A common assumption is that ornamental plants must be perfectly clean when they hit the retailer. No pests. Nada. This assumption is unrealistic and rather harmful. By making this assumption, we limit our pest management decisions to options that are most likely to kill all the insects: synthetic insecticides. However, how true is it that synthetic insecticides give us perfectly clean plants? And if "zero" pests is unrealistic, what is? Listen to this episode to learn more about a study looking at whitefly densities on poinsettia cuttings received by growers and finished poinsettias that make it to the retailer.

Citation:

Vafaie, E. K., H. B. Pemberton, M. Gu, D. Kerns, M. D. Eubanks, and K. M. Heinz. 2020. Whitefly Abundance on Rooted Poinsettia Cuttings and Finished Poinsettias. Horttechnology. 1–6.

https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/30/4/article-p486.xml