February 2025 - 44

PERSPECTIVES | BY TRAE CROCKER
A day in the life of plant protection
In 2019, I joined the research department at Monrovia
to focus on diagnosing diseases and performing trials
on potting mixes, fertigation, biological control and new
chemicals. This role gave me perspective on how much
time and effort it takes to produce quality plants that
reach Monrovia's standards. A couple of years later, I was
fortunate to join the plant protection team as a coach and
make a bigger impact on the nursery while continuing to
perform research with a more practical mindset.
The plant protection team consists of coaches, scouts,
weed control craftsmen and chemical applicators. This
team is in charge of making sure every greenhouse and
outdoor growing area is scouted at least once a month,
and in most cases during the spring, the greenhouses
are scouted weekly. The increased scouting is essential
for an integrated pest management program to reduce
unnecessary chemical applications.
GETTING STARTED
First stop of the morning is checking in with the spray
team to make sure everyone is ready for the day and
has everything they need. A major part of this check-in
is going over the spray schedule and making sure they
understand any specific notes about where and what
they will be spraying. In certain situations, the notes
may mention spraying a PGR on very specific varieties in
the same greenhouse. They understand the importance
of this, because of how differently plants respond to
chemicals, especially PGRs.
The next stop is the shipping docks, where scouts,
growers, sales and inventory are doing a final quality walk
of plants that will be shipping out that morning. I will walk
the docks making notes of any potential quality, pest or
disease concerns to use as objectives for the scouts to
investigate that morning. This is my favorite part of the day,
not only because of the plants, but because the information
that is shared here can set up the rest of my day.
The most important part of the dock walk is the
Photo courtesy of Trae Crocker.
44 FEBRUARY 2025 GPNMAG.COM
conversations that come from the growers, sales and
inventory teams. Communication between departments is
crucial throughout the spring shipping season, since so
much can change from day to day.
Up next, I meet with growers, inventory and sales to
participate in a crop walk to make sure the crops are
trending on time. After the walk through, depending
on what is observed, we may alter irrigation run times,
fertilizer rates, pruning or spray
schedules. Sales will update us
regarding geographic areas that
could end up with an earlier or
later sales window based on
weather dictating a couple extra
weeks of winter or early spring.
Before lunch, I will have a
quick check-in with the scouts
so they can share what they
saw in the field compared to any
quality concerns we noticed at
the docks. This is a good time
to get an update on other scout
responsibilities, like pourthrough
data where we track
the pH and EC to ensure our
plants are maintaining adequate
nutrient levels in the potting
mix. I can then make a spray
schedule to address any urgent
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February 2025

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