'•?- 



MEMBER PROFILE 



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But the quiet is used to prepare 

 for spring. 20,000 144s — fiber boxes — 

 are prefilled between Christmas and 

 New Year's and stored in skeleton 

 flats (24"xl5" flats with spaces be- 

 tween the slats) stacked in the barn 

 cellar. Bill uses his own loam for 

 these — unsteamed and mixed with 

 50% peat. And he still makes his own 

 flats ("I'm probably the last person in 

 the industry to do this"). Pre-cut ce- 

 dar shook arrives from IVlaine and is 



set in one of the bare plastic houses 

 to be put together when time al- 

 lows — a good job for a sunny winter 

 day. 



Bill has four full-time year-round 

 employees, even though in January 

 and February, there's only a three- 

 day work week. By spring, there are 

 twelve ("and we could probably use 

 more.") Family still helps — one of 

 Bill's uncles — also Roger Williams — 

 does the machine field work; an 



THE GREEN SPOT 



The Eggplant 



A Living Insectary 



Many bio-control users wish they could easily rear their own bio- 

 logical pest control agents instead of buying them in. Unfortu- 

 nately, this would be an even more expensive practice, unless you 

 had well-in-excess of 100 acres of crops under cover — providing 

 enough personal demand to warrant production. 



There is a way to do it for whitefly bio-controls though. And to twist a 

 phrase: "When in America, do as the Europeans do." Which, as many Eu- 

 ropean growers do, is to put a couple of eggplants in their range. 



The eggplant is a magnet for whiteflies. And having a lot of white- 

 flies is a key ingredient to whitefly bio-control production. The Euro- 

 peans take advantage of this opportunity by waiting until the egg- 

 plant shows some sign of infestation, then hanging a great number of 

 Encarsia formosa (a greenhouse whitefly parasitoid) cards on the 

 plant — like ornaments on a Christmas tree. This creates a kind of 

 mini-insectary in which the E. formosa can greatly increase their num- 

 bers, thus providing protection/control for the rest of the crops in the 

 range. It is advisable to also put a sprinkling of E. formosa cards in 

 other parts of the greenhouse, though. 



This will also work well for Delphastus pusillus, a sweet potato/ 

 silverleaf/greenhouse whitefly predatory beetle. However, D. pusillus 

 should not be introduced directly to the eggplant; it is too effective 

 and may wipe out the entire whitefly population. 



Although this tactic may sound a little scary to most growers, it has 

 been thoroughly tested in Canada and Europe on peppers and cucum- 

 bers and should work just as well on tomatoes, ornamentals, poinset- 

 tias, and other crops here in the United States. 



In recent years, advances in bio-control techniques, such as that 

 described above, have come to bear. And surely, there will be more 

 to come. 



Michael S. Cherim, The Green Spot, Ltd., Department of Bio-lngenuitif; 

 603-942-8925. 



(Editor's note: The biological pest control agents listed in last issue's 

 column are the six TOP agents. Others are used, also successfully.) 



aunt — Ann Pike — is head trans- 

 planter. 



The retail house is used for more 

 than display. Stock plants — perenni- 

 als (penstemon, scented geraniums, 

 phlox), herbs (sage, oregano, mints 

 and thymes — "herbs are big and 

 growing") — are brought in from the 

 overwintering beds in the fall. Cut- 

 tings made in late winter are rooted 

 on the bench along the north wall — 

 used to prevent them from receiving 

 direct sun. Poly tubing from the fur- 

 nace runs under the length of the 

 bench; when the furnace is on, hot 

 air gives the cuttings bottom heat; a 

 plastic skirt keeps the heat from dis- 

 sipating. Almost half the benches 

 fiave a TAK trough watering system: 

 newly potted material is grown here. 



Seeding begins in early February. 

 Flats are started on capillary matting 

 in his grandfather's plastic house. 

 Transplanting begins in March. The 

 transplanters work in the 48'x25' 

 double-polys, filling one house com- 

 pletely before starting another. For 

 hanging pots and 806s, ProMix is 

 used — "a plastic pak needs a mix 

 with drainage." Once a house is 

 growing well, the temperature is 

 gradually lowered, hardening off the 

 material before it's moved into cold 

 frames. Pansies and petunias go first, 

 around the first of April. Emptied 

 houses are refilled and the process 

 repeated. 



And as the cold frames are emp- 

 tied — by material being put outside 

 or sold, these are refilled as well. So 

 there's a constant movement of ma- 

 terial outward — a movement directly 

 related to the warming weather — 

 which continues throughout the 

 spring. 



There are 17 of these 30'xl0' plas- 

 tic-covered wooden frames (the plas- 

 tic is rolled up in warm weather). 

 "They work well for us," Bill says; 

 "we're able to produce a lot of mate- 

 rial for our busiest season without 

 prohibitive cost. Petunias are kept in 

 them throughout the season to pro- 

 tect their blossoms from beating rain 

 and we use them in fall to protect 



APRIL ♦ MAY I 996 



17 



