Speakers for Hort Science Live South – 4 October, at Palmstead Nursery, KENT.
This week we will be focussing on the speakers for HSL 2018 South. Each day a new speaker and bio will appear.
6. Dr Colin Mumford – Bayer CropScience
Vine weevil control – the way forward in 2019
Colin Mumford will be putting vine weevil under the spotlight again, updating growers on recent regulatory changes, i.e. imidacloprid, and how it could affect them. He will take delegates through which products can be used post 2018 and in which situations Exemptor has label approval. Colin will further explain how thiacloprid is different to imidacloprid, and how growers can communicate this important point to the plant buying public.
Dr Colin Mumford is the technical support manager at Bayer CropScience.
5. Dr Sonia Newman & Chloe Whiteside - ADAS
Transition to responsibly sourced growing media use in UK Horticulture
To ease the transition from dependence on peat and increase the uptake of responsibly sourced growing media - primarily bark, wood fibre, coir and green compost – this ADAS workshop cover the findings to-date of Project CP 138 (funded by Defra, AHDB Horticulture and the industry). Focusing on the model developed to predict the performance of selected raw materials when blended together, the workshop will look at how a range of plants have performed in the various peat-free prototype blends.
Chloe Whiteside
Dr Sonia Newman
Horticultural Consultants for RSK ADAS Ltd, based in Cambridgeshire.
4. Martin Brijs – Palmstead
Peat vs peat free trials – economics & performance
Martin Brijs, of host nursery Palmstead, will report back on in-house growing media trials exploring the economics of using peat-free compared to peat-based growing media. In particular, he has looked closely at several criteria to identify any differences in rooting speed, plant quality and size, as well as the levels of weeds, pest and disease in the different growing media mixes.
With more than 25 years’ experience in the horticultural sector, Martin joined Palmstead in January 2018 as production manager.
3. Antony Yousefian of 30MHz & Ant Surrage of Fargro
New smart platform empowers accurate and informed decisions
Antony Yousefian and Ant Surrage will showcase a new smart sensing platform that empowers growers to make highly accurate and informed decisions. The workshop will look at how this cutting-edge technology enables growers to very accurately assess crops needs by monitoring metrics including plant stress, dew point, humidity deficit, CO2, soil/substrate moisture, airflow, EC, light intensity as well as all the usual weather metrics. This new platform allows growers to keep track of all metrics and assets in one central, easy to use platform accessible on any device. The duo will explain how using crop-level data growers can drive yields, reduce losses, optimise irrigation, improve storage, reduce pests, prevent disease risk and reduce energy.
Antony Yousefian is a UK Director of 30MHz, a company helping businesses in agri-food chain, from cultivators to food retailers, with real-time sensing technology to significantly reduce losses and waste, improving sustainability, efficiency and profitably. A believer in a world where change is accelerating, Antony is passionate about businesses that are open minded and can generate sustainable REAL growth.
Ant Surrage is technical development specialist at Fargro working on new product trials and development.
2. Martin Donnelley and Dr Richard Collins - ICL
Biopesticides and biostimulants
With growing interest in biopesticide and biostimulants, ICL’s Martin Donnelley and Dr Richard Collins will explore the role and practical applications of these innovative biological products in professional horticulture. This practical workshop will take growers through the workings, trials and applications for Prestop and ICL’s new biostimulant Rhizocell - both of which can be mixed into growing media before potting.
With a strong background in IPM, growing media and nutrition, Martin Donnelley joined ICL Professional Horticulture division in 2017 as Sales Development Manager providing support to growers with crop protection products and IPM systems.
Dr Richard Collins is technical sales manager for ICL’s Specialty Agriculture division. Previously, as a senior lecturer and researcher in crop sciences at the University Centre Myerscough, he conducted collaborative projects trialling biostimulant products for plant health and establishment, foliar fertilisers and seed treatments.
1. Andrew Wilson - ICL
Timing of nutrient delivery – why’s it important & how to achieve it
Freshly potted young plants initially have low nutrient requirements that increase as they grow, produce more roots and leaves and eventually flowers.
Andrew Wilson will look at how using new Osmocote technology growers can optimise controlled release fertilizer programmes so nutrient supply is timed to match the needs of the plant - to bolster establishment and end quality. Thus helping to avoid any nutrient deficiencies, which can lead to poor growth and increased susceptibility to pests and diseases, or nutrient over supply - which is money wasted and can contribute to leaching.
With a horticultural degree from Wye College, Andrew Wilson managed a large nursery growing container and field-grown trees and shrubs for 10 years before moving into technical sales of fertilizers and growing media. As ICL technical manager for fertilizers, a role he has held for over ten yeasr, Andrew is involved in new fertilizer product development and provides technical support to the company’s team of technical area sales managers.
To register for Hort Science Live South please click here>>>