In the Italian plant nursery industry, plant quality increasingly depends on careful management of plant health.

Amid climate change, international trade, and growing phytosanitary pressure, promptly identifying and preventing harmful organisms has become essential. Alien insects, bacteria, and viruses often find a favorable environment in ornamental crops, making structured, frequent, and technically sound monitoring the first real shield against infestations and economic losses.

Effective monitoring is a fundamental practice for maintaining healthy crops and achieving high yields, while minimizing the use of plant protection products and their environmental impact, and safeguarding crop health at the same time.

Let’s look at some practical guidelines:

1. Inspection frequency: cyclical checks every 5–7 days, including the perimeter of the cultivation area, which is often more exposed.
2. Detailed inspection of every part of the plant
   • Leaves: check both upper and lower surfaces for holes, spots, deformities, or honeydew;
   • Stems: look for gnawing damage, holes, or insects;
   • Flowers and fruits: check for damage, eggs, or insects;
   • Collar and roots: inspect these if soil-borne diseases are suspected.
3. Indirect evidence: sometimes the pathogen is not visible, but you may observe signs such as shredded wood, deformities or abnormal growth, residues or spider webs, wilting, or weakness with no apparent cause.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/66 establishes that an approved risk management plan for harmful organisms allows for a reduced frequency of official inspections. This plan must include critical point analysis, standard operating procedures, material traceability, preventive and containment measures, and intervention protocols in case of suspected or confirmed infestation.

Phytoweb simplifies this process by offering a digital tool to create customized phytosanitary risk management plans. It enables nurserymen and operators to identify and manage risks associated with harmful organisms, map each production phase, and define preventive measures to be implemented in the nursery.

An operational tool that optimizes plant protection strategies, translating European regulations into daily practices that nurseries can easily manage. Through Phytoweb, the user can:

1. Select the company site already registered in their user profile.
2. Indicate the cultivated species and the harmful organisms relevant to the nursery.
3. Calculate risk by combining the probability of exposure to a harmful organism with the level of damage resulting from exposure.

Risk classification into three levels (high, medium, low) helps quickly identify the most critical areas of the production process and focus resources and interventions accordingly.

Adopting a risk management plan offers several advantages for operators:

• Reduces the introduction and spread of pathogens;
• Ensures regulatory compliance with simple, practical, and verifiable procedures;
• Records every activity for future audits and official inspections, ensuring traceability;
• Improves commercial reputation and credibility;
• Reduces delays and costs linked to phytosanitary issues;
• Promotes sustainable and preventive management.

With Phytoweb, monitoring harmful organisms becomes a proactive process based on control, prediction, and prevention. This shift lays the foundation for building a culture of plant health protection in which every operator is part of a shared network safeguarding green spaces.

Monitoring harmful organisms is an investment in quality, sustainability, and the future of the ornamental plant nursery industry. With tools like Phytoweb, every nursery operator can work with awareness and precision.