It’s More Complicated Than You Think

Jennifer Zurko

When you’re walking through the grocery store, do you ever wonder how all of that food gets there? You see the produce guy piling, let’s say avocados, in a display. You pick one up, read the label and find out that this particular batch of avocados came from Mexico. The thought of where it comes from leaves your mind as quickly as it went in because, hey, these avocados are on sale and time is running short and you have to tell your 5-year-old to put the armful of taffy apples back.

But if you sat down to think about it, do you really know how that avocado came to arrive at your local supermarket? It’s more complicated than you think.

We’re exploring the same kind of thing in this month’s GrowerTalks, but with unrooted cuttings instead of avocadoes. I’ve been in this industry for more than 11 years and I never knew what went in to getting vegetative varieties to the marketplace. Just like me, I’m sure you know that cuttings are harvested from thousands of stock plants in Central America, but do you know how they get from the production farm to the rooting station? It’s more complicated than you think. I just scratch the surface in my article, but it’s an interesting story.

Also—as we do in every October issue—we have many pages chock-full of culture notes on 12 new varieties.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first graduating class from the DuPage Horticultural School. Jennifer Duffield White touches base with a few former graduates to find out how this pioneering program helped shape their careers.

Plus, don’t miss reading Gary Mangum’s column about how his business, Bell Nursery in Maryland, has experimented with omitting neonicotinoids from their production after the recent firestorm from various environmental groups. What these groups don’t understand is that you can’t just give up neonics cold turkey. They want all pesticides banned, but it’s more complicated than they think.

Thanks for reading this month. And if you ever wonder how we manage to get this magazine written, produced and printed in the beautiful package you see before you, don’t ask. It’s more complicated than you think …