Page 30 - Griffin Gazette - July 2025

DIGGING DEEPER

Connecting Media & Tissue
Testing for Long-Term Success

By: Kaitlyn Sterner, Director of Technical Support
Jack’s Fertilizers

At Jack’s Fertilizers, we believe that healthy plants start with solid At Jack’s, we’re proud to say we’re more than just a bag of fertilizer.
science—and that means looking below the surface. Our in-house Behind every blue scoop is a dedicated team of scientists, laboratory
JR Peters Laboratory is a trusted tool for growers who want real-time technicians and technical specialists who are passionate about helping
insight into the health of their crops, especially when it comes to you grow smarter. Our lab services are a perfect example of that
long-term seasonal crops like mums and poinsettias. Whether you’re commitment—giving you data-driven support to guide your decisions
producing for wholesale or finishing crops in a retail setting, pairing and maximize every crop cycle.
plant tissue testing with growing media analysis gives you a complete
picture of what’s really going on in your crop’s root zone and in its Whether you’re a commercial greenhouse producer, a grower-retailer,
tissues. Why run both? Because relying on just one piece of the or a garden center operation maintaining finished color, tissue and
puzzle can lead to missed signals. Your media analysis tells you what’s media testing will support your crop goals—big or small. Think of
available in the root zone—like nutrients, pH, EC, and other soluble routine sampling as a wellness check-up for your plants: sampling
factors. Tissue testing, on the other hand, reveals what the plant is throughout the season helps you stay ahead of subtle nutrition issues
actually taking up. When these two data points are evaluated together, before they impact performance.
they offer a clear, actionable path to fine-tune your fertility program
and prevent nutrition-related problems before they compromise quality
or market timing.

This is especially critical in crops with long production timelines. Take
garden mums—their rapid vegetative growth early on demands a
different nutrition strategy than the tight, colorful finish retail customers
expect. Without routine testing, it’s easy to overfeed, underfeed, or
misread a deficiency. The same goes for poinsettias—monitoring the
media in early vegetative stages helps establish strong, balanced roots.
But as the crop grows and matures, nutrient uptake shifts dramatically.
Regular tissue testing can confirm that your fertility program is evolving
to meet those changing demands.

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