Pleasant Cove Nursery started in 1957 when John R. Collier, Frank’s father, started growing plants in the basement of his Tennessee home. The nursery moved out of the house and into the backyard, and eventually grew into the 500-acre, 20-farm facility it is today. Once staffed solely with Collier family members, Pleasant Cove now employs more than 60 workers during peak seasons.

John and his wife Elma ran the nursery in the early days with their four sons, John Jr., Robert, Frank and David. Frank remembers it was tough in those early days, working as a kid in the fields.

Frank joined up for good after he finished college in the mid-70s. The nursery has changed a lot since then, but so has the industry. And the Colliers have always been able to adapt, whether it meant applying new research and technology or engineering a new solution.

“We’ve still got the first 'vineyard' tractor probably in the state of Tennessee,” Frank laughs, “A Bungartz. It was a vineyard narrow tractor, with a Volkswagen engine. You see all kinds of them now, but a bit innovative for nursery use when we got it. I had a guy auditing us once and he wanted to know why this or that and I said, ‘Look, they don’t make things for nurserymen.’”

That’s changed a bit, with Bouldin & Lawson just down the road making equipment to help the nursery industry automate. The Collier family still runs Pleasant Cove. Although John Jr. died in 2019, Robert, Frank and David carry on the Collier legacy of excellent nursery stock. The family always made it a point to have ties with regional, state and national trade associations like The Middle Tennessee Nursery Association, Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association, Southern Nursery Association and AmericanHort. Frank has served in various capacities and has become known as a champion of research, including a stint as president of the Horticultural Research Institute. In 2011, Frank was inducted into the TNLA Hall of Fame.

“Frank has worked tirelessly on funding for HRI with much success,” says Michael Lorance, owner of Cherry Springs Nursery, another Tennessee-based wholesale nursery. “Additionally, he was instrumental in securing funding for the Nursery Research Station in McMinnville, Tennessee and the staffing required to make it the reality it is today.”

From a national perspective, the nursery industry is perpetually overlooked. It’s typically tucked under the agriculture umbrella as “specialty crops,” where it has to fight for every scrap of funding that makes it down through the Farm Bill.

“One of our old researchers, retired now, says ‘If you’re not sows, plows and cows, you don’t count in the state of Tennessee’ — and most likely any other state,” Frank says.

Frank is well-equipped for that fight for funding. He’s been doing it a while. Craig Regelbrugge, senior vice president for government relations at AmericanHort, has known Frank for 30 years and sees him as a kindred spirit — someone able to speak the language of politics, understand the systems in place, and willing to use them to carve out a piece for the nursery industry.

“Frank is one of the most politically astute individuals in the industry,” Craig says. “In an old-school way, but I mean that positively. He’s all about relationships and quiet but effective influence.”

Craig sees the research center as a large part of Frank’s legacy as a nurseryman who understands the value of research and development and wants the industry to keep striving to improve itself.

“He was instrumental in the successful effort to establish the Nursery Crops Research Station at McMinnville, and for that matter, the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative, a legacy that has grown in impact and continues on.”

A resource for Tennessee

McMinnville is known as the heart of Tennessee’s nursery country. That makes it an ideal spot for a nursery research station. Built on the 87-acre site of a former commercial nursery, The Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center is a facility dedicated to the improvement of the Tennessee nursery crop industry. It is located approximately 80 miles southeast of Nashville on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau.

Through partnerships with the Tennessee nursery industry, Tennessee State University, the USDA, and state and local governments, the necessary political, social and economic support was assembled to construct the research station. In addition to considerable support from the Tennessee nursery industry, the Center has received donations from nursery growers across the U.S.

“We hooked up politically with Dr. Otis Floyd who was chancellor and president at TSU and made it happen,” Frank says. “It’s a good deal for the industry. Plus, it connects all over the country. Oregon, California, Ohio, to Beltsville, Maryland. I’m very proud of that. Hopefully we get these young people to keep it going, keep it funded.”

Construction of the laboratory/administration building began in 1994. The 20,000 square foot building has 10 laboratories, offices for 12 scientists, a 200-seat auditorium, and 12,000 square feet of greenhouse space. Other facilities include a state-of-the-art pesticide mixing and storage facility, a fire ant quarantine facility, soil mixing/composting facility, shade houses, propagation houses, irrigated container yards, a pot-in-pot yard, and an equipment/maintenance shed. The entire site is plumbed for irrigation using either well water or municipal water.

Frank says a nursery advisory group meets with the station’s director to provide input on potential research projects for its scientists.

“Our station is unique in a lot of ways,” Frank says. “It’s got a great staff and a great director. We’ve got Tennessee Department of Ag plant industry inspectors there on the site. We’ve got extension there on the site, which is really good for the scientists to be able to talk to the inspectors and vice versa. It’s a one-stop shop.”

As the Nursery Research Center expands, specialists in other disciplines will be added. The areas that are currently prioritized are agricultural mechanization, pesticide/environmental sciences, applied plant physiology, and additional pathology and entomology programs.

Facilities planned for the future include student housing, storage areas for scientist’s field supplies, increased shade house and greenhouse capacity, and over-wintering structures for containerized field research material.

The Nursery Research Center is only about 20 minutes from Pleasant Cove Nursery. And Frank has made sure his nursery has implemented some of the station’s R&D findings. From the use of cover crops between rows in the field to protection from soilborne diseases and insect pests, to crop improvements in boxwood and viburnum and a hydrangea breeding program, the scientists have completed very useful projects.

Another collaborative effort

Frank was also one of the key industry forces behind the creation and early growth of the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI).

In 1996, the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA), the Society of American Florists (SAF) and the Ohio Florists Association (OFA) launched the proposal when they asked U.S. Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Services (USDA-ARS) for research help. The resulting partnership has lasted more than 20 years. In March 2018, FNRI received $1 million in funding as part of the spending bill passed by Congress.

Peter K. Bretting, USDA-ARS National program leader for plant genetic resources, is one of nine national program leaders that constitute crop production and protection. He was the lead USDA-ARS researcher for the FNRI from its inception in 1998 until the mid-2000s.

“It was meant from the inception to be sharply focused on the needs of industry,” Peter says. “ARS would handle research, whether it was feasible, how to go about it in terms of scientific approach, and the industry provided input about relevance.”

As the FNRI was being established and thereafter, Peter and the other researchers received guidance from Frank and other industry leaders about the types of projects upon which they should focus their efforts. Those communications were important because they helped ARS know what the most important priorities were for the green industry. It was a collective effort and it grew into a well-functioning partnership.

Frank’s sterling reputation as a nurseryman and collaborator made him the perfect person to coordinate between all the stakeholders in the initiative and ensure everyone was rowing in the same direction.

“He rapidly established himself as a trusted and discreet partner,” Peter says. “Some of the early discussions were quite complicated and had to be dealt with carefully and adeptly. Frank had such a reputation among industry and universities, UT and Tennessee State and with us, that he played a key role in fostering communication so that all the many players in the initiative were aligned along the same effort.”

Some of Frank’s reputation was due to being part of a community of straight shooters: nurserymen who forged substantial deals with a handshake because generations of trust. But he also earned that reputation through his actions and his ability to communicate.

“It’s watching him in action,” Peter says. “If he said he would do something, he would do it in a very capable way. If there wasn’t a clear path to a particular goal, he’d let you know that right away. And collectively we would work on a different approach.”

If the research team ever had a question or hit a snag that involved the green industry crops, their first step was to pick up the phone and talk with Frank to seek his advice on how to proceed. On the other hand, if something potentially controversial or contentious was emerging, they would hear about it early from him.

“He was very good at establishing people as colleagues rather than adversaries,” Peter says. “That was really critical, especially at the beginning of this when there was some misunderstanding or lack of information on what the initiative meant and what its focus was. He was very effective in communicating that to a broad spectrum of industry colleagues and university colleagues too. Of course, he surely promoted the effort in Tennessee, but he was also always looking at the broader picture. He would work on behalf of the more local interests, but the regional and national interests, too. He was really quite selfless in that regard. That contributed to widespread trust of him, his advice and his ideas about how to proceed.”

For many years, Dr. Judy St. John was a high-level official at the USDA-ARS, and the industry’s primary champion for FNRI.

“Frank established a superb relationship with Judy,” Craig Regelbrugge says. “In fact, I can’t swear to this, but he may have been the one to give her the nickname ‘Mother Nature,’ which stuck with her for the rest of her career and to this day.”

For his part, Frank is thankful to Dr. St. John and the other ARS scientists for all the work they did for the industry.

“She was a keeper,” Frank says. “She’s always helped the small crop growers like us. Judy St. John and ARS have been really good to us on specialty crops funding and research.”

Looking to the future

Frank hopes the next generation of nurserymen will continue the commitment to research that has served the industry well. He also has advice for the next generation.

“Ask a lot of questions,” he says. “Don’t be bashful.”

He also suggests visiting other nurseries in other parts of the country to see how they operate. You can pick up a lot of information that way, and many of the little things are done differently from place to place.

“A friend of mine’s son, he’s a good kid. I told him, ‘Buddy, you need to go to another nursery for a couple years, at least two or three,’” Frank says. “And he went for a year, came back afterwards and said ‘Thank you.’”

The nursery industry’s efforts to honor its past and commit to its own future is easily seen at HRI’s annual meeting each year. Nursery owners in attendance make pledges of substantial funds for research, often in memory of parents or in honor of their children.

“Instead of saying ‘I’m going to buy myself a new boat or motorcycle,’ they’ll say ‘I pledge $50,000 in the name of father, mother or child on behalf of research,’” Peter says. “As a researcher I can’t think of a more committed group of industry folks.”

The Collier family has its own named endowment fund, the Elma E. and John R. Collier Memorial Trust Fund. And Frank has plenty of hope for the future.

“I think this shows, this virus deal, that we’re essential,” he says. “If you’re stuck at home, you can plant some plants, trees, vegetable crops. The whole nation will figure that out sooner or later.”

Still, even in an age of virtual trade shows and video conferences, the skills that make Frank such a successful leader are good as gold.

“The influence Frank had been able to wield, that was interpersonal,” Peter says. “How can you do it in days like these when you can’t look a person clearly in their eye, share a meal or have a drink or two and forge those relationships of strong trust? We haven’t come up with a technological fix for that.”

Nick Collins
Publisher
ncollins@gie.net

Kate Spirgen
Greenhouse Management Editor
kspirgen@gie.net

Kelli Rodda
Nursery Management Editor
krodda@gie.net

Although less common than traditional ornamental insect pests like whiteflies and thrips, the European pepper moth and red-headed flea beetle are two pests continuing to gain notoriety across the country. While both pests have their signature activity, they share one thing in common: plant damage. J.C. Chong, professor of entomology at Clemson University and Nancy Rechcigl, technical services manager of ornamentals at Syngenta, share ways growers can control, combat and contain these pests.

While the European pepper moth originated in Europe, Rechcigl says their appearance in the U.S. has grown over the last five years. In 2014, the moth was a confined “quarantine pest” in a small area in Southern California, but now, she says they are being seen in states in the Northeast like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, along with Southeastern states including Florida and in Texas. Chong says he’s also seen “a big jump” of moths in North and South Carolina.

Rechcigl recalls the first observance of European pepper moths in herbaceous crops, annuals, perennials and poinsettia production, but they are quickly claiming other crops. “We are starting to see activity in woody ornamentals as well,” she says.

As for the red-headed flea beetle, Rechcigl says there has also been a surge of them in outdoor ornamental production. Like the pepper moth, they feed on herbaceous and woody ornamentals, and the injury they can cause in a short period of time can leave plants unsalable, she says.

Scouting at the base of the plant is critical for finding this pest.”  — NANCY RECHCIGL, technical field manager of Turf and Ornamentals at Syngenta

The damage both pests can do differ from the destruction caused by whiteflies and aphids. Instead of leaf yellowing and distortion as the result of the latter sucking pests, the pepper moths and flea beetles chew.

“The European pepper moth larvae chew and bore their way into the base of the plant,” Rechcigl says. “This can cause the plant to appear wilted and can be mistaken for a root issue. Unfortunately, if too much of the lower stem is damaged, this can result in the death of the plant. Flea beetles feed on the upper layers of leaf tissue, leaving the plant with a skeletonized appearance. The more injury present can significantly reduce the value and salability of your crop. When injury levels approach 40% or higher, the plant is often unsalable.”

Like many insect pests, scouting and preventative applications are recommended. According to Rechcigl, European pepper moths lay their eggs in the upper canopy of the plant, but after hatching, the larvae drop to the soil and begin feeding on the base.

“Scouting at the base of the plant is critical for finding this pest,” she says. “They are rather small and can almost be mistaken for fungus gnat larvae because they have a dark head capsule and are just slightly bigger in size. The larvae will produce a light webbing which provides them some protection from predators. So when scouting, look for light webbing at the base of the plant at the soil line.”

Flea beetles, however, eat the upper layers of foliage and leave the lower epidermis intact, which gives a skeletonized appearance. Rechcigl says it’s harder to scout them due to their swift movement if the foliage is disturbed, and because of this, she says the feeding injury will most likely be seen before the actual pest. Chong says the multitude of these pests make them harder to control.

“These pests are quite destructive if left unchecked, so it is important to begin control treatments as soon as indications of their presence are observed,” Rechcigl adds.

To assist growers, Syngenta offers Mainspring® GNL, Acelepryn®, Flagship® 25 WG and Scimitar® GC, insecticides that guard against many pests and provides tools for integrated pest management plans.

“For the European pepper moth, both Mainspring GNL and Acelepryn can be used to control this pest … [they] should be applied as a heavy spray over the top of the plant so the base of the plant and stem is wet at the soil line,” Rechcigl says.

Recent trials have shown Mainspring GNL and Acelepryn are effective on the European pepper moth for seven weeks.

In Chong’s 2019 trial for European pepper moths, he observed the efficacy of Mainspring GNL and Acelepryn against the pests in the greenhouse.

“From treatment until 42 days, plants that were treated with Mainspring and Acelepryn did not see any foliar damage at all,” he says. “For water-treated plants, we saw about 33% of the plants showing damage. This tells me that Acelepryn or Mainspring can wipe out the European pepper moth caterpillars.”

For flea beetles, Rechigl recommends Flagship 25 WG, Scimitar GC, Mainspring GNL or Acelepryn. During his flea beetle research, Chong sprayed plants with Acelepryn and Mainspring GNL three times at a 14-day interval.

“To give an example, at 42 days after the first treatment, 40.8% of the terminals of plants sprayed with only water suffered some level of damage,” he says. “But the damage was reduced to 21.7% and 25% for Mainspring GNL- and Acelepryn-treated plants. So, Mainspring GNL and Acelepryn can certainly reduce, but not completely eliminate foliage damage [because] there are just so many of the hungry beetles out there and damage can accumulate even if one beetle takes just a little bite.”

Trials on the flea beetles have shown three applications of Mainspring GNL and Acelepryn on a 14-day interval keeps the plant injury levels under 20% to 25% for a seven-week period.

©2020 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties and/or may have state-specific use requirements. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration status and proper use. Scimitar GC is a Restricted Use Pesticide. Acelepryn®, Flagship®, Mainspring®, Scimitar® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Syngenta Customer Center: 1-866-SYNGENT(A) (796-4368).

With the advent of new fungicides and pesticides available, it’s important for growers to take note of the options available to them. IRAC/FRAC (Insecticide/Fungicide Resistance Action Committees) provide growers with relevant pest control information and advice. With proper product rotation and new MOAs (mode of action), growers can keep pests and diseases at bay.

IRAC Groups

Daniel Gilrein, extension entomologist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, is an expert in this field and often advises growers concerning the use of insecticides and miticides. Gilrein says the IRAC classifications are very helpful, particularly when targeting some pests and situations where there is a significant risk of resistance development, such as in greenhouse and nursery production of ornamentals.

Gilrein says there are a few things growers need to keep in mind when it comes to properly rotating insecticides. After the pest problem is identified where treatment is deemed necessary, he lists out a plan based on the following factors:

1. The pest’s track record for development of resistance
2. The history of what that pest population has been exposed to (as far as known)
3. The size of the problem (i.e. is the pest population already high or still at an early stage of development)
4. The pests’ stage(s) targeted (i.e. scale crawlers or mainly mites in the egg stage)
5. Grower preferences (compatibility with biocontrols, the need for short re-entry interval, products already at hand, etc.)
6. The crop to be treated and possible sensitivity (some insecticides shouldn’t be used on particular plants)
7. Efficacy
8. The application equipment being used

When pests develop a resistance, managing them becomes an extremely difficult task and may lead growers to have to discard a portion, or all, of their crops. “They must rotate chemistries and be proactive about managing resistance because some pests are notorious for developing insecticide- or miticide-resistant populations. Additionally, the population at hand may already have resistance to some materials,” Gilrein says.

“Rotating among different modes of action can reduce the risk of promoting resistance or maintaining resistance in a population that already has it. It is especially important for propagators to be aware of the issue, so resistant pests are not conveyed with plant material,” he says. “Also, we want to make sure insecticides and miticides will work when we need them, and they continue to be available and useful for a very long time; thinking of susceptibility as a kind of ‘natural resource’ we want to conserve.”

Enter diamide insecticides in IRAC Group 28, which differ from traditional chemistries. Nancy Rechcigl, technical services manager for ornamentals at Syngenta, shares why using diamides is a good option for growers.

“The active ingredients in this group selectively activate the ryanodine receptor in the insects’ muscles, causing the release of calcium ions,” Rechcigl says. “This results in paralysis and rapid inhibition of feeding and other key physiological functions. Insect feeding is typically stopped after initial ingestion, and insect mortality is observed within 2-7 days, depending on the pest.”

“Many insecticides in other IRAC groups affect different aspects of the pest’s nervous system, the diamides target a different site, making them a good rotational tool. This class of chemistry has also shown to be compatible with the use of beneficial insects and mites, which makes them an ideal partner in integrated pest management programs,” she says. “When plants are treated with a diamide and challenged with insect pressure, the plants are protected and the pests are not able to establish in the crop.”

For successful integrated pest management programs, growers should focus on preventive applications rather than curative, which is especially necessary when using biological controls, according to Gilrein. Managing the problem early is key, because gaining control later may be much more difficult, due to things like high pest populations, dense plant canopies and plants arranged or spread out that makes insecticide coverage difficult — and may require more material to get rid of the insects.

Rechcigl notes diamides can be used in curative applications for pests such as worms and leafminers, but preventive applications (when the pests are first observed) are best for controlling whiteflies, thrips and mealybugs.

“In addition to use as foliar sprays, some diamide insecticides have systemic activity when applied to soil, media or bark, and relatively few other insecticides have such systemic uses,” says Gilrein.

Mainspring® GNL and Acelepryn® insecticides from Syngenta are two diamide chemistries with systemic activity that act as shields to protect plants from a wide range of insects.

“While the mode of action of how they work is similar, the different active ingredients within the diamide class of chemistry differ somewhat in their pest spectrum and in their systemicity,” says Rechcigl. “While all diamides have translaminar activity, only cyantraniliprole (Mainspring GNL) and chlorantraniliprole (Acelepryn) can be applied as a foliar or bark spray or as a drench for long, systemic protection.”

FRAC Groups

Margery L. Daughtrey, senior extension associate at Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center at Cornell University, shares why it’s important to properly rotate fungicides. She says diseases with rapid epidemic development and prolific pathogen sporulation, such as Botrytis blight, downy mildews and powdery mildews, are the ones where it is most important to practice fungicide rotation — and is critically important for crops being cultivated in greenhouses.

She notes key resources are the information on the product label (where the FRAC group is always given) and the FRAC website itself, which updates listings every year.

“The main danger is that you think you are rotating properly when in reality you’ve followed one fungicide application with another one from the same FRAC group — which means they will have the same mode of action, even though the product name and the fungicide’s common name might sound quite different,” Daughtrey says. “Strobilurin fungicides, for example, they are all in FRAC Group 11, so there is no point to treating twice with Heritage and then ‘rotating’ to treat twice with Compass. You’ll be exposing the fungus population to the same weapon by a different name, and you will be encouraging strobilurin resistance in the fungus population.”

With the help of 11+7 fungicides, like Mural® from Syngenta, growers can be sure they are using an effective management method.

The combination of two highly effective and broad-spectrum fungicide modes of action — an SDHI (succinate-dehydrogenase inhibitor) fungicide paired with a strobilurin — will slow resistance development to a pathogen that happens to be susceptible to both, she says.

“Using contact action materials at low or no danger of resistance development during periods when the environment is not highly conducive to disease, or alternating them with 11+7 materials, is a good strategy.” — MARGERY L. DAUGHTREY, senior extension associate at Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center at Cornell University

“An 11+7 material will help you to cope with leaf spots, powdery mildews, downy mildews and rusts,” she says. “And you are likely to be getting some systemic action against the pathogens.”

Daughtrey notes growers shouldn’t rotate an 11+7 or an 11+3 fungicide with an 11 fungicide. This is due in part from the perspective of the tiny fungus growers want to manage. It will see continuous 11s, and growers will thus increase the selection pressure, so the strobilurin component will become ineffective sooner, she says.

“Using contact action materials at low or no danger of resistance development during periods when the environment is not highly conducive to disease, or alternating them with 11+7 materials, is a good strategy,” she says, “Learn which fungicides work best against the problems your crops are subject to, and deploy them strategically, keeping in mind the need for thoughtful fungicide rotation.”

The key attribute that makes Mural an ideal choice for growers is due in part to its translaminar and systemic activity, but also because it is xylem mobile.

“When applied as a drench for protection against root and crown rots, Mural will move upward into the plant canopy to provide protection against certain foliar diseases, such as rusts and some powdery mildews,” says Rechcigl. “It is very useful for protecting daylilies or ornamental grass crops against rust, with one drench application providing six to eight weeks of protection.”

Mural also provides good control/suppression of Pythium spp. and offers plant health benefits. Increased root density has been routinely observed with drench applications using 2-3 ounces and foliar sprays applied at rates of 4-5 ounces.

ROTATION COMBATS RESISTANCE

When it comes to proper rotation, Rechcigl says a robust resistance management program should include a rotation of products from at least three to four different classes of chemistry (three to four different IRAC and FRAC Codes) for each pest or disease target. For fungicides, growers should make one or two applications of the same product (if the label allows) before rotating to a different class of chemistry. Insecticide/miticide applications should target the life cycle of the pest.

“Being good stewards and preventing resistance from developing allows the grower to have more options and tools in their management toolbox. Research and development activities for the discovery of new active ingredients with new and different modes of action takes time, often 10 to 12 years, and requires a significant investment in time and resources,” Rechcigl says.

Syngenta has developed several agronomic programs with built-in resistance management strategies. They are available for download here.

©2020 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties and/or may have state-specific use requirements. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration status and proper use. Acelepryn®, GreenCast®, Mainspring®, Mural®, and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Syngenta Customer Center: 1-866-SYNGENT(A) (796-4368).