What a beautiful evening.  Summer is almost here and the days are getting longer and the outdoor concerts are beginning.  I have all the windows open and my house is filled with the music from the San Marcos musical festival just down the street at Walnut Grove Park.  If you drive around that park you would see 6 nurseries in plain view and at least 15 more on the surrounding streets.  I wish I had a booth there giving out plants that said "I clean the air and I have nothing to do with the so called "greenhouse effect" or "I am a carbon based life form with the ability to purify your air and beautify your surroundings".  I would love to have seen banners on the fronts of all the Greenhouses that said "We are part of a multibillion dollar industry that helps California grow!" Public awareness would definitely help our industry.  I could go on and on with expressions and phrases but the truth and hind sight are 20/20.  I will be ready for next year!  I'm sitting here on a Saturday evening writing my article because it's the first chance I've had after a short week.  I went up to Orange County with Jan on Wednesday to visit our members at the California Grown Show.  Very pretty and well organized and it was delightful to see so many familiar faces in one place.  The truth is I am glad that we postponed our HortSmart trades fair just for the simple fact that the week was wrong.  Although our philosophy was right by the fact that many of the people we saw there visited our area on Thursday, our members input that this was a 4 day work week with Monday being Memorial Day was right on target.  There was way too much to pack into a short week.  Funny thing about glorified farmers, we hate the nontraditional work week.  No matter how dedicated and diligent our board is about moving this association forward, the strength and knowledge ultimately comes from our members as a whole working together towards a common ground. Therefore....  our first open forum is this Thursday evening to venture into ideas and concepts of how best we can showcase our industry.  Please take the time to participate.  This is all about bringing attention to the #1 potted plant region of the nation!!  Think about that and brain storm with us.  We have some great thoughts and ideas but we can't move forward without your support.                                                                                                                  
Taking that concept one step further we have another meeting that encompasses ALL California growers.  We have Janet Kister, our past president and a member of the Nursery Growers Leadership Board graciously holding an open forum meeting regarding the Nursery Growers Producers Commission Bill AB2695 on June 24th at the San Diego Botanic Garden (formally Quail Botanical Garden)in the Ecke Building from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.  The meeting is being called in order to bring the San Diego County Flower & Plant Association growers together to inform and answer questions regarding this bill.  I want to know what the Nursery Growers Producers Commission Bill can do for all of us? 
 
I hope to see you all soon.  SDCF&PA advocate.

Cowboy chicken casserole has 26 ingredients including 2 lbs of chicken and almost a whole stick of unsalted butter. Any chicken cooked in that much ingredients will not taste a lot like chicken anymore, and maybe that's the point. Unfortunately, just because the recipe is big doesn't mean that it will taste any good, or, because of some of the other ingredients, you may not want to eat it more than once. Likewise, a soup of insecticides, miticides, and fertilizers may not be the best choice, yet their use is debated often.
First, the main reason to tank mix insecticides is to impact two different stages of an insect pest at the same time to try to eliminate the entire population, or you may have two different insect pests that you are trying to kill. I think the choice to tank mix really depends on the pest insect or insects.  The more common pests (mites, thrips, whitefly, leafminer, to name a few) have a tendency towards resistance if they are sprayed too often with the same chemical class, and a portion of that population survives and reproduces.  Unfortunately, there are also cases of insecticide resistance to the insect growth regulators (IGRs), which means that tank mixing an IGR with another class of insecticide places two chemical classes on the same population, and if even a small portion of that population survives and reproduces, they will build resistance to both chemical classes.  This type of resistance is called multiple resistance, and it's real tough to combat.  Therefore, if you are constantly applying the same insecticide, the chances of insecticide resistance are high. That's why I do not like the idea of tank-mixing insecticides to try to control both the immature and adult stages with an IGR and another chemical class. I've seen enough examples of high levels of resistance to insecticides due to increased frequency and off label use of insecticides (More is not better!), which suggests that using less or changing chemicals can definitely be an advantage.  In my opinion, if you attack just one stage diligently, you will take the population to extinction then you will have solved the problem without over using pesticides.  The key is to monitor for the pests closely so that you know what stage you need to treat. For more information on insecticide resistance and the terms that are associated with it, please see the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee web site: http://www.irac-online.org/ .
It is clear that tank mixing can save a lot of time and labor, but there are a few things to be wary of. For instance, mixing the two chemicals could cause one or both of them to become ineffective, or the mixture could cause precipitates to form in the tank, which then clog the hoses and plug the nozzles. Tank mixing may change the pH of the tank solution significantly especially when adding fertilizers. The resulting pH may have a significant impact on efficacy of some products. In addition, most of these products are formulated with a variety of surfactants and carriers that alone may cause a phytotoxic effect if used at a high rate. Therefore, by combining several products together, you may be increasing the level of surfactant to a phytotoxic level. Be especially mindful of products that are oils or contain an oil as a surfactant, EC formulations for example.  For the most part, however, it is fine to mix insecticides and fungicides because they will not typically interact and cause problems. 
The Ag chemical companies have worked extensively with their products and have a pretty good idea what you can and cannot do with their product. Most of them have included a small section on the label about tank mixing, how to mix them and in what order. However, because there are an enormous number of products out there and countless combinations, out of an abundance of caution, you should perform a jar test. The following web site explains how to perform a jar test with different formulations of insecticides or fungicides, and fertilizers: http://www.pesticides.montana.edu/PcideProfiles/Compat_test.htm.

James A. Bethke, UC Cooperative Extension San Diego
Ph: 760-752-4715 email:jabethke@ucdavis.edu