Session Description

Back for another year, introducing Perennia’s 2025 TunnelTalk Virtual Grower Meetings! This series aims to provide a recurring virtual space for producers of all shapes and sizes to come together and discuss all things protected agriculture. The main topic for discussion will vary month to month, with outside expertise on relevant topics, grower roundtables, shared experiences with techniques and technology, and group troubleshooting. This series of meetings is intended to be driven by grower feedback, and questions were organized and moderated by Perennia’s protected crop specialist, Talia Plaskett. Stay tuned for quarterly updates on upcoming dates and tunnel topics.

Every month from January to December 2025!

TunnelTalk – Soil-Based Strawberry Production 

January 14, 2025 
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (AST) 

Guest Speaker: Sonny Murray, Berry Specialist, Perennia
Protected strawberry production presents a great opportunity for producers. By removing the stressors of unpredictable precipitation and late-season frosts in outdoor production, tunnels provide the opportunity for an extended growing season. Berries produced indoors typically have a longer shelf life compared to those grown outside, and picking can continue well into October on certain varieties. It serves as a great option for diversifying cash crop rotations in soil-based systems and provides new offerings to market spaces.   

Sonny Murray will be joining us in January to talk about the basics when it comes to protected, soil-based strawberry production: what are our options for starting material, and how will that impact our growing season? What are the fertility needs of a strawberry crop, and how does that differ across June-bearing and ever-bearing varieties? What are the main pests/diseases to look for? Can these be managed organically as well as conventionally? Following a presentation on strawberry production, the virtual floor will be open to questions and discussions on all things strawberry!  

TunnelTalk – On-Farm Adoption of IPM Strategies 

February 4, 2025
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (AST)

Integrated pest management (IPM) relies on a combination of strategies (i.e. cultural, scouting, biocontrol) to prevent pest populations from reaching damaging levels. There are many ways we can address/incorporate IPM on farm, with the goal of reducing pest and disease pressure on-farm overall, as well as lessening our reliance on conventional pesticides throughout the season.

February’s TunnelTalk session will focus on successful, on-farm implementation of IPM strategies across Nova Scotia. A handful of growers have been selected to talk about some new-to-them strategies that contributed to their success over the last few years. 

TunnelTalk – Tunnel Tweaks to Improve Tomato Yield: An Overview of New England Production 

March 3, 2025 
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (AST) 

Guest Speaker: Vern Grubinger, Extension Professor at the University of Vermont
Many factors go into optimizing yield and quality of tunnel tomatoes. There’s not much data available on what constitutes ‘typical’ practices, though even if there was, it likely would not be applicable to every farm. Each location has a unique set of circumstances which dictates production practices and what works best.  As a result, the appropriate level of investment in infrastructure and management time is going to depend on a farm’s goals and capacity.

Information about what other farms are doing can help outline options for improving production in ways that make the most sense with the current infrastructure in place. In April 2024, 48 growers from New England participated in a survey describing infrastructure and management practices. They were asked to provide data from a tomato tunnel that had in-ground production of ‘slicer’ varieties, drip irrigation, plastic covering, trellising with pruning to one or two stems, using conventional or organic methods and that had been in production for at least three years. Vern Grubinger is going to present on the results of this survey for March’s TunnelTalk session, distinguishing between which practices are common across the top 10% highest yielding farms compared to the use across all survey recipients.  

TunnelTalk – Integrated Pest Management of High Tunnel Pests 

April 7, 2025 
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (AST) 

High tunnels provide optimal conditions for plants (and their pests!) to thrive. Integrated pest management (IPM) relies on a combination of strategies to prevent pest populations from reaching damaging levels. This talk will emphasize cultural and biological strategies to reduce key pests (i.e., aphids, spider mites and whiteflies) and conserve their wild and commercially-reared natural enemies. 

Pesticide points will be available! 

Guest Speaker: Cheryl Frank Sullivan, Research Assistant Professor, University of Vermont, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Agriculture, Landscape and Environment, Entomology Research Laboratory.
Cheryl is an Entomologist and has specialized in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and biological control for over 19 years. Her research activities are two-fold and focus on vector ecology and management (ticks) and agricultural pest management in greenhouse, nursery and high tunnel production. She also provides one-on-one assistance to growers in all aspects of IPM. For more information on Cheryl, check out her website. 

TunnelTalk – Hands-On Tutorial for Perennia Spray Guides 

May 5, 2025
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (AST)

Join Perennia’s protected crop specialist as we learn a bit more about the new and improved format for displaying registered conventional and biological pest control products in Nova Scotia. This session is designed to run more like a workshop than a traditional webinar, from the convenience of your home. Participants will be encouraged to navigate the guides themselves to find solutions to common problems throughout the session and become more familiar with how this tool can be used to curate personalized spray programs.  

Pesticide points will be available for those who take part in the virtual workshop! 

Guest Speaker: Talia Plaskett, Protected Crop Specialist, Perennia
Talia’s role at Perennia provides support for protected crop production across the province. She graduated from the University of Guelph in 2015 and spent five years working in the greenhouse stationed at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. She joined Perennia’s Agri-Services team in June 2020 and has spent the last few years learning about protected production here in Nova Scotia. Talia is excited to contribute to the resource bank, community and knowledge base surrounding protected production across the province.

TunnelTalk – An Introduction to Hydroponic Production 

June 2, 2025
12:00PM – 1:00PM (AST) 

We’ve spent a good amount of time talking about soil health and soil fertility, let’s change it up and talk hydroponics! Hydroponic production is a general term that describes agriculture that takes place outside of the soil. Whether we are looking at soilless substrates (ex. Coir, peat) or full-on deep water culture (DWC) systems, there are some key things we need to think about when we grow plants in this way. Join Perennia’s Protected Crop Specialist to go over some key components to hydroponic production that will set you up for success.

Guest Speaker: Talia Plaskett, Protected Crop Specialist, Perennia
Talia’s role at Perennia provides support for protected crop production across the province. She graduated from the University of Guelph in 2015 and spent five years working in the greenhouse stationed at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. She joined Perennia’s Agri-Services team in June 2020 and has spent the last few years learning about protected production here in Nova Scotia. Talia is excited to contribute to the resource bank, community and knowledge base surrounding protected production across the province.

 Registration

Registration is required. The deadline for registration is NOON two days before the session. For those who register, you will receive the link/passcode to join the details from session host Talia Plaskett one day before the session begins.

Questions?

Talia Plaskett 
Phone: 902.305.3419 
Email: tplaskett@perennia.ca