What the Top 100 Can Teach Us About Problem Solving
May 21, 2026 During my conversations with experts from crop protection companies over the past couple of months, one phrase kept coming up: integrated plant health management.
The idea is straightforward. Rather than focusing only on minimizing damage once pests show up, growers should be thinking more broadly about how to prevent problems from developing in the first place. In that sense, it builds on the long-standing concept of integrated pest management by shifting the focus toward the overall health of the plant.
As Michael Brownbridge, Senior Technical Services Manager at BioWorks, told me, “We should be taking a holistic view of how plants are grown, and the root causes of pest and disease issues, and use that perspective to develop a broader plant health program that includes everything from biologicals and biostimulants to traditional chemistries.”
Matthew Krause, Director, NA Field Solutions – CEA and Nursery at Lallemand Plant Care, shared a similar perspective: “Integrated pest management has evolved to mean so much more than just keeping pests and pathogens out of your greenhouse. It also means monitoring incoming plant material and being more selective with your cuttings or seed suppliers. The growing conditions for most of our plants are ideal environments for pests and diseases, and we need to focus on what we can control to manage those issues, from cultural management to minimizing plant stress.”
That evolution makes sense. Fewer new active ingredients entering the market, along with the steady rise in biological control adoption, have pushed more growers to think beyond reaction and toward prevention.
As we were putting this Top 100 Growers issue together, it struck me that this same mindset shows up far beyond crop protection. Many of the industry’s largest growers are solving problems the same way: by addressing them earlier, building better systems, and reducing the chances of disruption in the first place. Take biologicals as one example. If cost is the barrier, the conversation cannot stop there. The better question is what the longer-term return looks like when fewer chemical applications are needed later in the season, or when stronger plant health supports better quality at retail.
Automation offers another example. The Top 100 growers were among the earliest adopters, and over time, that helped create a wide range of options for growers of all sizes. The scale of investment may differ across the market, but the larger lesson is the same. Today’s labor challenges have made it much easier to see the value of investing before the pressure becomes unmanageable. That is part of what the Top 100 program has always made clear. While floriculture is made up of growers of all sizes, many of the ideas that go on to shape the broader industry, whether in plant health, automation, or operational strategy, often gain traction first among the largest operations. The lessons they learn, and the systems they build, do not stay there.
Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to keep it from becoming one in the first place.
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