Photo by Katie McDaniel
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November 2025 print edition of Nursery Management under the headline “Labor: Pulling up roots.”
This summer, Nursery Management magazine surveyed 150 growers across North America to learn more about weed management procedures including scouting, herbicide use, budgets and more. Survey respondents hailed from 35 states plus several Canadian provinces. The following pages reveal what your peers are doing at their own operations, as well as which weeds are the most problematic.
llustrations: bortonia | iStockPhoto
ChrWeiss | Adobe Stock
officek | Adobe Stock
Editor’s note: the amount of growers budgeting $100,000 or more for weed control has doubled since 2023.
Editor’s note: In last year’s survey, hand weeding overtook pre-emergence herbicides for the top spot. That trend continued in 2025, as hand weeding returned to the top of the leaderboard as the top choice for growers’ most frequent weed management method. Mowing moved up to tie for fourth place with fabric. Mulch dropped to fifth.
Explore the November 2025 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
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