4 Trends Shaping the Future of Biologicals
May 7, 2026 
These containers hold populations of cucumeris mites, Neoseiulus cucumeris, a predatory mite used to manage western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis. | Raymond Cloyd
In floriculture, innovation often starts with one segment of growers, usually the largest operations with the resources to test new ideas, trying something new, and proving its value. That has increasingly been the case with biological products over the past few years. To better understand the trends shaping the growing use of biologicals in ornamentals, we spoke with Raymond Cloyd, Professor and Extension Specialist in Horticultural Entomology at Kansas State University, and Michael Brownbridge, Senior Technical Services Manager at BioWorks.
Looking Beyond Upfront Cost
For years, growers cited cost as one of the biggest barriers to using biologicals. More of them are now looking at the math differently and recognizing the long-term savings biocontrols can provide.
“If you’re doing the math on the total cost, it shouldn’t just be based on one product versus another,” Brownbridge says. “You also have to consider the labor savings that come from the lack of a reentry interval. Early prevention of pest populations also saves you the cost of having to reapply multiple products throughout the season. At the end of the day, are you going to decide to buy and use a product because it’s cheap, or because it works?”
Cloyd works with growers of all sizes across the Midwest and other regions of the U.S. who see similar value in using biological control early in the season to keep insect and mite pest populations below plant-damaging levels.
“They tell me, if I can avoid spraying and still produce a plant with no insect or mite pest damage, that makes any cost difference worth the investment,” Cloyd says. Scouting and monitoring still matter, he adds, “but you would do that even if you were using traditional insecticides or miticides.”
What the Industry Has Learned About Biologicals
- Growers will not adopt biologicals just because they are available. The products have to be easy to use and easy to understand.
- The product has to perform. That puts even more pressure on manufacturers to be diligent about quality assessment, because one bad experience can send a grower in another direction.
- Third-party trialing and evaluation remain important, but the decline in university Extension funding and support may create a wider gap in unbiased information.
- New biological innovations are more likely to succeed when they fit into an existing production system without forcing growers to change everything they already do.
- Larger operations may have the resources to dedicate staff to biologicals, but growers of all sizes should be thinking about how to make them a priority.
Growth by Necessity
One of the clearest reasons more growers are using biologicals is that the greenhouse pesticide toolbox is not getting bigger. Brownbridge and Cloyd both point to the same issue: new active ingredients are not being introduced in the greenhouse market at a meaningful pace. Bringing a new pesticide from concept to EPA approval is so time-consuming and expensive — Brownbridge estimates 15 years and roughly $500 million — that most companies focus their efforts on traditional row crops.
At the same time, insect and mite pests are continuing to develop resistance to existing chemistries. That challenge may become even harder to solve in the years ahead. Based on the Trump Administration’s proposed budget outline as of mid-April, EPA funding is expected to be reduced by 54%, from $9.14 billion to $4.16 billion. CropLife Magazine, also published by Meister Media Worldwide, reported that according to ag industry followers, EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs approved only four agricultural products during the previous 18 months, with dozens more still awaiting approval since at least the end of 2024.
Healthy Plants From Bench to Retail
The care mindset behind biological use is that the more you do early to prevent insect and mite pest populations from building up, the less you have to do later.
“If you wait until you see the pest before you release beneficial insects, it is too late,” Cloyd says. “Then your only course of action is to spray or apply a drench.”
Over time, that preventative focus has expanded from plant health in the greenhouse to plant performance at retail.
“Microbials, for example, create a healthier plant that can withstand adverse conditions,” Brownbridge says. “If it helps cut down on shrink at retail even by 10%, that’s a huge win.”
That logic also extends to products such as biostimulants. “Once growers recognize the benefits that these materials can provide, and the ROI justifies the investment, they’re much more willing to try them,” Brownbridge says.
Application Methods Keep Evolving
The products themselves are not the only things changing. The tools used to apply biologicals, and the techniques that make them easier to use, continue to evolve as well. Cloyd points to developments in boom application technology that may give growers better options than traditional blowers.
Brownbridge says it’s often the smaller steps that make the biggest difference. “A simple change in formulation can go a long way in making a product easier to use,” he says. In other cases, manufacturers and growers have to work together to figure out how products can be used more efficiently. For example, can a product be mixed into a fertilizer tank? That may sound simple, but it often is not, especially when some products can precipitate out in the tank.
Those reactions can vary depending on the type of fertilizer and the concentration in the stock tank. “It means there may be no ‘one-size-fits-all,’” Brownbridge says, which is why growers and technical specialists often have to run trials to find the sweet spot.
Looking ahead, Brownbridge says growers will need to become more comfortable incorporating biological products into their integrated plant health programs.
“You can either start using them now, or risk waiting until you have to because you won’t have any other choices,” he says.
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