Tag: products

Yet another fine product

As a member of the GWA (Garden Writers Association), I routinely get emails about new garden products. Here’s one I received this week:

“I thought your readers or listeners might be interested in learning of a new way to protect their plants without using pesticides.  Moisturin, which contains no toxic ingredients, is sprayed on plants to form a clear flexible barrier strong enough to lock out both insects and airborne plant disease.  Moisturin is inexpensive, easy to use and extremely effective. … Continue reading this article “Yet another fine product”

Building a Better Container, Part Deux: The Ellepot

I enjoyed Jeff’s post on the RootTrapper and thought I’d share another interesting and [relatively] new development in the world of greenhouse growing containers.

Take a tube full of growing media, wrap a paper sleeve around it, and voila – the Ellepot!


It’s bottomless, root permeable, and degradable. Each Ellepot sits in its own cell in a re-usable tray.  The great aeration and drainage makes for a happy, healthy root system.  Another plus is that after transplanting, there are no pots or packs to throw away

I’d say the bulk of Elle Pots are utilized at the propagation end of things – starting seeds and rooting vegetative cuttings – either for greenhouses  to “grow on” themselves or as plug/liner products sold to finishing growers (see student Paul Hutcheson holding a geranium liner above).… Continue reading this article “Building a Better Container, Part Deux: The Ellepot”

Building a Better Container

As most of you know, roots circling around a container isn’t considered a good thing.  And so people try various things to control circling roots.  One of the more creative horticultural minds out there, Carl Whitcomb, a guy why basically got sick of academia and went into private industry (and, as far as I can tell, loathes peer review and the whole process of publication), decided to see what he could do about making containers that don’t encourage circling roots. … Continue reading this article “Building a Better Container”

Do These Come In Control Top?

For those color-conscious gardeners who can’t bear to have visible tomato ties (or panty lines):

Only $2.99 for eight pieces?  Whatta deal!

Do you know how many tomato ties you can get from a pair of hose? Especially if you are a “long”? About fifty. Of course they’ll be nude or black, unless you bought into that purple trend last season.

Yeesh.

ps:   I do like Lusterleaf’s (company responsible for the above) can o’ twine with the handy cutter-top, though.… Continue reading this article “Do These Come In Control Top?”

Thieves purr

Today I found a cool website – it’s an anagram generator (http://wordsmith.org/anagram/).  The title of today’s post is the first of the 553 anagrams generated from the word SUPERthrive.

I’ve been getting free samples of SUPERthrive for a long, long time.   For those of you living on a remote desert island, SUPERthrive is a product invented and sold by “Dr. John A. A. Thomson (in 27 different title Who’s Who Directories),” according to one of the promotional flyers. … Continue reading this article “Thieves purr”

Products!

Just returned from a mega field trip across the state of Virginia with my Ornamental Plant Production & Marketing class. We toured major wholesale nurseries, greenhouses, and retail garden centers over the course of three days. The trip went well, I believe (university field trips are a considered a success if you return with the same number of students you left with).

One over-arching trend is, of course, that growers and retailers are going after the veg/fruit thing in a big way.… Continue reading this article “Products!”

Another fine product…

I’m spending this week in Palm Desert, CA for a little R&R in the sun.  In the morning, with my pot o’ Earl Grey, I read the local paper (The Desert Sun).  Last Sunday’s paper provided me with an article about an “intelligent water incubator” (all material in quotes was taken from the article).  Pieter Hoff, a “Dutch scientist, author, and major exporter of lilies and flower bulbs” has invented the Waterboxx, which “produces and captures water from the air through condensation and rain.” … Continue reading this article “Another fine product…”

You say tomato, I say phytochrome

Yesterday I got an interesting email about a new product – a Tomato Automator.  Briefly, this square, red plastic disk slips around the stem of a tomato plant to suppress weeds and pests.  Most intriguingly, we’re told that the color “triggers a natural plant protein that makes tomatoes mature faster and product more fruit.”

Given this is a red product, it’s likely that the protein referred to is phytochrome (literally, “plant pigment”).  Phytochrome activity is maddeningly complicated to explain, so we’re going to keep this simple and refer (somewhat inaccurately) to “active” and “inactive” forms of phytochrome. … Continue reading this article “You say tomato, I say phytochrome”

Packing Pearls

Yes, not my day to post, but I just received an email with a link to a new product called Packing Pearls.  These are polystyrene balls that fill the bottom of large containers so they aren’t so heavy.  They are promoted as “improving water drainage and oxygen flow.”  You can find a link here

The “pearls” are separated from the soil and plant roots with a pot liner (composition unknown).  We’re told that the roots can’t grow through the pot liner. … Continue reading this article “Packing Pearls”

Checking up on FreezePruf

As winter continues to hold its icy grip over the middle of the country, our thoughts don’t stray too far from plants and cold.  Recently one of the graduate students in our department, Nick Pershey, brought to my attention a new product called FreezePruf that claims to improve plant cold hardiness by up to 9 degrees F.  Since a couple of degrees of improved cold tolerance can be a big deal (just ask a Florida citrus grower after a 29 deg.… Continue reading this article “Checking up on FreezePruf”