Controlled Environment: As controlled-environment growers continue to improve biological programs, they are shifting their focus to touting the benefits of their pest control strategies.
By Brian Sparks | Senior Editor, Greenhouse Grower
Creek Hill Nursery in Leola, PA, seeks to grow plants in the safest way for its team and its customers. When the company first started using biologicals to replace or reduce their use of broad-spectrum chemicals, it was a daunting process. However, the staff’s determination to master biologicals has resulted in the program evolving to get better and more effective every year.
A rigorous scouting regime is at the foundation of the biological program. The company also uses banker plants and has learned the value of providing a good habitat for beneficials to encourage them to remain in the greenhouse.
Laura Buck, Assistant Grower at Creek Hill Nursery, has been instrumental in advancing the company’s biological program with her research, pest identification skills, and efforts to seek out the best ways to apply products. She says her biggest focus is making sure the products she uses are dependable, vigorous, and true to name.
Laura Buck, Creek Hill Nursery
“As with any living product, having the insects/nematodes arriving in good health and condition and ready to be applied is the most important factor to being effective. We’ve shopped around and changed biological sources in the past specifically over these viability issues.” Laura Buck | Creek Hill Nursery
Buck says she would also like to see more support from government programs to encourage the use of these insects.
“Governments talk a lot about improving green and ecologically friendly practices in the greenhouse industry, but it would be nice to see more financial incentivizing,” Buck says.
Adoption costs can be higher at first even if the costs eventually become similar to a spray program with further fine-tuning and knowledge. Grants and programs making these first costs easier to absorb would go a long way. Laura Buck | Creek Hill Nursery
There is definitely a need for more education in the form of talks, speakers, and classes focused specifically on the use of biological programs, Buck says.
“Most of what is available is geared towards pesticide application and is focused on getting credits towards spray license requirements,” Buck says. “A similar education support system for education on biologicals is needed, even if a license for application is not.”
Perhaps even more important is addressing the nuances and complexities to using biologicals even if there are less acute safety concerns.
“We feel it would be helpful to have more industry support on compatibility studies on spray and biologicals,” Buck says. “In many cases, the data exists, but it is not presented in an approachable, easy-to-understand form from one source.”
Consumer Education Ross Strasko, Vice President of Creek Hill Nursery, believes the end consumer, and others in the supply chain, care about the use of biologicals. He also says many of Creek Hill’s customers choose the company as a preferred source from among several analogous suppliers simply because of knowing about its biological program.
Each company that successfully adopts a biologicals program adds another source of information and experience in the use of biologicals to the industry at large. This leads more companies down this path in a virtuous cycle that is exciting to see, and it is our belief and hope that this snowball effect will continue.
Ross Strasko, Vice President of Creek Hill Nursery “However, I find it difficult to work these messages into our marketing, as the educational resources available are often highly technical and from the vantage point of a grower who is looking to start a biological program, rather than for an interested layman,” Strasko says. “Our biological program has quickly become one of the most rewarding and interesting aspects of growing perennials to me personally, but I’ve struggled to find an avenue to relay this to our customers in a way that’s approachable.”
Creek Hill Nursery used an innovative “detective story” format for a marketing piece about the value of biologicals
Creek Hill’s latest attempt is a full-page spread in its new 2022 catalog that it debuted during Cultivate’21 event in Columbus, OH, in July. The diagram was Strasko’s brainchild, with photography from Creek Hill supplemented with information from Koppert Biological Systems and layout by Creek Hill’s marketing expert, Lowell Halvorson.
“It’s done with the flavor of a murder mystery/detective story, which I was initially against as being too clever or too silly, but I think it really ended up working out well,” Strasko says. “I’m not quite sure the response it will receive from customers, but I hope it will be effective in explaining our use of multiple biological best control agents in a way that’s both interesting and informative.”
Another Grower’s Perspective The Little Prince of Oregon Nursery , which produces a wide range of greenhouse crops including succulents, houseplants, and drought-tolerant perennials, started its biologicals program a few years ago. It releases predatory mites during the early stages of propagation, and as plants are distributed throughout the operation’s Quonset huts, populations are able to develop across the facility.
Mike Hicks, Head Grower at Little Prince, says he is always looking for ways to improve the program, including timing.
“Populations for beneficials quickly die off, but if you wait until the insect pressure is too high, then your beneficial controls will not have great success,” he says.
Mike Hicks, The Little Prince of Oregon Nursery
Hicks says the development of beneficials that are effective against mealybugs and scale is a big concern.
“These are difficult to control especially when populations are low or for preventative treatments,” Hicks says. “Affordability would also be another issue, as some of the controls can get quite expensive.”
Like Creek Hill, Little Prince tries to educate its end customers — whether it’s independent garden centers or consumers buying directly through the company’s e-commerce platform— about its biologicals program.
“We talk about it on our website, and we have a video about it on our website as well ,” Hicks says. “It was a broadcast that was on a local gardening show that has me being interviewed and discussing our program and the benefits. We also do promotions about it on social media.”
Cannabis Growers Getting More Attention According to Casey Decker, General Manager at Global Horticultural USA , roughly 80% of the company’s new clients are cannabis operators, who turn to biological insect control due to the narrow list of approved pesticides and fungicides. Decker is also the owner of Sierra Biological , a producer of biological control agents.
“When it comes to pest control, cannabis growers have their hands tied because they are so restricted in the number of approved chemicals,” Decker says.
Global Horticultural aims to provide solutions in advance of the problem through two main strategies, the first being the brand-agnostic sourcing of biologicals. According to Decker, Global Horticultural is not tied to a single biologicals provider, but instead focuses on sourcing the best products on the market. It also closely monitors industry trends to help its growers anticipate potential pest problems and have effective tools at the ready.
There isn’t a lot of crosstalk between cannabis operators. But in working extensively in the industry, Global Horticultural can help its growers learn which pests are becoming problematic in the area. Casey Decker | General Manager at Global Horticultural USA Certain biologicals used for bedding plants can also be applied to cannabis, but cannabis also has species-specific pests which require specialized solutions, such as the cannabis aphid and hemp russet mite. That said, developing such products has been challenged by the limited number of universities willing to conduct cannabis-related research.
One company Global Horticultural works with is PharmaCann , a cannabis operator in Montgomery, NY, that has been active for five years and was one of the first licensed operators in the state. According to Cultivation Manager Gregory Halloran, PharmaCann is currently producing medicinal cannabis, but is looking to expand into the adult-use market.
Moving forward, PharmaCann and Global Horticultural are collaborating closely to keep the cannabis aphid at bay, as well as the hemp russet mite.
“The hemp russet mite is microscopic and very difficult to detect,” Halloran says. “The cannabis aphid is cannabis-specific. We’ll need control agents for these voracious, hardy pests.”
