What is it, where did it come from and why is it a value to landscapes?
There are many definitions of Plant Health Care, but the theme remains the same: it is a holistic and comprehensive approach to managing the health, structure, safety and appearance of plants in the landscape environment.
I am still amazed of how many people (some of whom I consider very educated) have never heard of Plant Health Care or understand the value it adds to our landscapes. We have no problem understanding the importance of human health care or even that of pet health care, but when it comes to our plants, there still seems to be a disconnect or a devalue.
Our soils are no longer undisturbed with urbanization and reduction of natural areas; our soils are compacted, lacking proper oxygen levels, stripped of valuable nutrients, and—in many cases—unhealthy for proper plant health and a successful landscape. In a natural environment, when plants shed their leaves and twigs or die, everything is recycled back to the soil to replenish the soils ecosystem annually, the way it has been going on for thousands of years. We have disrupted that cycle by taking all of this away and out of our landscapes.
I have been in the “green industry” for more than two decades and have watched many people pay thousands of dollars for their landscapes, only to have them neglected or mismanaged after the first year of installation when the standard “one-year warranty” has expired. Most of the time, it is not the customer’s fault but that of the landscaper who did the initial plant material install, not representing the true value of a plant health program or not having the knowledge to even offer a comprehensive one. Even the people who have the knowledge to practice Plant Health Care struggle to get the point across on what they actually do that adds true value for the customer and their landscape. It is such a specialized area of maintaining plants, requiring a large amount of knowledge and, perhaps, deterring many companies not to offer the service.
When I first started as a professional in the late 1980s, the concept of Plant Health Care was just beginning to take root and not yet well accepted. As my career continued, I watched it become more widely accepted and more valued by the green industry. However, it’s still rarely offered as a forefront service and mostly included as an enhancement option for the proper maintenance and management of plants for landscape professionals. I believe its importance to our landscape environments should be understood better and offered as a standard service, even if reduced to just monitoring.
The Evolution of Plant Health Care
PHC evolved since the ‘70s from “integrated pest management” (IPM), which was developed from production agriculture. The major goal of IPM is to use a combination of management techniques (mechanical, biological, cultural, chemical and regulatory) instead of just using chemical applications to reduce insect/disease populations or manage them at non-damaging levels. The level of damage was identified by loss of yield and by an increase in crop cost. Plant or crop damage past a certain determined level results in what is referred to as economic loss. The problem was that these damage thresholds were based on and developed for IPM agricultural commodity-based programs.
As a landscaper and arborist, this made it difficult to determine where the threshold of economic loss is and not as easily identifiable as they are in agricultural crops. The level of damage on plant materials in the landscape—and materials produced for landscape use—cannot be easily classified across a broad spectrum with different types of industry practitioners and customer perceptions and expectations. Damage that is harmful to plants can be recognized, but factors beyond just plant health exist and are of concern to the majority of customers. I have found that most customers are concerned about the actual appearance or aesthetic quality of the plant material. Because of this, much research has gone into and developed to ascertain quantitative measures of “aesthetic thresholds” and “aesthetic injury levels” across large groups of consumers. However, with a constant growing group of plant materials and stress problems associated with those plant materials in the landscape, it is highly unlikely that comprehensive lists of aesthetic thresholds and aesthetic injury levels will be available or of practical use in the near future.
Plant Health Care does not actually replace the IPM model for looking after plants, but it instead utilizes the many tools of the concept and incorporates them into a comprehensive program that has focus on the plant and the customer. Scouting and monitoring of the plant material for insect/disease activity remain a strong part of a proper PHC program that strengthens the proactive approach instead of a reactive one.
Plant Health Care: A Holistic Approach
Plant health monitoring is being able to holistically read the landscape in question by observing, identifying, recording and analyzing what is happening with the plants and their growing environments. When using the holistic approach, it should include: trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and turfgrass. It is important to know how all of these plant materials interact in a sustainable way or how they may compete for light, water, space and nutrients as they grow. In addition, the cultural practices for one component of the landscape can impact the health, growth and development of the other plants over the long haul.
As practitioners, we also must be able to properly identify the plant and have a basic understanding of plant physiology, cultural requirements and soil fertility. Plant Health Care professionals need to have the knowledge in many areas of the landscape. In a perfect world, a PHC program would begin with the planning process of the landscape and the planting of the materials. Many times, a Plant Health Care professional is called in after a property landscape is in crisis because the planning failed to keep the PHC philosophy in mind. In these situations, it is up to the customer and the PHC professional to come up with realistic expectations moving forward. In many cases, removing plants or improving the growing environment may be required.
A carefully considered Plant Health Care program is one of the most important maintenance services you can perform on a landscaped property. When done properly, it allows the plant to grow and develop to its full potential, helping it withstand and recover from unfavorable environments, noninfectious disorders, diseases, insects and other pests, as well as unwise cultural practices. As like human health care, Plant Health Care is also continually evolving as more information and better tools become available. This also means that a PHC professional needs to continually update his or her knowledge and skills. As we increase our footprint on the earth and disturb more plant ecosystems, Plant Health Care will become increasingly valued and demanded.
How is your Plant Health Care?