Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-03-28, 07:13:28

first published March 20, 2008

If you happened to celebrate ‘all things green’ a little too hard this past Monday, you might want to consider a gentler ode to the colour for the rest of the year: green flowers. Of course, the shamrock will always be unrivaled as the plant most closely associated with the luck of the Irish, but when it comes to gardening, there are a number of plants that outshine the shamrock—plants that not only have green foliage, but green flowers too.

Still warming up to the idea? I can understand. Some green-flowered plants look like they just couldn’t decide whether to grow more leaves or give up and produce flowers. Fortunately though, there are also those that are remarkably beautiful and much more refined than their underachieving counterparts. Here are a few of my favourites.

Tulipa viridiflora ‘Spring Green’
If you were lucky, you might have seen a couple of green-flowering tulips popping out of the ground on St. Patrick’s Day—although not very likely on the Prairies. Tulipa viridiflora ‘Spring Green’ emerges in early spring, and as its name suggests, has flowers that are distinctively pale green. In fact, if you wanted to truly tip your hat to the Irish next St. Patrick’s Day, you could force this variety to bloom the week of March 17th by potting up the bulbs this fall, storing them in a cold garage over the winter and then moving them indoors to a very sunny spot in late January.

Bells of Ireland
As for green flowers to enjoy the rest of the year, consider growing bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis). These bedding plants produce green, bell-shaped blooms on tall spikes and look great in the garden and in the house as cutflowers. My wife grows them every year, primarily to add to bouquets, and even I—someone as florally design challenged as they come—think they look striking. So give them a try. They’re easy to grow, love cool weather and are remarkably frost tolerant. If the weather is favourable, you’ll be harvesting bells of Ireland well into October. Left to go to seed, you may even get a few volunteers popping up the following year.

Amaranthus viridis (loves lies bleeding) is one of the bolder green-flowered annuals, producing long, rope-like stalks of flowers that make a striking addition to any garden. Some of the stalks can grow to a length of 40–60 cm, and these tough plants are, by and large, pest free. Love lies bleeding is rather closely related to the not-so-charmingly-named pigweed, but at least it doesn’t share pigweed’s hog-like invasiveness, although it too will self-seed if allowed.

‘Green Envy’ coneflower (Echinacea) has lime-green petals surrounding a wonderfully rich-green, cone-like centre. The entire bloom fades slowly to magenta, offering great ornamental value. The Echinacea genus has been undergoing some extensive breeding work lately, making Green Envy one of many intriguing varieties to add to the garden. Keep in mind that Green Envy grows about 1–2 m tall and likes plenty of sun and space. I haven’t tried this perennial as a cutflower yet, but I’m betting it will hold up well.

Hydrangea ‘Limelight’
Hydrangeas more your style? Then I’d suggest giving the variety ‘Limelight’ a try. This variety of Hydrangea paniculata yields wonderfully green flowerheads that change to a light pink by late summer and are held straight up on the branch—making them easy to see and appreciate. Limelight can grow a couple of meters tall and one to two meters in diameter. Hydrangeas enjoy moist soils and a bit of shade from the hot afternoon sun. An added bonus with Limelight is that it makes a good cut or dried flower.

So if you have never ventured into the world of verdant flowers, there is no better time to start than this year. Green-flowered plants are no more difficult to grow than any other plant in your garden. All it takes is a bit of planning, a good watering schedule and, of course, a bit of luck.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-03-27, 07:13:43

first published March 13, 2008

Are you jealous that—regardless of what you do—your neighbour always manage to grow better vegetables and flowers than you do? Ever wonder why that is? Well, his growing prowess might have a lot to do with his choice in plants and how well he takes care of them, but it might also have something to do with one factor that neither he nor you have much control over: the sun.

We tend to take the sun for granted—starting with the assumption that there’s always enough of it. But that’s an assumption that often gets gardeners in trouble. In actuality, the amount of sunlight that plants receive in a growing season can vary enormously not only from one yard to the next but also within yards. I’m sure that many of the veteran gardeners reading this article are thinking well…duh, of course there’s a tremendous variance in sunlight, but it’s surprising just how many people aren’t quite sure which direction their yards face. Not knowing west from east or north from south will have a profound effect on whether or not you have a bountiful harvest of tomatoes or any tomatoes at all. Fortunately, figuring out directions is the all-time easiest gardening task. Here’s how.

If you can remember that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, it’s simple to figure out which way your gardens face. During the longest days of summer at our northern latitude, the sun rises somewhat northeasterly and sets northwesterly. If you face the evening sun, you are looking west. By stretching your arms out, your right arm will always point north, your left arm will point south and your back will be exposed to the east. Yup. It’s that easy. Once you’ve ironed out which direction your beds face, its time to add other factors into the equation—namely, physical obstructions.

Obstructions can easily change a sunny bed into a shade bed. I remember a gardener who was lamenting the fact that her tomato yields were inexplicably declining each growing season, regardless of the fact she was providing the same care to her tomatoes year after year. Well, a little case study revealed that her decline in tomato yield corresponded rather nicely with her neighbour’s trees’ ever-increasing appetite for sunlight. The take home message here? Tall trees, fences, sheds and kid’s playgrounds can radically reduce the amount of sunlight your plants receive. The rough rule of thumb we use in the greenhouse is that for every one per cent decrease in sunlight there is a one per cent reduction in yield.

Now, as important as it is to know which direction your flowerbeds face and if obstructions are altering the amount of sunlight they receive, there’s no need to overanalyze the sunlight issue. As a rule, flowerbeds can be categorized as follows: east beds are in semi-shade, west- and south-facing beds are sunny and north beds are deemed full shade. So when you head out to the garden centre, simply match the sunlight information on the plant tags to the sunlight that your beds receive and you won’t go too far wrong. The only caveat is to remember that some plants offer no second chances and need every speck of sunlight (and heat) they can get. For example, if you are thinking of growing warm-season crops like watermelons and cantaloupes and want any hope of getting them to mature before the first fall frost, then choose a southern spot that’s free of light obstructions from sunrise to sundown. The opposite set of rules applies for plants such as delicate ferns that grow best under continuous indirect sunlight or dappled shade all day long.

So if you are jealous of your neighbour’s beautiful garden, take heart in the fact that perhaps the reason it has the edge is because it won the sunlight lottery. Even so, don’t worry! If you just take the time to match the right plants to your garden, you too will have your day in the sun.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-03-14, 09:26:57

First published March 6, 2008
There is one common garden product that has not only revolutionized container gardening, but also helped keep our backs from slipping out of alignment. It’s name? Perlite…although at the greenhouse, it occasionally answers to godsend.

Most of us recognize perlite as those round, white pellets commonly blended into potting soil mixtures—you know, the stuff that looks like Styrofoam beads. But while perlite isn’t as lightweight as Styrofoam, it still has a fairly low density, which has a huge impact on the size of containers we choose to fill and whether or not we can straighten up our backs after a day of moving them around the garden.

Step aside, sand
For many years, sand was the particle of choice for containers because it was one of the few readily available materials that provided the drainage necessary for plants to grow properly. But sand has one major drawback: weight. At a whopping 2000 kg per cubic meter, sand can transform even a relatively small pot into a back-breaking heavyweight. And the fun doesn’t stop there. Large hanging baskets that contain sand as a base component are not only tough to hang, they’re also tough on the old cranium should they come crashing down.

Interestingly enough, the perlite that our backs have come to love wouldn’t be much lighter than sand if it weren’t super heated and transformed from its natural state—a volcanic glass-like rock. Once the raw perlite hits a temperature of about 870 C, it explodes into a low-density popcorn-like particle. At about 30 kg per cubic metre, perlite is only a fraction of the weight of sand yet equivalent in its ability to improve soil drainage. Even when dealing with clay-rich garden soil, sand still isn’t the best choice for improving drainage. It might seem like the right choice, but because it takes such a vast amount of coarse sand to change the texture of clay soils, the addition of small quantities often does nothing more than transform clay to concrete. No seemingly good deed goes unpunished!

Getting it right
In standard potting soil mixes, perlite is added to counterbalance the sponge-like, water holding capacity of peat moss. Translation: peat moss tends to absorb large amounts of water, and the perlite lets it move through the soil and out the container’s drainage holes. Good quality potting soils should contain anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent perlite. I tend to like those that nudge the 20 per cent side because roots breathe best in a more porous mix. Having said that, the reality of many “professional” potting soils is that they contain what I suspect is no more than one per cent perlite—a mere window dressing. Unfortunately, a few bits and pieces scattered throughout a bag will have virtually no effect on the structure of the potting soil. The solution: take a good look at what you’re buying. Authentic professional soilless mixes have light-coloured, long-fibred peat moss and lots of coarse perlite scattered throughout.

A second option is to buy all of the components individually and mix them yourself. The advantage, of course, is that you can customize the blends. The disadvantage, however, is that custom blending can be a bit messy and dusty. Perlite dust in particular can irritate the eyes and throat, so if you blend your own mix, do so in a well ventilated area or wear a mask.

That’s perlite in a nutshell—a fantastic product that allows gardeners to grow plants in much larger containers, which in turn produce better looking, larger plants. I know I wouldn’t be without it. After all, besides amending my soil, it also allows me to enjoy my containers up close rather than longingly through my living room window whilst I lie on my couch with a hot water bottle on my back.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-03-07, 13:50:11

first published February 28, 2008

Tomorrow is sync day, a.k.a February 29th—the day that exists because our pokey earth didn’t have the foresight to take exactly 365 days to orbit once around the sun. Instead, the laggard decided to take 365 and 1/4 days to do it, which screws up our Gregorian calendar. Now, a quarter of a day might not seem like a big deal, but it adds up. In fact, if we didn’t make the correction and sync ourselves up with the solar calendar every four years, we’d eventually find ourselves planting annuals in December and harvesting our corn in March.

So now that you’re thinking of leap years in terms of gardening, here’s another reason to love them: they provide the perfect excuse to break with convention. I mean, come on!— according to custom, a girl can even ask a boy to marry her on February the 29th. Hmm… experience and my size 13 foot dissuade me from weighing in on that one, but I will say that the breaking of gardening conventions is something I always recommend.

It seems to me that we are often so bound by convention in our gardens that we have a difficult time breaking out of the mold. In fact, I’m always talking to gardeners who tell me stories that begin with “Oh, I always plant my petunias (or begonias or marigolds etc.) in the same spot every year.” And although I think it’s a good idea to grow what one has had success with over the years, it is equally important to break the habit now and again and try some new garden plants.

Consider this. A couple years ago, only a few people had ever heard of ornamental grasses. Today, one doesn’t need to venture far down any street to come across a yard with an ornamental grass or two. And at some point, the first gardeners who planted those grasses had to break with tradition and risk becoming pariahs by replacing a few of his or her marigolds and petunias with so-called ‘weeds.’

As a salute to that kind of thinking, I think that this leap year, gardeners should challenge themselves to be a bit unconventional. Where to start? Well, how about planting entire pots with bedding plants that don’t flower? Here are a handful of plants whose outstanding foliage colour might make you forget about blossoms all together.

Red Abyssinian banana
Bananas on the prairies? Why not. If you want a truly exotic look in your containers, this red-leafed banana just might be the ticket. They don’t require any special care but are best not transplanted before June due to frost sensitivity.

Dinosaur kale
Unlike bananas, this ornamental kale is one of the most frost-tolerant bedding plants you’ll find. Its unique, wrinkled foliage is remarkably reminiscent of Dino the dinosaur’s back…not that I still watch cartoons or anything. Dinosaur kale is edible as well, but purportedly more bitter than regular kale.

Haight Asbury hibiscus
Haight Asbury was the epicenter of flower power in the 60s, but rather ironically, Haight Asbury hibiscus is noted for its brilliantly coloured, variegated foliage—not its flowers. Its bushy growth habit makes it a great feature plant.

‘King Tut’ grass
King Tut is a papyrus grass (think ancient Egypt and scrolls) that can grow nearly two metres tall in a single season. I use it as a focal plant in containers and find that it grows wonderfully inside my house over the winter. It’s long, straight stems yield mop-top growths with tiny brown seeds. King Tut is very easy to grow and seems to do well dry or wet.

Succulents
Succulents come in a wide array of colors, heights and textures and are drought tolerant to boot. Last summer, I grew a mixture of succulents in a planter that I watered exactly once and then let Mother Nature do the rest. It really is amazing just how tough these plants are.

Hopefully, this will encourage you to take up the leap year challenge. Really, there’s nothing to lose. After all, even if your neighbours perceive you as being slightly mad, you can just blame it on the leap year. Anyway, think of the alternative—I’m certain that choosing the wrong plants is a lot less problematic than choosing the wrong man.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-02-29, 07:37:10

Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? Well, this year the more appropriate question to ask might be, “Is the grass greener on the other side of provincial borders?”

Why the riddle, you ask? Simple. Beginning in 2009, Manitoba’s government will limit the concentration of phosphorus (technically phosphate) in lawn fertilizers to a maximum of one per cent as a way to reduce the amount of phosphorus that makes its way from lawns and into lakes and rivers. Like all issues regarding pollution, this one is also complicated, but the main concern is that adding phosphorus to our water can lead to an explosion of algae growth. In “normal” phosphorus-starved water, algae are very low. But add extra phosphorus and that algae population skyrockets—the dire results being a wake of oxygen-starved, murky-green water and a whole lot of dead fish.

So now that you are feeling a little uneasy about applying fertilizer to your lawn, it might be a good time to explain a bit more about this mysterious plant nutrient we call phosphorus.

Phosphorus is one of only three elements (along with nitrogen and potassium) that is referred to as a major plant nutrient. Translation: all three are required by plants in fairly large quantities, which is exactly why fertilizer labels lists three hyphenated numbers, with phosphorus always occupying the middle spot on the nutrient list. The main role of this all-important nutrient is to act as the energy currency or fuel that drives plant growth. Plants that are severely deficient in phosphorus are invariably stunted and will often reflect their deficiency by displaying a purplish hue in their foliage. I have seen an entire field of corn (unfortunately, mine) that was stunted and purple for that very reason.

Getting back to lawns, the main controversy regarding phosphorus is not about whether it is essential for growing grass (that’s a no-brainer); it’s about deciding how much is needed and what type is best to use. Manitoba, for example, has many soils that are inherently high in phosphorus, so applying phosphorus to lawns is completely unnecessary.

Saskatchewan and Alberta, however, have a little bit different situations. Because many of our soils show some level of phosphorus deficiency, most of our lawns benefit from the addition of phosphorus-containing fertilizers. Having said that, I have to add that I’ve seen many soil tests from people’s lawns that showed exceptionally high phosphorus levels due to years of high-phosphorus fertilizer applications. Exactly. So what can we do to ensure we’re making good decisions? Well, start by becoming smart, responsible consumers.

A simple rule to remember when buying lawn fertilizer is to only choose those with labels that have a phosphorus number that’s in the single digits. Fertilizers such as16-20-0 (which are often sold as lawn fertilizers), contain a disproportionately high concentration of phosphorus and should never be applied to lawns. The next thing to remember is that the best way to keep phosphorus from ending up in lakes and rivers is to read instructions. Misapplication and over-application are surefire ways to spread phosphorus granules across sidewalks and driveways. Not only won’t your lawn benefit from that, the environment and your wallet won’t either. Across the international border, it’s interesting to note that Minnesota allows the use of phosphorus only for establishing new lawns—any other use requires a certified soil test to prove that the soil is phosphorus deficient.

Intelligent use of phosphorus-containing fertilizers really is the key to keeping our lawns and water bodies in good shape. Phosphorus, after all, is a good thing. But like all things in life, moderation is the key. With it, there’s no reason why we can’t have grass that’s green on both sides of the fence and water that’s blue.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-02-22, 07:09:59

first printed February 14, 2008

Hopefully, once you have finished reading this article you will feel compelled to tear it into tiny pieces and toss it in the dirt. And no, before you send Dr. Phil my way, this odd declaration has nothing to do with some self-deprecating need to have my writing disappoint or anger you. What I really want is to get you thinking of newspaper as a material that’s excellent not only for keeping minds enlightened, but also for keeping weeds in the dark.

Newsprint, as gardeners discovered at the dawn of the printing press, is a rather good material for reducing weed germination. Just a few sheets laid down between rows of vegetables or shrubs can inhibit the emergence of tiny weeds. Of course, there’s nothing magical about a newspaper’s ability to suppress weed growth. It simply acts as a light-reducing, physical barrier.

The largest component of newsprint is nothing more than finely chopped wood fibres, which are comparable to any other organic mulch material, from compost to pine bark. However, the biggest difference with newsprint is that it breaks down more rapidly than commercially available mulches because of its composition and high surface-to-weight ratio. Translation: a lot of a newspaper’s surface is exposed to moisture and micro-organisms, so it decomposes rather quickly. As of yet, we don’t have organic standards in Canada, but the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) in the U.S. lists newsprint as an organic product, and I would guess that when our standards are set (in the very near future), newsprint will qualify as organic here, too.

Most of the inks used on newsprint are petroleum based, which, to my way of thinking (from an environmental perspective), is of little concern in the garden. First of all, the ratio of ink to newsprint is rather small, and secondly, the tiny bit of ink that is on the newsprint is digested fairly rapidly by various soil microbes found in gardens. Of course, that’s not to say that dumping a few litres of petroleum-based products is ever a good idea, but the volume of ink that comes with a few layers of newsprint is entirely manageable.

Some of the research I’ve read on newsprint’s role in weed suppression states that shredded newsprint is more effective than overlapped sheets of newsprint. Apparently, shredded newsprint can be fluffed up, forming a looser but thicker layer, which is a more effective weed barrier than the thin sheets. However, having said that, I would never put shredded paper into my garden for two reasons. First, I think it would look rather ugly, and secondly, a good wind would blow it throughout the neighbourhood. And I’ll take a few weeds over angry neighbours any day. Since flat sheets of newspaper won’t win any yard-and-garden-beautification awards either, simply place a thin layer of compost over top of the newsprint to conceal your handy work.

So, if you think that newsprint might be worth trying, just keep in mind that although it is cheap and environmentally friendly, it won’t control the really tough perennial weeds, such as quackgrass and thistle. However, if you have a small vegetable patch with rows of carrots, beets and the like, you might want to give newsprint a try. Then again, if you think that this is the stupidest gardening article you’ve ever read and pitch it out the backdoor, well you might inadvertently be giving the weed-killing newsprint a chance anyway.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-02-15, 08:03:33

First published February 7, 2008

A weekly ritual of mine is to ‘walk the crop’ with the growers in our greenhouses. Actually…walking, bending, picking up plants and sticking my face into the flowers and foliage is probably a more apt description, but it’s hard to find something that rhymes with that.

In all seriousness though, an up-close-and-personal inspection is the only way to determine if plants are experiencing stress—especially the kind caused by insect pests that hide within plant canopies. I know I’ve made the classic mistake of giving the thumbs-up to a perfunctory visual sweep of a crop, only to learn there was a serious bug problem lurking beneath waves of foliage. Had I bent over for a closer inspection, I’d likely have found the clandestine pests and devised a plan for giving them the boot.

Although pest discovery is an important reason for walking the crop, it certainly isn’t the only one. By walking and inspecting you can detect a multitude of problems, and early detection is the key to keeping problems from escalating.

Of course, when you’re growing thousands of plant varieties, 100 per cent success is a pipedream, but fortunately, there’s always something to learn from the misses. So with that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to invite you to join me for the walk every few months so that you can see some of the hits and inevitable misses that are all part of growing plants. Here we go!

Monday afternoon, 1 p.m.
I join four growers and we begin the walk, starting with an inspection of the high-intensity lamps that flood our ornamental grasses with light. Even in a greenhouse, mid-winter light levels are too low to keep many plants growing happily. When I attempt to measure the light with my handy-dandy light meter, I also manage to flip over a flat of grasses with my size 13 shoe. Judging by the looks in the eyes of the growers, I get the distinct feeling that I might be just another greenhouse pest and move on silently with my tail between my legs.

Next stop: a sprawling aisle of new succulent varieties. Most of them look great, but one has developed some bronze-coloured dead patches on its leaf blades. Everyone looks to me for the answer, and I find myself wishing for a Star Trek-like tricorder that provides instant diagnoses. Since I don’t, I deduce that the damage is likely the result of chilling injury and decide to blanket them to bring up the heat. Hopefully it’ll solve the problem.

On the walk through the Easter lilies, we all comment on the huge variability in crop height. Most customers like an Easter lily in the 40-cm-tall range, so we decide to split the crop into tall and short specimens so that we can better regulate the height and still have them bloom at the right time. Easter lilies are always a bit of a nail biter. Grow them cool, and they stay short but might not bloom on time. Grow them warm, and they bloom on time but might get too tall.

In Greenhouse 10, we notice that the azaleas that we trained into heart shapes for Valentine’s Day are a little too exuberant, so we give them the ‘cold shower’ by sticking them in our 8C coldframe for a week or so. Talk about killing the mood. The hydrangeas, primula and cineraria, on the other hand, appear right on track, so we give them the nod and move along.

Last stop: the fuchsia cuttings. They’re a tad slow to root, so we add some high-intensity lights to the propagation area, remembering the rough rule of thumb that for every one per cent increase in light, there is a one per cent increase in growth. With that, we call it a walk and conclude that our concerns are relatively minor and are far outnumbered by the hits.

As we get closer to the time of the year when plants move from the greenhouse to their new homes in gardeners’ yards, I hope that the walk-the-crop principle will also make the change of address. If it does, I guarantee you, too, will have more hits than misses to report. After all, a miss usually owes its existence to a missed opportunity to observe the beginning of a problem…Of course, it could also be due to a size 13 shoe.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-02-08, 07:16:25

First published January 21, 2008

If December gets to be known as Christmas month, then February should have its own special designation, too. Therefore, I’m unofficially declaring it seed month! I think it’s a reasonable request, too, because to my way of thinking, February is inextricably linked to germinating seeds. Most of that has to do with the fact that I spent many a day watching my parents delight in germinating seeds on the heat radiator in our sunny living room while the yard was still packed with snow.

Dad and Mom had no choice but to start many of their seeds themselves because, unlike today, there were no greenhouse specialists who supplied seedlings. You either started them yourself or were out of luck.

Nowadays, there’s a much greater range of seedlings available in the marketplace, but that still doesn’t mean that you’ll find all of your favourites available as transplants. Since quite a number of plants don’t ‘hold’ well in greenhouse packs or pots, growers simply don’t sell them as plants—only as seeds. That means if you want to grow some of the most outstanding plant varieties available, you too will need to adopt February as your seed month.

Now, if the idea of planting seeds is a little too pedestrian for your tastes, I have to say, you don’t know what you’re missing. Seeds are some of nature’s most intriguing structures, and you really owe it to yourself to try at least one foray into the world of germination.

For example, from the strange-but-true file, did you know there are boy seeds and girl seeds? Well then, look no farther than the good old cucumber. If you open up a package of cucumber seed, you might be surprised to find the odd blue seed mixed in with the regular beige ones. Well, the blue seeds are dyed that colour to show that they are androdioecious (capable of producing individual plants that are almost exclusively male flowered and unable to yield fruit). The unaltered seeds are gynodioecious (almost exclusively female flowered, individual plants that will produce fruit).

Why have gendered seed, you ask? Well, much like our human species, cucumbers don’t need a lot of male flowers kicking around to get the pollination job done. One or two male plants can provide plenty of pollen to fertilize a lot of female flowers. The end result is that fruit yields are much higher in gardens where the ratio of female to male flowers is large. In other words, females don’t need a lot of males—they just need a few good ones…I’m talking about plants, of course. So, if you’ve ever had a spectacular row of cucumbers plants covered in yellow blossoms but been disappointed by a scrawny harvest, it’s likely that a lot of those blooms were male flowers.

Starting indoors
So now that I’ve shamelessly used sex to titillate you into trying seeds, here are some tips for starting them indoors.

Always start with the highest quality seedling mixture you can buy. Poor-quality seed often gets the blame when seedlings fail to emerge, but 9 times out of 10, poor-quality soil is to blame.

Also, there’s no point in going to the trouble of buying clean seedling mixture and then subjecting it to a dirty work area. Success with seedlings requires that everything that comes in contact with them is disease free. That means clean soil, clean trays, clean tools and clean water.

Seedling soil should be watered fairly heavily prior to sowing but never after. The irresistible temptation is to soak seed flats, but over watering will drown seeds or wash them to the sides of the flats. Gentle, consistent misting will do the trick.

Seedlings also need warm soil for successful germination, so always place seedling flats on a heated surface, and keep the soil temperatures between 22 and 24˚C. However, once seedlings begin to emerge, move the flats to a bright, cool (16˚C) spot. Don’t hesitate for even a day. Failing to move the seedlings to a cooler zone is where most people go wrong. Bright and cool environments yield stocky, tough plants; warm environments with poor light will yield stretched, weak seedlings that won’t adapt well to the outdoors.

So if you don’t have “Start seeds in February at home” written on your 2008 resolutions list, add it. I think that once you try it, you’ll be hooked and, lets face it, resolving to explore the sex lives of seeds is infinitely better than that tired old weight loss/get fit resolution.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-02-01, 07:07:34

first published January 24, 2008

Poplars and prairies—it’s hard to think of one without the other. Over the last century, poplars have been planted in vast numbers across the prairies and, for the most part, it’s because they were a practical choice for our climate. My family alone planted hundreds on our farm to create hardy shelterbelts that would grow quickly and endure extremely cold and windy winters. And even though poplars have long been thought of as weedy and out of style, they continue to be planted because their resilience and toughness trump their questionable beauty—or that is, they used to.

If nature has its way, the resilience of poplars might be put to the test in next few years. A new and potentially serious poplar disease that’s indigenous to Eastern Canada has shown up in Manitoba and could threaten a wide variety of poplar species in both Saskatchewan and Alberta. It is called Bronze Leaf Disease (BLD), and it’s caused by a fungus called Apioplagiostoma populi. The fungi’s hallmark, as the disease’s name implies, is that it rapidly transforms poplar leaves from a healthy green to a sickly bronze.

April showers make leaves cower
The life cycle of BLD looks something like this. Showery, mild weather (18C or so) during mid to late spring causes the fungi to produce spores that are then dispersed to poplar leaves via the wind and rain. By midsummer, infected leaves turn a reddish or orangey brown around their edges, and by late summer, the disease renders the leaves completely brown. The remainder of the cycle is just as straightforward. Throughout the winter, infected leaves tend to cling to the branches and come spring, the disease resumes its dastardly work. Sounds like a reasonable enough disease, right? Umm, no. If BLD had the decency to restrict itself to staying in the leaves, it would be, but unfortunately, it frequently has the audacity to move into the branches, causing sensitive species of poplar to die within a few years of infection.

Now, I don’t want to create a panic. After all, BLD is but one of many diseases we must contend with. However, it is one we really should keep an eye on—the most compelling reason being that the dominant species of broadleaf trees in our boreal forest are poplars, which means that BLD has the potential to cause serious damage to the forestry industry. Add the fact that Swedish columnar aspen and ‘Tower’ are two of the most popular poplar varieties for landscaping and you get what seems like a reasonable cause for concern.

Constant cleanup
There are no registered chemical controls for BLD and none on the horizon. So the best way to keep it out is to slam the door on it, which, practically speaking, means all poplars should be bought from reputable suppliers who check to make sure their trees are disease free. As for the existing trees in your yard, be sure to give them a once-over. If a poplar does look like it might be infected, zip-lock a leaf sample in a bag and take it to a garden centre that has trained staff capable of assessing the problem. If it is BLD, keep the disease under control by removing infected leaves during the summer and raking them up during fall cleanup. Removal of dead branches and pruning to thin the tree canopy (thereby increasing air movement) will also help. Of course, pruning millions of hectares of boreal forest is neither practical nor cost effective, but what we can do is monitor the problem. And that’s exactly what the provincial governments across the prairies are doing. To date, with the exception of Manitoba, there is only scattered anecdotal evidence of BLD showing up here.

That’s BLD in a nutshell: audacious, a lot to clean up after, but not out-maneuverable. In fact, when it comes to combating BLD, the saving grace for poplars might just be their reputation for being a weedy species. After all, in my 30 years in the horticultural business, I’ve never heard of any disease that could eradicate a weed—and I’ve looked…trust me on that.

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-01-25, 07:10:27

First published January 17, 2008

Over the years, there’s one type of plant that I’ve, literally, grown by the billions. Yet, regardless of the fact that each was grown to perfection in our greenhouse, I have the ignominious honour of never having sold a single one—as in e-v-e-r. I suppose the reason for the poor sales is that this illustrious Billion Plant Club of mine is comprised entirely of green slimy stuff…commonly known as algae. The truth, of course, is that I haven’t ever intentionally ‘grown’ algae, per se; it just multiplies arrogantly and of its own freewill, leaving a banana peel-like slickness on any damp concrete or wooden floor it can find. Sadly, I’m sure anyone who’s had a greenhouse is equally adept at growing this microscopic plant.

Technically, algae aren’t even real plants; they are close relatives—but sort of miniaturized versions. However, up until a couple months ago, I’d have happily classified algae as little more than a worthless nuisance we spend weeks ridding from our greenhouses before planting springs crops. Little did I know that this verdant slime might also have a golden lining. You see, researchers have discovered that algae are possibly one the most economical organisms for converting sunlight into biofuel. Apparently, some algae species (and there are about 17,000) are comprised of about 50 per cent lipids (fats) that can be transformed into fuels ranging from jet to biodiesel.

One company in particular, called GlobalGreen Solutions, has taken the algae/biofuel equation to the next level and developed a system that converts entire greenhouses to algae-producing factories. The system is called Vertigro, and it’s comprised of select species of algae that are grown in transparent, water-filled, plastic mats (reminiscent of floating mattresses at swimming pools) that are hung vertically in greenhouses. Growing algae vertically allows the company to pack in the maximum number of algae per cubic metre in the greenhouse, which maximizes the amount of lipids the algae can produce from the available sunlight. Once the algae population has reached its pinnacle, the algae are pumped out of the tubes, the lipids are extracted and fat becomes engine fuel.

Despite the fact that, on more than one occasion, I’ve sworn at algae because of its propensity to disconnect the soles of my shoes from the floor, there’s no denying that its ability to convert sunlight into fuel is pretty impressive. According to the company, research shows that although corn grown in a field can produce about 18 U.S. gallons per acre, greenhouse-grown algae can produce a remarkable 20,000 U.S. gallons per acre! And algae doesn’t require any soil, big farm equipment or large amounts of water and fertilizer to produce a good harvest, either. So even though greenhouses come with some substantial costs, I think the environmental footprint left by growing fuel from algae would likely be a lot smaller than the footprint left by growing and harvesting corn.

Is algae the solution to our energy hungry planet? My gut feeling is that, like all of the alternative fuel sources, this has the potential to be a good one but is still just one piece of the puzzle. The thing to remember is that it takes energy to grow energy, so the equation has to be skewed heavily in our favour to make algae work as a biofuel. I guess only time will tell, but what I will say for sure is that if algae are the answer, then I am in. After all, I am—without a doubt—one of the best growers of algae in this country…and I don’t even try.