Andrew Hatch has been growing orchids for over 20 years, and has a broad array of experience in agriculture, horticulture, microbiology, education, and risk management. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Soil and Crop Sciences from Colorado State University, with a focus on plant biotechnology, genetics, and breeding. For many years he owned Rikki’s Tropicals, a nursery dedicated to the production of rare, endangered, or just plain cool orchid species. He first began his work in micropropagation with orchids 12 years ago, and has been tissue culturing plants ever since. At Native Roots Colorado he led a multi-disciplinary team of scientists to drive research in the areas of micropropagation (tissue culture), product safety, plant pathology, crop protection, production efficiency, beneficial microbial inoculants, and more. He teaches classes on orchids, air plants, and plant tissue culture at  the Denver Botanic Gardens, and has recently begun to produce and sell orchids again.

Integrated Pest Management in Orchid Culture

Brown spots on leaves, strange yellow patterns, mysterious webs, chewed pseudobulbs, Unidentified Flying Organisms… all of these strike fear into the hearts of orchid enthusiasts. Unchecked pests and diseases can wreak havoc on an orchid collection, but there’s hope! Solving or mitigating damage from these problems becomes easier when you understand the organisms responsible. In this presentation we will cover how to control pests and diseases in our orchid collections using Integrated Pest Management, which focuses on prevention and minimizing pesticide use.

Andrew will be bringing plants for sale and for the Opportunity Table. We ask members to refrain from bringing their own plants to sell at this meeting please.

Don’t miss it!