1:00 PM - 1:40 PM           Dried flowers: selection, post-harvest handling, and drying techniques

Jennifer Duensing from Illinois Country Harvest walks us through their dried flower production process and shares some important lessons they learned along the way.

• Jennifer Duensing - Illinois Country Harvest

1:40 PM - 2:30 PM           Starting Right from the Roots Up. Soil Health Basics and Tips

Join Christina and Paul, soil health and cover crop educators with MSU Extension, as they cover some of the most important things to know about soil management.

• Christina Curell - Michigan State University Extension
• Paul Gross - Michigan State University Extension

2:40 PM - 3:20 PM           What’s Happening to My Plants?

Dr. Jan Byrne, plant pathologist at Michigan State University, discusses a variety of common diseases seen in floriculture crops.

• Jan Byrne - Michigan State University Diagnostics Lab

3:20 PM - 4:00 PM           Managing Light to Improve Specialty Cut Flower Yield and Profits

Light is an environmental factor that can have a significant influence on the quality of specialty cut flowers. Michigan State University PhD student and Dave Dowling Scholarship recipient Caleb Spall will provide growers with information on how they can manipulate light quantity and duration during both the seedling and flowering stages to improve stem length and harvestable yield, and reduce production time of long- and short-day requiring specialty cut flowers.

• Caleb Spall - Michigan State University Student Horticulture Association