Getting Insight on Insects

Bill Calkins

Plug & Cutting Conference tour attendees at Lucas Greenhouses engage in an IPM workshop conducted by Suzanne Wainwright-Evans (Buglady Consulting) before seeing Lucas’ high-tech, high-quality plant production in action. AmericanHort holds this event every other year, providing high-level educational content, a trade show and production tours for members of our industry focused on young plant production. The experiential tours are always a highlight. This year, more than 120 tour attendees visited four amazing locations in the Philadelphia area—Lucas Greenhouses, North Creek Nurseries, Star Roses & Plants, and Longwood Gardens. 

I attended the event and served as a guide on tour bus #2 and one common thread I spotted across nearly every session was what I call “process control.” This is critical for propagation and elements could be seen at each of the greenhouses on the tour. No matter if the topic was PGRs, water quality, microbes, tank mixes or labor efficiency, the presenters who represented (or worked with) some of the most successful young plant growers in North America are constantly replacing guesswork with systems, measurements and repeatable practices.

Of course, as Plug & Cuttings Conference attendees were reminded countless times, none of these can replace experienced growers who’ve seen and done it all. But the best operations lean on processes more and more, and in just about every production step.

Keep your eye on AmericanHort’s communications for information about the next Plug & Cutting Conference, slated to be held in 2028. GT