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Plant Health

Maintain plant health with our plant pest and disease alerts and factsheets on the most common threats.

PEST & DISEASE FACTSHEETS

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Caterpillars

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Rust on ornamental plants

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Tarsonemid and eriophyid mites

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Leafhoppers, capsids and suckers

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Powdery mildew

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Mealybugs

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Scab

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Thrips

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Downy mildew

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Whitefly

Abi Rayment

Growers’ Guide to Plant Health: Damping-off

Abi Rayment

PLANT HEALTH THREATS

Takahashia japonica: cotton stringy scale insects' distinctive ovisacs could lower aesthetic value

Prunus bacterial spot/canker: this notifiable disease can inflict serious damage on all Prunus species

Black/brown spots on leaf surface

Tasmanian eucalyptus beetle: Eucalyptus trees face the risk of significant defoliation from a beetle that is expected to become established in the UK

Paropsisterna selmani

Pepper weevil: sweet peppers, chilli peppers and other Solanaceae are at risk from this small but potentially devastating pest

Pepper weevil

Lemon tree borer: Wood-boring larvae of this beetle could wreak serious economic and environmental damage to native trees and shrubs

Oemona hirta

Red palm weevil: retailers and growers must beware of this highly invasive pest

Red palm weevil

Japanese beetle - chafer beetle poses a significant economic, social and environmental impact if it reaches the UK

Japanese beetle: metallic-green thorax and head and wing cases are coppery bronze

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus: can inflict considerable yield losses in commercial tomato and sweet pepper production

Crate of tomatoes with patchy red and green colouring due to tomato brown rugnose fruit virus

Citrus longhorn beetle: this pest threatens to alter our rural, urban and garden landscapes for good

Citrus longhorn beetle has a black body with variable white markings and long antennae

Two-lined chestnut borer: the arrival of this beetle would be another nail in the coffin of the UK's oak trees

Two-lined chestnut borer and marks in wood left by larvae feeding galleries

PLANT HEALTH NEWS

Sweet chestnut blight outbreak spreads

Sweet chestnut blight (Photo d.rigling)

Call for ideas to use £3m RHS/APHA plant health Defra funding

Wisley meeting

Have Your Say: Consultation opens for UK’s new nature and gardening GCSE

GCSE

SPS UK-EU agreement delay top topic at European Nurserystock Association meeting in Dublin

ENA

UK International Action Plan for Plant Health 2026 to 2030 launches

xylella

Xylella research 'reaches new level'

xylella

APHA finds 70 online listings for banned invasive plants

APHA

Versatile and sustainable new biodegradable adjuvant gains HSE approval in UK

Bionema logo

Kew's State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2026 reveals extinction scale under-estimated

01. Digitising plants at Kew - CREDIT - Jeff Eden © RBG Kew

National Centre for Environmental Horticulture hosts first industry-facing event at Wisley

wisley

Defra distance plant sellers list peaks

pp

Winners and losers this horticulture week: Hortipak new owners, OPM, SPS, seesaw trade

kalas

Winners and losers this horticulture week: sold, SPS, heatwave

gc

Defra says SPS agreement will come into force in July 2027

eu

Pippa Greenwood to take up APHA role

Pippa

'Crazy' if Reform ditch SPS agreement, international floriculture leader tells HortWeek

Matthijs Mesken

Glyphosate-supporting report launches in Parliament

Alistair Carmichael MP

WATCH: Chief plant health inspector speaks about new £3m research scheme

apha

Starmer woes overshadow King's Speech EU Bill + industry reaction

King

Defra and RHS launch £3m virtual plant health centre to tackle horticulture industry plant health problems UPDATED

sign

ICL ‘Fertilisers for the Future’ at HTA National Plant Show

ICL

SPS agreement on its way landmark UK-EU meeting hears VIDEO

EU panel

Coles Nurseries to host ICL Hort Science Live 2026

ICL

European Nurserystock Association 'confident' SPS negotiations are going well

ENA

Transition period after UK-EU SPS agreement rejected in Government’s response to EFRA report

EU

John Adlam's Monthly Nursery Checklists

1 December — Cold stores, compost tea and disease control

1 November — Fleece, Flexidor and frosts

1 October – Bacteria, biocontrol and Botrytis

1 September – Sawfly, scab and stem cankers

1 August – Sap, spider mites and spraying

1 July – Camellias, capsids and caterpillars

1 June – Scale insects, slugs and spider mites

1 April – Beetles, biocontrols and blossom wilt

1 March – Aphids, biological control and box blight

1 February - Field planning, frost and Fructogard

1 January - Feeding, field weeds and fogging

1 October - Caterpillars, Choisya and compost tea

EAMU MONTHLY ROUNDUPS

EAMU roundup: May 2026

Plum tree - credit: Flickr/Jnzl'sPhotos (CC by 20 DEED)

EAMU expiry alert: June 2026

hourglass

EAMU roundup: February 2026

Blueberry

EAMU roundup: January 2026

Lettuce crops - credit: Flickr/NRCS Pacific Islands Area

EAMU roundup: December 2025

Apricot orchard

EAMU roundup: November 2025

Broccoli

EAMU roundup: October 2025

Hops

EAMU roundup: September 2025

Horseradish - credit: Flickr/Nick Saltmarsh (CC by 2.0)

EAMU roundup: August 2025

Protected tomato production - credit: Flickr/ Local Food Initiative (CC by 2.0)

EAMU roundup: July 2025

Pumpkins - credit: Flickr/ScotGovRural Matt Cartney (CC by 2.0)

EAMU EXPIRY ALERT

apple

New EAMU granted for Romeo on top fruit crops

Romeo now authorised for use on outdoor-grown apple, pear, medlar and quince.