April 15, 2009
IPM symposia see increased interest
For the 44th consecutive year, the IPM Symposia provided members of the green industry with up-to-date information on the latest research, products, ideas and strategies, including reports from OMAFRA and the MOE.
Issues in 2009 are quite a bit different than those found back in 1965. Today’s industry must cope with the province-wide pesticide ban that takes effect on Apr. 22 this year. Attendance at the IPM symposia in Ottawa, London, Barrie and Toronto were all up over 20 per cent from last year.
“The focus of the symposia this year was not what we can’t do, but what we can do when it comes to the dealing with the pesticide ban,” said LO’s conference coordinator Ken Tomihiro.
IPM has always been about good plant management through nutrition and plant health, and preventing problems from occurring. That continued this year with an impressive list of guest speakers at all four symposia.
There was a total of 760 registrants at the four symposia. Speakers included Violet Van Wassenaer, Ministry of the Environment, Evan Elford, University of Guelph, Pam Charbonneau, turfgrass specialist with OMAFRA, Jennifer Llewellyn, nursery crop specialist with OMAFRA, Ann-Marie Cooper of Plant Products, Jeff Gabric of Becker Underwood, Stacey Hickman of Natural Insect Control, Cathy Wall of Quality Seeds, Ken Pavely of Dol Turf, John Wright of Wright Lawncare Service, Joe Uyenaka of Cargill, Tim Cradduck of Turf Revolution, Jeff Watson of Sarritor and Doug Hubble of Agrium Advanced Technologies. The program’s sponsor was Turf Revolution.
Issues in 2009 are quite a bit different than those found back in 1965. Today’s industry must cope with the province-wide pesticide ban that takes effect on Apr. 22 this year. Attendance at the IPM symposia in Ottawa, London, Barrie and Toronto were all up over 20 per cent from last year.
“The focus of the symposia this year was not what we can’t do, but what we can do when it comes to the dealing with the pesticide ban,” said LO’s conference coordinator Ken Tomihiro.
IPM has always been about good plant management through nutrition and plant health, and preventing problems from occurring. That continued this year with an impressive list of guest speakers at all four symposia.
There was a total of 760 registrants at the four symposia. Speakers included Violet Van Wassenaer, Ministry of the Environment, Evan Elford, University of Guelph, Pam Charbonneau, turfgrass specialist with OMAFRA, Jennifer Llewellyn, nursery crop specialist with OMAFRA, Ann-Marie Cooper of Plant Products, Jeff Gabric of Becker Underwood, Stacey Hickman of Natural Insect Control, Cathy Wall of Quality Seeds, Ken Pavely of Dol Turf, John Wright of Wright Lawncare Service, Joe Uyenaka of Cargill, Tim Cradduck of Turf Revolution, Jeff Watson of Sarritor and Doug Hubble of Agrium Advanced Technologies. The program’s sponsor was Turf Revolution.