Research Interests
Applied research for the commercial greenhouse industry, including
- Directing the UNH Young Plant Research Center, which is an industry-driven research program for nutrition, plant health, and genetics for the production, propagation, and shipping of young plant material.
- Media-pH and micronutrient management, including understanding how factors drive pH changes over time and correction of pH-related problems.
- Computer decision-support systems for growers, to help to optimize growing conditions, and to consistently and profitably achieve high-quality crops in time for target sales periods. These tools allow graphical tracking of plant height, flower development, nutrient, or pest levels over time.
M.S. graduate students:
- Amy Douglas: determine sexual compatibility between Nolana species.
- Andrea Quintana: Studies of flower color in Anagallis monelli.
- Amy Bestic: Determining micro nutrient concentrations within soil-less media.
- Kate Santos: Optimizing nutrition during rooting of cuttings
Research funding for my program has been provided by
- Grower organizations (American Floral Endowment, FIRST, New England Greenhouse Conference Research Fund, and the New Hampshire Plant Growers Association)
- Numerous private companies
- The Anna and Raymond Tuttle Environmental Horticulture Fund
- The UNH Agricultural Research Station
On this page, I have included some of my abstracts that show examples of published or submitted articles on different aspects of my research program. For less technical information, please go to the Grower Tools section of my web site.
Research abstracts:
- The pH-Response of Soilless Media to Application of Acidic Chemicals
- Quantifying the pH-Response of Peat-based Media to Application of Basic Chemicals
- Quantifying the effect of high-pressure sodium lighting on greenhouse production of vegetative cuttings for specialty annuals
- Variability in flower development of Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb.): model and decision-support system.
- Predicting variability in anthesis of Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb.) populations in response to temperature.
