Adoption of sustainable practices to protect and conserve water resources in container nurseries with greenhouse facilities

The intensity of fertilizer and pesticide inputs in California's production nursery industry has led to increasing concern about the adoption of sustainable management practices and potential water quality impacts. While a variety of good management practices have been recommended for greenhouses and nurseries, few studies have documented the extent to which growers have adopted these practices. Thirty-eight container nurseries with greenhouse facilities in Ventura County, CA, USA, completed a 142-question survey to evaluate the adoption of good management practices. In addition to this educational interview, many of the surveyed operators then attended at least one educational meeting addressing sustainable management practices, government regulation, and economic implications of adopting good management practices. Good management practices were adopted widely by surveyed nurseries, with overall 'yes' responses to the adoption of good management practices being 65% and 'not applicable' responses being 38%. Smaller nurseries (<4.0 ha) were less likely to have high adoption rates of good management practices, suggesting that particular attention should be paid to the concerns of smaller nurseries in planning education, outreach, and research activities. The re-survey within two years found significant (p<0.05) increases in the number of 'yes' responses overall and in eight out of nine question categories. Significantly more (p<0.05) positive responses were recorded for 20 specific practices, including some in integrated pest management, runoff management and container media management categories. These results suggest that nurseries are amenable to the adoption of sustainable management practices over a two-year period, presumably in response to educational programs, economic considerations and regulatory concerns.