Many North Carolinians have been busy beautifying their yards this spring and early summer with trees, shrubs, flowers and other plants. When they visit a local nursery or home improvement store, they expect the plants they purchase to be healthy, pest-free and ready to thrive at their new home.
Specialists with the Plant Industry Division of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services help secure that confidence by inspecting stock at nurseries across the state for signs of worrisome insects and diseases.
In North Carolina, a certificate is required to distribute or sell nursery stock or collected plants. All wild or cultivated plants or plant parts, trees, shrubs, vines, bulbous plants and roots, grafts, scions and buds are considered nursery stock. Strawberry plants, turfgrass and bulbs are also included in this definition. Excluded are annual plants, cut flowers, true seeds, decorative plants or plant parts without roots, and perennial plants intended for indoor use are not considered nursery stock.
NCDA&CS inspections help ensure that plants entering the marketplace meet standards designed to protect the public, the state’s landscapes and the agricultural industry. By identifying pests and disease problems before plants are sold, inspectors help prevent the spread of harmful pests and plant diseases that could damage home landscapes, commercial properties, forests and agricultural crops.
North Carolina has a diverse landscape that plays a crucial part in the environmental and economic health of our state. A single invasive pest or plant disease can spread quickly through the movement of infected nursery stock, creating costly consequences for property owners, municipalities and farmers.
Nursery inspections serve as an early line of defense, helping protect the state’s natural resources while supporting a healthy and competitive green industry. Having trained professionals evaluate these products ensures North Carolina consumers can be confident that their hard-earned dollars are being spent on healthy plants.
At a recent nursery inspection, April Bauder, central region field certification specialist with the Plant Industry Division, and HT Tseng, NCDA&CS plant pathologist, conducted a visual inspection of the nursery’s stock and greenhouses. The two were on the lookout for pests (or evidence of their recent presence) and signs of disease on the trees, shrubs and other plants being grown or sold there.
“When you have a nursery license, your job is to sell your plants free of pests,” Bauder said.
Bauder and Tseng systematically walked the nursery, checking each plant for signs that might suggest pests or disease, such as leaf spotting, unusual discoloration, insect feeding damage, eggs, larvae or active insects.
Inspectors don’t automatically assume every unhealthy plant has a disease. Bauder noted that heat stress, drought, poor irrigation, nutrient deficiencies and transplant stress can mimic disease symptoms. When symptoms were spotted, the two took time to determine whether they were pest-related, disease-related or environmental.
North Carolina nurseries have been impacted by the ongoing drought and heat, Bauder said, and much of the little damage they observed during the inspection was attributed to sun damage or thirst — no major pest or disease concerns were identified during the visit.
Nurseries are inspected either annually (certified and institutional nurseries) or every three years (registered nurseries), based on their classifications. Nursery dealers, which obtain and resell nursery stock but does not grow nursery stock itself, are inspected annually as well. Certified nurseries are larger operations that may be shipping plants to or receiving plants from other states, meaning the risk that they may spread diseases or pests is higher, so they are inspected more often.
Plant Protection Specialists inspect over 10,000 acres of nursery stock grown by approximately 1,400 North Carolina nurseries each year. Approximately 2,700 nursery dealers distribute plants throughout the state.
To learn more about the Plant Industry Division and nursery inspections, visit our website here: Plant Industry – Nursery Regulatory Services | NC Agriculture.