Thursday, May 7, 2009

IPM Priority Setting Meeting

The East Texas Nursery and Greenhouse IPM Program is now in its 8th year. Hopefully during this time you have benefited from one of the many activities carried out by my program. These may have included attending the East Texas Nursery and Greenhouse Conference, onsite consultations, science based pest management suggestions, or information disseminated through websites, bogs, trade journal articles, and newsletters.

In an effort to ensure that the East Texas Nursery and Greenhouse IPM Program is positioned to meet your pest management needs in the future, I will be hosting a meeting to set IPM priorities on June 11th from 1:00-4:00 at the Smith County Extension Office. The meeting will be open to all nursery and greenhouse growers from East Texas and surrounding areas. This is your opportunity to have direct impact in the areas that I will address over the next few years.

During this three-hour time period, you will identify areas that need to be addressed in weed, plant disease, and insect management. The needs assessment will be conducted for tree & shrubs, perennials, and bedding & pot plants. It is critical that we have participation from as many growers as possible to help ensure that the industries needs are met.

I am also interested in determining the best method to provide educational information to the industry. It is critical that you receive the information being produced by my program in a timely fashion.

Please RSVP to Kim Cushman at 903-834-6191 or kccushman@ag.tamu.edu by June 10th so we can assure adequate resource for all the meeting attendants.

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