Bio-pesticides bloom in greenhouses

Canada’s floriculture industry is not small.

In 2020, sales of flowers, bedding plants and potted plants was $1.7 billion. Most of those plants are grown inside southern Ontario and British Columbia greenhouses.

Like other Canadian farmers, floriculture producers have problems with insects and disease. But to solve those problems, they don’t rely on traditional pesticides.

“In floriculture, there are a few pests that are resistant against almost every insecticide that’s available in Canada,” said Rose Buitenhuis, program leader for biological crop protection at the Vineland Research Centre in Niagara, Ont.

“The pests are just not killed anymore by the products that the growers apply.”

Some are applying bio-pesticides in rotation with chemicals because it’s become obvious that applying the same pesticide, to the same pest, is not sustainable.

“The greenhouse growers have seen very clearly that the use of pesticides is a short-term solution,” Buitenhuis said.