Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-21000-055-028-G
Project Type: Grant
Start Date: Sep 1, 2021
End Date: Oct 31, 2024
Objective:
Characterize impact of irrigation, nutrition, temperature and substrate stratification on crop quality and nutrient leaching.
Approach:
The effects of different cultural practices (fertilizer and irrigation management) will be investigated in a series of experiments with perennial nursery crops. Using different nursery crop species, we will assess how (1) digital imagery can be used to monitor crop performance (nutrition and water stress); and (2) fertilizer rate alters plant nutrient uptake and nutrient run-off into the environment. Experiments will be performed on a run-off pad, a unique system that enables the collection of run-off from container-grown crops.
We propose to continue this research to further understand the impact of temperature on plant growth and fertilizer nutrition. For the 2023-2024 year, we plan to adjust our treatments to investigate how pot color (black and white) and fertilizer nutrition are affected by substrate stratification. This is a recently developed method of filling a container with coarse and fine substrates that has been shown to improve substrate hydraulics, resulting in improved root formation and plant growth.
