Interview starts at 8:00 - Our guest today our guest today is Dr. Will Healy and he’s kicking off a three-part miniseries focused on garden mum production intended to help you produce the absolute best mum crops you possibly can – using the newest genetics and latest strategies. We’re not releasing these episodes back to back to back but instead when they are most relevant – because many of you listen in real time. This episode is all about starting your crop – getting them vegetative and keeping them vegetative. Dr. Healy will go in depth into the two most critical factors at this stage in the game – Temperature and Feeding. He’ll cover the most effective temperatures – mums like it hot – and we will learn all about thermophotoperiodicity. Then he’ll transition over to fertilizer strategies because mums are heavy feeders early. We we’ll also touch on other pieces of the production puzzle including, insect and disease prevention, PGRs and more. With plenty of tips and tricks peppered throughout. This will be a great episode to share with your entire team – because starting your mum crop during some of the busiest spring shipping weeks probably means all hands are on deck.

Looking ahead, Dr. Healy will be back in a couple months to cover your actively growing mum crop and discuss starting short days, catching any problems and timing the crop to be retail ready when it’s needed in store. The third episode in late Summer will continue the timing message and wrap up with finishing tips and tricks to make sure the absolute best crop is going to market.

Resources:

Ball Mums Catalog with Culture and Propagation Guides: https://www.ballseed.com/Virtual/2018_mums/index.aspx

Ball Seed Chrysanthemum White Rust Awareness Document: https://www.ballseed.com/PDF/Chrysanthemum-WhiteRust-Awareness-2018.pdf

Cornell University Chrysanthemum White Rust Alert & Management: https://www.ballseed.com/PDF/Chrysanthemum-WhiteRust-Alert&Management-June2018.pdf

Dr. Healy’s Past Episodes:

STEM Episode 21: The Language of Watering - https://stempodcast.podbean.com/e/the-language-of-watering/

STEM Episode 22: Watering: The Rest of the Story - https://stempodcast.podbean.com/e/watering-the-rest-of-the-story/

Contact Links:

Email Guest Dr. Will Healy: [email protected]

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