Category Archives: Cluster 3

Dr. Peter Kevan
University of Guelph

The role of external factors such as climate, weather, microclimate, etc. are well-understood in the growth and productivity of agricultural and horticultural crops, both outdoors and in controlled environments. However, the subtleties of heat regimes within plant structures and tissues remains largely unexplored. An understanding of the micro-thermic regimes in floral stems and flowers may lead to practical applications in culture, aesthetics, and perhaps disease and pest control.

The project’s objectives are:

• To survey the gross anatomy and microscopic morphology of the floral stems and flowers of horticulturally important crops,
• To measure the extent of microclimatic amelioration in relation to growth rates, stem elongation, blooming and floral presentation and,
• To explore how microclimatic regimes within stems and flowers might be manipulated to enhance the value of commercially important ornamental crops.

Kevan (Eng) Mar 2019

Kevan (Eng) Feb 2020

Kevan (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

Kevan (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Peter G. Kevan and Charlotte Coates. 2024. Heliocaminiform structures: plant organs that function as microgreenhouses

Dr. Youbin Zheng
University of Guelph

Currently available LED technologies have been proven to have comparable or better efficiency, very long life spans compared to conventional lighting, and are capable of controlling both intensity and spectral recipes for various lighting requirements. Although horticultural LEDs have gained wide acceptance in cut flower, greenhouse vegetable and indoor leafy green production, there are still many knowledge gaps to be filled. In consultation with industry, this project will identify and research the main existing knowledge gaps, including:

• How light quality affects seed germination and performance, with an end goal of developing recommendations for plant propagation in controlled environments,
• Investigation of the effects of light qualities on the morphology of stock plants in order to optimize cutting uniformity and
• Investigating the efficacy of replacing HPS lighting with LEDs as supplemental lighting
• Investigation of the effectiveness of pre-finishing LED treatments to improve plant robustness during shipping.

Zheng (Eng) Mar 2019

Zheng (Eng) Feb 2020

Zheng (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube.

Dr. Charles Goulet
Université Laval

The use of traditional overhead watering practices in nursery production results in excessive use of water resources. Imprecise knowledge of specific water requirements combined with the inability to control application rates generally leads to over-watering of plants. To ensure better management of water resources and reduce impact on the environment, it is essential for the industry to move towards precision irrigation.

Precision irrigation, through the use of tensiometers, will offer nursery growers the ability to optimize their irrigation practices by delivering the right amount of water and the right time to the right plant.

Specific project objectives include:

• Optimization of irrigation management using wireless tensiometers,
• Establishment of clustering recommendations for a wide range of plant species based on their needs, and
• To compare different automation strategies.

Goulet (Eng) Feb 2020

Goulet (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube.

Goulet (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube.

Dr. Ann Huber
The Soil Resource Group

This project will continue research into innovative hybrid treatment systems (HTS) to ‘strip’ nutrients from post-irrigation and other operational waters and the ability of these systems to remove fungal plant pathogens. For full reuse in the greenhouse, this project also proposes to evaluate HTS for the removal of relevant PGRs and pesticides to verify that the treatment process is managing all risks in the water intended for recirculation. The objective is to alleviate grower concern regarding the risk of pathogen transfer from an infected zone to the rest of the production areas via recovered and reused irrigation water.

Objectives:

• Assess ability of individual potential media components of the HTS to remove common greenhouse PGRs and pesticides
• To optimize the media sequence for removal of relevant PGRs and pesticides from greenhouse operational waters, within the current HTS design
• To optimize the operational parameters to enable removal of relevant PGRs and pesticides as well as undesired components that are removed by the current HTS design

Huber (Eng) Mar 2019

Huber (Eng) Feb 2020

Huber (Eng) Feb 2021

Huber (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Dr. Jeanine West
Phytoserv

Excessive biological growth in ponds, due in large part to the practice of recycling irrigation water, results in poor water quality, the clogging of intake filters and subsequently, expensive maintenance costs. This research project will study new methods of controlling the flow of nutrients, with a focus on phosphorous, into and out of irrigation ponds with the objective of improving water quality for reuse purposes and to decrease the risk of nutrients leaving the farm.

The project objective is a systematic evaluation and comparison of various pond management tools, such as enhanced aeration technologies and pond shading methods to determine and recommend improved pond management strategies.

West (Eng) Mar 2019

West (Eng) Feb 2020

West (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

West (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Dr. Rose Buitenhuis
Vineland Research and Innovation Centre

This project will look at the implementation of more sustainable production and pest control practices, including the broader integration of natural enemies, biopesticides and biostimulants into growers’ production programs. Specific objectives include:

• Eliminate/reduce pest (thrips) infestations on imported propagative material by cutting dips in reduced -risk materials
• Fertilizer optimization a. Optimize nutrient inputs and biostimulant amendments to reduce the risk of pest outbreaks while maintaining plant health and quality for two major floriculture crops (gerbera and chrysanthemum); b. Quantify effects of reduced nutrients and/or biostimulants on biocontrol efficiency
• Validate the effectiveness of the systems approach by growing two crops from start to finish in commercial greenhouses in ON and QC, incorporating best practices from objectives 1 and 2

Buitenhuis (Eng) Mar 2019

Buitenhuis (Eng) Feb 2020

Buitenhuis (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

Buitenhuis (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Dr. Yves Desjardins / Dr. Guillaume Gregoire
Université Laval

Following the results of research funded through the previous clusters, the goal of this project is to optimize fertilizer use of turfgrass in order to reduce nitrate-N losses through leaching, with the intent of helping growers to mitigate their impact on Canada’s water sources and enhancement of the environmental sustainability of the turfgrass sector through optimization of fertilizer use. Specific objectives include:

• Measurement of short-term nitrate losses resulting from different fertilization strategies in different soil types,
• Measurement of long-term nitrate losses resulting from best treatments as identified above, and
• To validate greenhouse results in an outdoor field trial.

Gregoire (Eng) Mar 2019

Gregoire (Eng) Feb 2020

Gregoire (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

Gregoire (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Dr. Barry Shelp
University of Guelph

This research work will further test the hypothesis that nutrient use efficiency of modern cultivars of greenhouse-grown potted chrysanthemums can be improved by reducing nutrient supply during vegetative growth, in combination with an interrupted supply during reproductive growth, without sacrificing plant yield and quality. The current project objective is to optimize the delivery of the remaining macronutrients (calcium and magnesium), as well as the micronutrients, to sub-irrigated and drip-irrigated potted chrysanthemums.

Research in years one to four will study the delivery of specific macronutrient combinations during vegetative growth of sub-irrigated potted chrysanthemums over two growing seasons. The year five objective will be to determine whether the optimized nutrient delivery system established for sub-irrigated potted chrysanthemums in the research greenhouse is applicable to both sub-irrigated and drip-irrigated chrysanthemums.

Shelp (Eng) Mar 2019

Shelp (Eng) Feb 2020

Shelp (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

Shelp (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Dr. Nityananda Khanal
AAFC and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry

Creeping red fescue is a major export commodity with an annual export value of $26 million, however, seed productivity in Canada is much lower than US and Denmark, thus affecting its competitiveness in the international marketplace. Research will include genetic improvement, agronomic studies and an economic analytical approach to provide beneficial management options.

Specific research project objectives include:

• Re-initiate creeping red fescue breeding for better disease resistance & environmental adaptability
• Increase multi-harvest seed yield and seed quality of creeping red fescue through plant growth regulation, plant nutrition and stand health management
• Determine the economic profitability of creeping red fescue seed crop management factors included in the study.

Khanal (Eng) Mar 2019

Khanal (Eng) Feb 2020

Khanal (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

Khanal (Eng) Mar 2022 or watch on YouTube

Dr. Alan Sullivan / Dr. Praveen Saxena
University of Guelph

The objective of this research project is to develop integrated production systems that will include new varieties, tissue culture systems for propagation and technologies to enhance early stage survival of transplants. Specific objectives include:

• Develop new varieties and germplasm with an emphasis on novel species that are adapted to drought and low nutrient environments
• Develop novel techniques to improve the survival and vigour of seedlings and tissue culture plantlets during transplanting
• Optimize tissue culture propagation systems by improving light quality, plant growth regulators and culture vessels such as bioreactors
• Develop cryopreservation techniques to efficiently preserve important genotypes and ecotypes of rare, endangered and horticulturally important ornamental species

Sullivan Saxena (Eng) Mar 2019

Sullivan Saxena (Eng) Feb 2020

Sullivan Saxena (Eng) Mar 2021 or watch on YouTube

Sullivan Saxena (Eng) March 2022 or watch on YouTube