Your Biggest Crop Protection Issues, and How You’re Handling Them

One of the questions we asked in Greenhouse Grower’s 2025 State of the Industry survey was about your biggest crop protection issues, and how you are handling them. Growers responding to the survey consistently identified pest and disease pressure as their most persistent crop protection challenge. Insects, mites, and mealybugs remain widespread issues, compounded by limited product options and growing concerns about resistance. Many operations are strengthening their integrated pest management (IPM) programs through improved scouting, beneficial insects, cultural practices, and product rotation. Fungal diseases such as Botrytis and downy mildew also remain problematic, driving growers to invest in better climate control, preventative protocols, and, in some cases, improved plant nutrition and variety selection to boost natural resilience.

A second major theme centers on environmental and structural pressures that complicate crop protection. Extreme and unpredictable weather — heat, cold, late frosts, and excessive rainfall — continues to disrupt production cycles and increase plant stress. Growers are responding by upgrading heating and cooling systems, improving insulation and ventilation, and using more protective coverings for outdoor crops. Additional challenges include weed encroachment, wildlife damage, infrastructure limitations, and material cost increases such as tariffs on imported plants. Overall, crop protection strategies are becoming more holistic, blending IPM, environmental modification, and plant health approaches to meet escalating pressures.

Keep reading for an overview of some of the most popular responses, as well as some insights you may find useful.

• Pests are always our largest issue, and their ability to gain resistance to existing neonic-free chemicals.
• Holding heat in the winter; we are investing in construction to seal.
• We use a combination of biocontrols and conventional pesticides.
• Weeds; working on controlling the weeds on the property and neighbors’ properties, working with our soil supplier to ensure weed free soil, and making weeding a priority.
• Imported plants costs due to tariffs.
• We grow a lot outside and having adequate cover when product is ready to sell is a challenge.
• Botrytis is a major problem for us. We are working on better nutrition to increase health to better combat this problem.
• Fungal diseases, improving climate control: Fans, ventilation
• Adequately protecting plants from late frost when sales windows are tight.
• Education of our growers to scout effectively
• Pressure from insects; we’ve improved IPM through better cultural practices and adding biological controls.
• We grow native perennials so all the species of insects, arthropods, fungi and bacteria, that are part of the ecosystems.
• We do not have any crop protection issues. All have been pretty much solved by advanced plant nutrition. Heathy plants do not get diseases, and insect pest pressure is extremely reduced, PGRs are less, spider mites are non-existent, water use is reduced, cold hardiness is increased, tolerance to cool production is increased, and extreme heat tolerance is increased
• Limited products for sprays available.
• No way of handling extreme rainfall, record heat and the way it impacts plant sales.
• Keeping hydroponic nutrients warm in winter months. I have insulated my reservoirs and am planning on burying them to keep temps up in winter and down in summer.
• Biggest issue is heating and cooling. We have an old setup; the equipment is wearing out and not keeping up with hotter summers and colder winters. To adjust, we are adding additional ventilation for summer and keeping crops closer to heat sources and tighter during the coldest months.
• Downey Mildew; selecting for less susceptible varieties and rigid crop protection protocols and preventative applications.