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Thomas Dudek
District Extension Horticulture and Marketing Educator
January 26, 2009 -- Greenhouse growers and others planning to increase their pumping capacities over 70GPM or those planning to put in a new well or surface water withdrawal with a pumping capacity of over 70 GPM need to be aware of the Water Withdrawal Tool. This tool must be run before any new withdrawals are permitted or wells are put in. If the new water withdrawal is approved, it can be registered with this new web tool.
Effective July 9, 2009, everyone will need to use the screening tool available online at www.miwwat.org/ or request a site specific review from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Anyone with new or increased withdrawals cannot have an adverse impact on the watershed or limit the amount of water that others already using that watershed have available.
Local well drillers and health departments will probably ask you if the withdrawal has been registered before they begin work or permits are approved. This is all part of the Great Lakes Compact that was signed into law last summer to prohibit diversions of Great Lakes water to other parts of the United States. Michigan is part of the compact. Several workshops explaining how to use the tool, have been hosted across the state. One more workshop is scheduled in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 2009. To register, go to: www.hydra.iwr.msu.edu/registrations/wwat/index.asp
If you missed the MSUE workshops on this subject, the following webinar can be accessed by clcking here. Users will need to login as a guest with no password .
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Zhengfei Guan, Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics
Erik Runkle, Horticulture
Janaury 21, 2009 -- A group of multidisciplinary researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) is conducting a study on greenhouse energy use, and grower input is needed. Greenhouse growers in Michigan will receive a Greenhouse Energy Survey questionnaire in the mail within the next few weeks. The surveys will be kept confidential and will be used to assess the potential for economic and environmental gains from energy conservation.
In the analysis, we will evaluate the profitability of adopting alternative energy conserving technologies under different market scenarios. We will also investigate the implications of policy changes regarding carbon dioxide emissions and volatile energy prices on the industry. The research results will help position the greenhouse industry to address energy and efficiency issues, and allow MSU Extension to develop programs that better meet grower needs. The research team consists of Zhengfei Guan, Steve Harsh, and Bob Myers (professors of Agricultural Economics), and Erik Runkle (professor of Horticulture) at MSU. A summary report from this research will be sent to those that request it. |
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Thomas Dudek
District Extension Horticulture and Marketing Educator
January 21, 2009 -- I attended a national workshop on Sustainable Greenhouse Production near Dallas, Texas this past November. It brought together growers, educators and industry professionals to discuss how greenhouses can address “sustainability."
As defined by some in the industry, sustainable greenhouse horticulture "produces and sells crops in a manner that provides a profit for the business, minimizes the impact upon the environment, maximizes employee well-being, and benefits the community."
Part of this concept is understanding disease management. Dr. Janna Beckerman from Purdue University provides an excellent article on this notion. View PDF of the article. |
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David Smitley
Entomology
Do not carry-over insects from one crop to another. Keep thrips numbers down to less than 10 per card per week in the fall and winter on poinsettias and Dracaena. Avoid keeping houseplants or allowing weeds to grow in the greenhouse. When each batch of media arrives for a new crop, check it for fungus gnats by filling a one-gallon ziplock bag half-full with moist soil. If fungus gnat adults emerge within two weeks, consider applying a fungus gnat treatment at planting time. Check incoming plant material carefully. If insects are found, treat them with an appropriate product (listed below) to start with as clean a crop as possible.
Monitor thrips and whiteflies with yellow sticky cards. Change cards once per week. Use at least one card per house or one per 2,000 square feet. Check the first plants to flower for thrips. For spider mites and aphids, check susceptible plants like marigolds (mites) and pepper s(aphids), weekly. Potato wedges can be stuck in soil and checked 24 hours later for fungus gnat larvae.
Use Marathon, Tristar, Flagship, Safari, or Aria in poinsettia pots, lily pots, or in hanging baskets prone to problems with whiteflies, aphids, mealybugs or soft scales. Note: Aria does not work on silverleaf whitefly. Tristar and Safari also suppress thrips.
If yellow sticky cards or scouting indicates an increase in aphids, mites, thrips, fungus gnats or whiteflies, apply the following materials once per week until populations decrease to acceptable levels.
Thrips: Avid, Mesurol, Orthene 97, Pylon, Safari, Sanmite, Tristar, and Conserve. Note: Some thrips populations may be resistant to Conserve.
Aphids: Aria, Azatin, BotaniGard, Celero, Decathlon, Discus, Distance, Endeavor, Enstar II, Flagship, Marathon, Ornazin, Orthene 97, Precision, Safari, Talstar, Tristar
Whiteflies: Azatin, BotaniGard, Celero, Decathlon, Distance, Endeavor, Enstar, Flagship, Marathon, Ornazin, Orthene 97, Precision, Safari, Sanmite, Talus, Judo, Tame, Tristar (Note: many populations of silverleaf whitefly are resistant to Marathon, and some may also be resistant to Flagship, Tristar, Safari, Distance and Talus)
Mites: Akari, Avid, Floramite, Hexygon, Judo, Ovation, ProMite, Pylon, Sanmite, Shuttle, Tetrasan.
Broad mites: Avid, Akari, Judo, Pylon, SanMite.
Fungus gnats: Azatin XL, Adept (not on poinsettias), Distance, Marathon, and (drenches) (perhaps other nicotinoids; not yet tested), Mesurol.
Mealybugs: Aria, Celero, Flagship, Orthene, Safari, Talus and Tristar.
Sucrashield isfrom Natural Forces for controlling aphids, mites, thrips, whiteflies and caterpillars on vegetables, herbs and spices in the greenhouse and outdoors. It is also for use on ornamentals, flowers and bedding plants.
This new product is based on a tobacco plant extract and is available now. The active ingredients, sucrose octanoate esters , have an LD50 of 750 to 1500 ppm for whiteflies, and the label rate is 104 oz per 100 gallons (compared with 4 to 8 oz per 100 gallons for most products). This product is similar to some soap or oil products because it is classified by EPA as non-toxic to people, but requires an application rate of 0.8 to 1.0 percent every 7 to 10 days. Sucrashield bears a WARNING on the label because of eye sensitivity. There is no information on the label about phytotoxicity, so caution is recommended until you have tested it yourself, or until phytotoxicity test data is available.
This product will give herb growers another tool to add to the short list of products labeled for use on herbs.
Kontos is from OHP for controlling mites, whiteflies, aphids, and mealybugs. Kontos can be used in the greenhouse, nursery, and interiorscapes on ornamentals and vegetables.
The active ingredient in Kontos is spirotetramat, a tetramic acid derivative similar to Judo. This is a relatively safe product for humans and pets with a CAUTION on the label. Kontos has good activity on spider mites and whiteflies, including highly resistant whiteflies, like the “Q” biotype. Kontos is expected to be available in spring 2009. |
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Thomas Dudek
District Extension Horticulture and Marketing Educator
Greenhouse growers are already reporting insect activity in some ranges in the area. It’s cold outside (3 degrees above zero on January 15), but inside we have already seen warm weather insects like two-spotted spider mites on ivy geranium and Lamium cuttings. Inspect all incoming plant products for hitchhikers that you did not pay for but may be getting when your cuttings come in. Look on the underside of leaves with a 16-20x hand lens for mites, or tap cuttings as you open the box over a white sheet of paper and look for the tiny, yellowish-red specks moving on the paper.
Check incoming ivy geraniums and spikes also for thrips as low numbers have been seen both on leaves and on sticky cards. Are cards up in your houses that have product in them? Do not ignore the spikes as they are a magnet for thrips and even spider mites this time of the year.
If you have any tropicals or herbs that you are bringing in like Lantana, lavender and rosemary, pay attention for white flies as we have seen some come along with cuttings from southern growing areas. There is a good chance that they are Q-biotype silver leaf whiteflies which are resistant to some insecticides. Click here for management strategies for Q-biotype if it has been confirmed in your greenhouse.
See Dr. Dave Smitley's article on which insecticides work best for the problems mentioned above in this Greenhouse Alert. Be sure to isolate your pest problems now and control them before moving them to other houses as the season goes on.
If you’re not sure of the insect or plant problem, be sure to get it identified correctly before applying a pesticide. I still see growers putting on products that do not work for the pest they are dealing with. Especially in today’s economic times, indentify first then treat. If you’re not sure of the problem, contact your local MSU Greenhouse educator and we will be happy to come out and help you. |
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Vera Bitsch
Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics
Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan has developed a flyer on driving in Michigan with a foreign or out-of-state driver license. Several folks have asked for this kind of information to share with farm workers, some of whom may not be residents of Michigan.
As residents, they would need a Michigan license. View the pdf with detailed information. A Spanish version can be downloaded at Dr. Vera Bitsch’s web site: www.msu.edu/~bitsch/.
Thanks goes to Farmworker Legal Services (FLS) for making this material available. If anyone has specific issues based on their unique situations, they may need to contact their own attorney/advisor(s) with follow up questions. FLS is funded to advise and represent eligible, low-income migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their dependents. |
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Vera Bitsch
Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics
Dismissal is the involuntary termination of an employee’s employment. Because emotions often are high, dismissals need to be handled with great care—or avoided. How can managers avoid dismissals? Careful selection, training, and management decisions serve to reduce the number of dismissals. In any case, a dismissal should only be considered after other options have been tried and did not lead to the desired results. Except in cases of gross misconduct, the dismissal should not come unexpected to the employee. Managers need to make sure that sufficient opportunities for changes were provided and a fair disciplinary process was followed. In addition, regular evaluation of an employee’s performance and a paper trail regarding performance appraisals and disciplinary actions is a must should a terminated employee challenge the dismissal in court.
Michigan is an at-will employment state. What this means is that in the absence of a contract, the employee can resign at any time and for any reason and the employer can terminate for any reason or with no reason. Two exceptions apply in Michigan: the public-policy exception and the implied-contract exception. The public-policy exception prevents employees from being terminated for an action supported by the State’s constitution and statutes. For example, civil rights and equal employment opportunity legislation prohibit discharge based on an employee’s protected characteristics, including race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, and disability status. Other examples are the reporting of dangerous workplace conditions, union activities, and the refusal to break the law on the employer’s request.
The implied-contract exception is brought on by an employer’s oral or written assurances with respect to job security or disciplinary procedures. For example, an employee handbook describing procedures to be followed if disciplinary action becomes necessary or statements to the effect that no employee will be fired without just cause create an implied contract. Then the employer needs to follow the described procedures. Also, if a manager in charge of hiring or the employee’s supervisor tell him or her that the employment will continue for as long as the work performed is adequate, an implied contract is created.
If an employee’s dismissal does not comply with the law or does not comply with contractual agreements stated or implied in handbooks, application forms, or other company documents, it is considered a wrongful discharge. A wrongful discharge may be actionable in court. Even if a plaintiff does not prevail, management time and attorney costs are reasons to carefully review company policies before dismissal decisions, in particular when the dismissal is without cause. As a preventive measure employers need to review and regularly update their employment documents, if they want to ensure an at-will employment relationship with their employees. However, less job security may also result in less loyalty from the employees.
Other important decisions in dismissal are how to conduct a termination interview and whether to offer severance pay.
To read Dr. Bitsch’s complete newsletter go to her website at http://www.msu.edu/user/bitsch. Under “News” click on “Agricultural Labor Issues in Michigan” for a list of available newsletters. Please remember that these newsletters serve educational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. |
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Vera Bitsch
Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics
While many federal laws protecting equal employment opportunity exempt small businesses, Michigan laws do not. Michigan laws protect religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, marital status, and disability. As long as the specific disability is unrelated to the individual’s ability to perform the duties of a particular job or position with or without reasonable accommodation. Whether an applicant is a union member and an applicant’s veteran status also are questions that should have no place in employment decisions.
Most laws apply to all employment decision, including hiring, training, evaluation, promotion, compensation, discipline, and termination. But questions on how to treat everybody fair and equally often come up during the selection process. As a general rule, all questions during the selection process should be relevant to the job to be filled. On an application form such questions may include name, address, and phone number, the job the applicant is applying for, and a summary of the applicant’s background (e.g., education and training, work history, special qualifications and skills). Citizenship and ethnicity are not typically relevant to agricultural jobs and, therefore, need to be avoided on application forms. An employer concerned about hiring applicants who will later fail to provide the required documentation for the I-9 form, may include a question in the application form, such as “Are you legally eligible to work in the United States?” It is important to remember that many questions, which must be asked after a job candidate is hired, need to be avoided before the job has been offered.
Everybody who participates in the hiring process must be familiar with the relevant qualifications, skills, and experience of the job or jobs to be filled. Often times, small differences in how a question is asked differentiate a legitimate question from a discriminatory one. For example, “When did you attend college? When did you graduate?” could be construed as discriminatory on the basis of age; “How long did you attend college? Did you graduate?” are legitimates question, if education is a relevant job qualification. By writing up questions before an interview, discriminatory practices can be avoided. In addition, interviewers should take notes during the interview in a neutral language. All interviewers must be trained how to ask legitimate questions and what topics to avoid with job applicants. If an applicant brings up any of these topics, such as family and children, disability, or religion, it is best to not dwell on such information and to not ask any follow-up questions. The best practice is to follow the general rule to only ask job related questions and avoid all others, even if they legally can be asked in Michigan, such as sexual orientation. Also, interview questions should be similar for all job applicants.
This Alert serves educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For more information go to www.msu.edu/user/bitsch, under “News” click on “Civil Rights and the Hiring Process” or click on “Agricultural Labor Issues in Michigan” for a list of available newsletters. |
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Christmas trees
