Ball Seed Company

Late-season poinsettia tips from Ball Seed tech expert Nick Flax - Yellowing (Pt. 2) Corrective Measures for Late-Season Yellowing: Level I Correction: If only the lower-most leaves are yellowing, the main concern is whether they will impact shelf life. Senescing leaves often become infected with Botrytis and fungus-infected leaves hanging out in the pot will serve as the source for a secondary infection. Since poinsettias are often watered heavily before ship and pot covers further restrict air flow in the lower canopy, the combination of high moisture and humidity, darkness, and a source of fungal spores creates the perfect storm for a bigger disease outbreak. Level II Correction: Increasing fertilizer rates for mid- to lower canopy yellowing may seem like a logical solution but increasing feed close to ship can cause plants to become soft and more prone to lodging and breaking. Whether low feed throughout the growing cycle or cutting off fertilizer too early is the cause, applying an Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate; Mg2SO4) drench can help re-green the mid- to lower canopy without making plants too brittle. One or two applications of Mg2SO4 at 1 to 2 lbs/100 gal will help you achieve green-up. Level III Correction: When plants are exhibiting chlorosis throughout, more drastic measures need to be taken to make your crop shippable. There’s also a good chance that overall growth and development has been impacted, so this is likely not the prettiest crop you’ve ever grown, too … If you have a few weeks before shipping, take the following steps to try and save your crop: Make sure your fertilizer injector is working properly because attempts to treat symptoms with fertilizer won’t work until it is repaired or replaced. Also, check your crop’s root zone for signs of disease. Root rot hampers nutrient uptake, so apply a fungicide ASAP if you see disease symptoms. If roots are healthy, feed ASAP with your fertilizer of choice at 300+ ppm N once you are certain your injector works; repeat two times if possible, allowing for some dry-down between applications. Increase your air temperature slightly to speed up uptake and distribution of nutrients throughout the plants. After a couple of fertilizer “hot-shots”, you can follow-up with a Mg2SO4 drench or two (2 lbs/100 gal) to get the last bit of green-up, if necessary. Once you crop has regained sufficient color, reduce air temperatures to help tone the crop as much as you can before ship. Also, try to provide at least two clear water irrigations to flush excess salts out of the media, if possible. A light drench with paclobutrazol (Bonzi, Piccolo, Paczol) at about 0.25 ppm can also help tone plants more quickly and suppress excessive stretching due to the sudden feed increase. Level II and III (especially) corrections are last-ditch efforts to make your crop salable, rather than having to eat a major loss on your poinsettias. By NO means should these be considered best practices.

Late-season poinsettia tips from Ball Seed tech expert Nick Flax - Yellowing (Pt. 1) What Is “Too Yellow” to Ship? Poinsettias are most growers’ last major crop of the year, so it’s easy to get anxious about crop quality this close to ship. Unless you recently applied a PGR containing chlormequat chloride (Cycocel, Citadel) at too high a rate, chances are that the yellowing you are observing is due to nutrient deficiency of some kind. However, before you take corrective action, make sure any adjustments to crop culture you make are in proportion to the scale of the problem. Level I: If only the very bottom of the canopy is showing some chlorosis, it may not be worth doing anything at all. Leaves on the bottom nodes will most likely be obscured by a decorative pot cover, so changes to crop culture may only cause problems at this point. Level II: If leaves in the mid- and lower canopy are chlorotic and visible with a pot cover on, a last-minute green-up treatment is in order. Level III: If leaves throughout the canopy are chlorotic and lower leaves are (likely) senescing, identifying the exact cause and quick action to correct nutrient deficiency symptoms is critical. Also, be sure to enact preventative disease control measures, as your crop will be more susceptible to attack from pathogens in its weakened state. #greenhouse #horticulture #poinsettia #chlorotic #chlorosis #nutrition #crop #ballseed #techondemand #greenhousetechteam #balltechteam

We love fall combos! Do you have a Ball Mums combo at your garden center? Share it with us! This combo has Uptick Gold & Bronze Coreopsis, Panola XP Yellow Blotch Pansy, Stellar Yellow Garden Mum, Creeping Jenny, Carnival Coffee Bean Heuchera and Katelli Bronze Garden Mum in the back.

Ball is your complete source for perennials! Choose from more than 4,000 perennials supplied by 20+ growers across North America. As a Ball Seed customer, you gain access to all the top-performing varieties and resources you need for early spring through Fall production. Explore what Ball Perennials can do for you! 👉 https://lnkd.in/g7t65ibT

The Tech Team is growing! Chris Ferguson has joined the team as a Technical Services Specialist. His role includes supporting our Ball Seed suppliers, sales reps, and, customers! Chris joins us with a background in agronomic seed treatment, fertilizer, and crop protection, and more than six years of combined commercial technical support experience at Hopewell Nursery and Bell Nursery! Welcome, Chris!!🌱

Poinsettia Pest Alert: Whitefly (Thanks to Ball Seed Tech Expert Nick Flax for this info!) With cooler weather approaching, the Tech On Demand team is anticipating hearing from growers experiencing mass migrations of pests and particularly high increases in whitefly numbers in the coming weeks. Whiteflies are one of the biggest insect challenges that poinsettia growers face. Though early pressure can occur, these sleepers often strike hardest mid-crop or later in production. In cool weather, it takes a little longer for their population growth to explode than some other pests, but once they have a foothold and numbers are high on your sticky cards, they are a force to be reckoned with. Managing a massive whitefly outbreak is an uphill battle, to be sure, so what are some things that you can do to manage them if numbers are increasing in your greenhouse? First, make sure you know what kind of whiteflies you’ve got. Silverleaf whitefly (Bemesia tabaci; a.k.a. sweet potato whitefly) and greenhouse whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) are the main pests of concern on poinsettias. Check out this UCANR article for some nice details on the different species of whitefly: https://lnkd.in/g6CnrBfD Once you have a handle on the species you're fighting, keep the following in-mind: Preventing population buildup is the best strategy. Fall can be a chaotic time, but do not let your pest scouting program fall off the weekly to-do list. If this is a major pest for you each year, set a lower threshold for weekly bug counts and start deploying controls earlier to keep ahead of the pressure. Applying a systemic insecticide drench 7 to 10 days after planting liners will set you up for success; products containing thiamethoxam and dinotefuran can provide excellent long-term whitefly control. Applying these as a substrate drench to non-native plants like poinsettias in a greenhouse this time of year poses minimal risk to pollinators. Silverleaf whitefly has two biotypes (Q- and B-biotype; genetic differences that cannot be determined visually). Q-biotype whiteflies are resistant to various insecticides. If nothing you spray seems to lower your whitefly populations, sending whitefly samples to a lab for testing may help you narrow-in on the problem and develop a better IPM strategy. Biological control strategies can be very effective at managing whiteflies, especially if your traditional pesticide chemistries just aren’t working very well anymore. Deploying parasitoids  or predatory mites can do wonders to keep whitefly populations low. Remember, biological IPM is a different system entirely that focuses on prevention, not reaction. Biologicals must be introduced early and continually re-released for best effect. 

We are so grateful for our long-standing partnership with Morel, as the exclusive distributor of Morel Cyclamen in North America! We had the privilege of welcoming Morel team members, Guy and André, to West Chicago! The breeding team at Morel is inspired by creativity and the opportunity to work with such a huge heritage of cyclamen crossings fueled by over 100 years of breeding passion! 🌸 MOREL DIFFUSION - CYCLAMEN MOREL

It is time to book your plugs and liners! If you are looking for outstanding, perennial recommendations for your program, check out Darwin Perennials' 2025 Trial report! https://lnkd.in/gWjMwpXq

POINSETTIA PEST ALERT! Lewis Mites The Ball Tech On Demand team has heard reports of Lewis mites on crops recently. Lewis mites (Eotetranychus lewisi) are not considered a major pest of floriculture crops, but they appear in North American greenhouses periodically—often on poinsettias. Infestations early in the crop cycle can be managed with minimal impact to crop quality, but unmanaged populations can create significant challenges for growers as crops approach finish. Scout your poinsettias thoroughly and ramp-up control measures ASAP if signs of Lewis mites appear. Ball Seed technical specialist Nick Flax put together this ID and Management document to help. #greenhouse #horticulture #poinsettia #pest #insect #mite #LewisMite #control #crophealth #ballseed #techondemand #balltechteam #greenhousetechteam

Our 3rd party beds this year in The Gardens were a knockout! Gold Leopard Canna Cannova in the Takii bed, for one, people could not stop talking about! The color palette in this bed was warm tones and bold pops of contrasting color!