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Report Invasive Insect Pests & Plants

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How To Report Invasive Insect Pests & Plants – Certain micro-organisms,slugs, snails, insects and plants spread to farm land, parks and forests can cause significant harm to Canada’s economy and the environment. Prevention is the most effective way for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to protect the plant resource base. However should a pest become introduced in Canada, the Agency’s goal is to reduce its impact.

Factsheets have been developed to promote public awareness and encourage reporting of suspect sightings of these species that have the potential to be invasive in Canada, some of which are regulated under the Plant Protection Act. For the full list of regulated pests, visit: https://inspection.canada.ca/en/plant-health/invasive-pests-and-plants/regulated-pests

To report a food, plant or animal concerns, contact the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) online at: https://active.inspection.gc.ca/netapp/contactus/contactuse.aspx

Submissions

Plant samples displaying different symptoms, collected from different locations or a widespread problem common to many hosts or varieties can be submitted to the BC Plant Health Laboratory. A diagnostic report will be provided on the submission as a whole, not on individual plants.

All test results are confidential and will remain the property of the client except where the Plant Health Laboratory is required to report the results (quarantine or regulatory significance) to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. More details about submissions at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/animals-and-crops/plant-health/plant-health-laboratory

PLANT HEALTH LABORATORY
1767 Angus Campbell Road, Abbotsford, B.C. V3G 2M3
Local: 604-556-3003, Toll Free: 1-800-661-9903; Fax: 604-556-3010 / E-mail: PAHB@gov.bc.ca
www.gov.bc.ca/planthealthlaboratory

Xylella fastidiosa – Bacterial Leaf Scorch

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Bacterial Leaf Scorch (Xylella fastidiosa) also known a BLS, is considered one of the most threatening plant pathogens affecting more than 600 plant species worldwide. The main distribution area of BLS is on the American continent, from Canada to Argentina, but the bacteria is also raging in many countries in Europe.

Impacts – In the Americas, the pathogen is widespread and has caused severe losses to Citrus, coffee and grapevine production. Significant damage to the urban tree landscape has occurred in some regions of the US, which have incurred economic costs and reduced the quality of the visual environment and street scene. In the New Jersey region, up to 35% of urban plantings were affected by the pathogen. These chronic infections have been very difficult to control. In Europe, the pathogen has been devastating to the olive production in the
Puglia region of southern Italy.

Disease Transmission – There are four known subspecies of Xylella and within each subspecies multiple strains exist. The disease is transmitted by xylem (wood) feeding insects, primarily spittlebugs, sharpshooters, and leafhoppers. The flight range of insects is around 100m, but they can travel longer distances aided by wind. However, the main pathway over long distances is the trade of contaminated plants.

Symptoms – The bacterial pathogen colonises xylem vessels; and when the vessels become blocked causing symptoms that resemble those of water deficiency, nutrient deprivation, including wilts, diebacks, stunts and leaf scorches. The most prominent symptom is the scorching of leaf margins. Starting at the edges and moving inward, leaves appear burned or scorched ranging from yellow to brown in colour.

Disease Progression – As the disease progresses, leaves may curl and drop earlier than healthy ones in late summer and early fall. BLS diseased plants often show branch die-back and overall reduction in vigour and health. BLS gradually worsens over several years, whereas Oak Wilt and Dutch Elm disease for instance kill susceptible trees in just a few months.

Note: It is important to understand that the symptoms of Bacterial Leaf Scorch can resemble other diseases or environmental stresses. Just to be sure, accurate diagnosis requires laboratory testing.

Host Plants – Worldwide, hundreds of host plants have been found to be infected with the various subspecies and strains of Xylella fastidiosa, although in many hosts, infections do not become systemic and so no symptoms are produced. Woody perennial plants (e.g. grapevine, olive, oleander, Citrus, coffee, Prunus spp. and hardwood trees) can be vulnerable to damage if disease carrying insects are present to spread the pathogen. Herbaceous plants growing in the environment may become disease reservoirs even though infections may be symptomless.

High Risk Plants
Almond – Ash – Blueberry
Cherry – Citrus – Coffee – Grapevine
Lavender – Maple – Oak – Oleander
Olive – Plum – Rosemary

Disease Mitigation – Evidence found in 2021 confirmed zinc, copper, and citric acid treatments as effective in mitigating the impacts of Xylella fastidiosa in Italy, particularly in the olive-producing region of Puglia.

A recent project development by European Union-funded Biovexo, three new compounds have been found effective to target the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium, which could help combat the epidemic, although they cannot cure infected plants. Once available, the products fine-tuned by the Biovexo consortium would represent a crucial step towards curtailing the Xylella fastidiosa epidemic.

New Plant & Animal Health Centre BC

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New Plant & Animal Health Centre BC – The British Columbia Government is replacing the current Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s Plant & Animal Health Centre that suffered extensive damages during the 2021 floods in Abbotsford. The new plant will meet meet the increasing demands for testing to keep people safe from diseases such as avian influenza, West Nile virus and chronic wasting disease before they spread, protecting British Columbia’s food, farmers, animals and communities. Staff at the lab conduct, on average, 100,000 tests annually.

Josie Osborne, Minister of Health said “A new state-of-the-art plant and animal health centre will help strengthen public health by detecting diseases before they reach people. It will also ensure safer food on our tables by monitoring food sources, tracking emerging threats and guiding swift responses. This early warning system supports a healthier, more resilient food supply for everyone.”

The new centre will be next to the University of Fraser Valley’s Abbotsford campus, just off Highway 1 at at 34252 King Road. It will replace the current 30-year-old facility and be built to modern specifications to provide updated testing for farmers and better protect public health. The centre is one of Western Canada’s leading full-service veterinary laboratories and plays a key role in the Province’s veterinary, diagnostic and food safety programs that support healthy farms and public health. The Province has approved up to $496 million to buy the land, build the new facility and buy equipment. Construction is expected to begin in 2027 with enhanced services available to B.C. producers by 2032.

Quick Facts:

The centre employs over 60 scientists who provide diagnostic services to British Columbians. As an accredited testing facility, the centre offers fee-for-service diagnostic testing to veterinarians, livestock producers, the public and other government agencies, in bacteriology, histopathology, molecular diagnostics, pathology (necropsy), serology, genomics, virology, etc. While the Canadian Food Inspection Agency leads the response to avian influenza in Canada, the centre is a key diagnostic laboratory providing testing for the disease.

The PAHC also tests for chronic wasting disease, a fatal infectious disease that affects cervids, such as deer, elk, moose, and caribou, of which there have been recent cases in the Kootenays. The centre publishes a newsletter multiple times per year that offers scientific information on cases of animal or plant disease, including recent news around deceased wildlife, as well as notices for Ministry of Agriculture and Food programs or information sessions.

The Plant Health Laboratory
The Plant Health Laboratory provides diagnoses for plant health problems affecting crops and plants grown in B.C., including: Plant diseases – Assessments for non-pathogenic (abiotic) disorders – Insect pests.

The Plant Health Laboratory uses a wide range of methods and procedures to make diagnoses, including microscopic examination, culturing, conventional and real-time PCR, sequencing, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), insect identifications, Biolog testing, Immuno Strip testing, and electron microscopy. Soil testing is limited to clubroot detection and pH and EC readings. The Plant Health Laboratory does not offer chemical analysis of soil or plant tissue samples for nutrient content or chemical residues.

Submissions

Plant samples displaying different symptoms, collected from different locations or a widespread problem common to many hosts or varieties can be submitted to the lab. A diagnostic report will be provided on the submission as a whole, not on individual plants.

How To Report Invasive Insect Pests & Plants

Organic Mulch – A Beneficial Weed Suppressant

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Organic mulch for garden beds consists of organic matter that is placed on top of soil. It serves several beneficial purposes such as weed suppressant, moisture retainer and compost. For the reasons of these benefits, organic mulch as weed suppressant is far more effective than landscape fabric and rocks in a hard-scape or zero-scape design. The latter is a commonly confused with xeriscape designs which enable heat hardy plants to survive in arid environments.

Mulch is excellent for soil improvement. It suppresses weeds and enhances soil structure and fertility. Mulch mimics the natural environment found in forests where leaves and branches blanket the soil surface, replenishing nutrients as they decompose and creating an ideal environment for root growth. Mulch helps with the conservation of moisture by increasing water infiltration and slowing of evaporation. Mulch also acts as a barrier that blocks sunlight for weeds to germinate and grow.

Types of Mulches – There are two types of mulches, organic and inorganic. Organic mulches include wood chips, hardwood and softwood bark, pine needles, straw, grass clippings, seed hulls, etc. Inorganic mulches include gravel and rock. The various organic mulches decompose at different rates and require periodic reapplication. Inorganic mulches, such as gravel, stone chips, river rock, and rubber, do not provide the same benefits as organic mulches as they do not decompose.

The Negative Impacts of Black Plastic and Landscape Fabric – A common practice is to apply mulch over black plastic (polyethylene) and woven plastic weed barrier fabrics (polypropylene). Black plastic is impermeable therefore no oxygen exchange can occur to the soil. Lack of oxygen to the roots and soil microbes significantly reduces plant growth. Black plastic also prevents water penetration. Woven weed barrier fabrics initially allow some minor oxygen and water exchange to the soil, but eventually become clogged and create the same issues as plastic. Weeds easily germinate on top of the fabric and root into or through it. Both plastic and woven plastic fabrics disrupt the life cycles of many pollinators and other soil invertebrates. Fabrics and plastic can be good choices for large-scale vegetable production where regular maintenance and replacement is easily performed.

The selection of a mulch depends on its intended use. If the main objective is soil improvement, organic mulch that gradually breaks down is a good choice. If the area is used primarily for annual flowers, it often is more practical to use a temporary organic mulch such as composted leaves or grass clippings that can be turned under each fall. Wood chips and inorganic mulches like pea gravel are a good choice for landscape plants such as trees, shrubs, or perennials.

Pea Gravel Instead of Crush or Rocks – Rocky materials used for mulch should be smaller than a half-inch in diameter for the benefits of water conservation and weed suppression. Pea gravel has been shown to improve water infiltration into the soil, especially after heavy down pours. Larger stone sizes do not function well as mulches.

Most mulches, including wood chips and pea gravel can be applied to a depth of 2 to 4 inches. Mulch that is too deep can weaken plants and prevent water and air from reaching the soil. Bark or wood chip mulches mixed into the soil may starve plants of nitrogen. If this occurs, a nitrogen fertiliser can compensate as needed.

For tree health, all mulch materials must be kept away from the trunk and the root flare which is where the trunk meets the soil. The root flare is at or near the ground line and is identifiable as a marked swelling of the tree’s trunk where roots begin to extend outward.

Unless the soil is poorly drained, no more than a 2 to 4 inch layer of organic mulch should be used to prevent harm to the root system. When using finely textured or double-shredded mulch that allow less oxygen through the root zone, no more than 1 to 2 inches of mulch depth is required.

Hi, I am Matt – the owner of Chasing Sprouts website. The blog, resources and plant database segments feature a wealth of information to master all sorts of gardening projects. Feel free to share my articles with your world. Bookmark Chasing Sprouts to stay in the loop!

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Weigela – A Dense Flowering Shrub

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Weigela are beautiful deer-resistant, flowering shrubs that are excellent for creating privacy, screening unsightly features, growing below windows and more. For best flowers they need full sun exposure. These dense, rounded, deciduous shrubs with coarse branches tend to arch toward the ground with maturity. After the leaves emerge in spring, showy, rosy-coloured tubular flowers cover the shrubs that attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies to the garden. This repeats in mid to late summer. On some varieties new buds grow on old wood and therefore “pruning after blooming” is advised.

Midnight Wine Shine (Proven Winners) – A super hardy petite shrub with very dark, glossy foliage that keeps the landscape interesting well past fall bloom. Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 12 to 18 inches tall and wide at maturity. Hardiness Zone: 5-7

Midnight Sun (Proven Winners) – A neat and tidy bun-shaped weigela with glossy, blazing orange and red summer-autumn foliage. It does bear pink flowers in spring, however, this plant’s form and colourful summer through autumn foliage are what makes it special. Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 12 to 18 inches tall and wide at maturity. Hardiness Zone: 4-8.

Snippet Dark Pink (Proven Winners) – A spring favourite that reblooms abundantly and naturally grows as a dwarf, rounded mound. It has thick, deep green foliage that perfectly sets off the vivid pink blooms. They appear in late spring along with other weigelas, but then they continue to bloom all through summer with waves of fresh flowers. Exposure: Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 12 to 24 inches tall and wide at maturity. Hardiness Zone: 4-8.

My Monet Purple Effect (Proven Winners) – This weigela with its variegated cream and mint green foliage takes on purple (as opposed to pink) tones, and it is much better able to withstand the rigours of both cold and warmer climates. Though it is slightly larger, it can be used in much the same way: as a delightful companion to perennials, as a colourful edging, in a container, or where a spot of clear, clean colour is needed. Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 18 to 30 inches tall and wide at maturity. Hardiness Zone: 4-6.

Bubbly Wine (Proven Winners) – A colourful, detail-packed petite shrub that is ideal for low hedges, border or for edging. Its bright yellow and green leaf variegation and pale orchid blooms in late spring make for the perfect statement. Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 18 – 36 inches tall and wide at maturity. Hardiness Zone 4-6.

Sonic Bloom Punch (Proven Winners) – This little plant blooms with a rich punch-pink colour that covers the foliage in spring. It takes a brief rest in early summer and reblooms through late summer and into fall. When blooms aren’t obscuring the foliage, a pretty bronze tint is visible. Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 30 to 48 inches at maturity. Hardiness Zone: 4-8.

Spilled Wine (Proven Winners) – A beautiful and versatile weigela that shares its fabulous deep purple foliage and bright pink flowers in a small size. This plant makes the perfect choice for edging beds or walkways and for incorporating under windows in your landscaping. Blooms early to late spring. Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Hardiness Zone: 4-8.

Czechmark Trilogy (Proven Winners) – A new series that showcases just how much flower power this old-fashioned favourite is capable of. Selected especially for their pure, true colours and bountiful bloom set, this easy-care weigela will rake in the compliments. This is an absolute dazzler that blooms in late spring with three colours at once – white, pink, and red flowers all on one plant! Exposure: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours). Growing Size: 3 to 3 1/2 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Hardiness Zone: 4-8.

Small Trees – Spring Beauty & Fall Glory

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Small trees contribute positively to any yard as their shade retains moisture on the ground which provides natural cooling for surrounding plants during high summer heat. New lots often feature nothing but bare dirt and new home owners don’t even know where to start with developing their landscape. Does this require to hire one of the busy landscape companies which can easily drain a budget ? The answer is simple – the purchase of just one small tree can be a good start. And where huge landscape projects can feel overwhelming, a good strategy is to beautify small areas and then to sprawl from there.

Small trees should be hardy enough to sustain the local climate of summer heat and winter’s cold. Growing size at maturity may also play an important role when it comes to privacy from neighbouring properties. Luckily, all important criteria can be met with widely available tree specimen and varieties. Spring blooming tree flowers including the scarlet foliage of fall colours greatly enhance any landscape with their spectacular appearance.

Crimson Cloud Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata ‘Crimson Cloud’)
Adaptable to a wide range of soil types and best grown in full sun, the Crimson Cloud Hawthorn with its spectacular prolific single bright red flowers, star-shaped white in the center, makes for a striking specimen tree in any landscape. This thornless and fragrant variety grows up to 20 feet in height and up to 15 feet in width at maturity. Fully established, this tree can bloom up to three weeks in spring. Hardiness zone 4.

Amur Maple (Acer ginnala)
A hardy deciduous tree or shrub with distinctive 3-lobed leaves and red fall colour, the Amur Maple tree is is a small deciduous tree or shrub native to northeastern Asia. It is valued for its cold hardiness, attractive fall colours, and adaptability to various soil types. It grows typically 20 feet tall and wide at maturity. Hardiness zone 3 to 8.

Sweetheart Mayday (Prunus padus ‘Sweetheart’)
Also known as Birdcherry, the Sweetheart Mayday is a deciduous tree with a shapely oval form. Early leaves are followed by pendant clusters of tiny but fragrant white or pale pink blooms. Introduced throughout North America from Saskatchewan, this hardy tree grows up to 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide with an open crown structure. Narrow dark-green leaves feature deep purple undersides which make this plant a spectacular sight throughout the growing season. Hardiness zone 4.

Showy Mountain Ash (Sorbus decora)
A hardy accent tree for small landscapes, featuring showy clusters of white flowers in spring and attractive compound leaves that turn red and orange in fall. Orange fruits are held in abundance in spectacular clusters from early fall until dark-red in following spring when they are harvested by swarms of cedar wax wing birds. This hardy, native tree grown 15 to 20 heet in height and about 15 feet wide. Hardiness zone 3.

Hot Wings Tatarian Maple (Acer tataricum ‘Gar Ann’)
A spectacular addition for smaller home landscapes, this tree features blazing red hot seeds in late summer and the fall colour is an excellent mix of yellows and reds.. It is drought-tolerant once established and can grow in sandy, clay and dry soil conditions. It blends well into various landscapes and can be used as an accent, screen, or for mass planting. At maturity, this tree is about 15 feet tall and wide. Hardiness zone 3 to 6.

Cornelian Cherry Dogwood (Cornus mas)
Native to Asia, this tree features tight clusters of small star-shaped yellow flowers bloom that in early spring, covering the tree before leaves emerge. It thrives in well-drained urban conditions as a specimen plant, in masses, near a patio, or as a hedge. Tolerates full sun or part shade and can grow in alkaline soil. Grows up to 25 feet in height and width at maturity. Hardiness zone 4.

Newport Flowering Plum (Prunus cerasifera)
The most cold hardy of Purple leaf Plum varieties, ‘Newport’ is a small tree 15 to 20 feet tall and wide featuring deep purple leaves that retain their colour throughout the season. In spring, rose-pink buds open to soft-pink flowers that contrast beautifully with the deep reddish-purple stems and the new reddish-purple leaves that begin to emerge with the bloom. Ideal for use as a specimen, in groupings or straight and staggered rows to line a drive, walkway, property line or landscape border. Also nice to frame the corners of tall homes and to provide beauty and some shade around patios, porches and other outdoor living spaces. Hardiness zone 3 to 5.

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Dormant Spray For Fruit Trees & Shrubs

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Dormant spray, also known as horticultural oil, serves as a protective measure for fruit trees and fruit bearing shrubs, roses and deciduous ornamentals. It contains refined petroleum products or vegetable oils and acts by suffocating pests such as aphids, spider mites, and scale insects. Dormant oil, should be applied before buds open during late winter to early spring, when temperatures hover just above freezing. It coats the tree’s branches and trunks, preventing these pests from overwintering. Applying spray products which contain oil plus fungicides such as copper sulphate or lime sulphur ensures that trees enter the growing season healthy and robust by combatting also fungal diseases. The spray forms a barrier that inhibits the development of spores that can infect trees.

Application Techniques: Applying dormant spray correctly ensures that fruit plants get the maximum benefit. Choose a calm sunny day to apply the product. Coat the plant thoroughly to ensure all cracks in bark and branches are covered. Spray Equipment: Use a pump sprayer or backpack sprayer for even coverage. Ensure your equipment is clean to avoid contamination. Protective Gear: Wear gloves, goggles, and a mask to protect yourself from chemicals. Copper sulphate and lime sulphur are hazardous to human health. Weather Check: Confirm a dry, calm day with temps above 0 degree Celsius or 40°F. Ideal conditions prevent spray drift and ensure even absorption. Dilution: Follow product instructions for proper dilution. Too strong a mix may harm plants; too weak may not provide adequate protection.

How to Make Dormant Oil: A homemade dormant oil spray can be a game-changer if an “all organic” approach is desired. The mixing ingredients are oils, liquid soap and water. Types of Oils: Mineral Oil suffocates pests effectively and creates a protective barrier. Vegetable Oil is an eco-friendly alternative that can also help target pests. Canola Oil is effective and readily available and non-toxic and safe for the environment. Essential Oils (optional) A few drops of essential oils, like neem or clove oil, for additional pest-repelling properties. These can enhance the efficacy of the dormant oil spray.

Measuring Ingredients: Oil: Use a 1:1 ratio of oil to water. Liquid Soap: Add 1 tablespoon of liquid soap to act as an emulsifier. Blend Thoroughly: Use a whisk or a hand blender to mix the ingredients until they form a consistent solution. Check consistency to ensure there are no separate layers; the mixture should look uniform. Fill the mixed dormant oil spray into a clean, dark glass or plastic container. The container should be labelled with the contents and the date of preparation. Store container in dark and cool place to maintain its efficacy.

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The Limitations of Google – DuckDuckGo To The Rescue

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The Limitations of Google – DuckDuckGo To The Rescue – What once was a delightful task to use Google for all of your research projects has nowadays become a bit of a headache. Anyone who does online searches using Google has noticed that the experience is something different of what it used to be. Instead of relevant information, loads of excessive ads disrupt the search experience. Organic search results are often buried beneath layers of paid ads, making it harder to find non-commercial, authentic insights. Google’s business model heavily relies on advertising income, which has led to increased amount of “pollution” in search results, sometimes at the expense of organic content. As more and more search results are contaminated by ads, spam and with articles optimised for search engines, many users take on a long-standing belief that the search engine is getting worse.

Granting forums priority over well-researched articles, the changing algorithms of Google often lead to irrelevant results and outdated pages. Even insightful forums cannot match the depth and accuracy of professional content. Websites overstuffed with keywords to achieve higher search engine ranking, sacrifice readability making it harder for users to find genuinely helpful content. Even misinformation driven by economic incentives makes Google struggle to filter out fake news and misleading content. Google’s answer to the problem of depleted search result quality is to continuously work on algorithm improvements, spam detection, and user feedback, though the effectiveness and pace of these changes is debatable.

Luckily, there are excellent alternatives that provide much better results that are also ad-free. DuckDuckGo, Bing, Brave Search, and specialised AI search engines like Perplexity or Kagi offer better results, especially in terms of privacy. DuckDuckGo for instance prides itself of being the most privacy based search engine on the web.

Unlike DuckDuckGo, for decades, Google has been tracking user’s searches, embedding trackers in the Chrome browser, and hiding even more trackers on the most-popular websites. Google’s best alternative lets users browse the way they want and puts them back in control of their private data.

DuckDuckGo is an independent Internet privacy company that aims to make getting privacy simple and accessible for everyone. their free web browser for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows lets anyone search and browse the web. Unlike Google Search and Chrome, they don’t track searches or browsing history, but block other companies from trying to track users, all by default.

Get DuckDuckGo !

DuckDuckGo Web Tracking Protection – DuckDuckGo never tracks you. And when you leave our search engine and use our apps or extensions to browse other sites, we aim to protect your privacy as much as possible. To be effective, browser tracking protection needs to continually evolve to mitigate how trackers attempt to evade specific protections. That’s why we offer multiple types of web tracking protections. Other browsers offer some of these by default, like cookie and fingerprinting protections, but we also provide many other protections that most browsers do not offer by default, like 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection, Global Privacy Control, Link Tracking Protection, CNAME Cloaking Protection, Google AMP Protection, and more, which all help cover different tracking angles.

For example, most browsers’ default tracking protection focuses on cookie and fingerprinting protections that only restrict trackers after they load in your browser. Unfortunately, that level of protection leaves information like your IP address and other identifiers sent with loading requests vulnerable to profiling. We offer our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection to help address this vulnerability, which stops most 3rd-party trackers from loading in the first place, providing significantly more protection. We created this page to explain how each of our web tracking protections works, how our protections work across supported platforms, and how they work together to provide overlapping protection. More

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The 3 Numbers on Fertilizers Explained

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The three numbers on fertilizer are the N-P-K ratio, which stands for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These three nutrients have separate functions and are essential to a plant’s growth and health. Fertilizers can be organic or synthetic, and come in a dry or liquid form.

Feeding your plants is an essential routine to care for them. Plant fertilizers increase a plant’s fertility and encourage growth. Fertlizers are either plant- or animal-based (organic) or man-made chemicals (inorganic), and some are water-soluble while others are dry granular. It can be confusing when it comes to choosing the right fertilizer for different plants. That’s why it is essential to find out what nutrients plants need and in which proportions.

What Does Each Number Mean? The three numbers on the label indicate the ratio of each nutrient, or N-P-K ratio. The first number is for nitrogen (N), which increases leaf production and makes plants greener. Plants that are almost all leaves need a lot of nitrogen. The second is for phosphorus (P), which promotes root development, fruiting and flowering, and the third is for potassium (K), also known as potash which helps the plant fight off diseases, promotes hardiness and is essential to the metabolic process. Different amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium will impact the growth of a plant in different ways.

Each number represents the weight percentage of each nutrient in the package; for example, if a plant fertilizer contains a 10-15-10 ratio, this means it has 10 percent nitrogen, 15 percent phosphorus, and 10 percent potassium. The remaining 65 percent is a combination of other micronutrients such as iron, zinc, boron, and copper.

A higher concentration of any of the three nutrients will impact a plant’s development. High amounts of nitrogen will cause greater leafy growth, high phosphorus will cause more fruiting or blooming, and high potassium will cause greater hardiness. Fertilizers with higher ratios are more concentrated than those with lower ratios. High numbers need diluting with more water before applying to plants.

Fertilizer Types – Choosing between wet and dry is more of a preference. Granular fertilizers are mostly used for outdoor plants. They are generally cheaper and have a longer shelf life. For indoor plants or small container plants outside, liquid fertilizers are recommended. Diluted with water, they can get down to where the roots are rapidly.

Organic vs. Inorganic – Organic fertilizers work in a slow and natural way, while synthetic fertilizers work rapidly. Synthetic fertilizers tend to be more concentrated and need to be diluted. Organic fertilizers are made from natural ingredients, are less concentrated and take longer to break down once applied. This helps avoid over-fertilizing and provides steady nutrients over a longer period of time.

For gardens with edible crops, granular or dry fertilizer should be mixed in with the soil before planting in the spring. For gardens with perennial flowers, fertilize before the spring growing season. Over-fertilizing plants is usually worse than choosing the wrong numbers since over-fertilization can cause the plants to burn and leave them weak. If the plant’s requirements are different than what is indicated on the fertilizer numbers, they will show signs.

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Eastern Redbud – Drought Tolerant ?

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The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is a early spring blooming Oklahoma native. It’s a multi-trunked shrub or tree with vibrant magenta flowers appearing before heart-shaped leaves. The plant has a graceful, spreading habit, and its horizontally arranged branches form a round canopy.

The bark of the Eastern Redbud sometimes starts with a smooth, grayish colour that turns reddish-brown and develops deep fissures and a scaly texture, as the tree or shrub matures.

A delicate and sweet fragrance throughout spring adds a mild, subtle aroma as pleasant element to the visual beauty.

Eastern Redbud trees are versatile and can thrive with minimal care under normal conditions. They are cold hardy to a temperature of minus 28 degrees Celsius. However, the hot and dry climate of the Okanagan and Shuswap regions are a challenge for Redbud plants to survive. They require sun to part shade exposure and frequent, deep, regular watering and moist, well-drained soil. Claims that Eastern Redbud plants are drought tolerant are incorrect. The climate conditions in Oklahoma where these plants originate are completely different from that of the BC Interior.

Oklahoma has a southern humid belt merging with a colder northern continental one and humid eastern and dry western zones that cut through the state. The result is normally pleasant weather and an average annual temperature of about 16 degrees Celsius, increasing from northwest to southeast. No region is free from wind. As the collision point for warm and cold air masses, with sudden rises and falls in temperature, the state has heavy downpours in summer, thunderstorms, blizzards, and tornadoes. Final thoughts: The Redbud plant requires humidity and lots of moisture to thrive. Rock beds and drip line are not favourable.

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