Environmental aspects of ornamental horticultural production to be studied

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Through a new partnership between the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre and the University of Guelph, researchers are studying how ornamental horticultural farmers can operate more environmentally sustainable production systems.

The two organizations have partnered to establish a chair in environmental horticulture and Dr. Youbin Zheng, an associate professor at the university’s school of environmental sciences, has been named to the position.

Michael Brownbridge, Vineland’s research director in horticultural production systems, says some of the things Zheng will be working on include how to manage water and nutrients in closed production systems, such as greenhouses, more efficiently.  

“That has a lot of implications in terms of not allowing water to run off but also there’s a cost factor in there and if we can make it more efficient it makes the production system more cost-efficient as well,” he says, noting they’ll also be working on disease management.

Other research will involve growing conditions, including temperature, lighting and growing media, along with the nutrients and water. Brownbridge says Zheng will be studying “environmental management” primarily for greenhouse and nursery ornamental growers.

The research results and ideas will filter down to farmers through the interaction between Vineland and the provincial agriculture ministry. “We can serve as a conduit for some of that information dissemination,” he says. And Zheng has been “fairly good at getting information out through linkages he already has.”

Though the Vineland/university partnership “we have a closer relationship with some of the different grower groups and we can directly get that information out to the grower community,” he notes. BF