How do you handle weeds?

Our exclusive research reveals how North American growers manage weeds at their nurseries.

weed-control — Photo: Katie McDaniel

Published September 18, 2024 | Updated February 25, 2025

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This summer, Nursery Management magazine surveyed nearly 100 growers across North America to learn more about weed management procedures including scouting, herbicide use, budgets and more. The following pages reveal what your peers are doing at their own operations, as well as which weeds are the most problematic.

Editor’s note: Due to rounding, not all percentages add up to 100.

Editor’s note: Big drop in field production growers from last year, when 21% of survey respondents were field-only.

(Other answers include thistle, bittercress, fleabane, spiny amaranth, Poa, flickweed, liverwort, Bermudagrass, purslane, Johnsongrass)

astrosystem | Adobe Stock

leslie j. mehrhoff

Editor’s note: the amount of growers budgeting $100,000 or more for weed control has doubled since 2023.

Other answers included pre-emergent timing, weather (specifically rain), re-entry time, weed identification, training.

Editor’s note: In last year’s survey, pre-emergent herbicides overtook hand weeding for the top spot. But for 2024, hand weeding returned to the top of the leaderboard as the top choice for growers’ most frequent weed management method.

Rob Routledge

Juan Campa

Editor’s note: Bit of a flip here from last year’s survey, in which 58% of growers had not experienced resistance.

Kelli Rodda

Howard F. Schwartz

Other answers included bittercress, poa annua, amaranth, autumn primrose

Photo By Theodore Webster, Bugwood.org

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