Growing Impatiens More Safely—A Plant Pathologist’s View
One important lesson that we’ve learned together as an industry is how to manage bacterial blight disease of geraniums. We’ve figured out that exquisitely careful sanitation procedures are critical at the upper levels of production, with constant checking for any breaches in safety measures. We’ve learned that growers should keep geraniums from different suppliers separate, and should grow hybrid seed geraniums separately from the cutting-grown geraniums. We know it is the vegetatively-grown geraniums that bring the risk of introducing the dreaded Xanthomonas hortorum pv. pelargonii (or Ralstonia solanacearum) into the greenhouse. By separating the crops with the highest risk of disease from those with much less risk, the potential economic loss is minimized. Now we’re applying these same principles in…