Tip of the Week Blogs

Pinching liners is a common practice, but also an additional production cost and a potential route of disease transmission.

Ball Seed Technical Services expert, Nick Flax, is back again with an audio tip sharing a concern that’s come up during one of his numerous calls with growers across North America.

Following up on last week’s pre-transplant mum tech tip with your next steps in the process.

This is the beginning a quick two-parter to help you and your garden mum team get the crop off to a strong start.

We’re thinking ahead about mum production in the heat of summer, which is always a challenge for growers.

Just about every week, our Ball Seed technical services expert, Nick Flax, shares a concern that’s come up during one of his numerous calls with growers across North America. In his weekly "Nick's Tips," he shares the advice he's offered to hopefully...

Let’s put a bow on spring ... Actually, we’re encouraging you to do a bit of reflection before tying said bow.

This week, we're starting the 2026 chrysanthemum discussion, which will continue through the summer.

This week we’re sharing some tips and trick for slowing down crops that just might come in handy the next couple of weeks as you prepare for the Mother’s Day rush.

This week we’re talking about a pest that seems to be on everyone’s radar this spring: Aphids.

There are many factors to keep on your radar during the transplant process.

We field this geranium challenge from growers to identify and correct just about every year: Iron and manganese toxicity.

Intumescence is a fairly common issue this time of year. Here’s some details on this disorder.

Here are some tips on moisture management during this frigid winter weather.

Our technical specialist, Dr. Josh Henry, weighs in this week to discuss a topic that’s becoming more and more common but definitely requires close attention and careful selection (of crops and active ingredients): PGR liner dips.

There’s a greenhouse problem that’s not unique to 2026, but it sure seems to be coming up in more and more customer conversations as we get into spring production.

Our Technical Services team recently filmed tech-training videos to further educate greenhouse teams on important strategies and best practices. In this blog, we'll take a closer look at Rooting Hormones.

There’s a critical piece of the propagation puzzle you should know about — dialing in your root-zone temperatures. As cuttings begin to arrive, hopefully these tips help your team prepare.

Here's a quick summary of just a few of the topics we tackled over the past 12 months:

Reducing the EC of your water can lead to a number of benefits. Last week, I covered how installing a reverse osmosis (RO) system can be a solution. But that’s not always an option.

The conversation surrounding water quality continues and takes a quick step back to follow up on our tech tip from two weeks ago.

In late November, we wrote about a bunch of water-quality concepts, irrigation water testing, macro and micronutrients, and so on.

What is benzyladenine? Benzyladenine (BA) is a synthetic cytokinin that disrupts apical dominance, stimulating lateral bud break and improving branching.

Alkalinity is arguably the most important water quality factor to monitor and manage when growing greenhouse crops, but it’s not the only factor that requires special attention and care.

When you send water samples off for testing and results come back, you need to know what to do with that information.

Nick Flax is following up last week’s Grower Tip on Rhizoctonia with another poinsettia tip — this time the challenge is fungus gnats.

There are some interesting poinsettia symptoms showing up lately. Here’s why they required a closer look from out pathologists to avoid misdiagnosis of the causal pathogen.

As you and your team prepare for a top-notch pest-scouting season in 2026, here are some tips from Ball Seed Technical Services expert Nick Flax.

Here’s a helpful tech sheet from the Ball Seed Technical Services team detailing strategies for minimizing the risk of Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) in your greenhouse.

This week, Nick Flax has been working with growers across North America on an issue that usually arises later in production but seems to be hitting early this year.

This week, Nick Flax is preempting some later-season poinsettia issues related to chlorosis … and provide some strategies to deal with the issue if it arises in production.

Allow us to re-share the following tips and tricks for controlling Lewis mites on your poinsettia crop. Our technical services experts posted these in the Tech On Demand newsletter almost one year ago to the day. In other words, this pest seems to be...

The season is changing and it's time for a check-in. Keep your poinsettia production moving in the right direction with this week's tip.

We’re just about to hit fall décor season, and cabbage and kale are seasonal favorites of garden shoppers. However, growers face a couple of pests that attack these crops that could them unsellable. Nick has some tips below, and Josh put together a s...

Nick Flax is digging deep into a disease that’s been reported on garden mum crops recently, which has led to a bunch of calls and messages hitting his phone through the Ball Technical Services “hotline.”

With so many container crops in production this time of year, Dr. Josh Henry wanted to discuss keeping roots heathy when the weather is unpredictable.

This week growers are seeing leaf spots in a few different crops. Here's what to look for, some tips for identification, and various methods of control.

We’re circling back on an issue our Technical Services team has covered many times in the past (even earlier this year) because the questions keep coming as temps stay high this summer — crown budding and how to avoid it when producing mums in the ho...

Have you had issues with the Colorado potato beetle? Many growers have had run-ins with this pest. This week, Nick Flax from Technical Services shines the proverbial spotlight on this summertime nuisance.

Here’s a concern that’s come up during one of Nick Flax’s numerous calls with growers across North America: How to beat the heat — or at least manage the problems it can cause — in your garden mum crop.

This week, Dr. Josh Henry shares some technical training he's developed to help growers better understand Rooting Hormone.

Each week, Ball Technical Services expert Nick Flax shares a concern that’s come up during one of his numerous calls with growers across North America. Today he’s revisiting a spring production topic that can come up again this time of year — as many...

Let’s finish up this two-part tip on downy mildew, a problem the Tech On Demand team helps growers deal with every year. Last week, we shared ID and life cycle info. This week, we’re focusing on management strategies.

This week Nick Flax is kicking off a two-part tip on downy mildew, a problem the Technical Services team helps growers deal with every year. This week, he’ll share ID and life cycle info. Next week will be all about management strategies and useful r...

In April our pathology and tech services team updated the Impatiens downy mildew "Grower Guidelines" document with new charts and recommendations.