• Stealth Startup – This feature lights up each channel (lamp) on a random 1 seconds to 90 seconds after the last channel to keep the power company’s new digital meters from identifying the load as a room full of grow lights.
•  The ballast has a revolutionary new design that allows better heat dissipation from the internal circuitry to the heat sinks on the case allowing this beast of a ballast to run cooler than any other ballast that had been tested…Way to go Greg!!
• Technical Specs (for the real Grow Geeks out there.)
  At 92% efficiency and a crest factor of < 1.7, this is one sweet ballast. Strike voltage is well over 3000 volts to light the longest cables and the oldest lamps. Total Harmonic Distortion is less than 10% for low RF noise and minimal acoustic signature, and Power Factor is actively corrected to greater than 0.99 for maximum efficiency in power conversion. This is as good as a ballast gets!

Is there a Light at the End of the Tunnel? The Effectiveness of L.E.D. Technology in Horticulture Evaluated.

Can LEDs be the Answer to our Growing Prayers?

We have all seen the abundance of advertisements in all of the trade publications about LED lighting. In my next series of articles I will explore the effectiveness of LED technology, their application in horticulture, proper testing of light intensity and examine the ROI (return on investment) of using LEDs as both a primary, and supplemental light source. Check back soon to see the first articles.

Two 14-Year-Olds Win $50,000 for Hydroponic Design to Feed Their Country

Chloramines in Your Drinking Water: The EPA does a Q&A

As discussed in my earlier blog, Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines have been proven to damage garden crops.  Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water. One in five American homes has water treated with chloramines.  My ongoing blog series discussing water quality has been a hit, but if you want more information specifically regarding Chloramines see what the EPA has to say about them.  Remember Chloramines can be removed with a simple reverse osmosis filter and KDF carbon filter.

Choosing a Miticide: Don’t Show Up to a Gun Fight with a Knife!!!

When you are taking a leisurely walk through your garden and notice the telltale yellow speckles on the topside of your leaves (a dead give-away of your arch nemesis the spider mite) what do you do?  Do you grab for the nearest bottle of Neem Oil and a sprayer? Quickly covering everything in reach with a fine mist of that “garlicky” smelling organic insecticide; only to realize that it is 10 am and the weather report is calling for a beautiful sunny day?  Your attempt to eradicate your foe has likely sealed the fate of your precious garden.  In a few hours your garden will be basking in bright sunlight, and covered in oil will likely be burned to a crisp.  Maybe we can rationally deal with this pests in another way.  

Remember that a single female mite can produce a population of over 1 million mites in 1 month.  This incredibly fast rate of multiplication allows them to quickly form resistance to chemicals, and that multiple applications are almost always necessary to eradicate them completely.  Read my other blog to learn more about the life cycle of the spider mite.

First: We need to know what kind of mite we are dealing with.  There are over 48,000 different types of mites out there but most are not garden pests.  As gardeners we are mostly concerned with spider mites, southern red mites, citrus mites, rust mites, gall mites, broad mites, cyclamen mites, Lewis mites, and the thread-footed mites.  By far the most common of the garden mites are the two-spotted and the red mite.  There is a  helpful websiteIf if you need help identifying a mite .

Second: Determine the severity of the infestation by closely examining all plants in your garden and any close by vegetation.  If there is only a few visible mites with little visible damage then you may choose to use an organic or mild miticide.  If the infestation is severe (having larger mite populations and webbing) you may choose to use stronger professional grade chemical miticides.  

Third: Differentiate between plants that are edible and/or consumable as opposed to ornamental.  When treating infestations on edible plants you are limited by the types of miticide that are safe to use.  Using Chemichals on ornamentals on the other hand generally poses less risk to people because there is no fear of humans or animals ingesting them.  

Fourth: With the above information choose your miticide or insecticide.  Consider your crop type; ornamental or consumable, any necessary application tools or safety gear, as well as any chemical rotation necessary to ensure that the mites do not become resistant. Also keep available the MSDS sheets (material safety data sheets) should they become necessary. 

Fifth: Read all instructions before applying insecticides.  Follow all instructions to ensure you and your crop remain safe.  Also note the REI (the restricted entry interval) this is how much time must pass between the application of the insecticide and safe reentry into your grow-room / greenhouse without any safety equipment. Also note the maximum applications per cropping cycle, as some heavy duty miticides can only be used once or twice per crop.  

See the table below for some helpful information regarding different pesticide / miticide choices.

Brand Name	Active Ingredient	REI	Mode of Action	Target species	Target stage	Food Safe	Effectiveness
Avid	abamectin	12 hours	GABA Blocker	Southern Red, Two Spotted, Broad, Cyclamen, Eriophyid, Spruce	Nymphs & Adult	NO	Medium
Azamax	azadirachtin	none	IGR, Antifeedant, Anti Ovulent	Spider Mites & Mites	Any	Yes	Medium
Beethoven TR	etoxazole	12 hours	Not Yet Understood	Spider mites, Lewis, Pacific, Spruce, Citrus, Southern Red, European Red, Two Spotted, McDaniel	Egg & Nymph	NO	High
Bifen I/T,   Attain	bifenthrin	12 hours	Sodium & Potassium Channel Disrupter	Broad, Clover, European Red, Spider Mites	Adults	Varies by Crop	Medium
FloraMite	carboxamide	4 hours	GABA Blocker	Two Spotted, Southern Red, European Red, Spruce, Citrus Red	Eggs & Adults	YES	High
Forbid	spiromesifen	12 hours	Inhibitor of Lipid Synthesis	Two Spotted, Southern Red, Euonymus, Tumid, Lewis, Rust, Broad, Cyclamen, and False Spider Mites	Eggs, Nymphs, & Adults	NO	High
Insecticidal Soaps	potassium salts of fatty acids	none	Contact Dessicant	Spider mites,  Two Spotted, European Red, Broad, Citrus, Rust, Russet	Eggs, Nymphs, & Adults	Yes	Medium/low
Magus	fenazaquin	12 hours	Mitochondrial Electron Transport Inhibitor	ALL Mites NOT Spider Mites	Eggs, Nymphs, & Adults	NO	High
Neem Oil	neem oil	none	Suffocation	Spider Mites	Adults	Yes	Low
Organocide	sesame oil	none	Suffocation	Spider Mites	Adults	Yes	Low
Pylon	chlorfenapyr	12 hours	Prevents Conversion of ADP & ATP	Two spotted, Broad, Rust, Cyclamen, & Citrus Mites	Nymphs & Adult	Yes	High
Spider Mite Knock Out, Don’t Bug Me, Pyrethrum TR, Doctor Doom Fogger	pyrethrum/ pyrethrins	12 Hours or less	Sodium Channel  Modulator	Spider Mites	Adults	Yes	Medium

Water Quality: Just Because It’s Clear Doesn’t Mean It’s Clean!

Do You Want to Drink this Water? Niether do Your Plants.

On a hot summer day after working in your garden you might reach for an icy cold glass of water; that clear refreshing beverage we all take for granted is the life blood of our planet.  It sustains us, our plants and in turn the entire global ecosystem.  If you grabbed for a drink of water and it smelled bad, was dirty brown, or tasted funny you wouldn’t drink it; would you?  Most of us would either buy a water filter (like a reverse osmosis system) or bottled water because the thought of drinking a glass of brown dirty water is revolting.  So why would you feed it to your plants?

Too often I help people only concerned with their water quality after their gardens have shown serious problems.  As long as the water is clear and doesn’t smell bad most people give little thought to the water that comes out of their faucets or hoses.  There can be bacteria in the water, high chlorine levels, or even dangerous levels of salts or chemicals.  All of these are good reasons to be proactive and learn a bit about you water quality before there is an issue.

It can be as simple as a phone call to your local Department of Water Shed Management.  Often they will come to your home and test your water for chlorine levels, contaminants, and bacteria (for free.)  Now the bacteria they test for are typically the types which are harmful to people but the chlorine content and information about contaminants are useful to us as gardeners.

Here in AtlantaI did as I am suggesting you do.  I contacted the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management.  They were helpful, and provided fast service at no charge.  Within 1 week I had documented lab results stating that there was no Coli Form bacteria present in my water, No E Coli, and a Chlorine level of 0.7 PPM.  An acceptable amount of Chlorine for most plants is less than 140 PPM, but many plants such as orchids are much more sensitive to Chlorine and will tolerate almost none.

The Department of Water Shed Management was also kind enough to supply me with the official 2010 City ofAtlanta Water Quality Report.  This provided me with a few more pieces of useful information.  My water contained:

• 0.6 PPM of Nitrate Nitrogen of which there should be less than 10 PPM (mostly from fertilizer run off entering our water system)
• 0.12 PPM Copper of which there should be less than 0.2 PPM
• 0.93 PPM Fluoride of which there should be less than 1.0 PPM
  

  A RO System Like this Transforms Bad Water into Clear Water

Lastly a phone call to a supervisor provided me with a piece of information that was extremely important; Atlanta’s water supply is not treated with any kind of Chloramine, only Sodium Hypochlorite.  This meant that the purchase of aspecialty KDF activated carbon filter (to remove Chloramines) would not be necessary to make the water safe for my collection of orchids.  Chloramines unlike Chlorine can not be removed by a typical water filter or even a standard R/O system; they require a KDF style activated carbon filter to remove them.  Checking if your water department uses Chloramines is something all of us need to do; exposure to Chloramines for as little as 1 hour significantly inhibit plant growth according to recent scientific studies.  Check with your local water department to learn more about what is in your water.  Also check out my next blog to learn how to decipher a water report.

The Life Cycle of a Spider Mite: What You NEED to Know Before Going into Battle!

As many of you, my gardening friends know big damage can come from small pests!  One of the most ubiquitous foes of indoor and outdoor gardeners alike is the Spider Mite.  This creature which is not a spider as the name may imply, is actually a member of the Acari (mite) family Tetranychidae.  Their similarity to spiders ends with their ability to spin telltale webs which can often be the first clue to their presence in your garden.  These little garden pests can multiply so quickly under the right conditions that a single female can spawn a population of over one million in under 1 month.  They reproduce quicker under warmer conditions and prefer low humidity as it helps them excrete the water they ingest as they suck the life (sap) out of your plants.  The two-spotted spider mite can hatch in as little as 3 days, and become sexually mature in as little as 3.5 days. One female can lay up to 20 eggs per day and can live for 2 to 4 weeks, thereby laying 800+ eggs. 

This capability for exponential population growth, coupled with the speed at which each individual mite itself becomes reproductively mature allows spider mites to rapidly adapt to novel pesticides.  This ability to become resistant to pesticides has caused millions and millions of dollars in damage to food and ornamental crops every year.  This is why it is imperative to rotate pesticides in your attempts to control them.  Any pest management program should be a rotation of at least three different pesticides, each having a unique mode of action; not just a different active ingredient but a unique way of killing the mites.  For example some will be mitochondrial electron transport inhibitors while others may be neuronal inhibitors or GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) blockers. 

Spider Mite Life Cycle
Grow-Room Temperature in °F	60	64	70	90
Number of Days from Egg to Adult	30	21	14.5	3.5

Now that you understand what you are up against read my next blog about miticides that will cure your mite problem quickly and painlessly.

Ceramic Metal Halides: A New Material Makes Your Garden Glow!

Phillips Ceramic Metal Halide Bulb

In our ongoing quest for bigger and better it is not always the mighty watt that needs to be increased.  We all know that yield is based on a confluence of factors including: genetics, light intensity, light spectrum, proper nutrition, grower ability etc.  However sometimes we find ways to advance our ability to grow plants by improving our equipment.  To that end lets look at a less utilized type of metal halide lamp know as a Ceramic Metal Halide (or CMH.)  CMH lamps use a ceramic composite material to make the arc tube (the cylinder inside of your bulb that holds the gasses & produces light when electricity is passed through it.)   The problem had been that when using the ideal mixture of gasses the arc tube got so hot that it melted.  This led to using different mixtures of gasses that do not get as hot; however as a trade-off they did not produce an ideal spectrum for photosynthesis. 

That has all been solved with the CMH!  The ceramic composite that the arc tube is constructed of can withstand 1,500 degrees Kelvin opposed to the older Quartz or PCA arc tubes that were only able to handle 1,300 degrees Kelvin.  The increased operating temperature has allowed the bulb manufacturing companies to tailor the gases in the arc to provide a better spectrum of light for photosynthesis.  This advent will let the light shine brighter and better on your garden with a simple twist of your bulb.

Here is what you need to know when considering CMH’s:

• ONLY use CMH lamps on standard coil and core HPS ballast.
• Ceramic Metal Halide bulbs can be used in BOTH vegetative and bloom cycles.
• They should not be operated with digital ballasts. CMH bulbs cannot handle the high frequency vibrations caused by digital ballasts.
• CMH lamps are known to increase vegetative growth so much that you may want to implement the use a Potassium Silicate fertilizer supplement (i.e. Silica Blast.)  Silica fertilizers strengthen plant cell walls, thereby making the plant’s leaves, stems and branches thicker and heavier as well as better able to support heavy clusters of fruit.
  

  Spectral Comparison of Ceramic Metal Halide to HPS Lamp