HAMPSHIRE NEWS 



Burlington, Vermont. The agenda is 

 the same for each workshop, which 

 runs from 8:30 am to about 3 pm. 

 Registration is $35.00 and this in- 

 cludes food and handouts. Scout- 

 ing, diagnosis of problems, pest 

 identification, and management 

 options will be covered. A grower 

 panel, as well as Extension special- 

 ists from Maine, New Hampshire, 

 and Vermont, will be involved. 



Registration and checks are sent 

 to Dr. Margaret Skinner, Entomol- 

 ogy Research Lab, PO Box 53400, 

 Burlington, VT 04505-3400. If 

 you want more information, she 

 can be reached by phone at 802- 

 656-5440. If this reaches you after 

 the December 4 deadline, call any- 

 way — you might be lucky. We an- 

 ticipate four pesticide recertifica- 

 tion credits will be given. Sorry, 

 but we can't offer refunds, nor do 

 I expect that walk-ins will be ac- 

 cepted, since space is limited. 



Farm and Forest — The Big 

 Picture in a Small State 



The Farm and Forest Exposition at 

 the Center of New Hampshire 

 Holiday Inn and Conference Cen- 

 ter in Manchester (this year on 

 February 5-6) always surprises with 

 its array of themes and associa- 

 tions. Yes, the Green Industry is 

 number one, but the New Hamp- 

 shire Horse Council, Dairy Goat 

 Association, Game Farmers Asso- 

 ciation (focusing on farming and 

 marketing bison and emu and 

 their various products). Pork Pro- 

 ducers, Forage Council, and the 

 Northeast Deer and Elk Associa- 

 tion are all there. On the plant 

 side of things, the Vegetable 

 Growers Association will discuss 

 pumpkin culture and maximizing 

 pepper yields; there are workshops 

 on making maple syrup and herbs 

 for winter health.... 



Interest in working with the en- 

 vironment is strong: the Coalition 

 for Sustaining Agriculture, the Co- 



HIWI CORNER 



The NHPGA meeting this past summer here at UNH was very 

 successful, and helped cement tics between growers, trades- 

 people, and the university. Thank you very much to those that 

 came to the 'show' — one of the many benefits was to reinforce to 

 our administrators the importance of our Green Industry, at a time 

 when rehiring decisions are being made that will impact the services 

 we can provide growers. 



It has also been great to have improved greenhouse facilities for 

 teaching our students in a more hands-on manner. Each week, stu- 

 dents graphically track the height of their plants, record sticky 

 cards to make pest control decisions, schedule day length and tem- 

 perature, measure pH and EC and mix their fertilizers, and irrigate 

 manually or with one of the new automatic systems. They are get- 

 ting used to working around construction materials, and our going 

 through 'teething' problems, for example: having a heat supply fi- 

 nally installed in October. Much of this new teaching equipment 

 was donated by industry and we encourage you to support the 

 many donors to the UNH floriculture program. 



In the research greenhouses, we have several experiments going 

 on at present. Results from these trials will begin to become avail- 

 able in 1999, and we will be reporting back to you in The Plantsman 

 and other venues. 



A new crop in our greenhouse is Nerine sarniensis. This species 

 is essentially an unknown cut flower crop for U.S. growers. The 

 cultivars were developed in New Zealand, where it is the number 

 three export cut flower (mainly to Japan). This interesting bulb 

 crop is in the Amaryllis family, and is a South African native that 

 has evolved to be dormant during a dry, warm summer and flower 

 during a wet cool winter. We are running various heat treatment 

 trials at UNH to break bulb dormancy and to work out scheduling 

 of these plants that may be 'confused' from a trip from the south- 

 ern hemisphere into the northeastern winter. Bluebell, Elliott and 

 Williams Roses, and Newton Greenhouses are also trialing a few 

 bulbs. We will report to you next year on this crop and also on the 

 cut flower Sandersonia, a. golden-flowered plant imported as a tuber 

 from New Zealand that may have potential for fall sales. 



Our trials on developing pH management strategies for bedding 

 plants are continuing, along with developing systems using tensiom- 

 eters to schedule irrigation. Some of you will find these pH and ir- 

 rigation techniques helpful in improving commercial crop quality. 

 Another use for this information is to allow us to run precise ex- 

 periments: a new research program involving a team of UNH 

 faculty will start experiments in February, 1999, to evaluate how 

 temperature, pH, and soil moisture influence the effectiveness of 

 biological controls of Pythium and fungus gnats. 



Paul Fisher, Department of Plant Biology, can be reached by phone at 

 6o}-862-4S2i, fax at 6oy862-4y^7, or e-mail at prf@hopper.unh.edu. 



DECEMBER 1998 JANUARY 1999 



