Progress 10/07/15 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences include producers of ornamental plants and their staff, employees, allied distributors and suppliers, and end consumers on occasion. County extension agents with responsibilities for educating these target audiences, conducting applied reseach on farms of producers, providing consultation, or otherwise advise these producers. Scientists working in a similar field with similar target audiences across the U.S. Changes/Problems:The COVID-19 panemic severly depressed the oppporuntities to both perform research and present tis findings to the target audience. Thse difficulties are presently being alleviated by social distancing, vacinations, and public policy. Efforts may still be dampened in 2021, however, improvements will occur to access to target audiences and research conducted. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The benefits of amending a substrate with organic material was presetned to 79 growers at the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Green N Growin' Show on January 13, 2020 in Greensboro, NC. All attending increased on average their knowedge of amendments, large container grown trees, and measuring water holding capacity for large container trees. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?LeBude, A.V. and J.S. Owen. 2020. Substrate amendments for growing large trees in containers. North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Green N Growin' Show. January 13, 2020, Greensboro, NC. 79 attended for 1 hr. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Caliper growth of four shade tree cultivars was increased by 0.25 inches over a two year period when conainer substrate was amended with 20% coconut coir. The research was installed on-farm and ended in fakk Oct. 2019 and the produicer has adopted the nurtient and water saving practice of adding a 20% substrate amendment ot imrpove growth and reduce runoff.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Calabro, J., J.S. Owen, A. LeBude, J. Boldt, J. Altland, and J. Gray. 2019. Research priorities as indicated by industry needs for environmental horticulture. HortScience 54(9):S92.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Lebude, A.V. and B. Hopper. 2020. https://nurserycrops.ces.ncsu.edu/. An online learning resource for Cooperative Extension agents and producers of ornamental plants.
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Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Primarily targeted growers, producers, stakeholders, and county Extension agents with commerical horticultural responsibilitie in ornamental nursery crops. Secondary focus was on Master Gardeners, homeowners, and people walking into the research station. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Approximately 32 County Extension Agents and four nursery crops producers were part of a three day training to disseminate results about substrates, nutrients, irrigation volume measurement and reduction, and measuring nutrient availablity in container grown crops. Training consisted of in-classroom presentations followed by field trips to surrounding nurseries to diagnose and remediate common substrate, nutrient and irrigation challenges growers face during production. The field trips also consisted of hands-on learning with substrate physical properties and pH/electrical conducvitiy probes. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue collaborations with other Institutions within NC1186 Mulstistate working group. Set up an experiment on nursery in 10 counties that trains agents to measure and record pH/electrical conductivity of a few common, but similarly grown plants at different nurseries then report their findings to the others involved within the goup. This will simultaneously make them aware of variance in production methods among nurseries, build rapport with local proucers, and inegrate the results into a discussion with their peers so they understand what they found.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A gower was having trouble irrigating shade trees growing in 30 gallon containers using drip irrigation. The water profile was not saturating the entire substrate and roots were not growing in large portions of the container. As a result leaves were chlorotic and growth stunted. In collaboration with Dr. Jim Owen at Virginia Tech, we engineered new substrates that would saturate throughout the profile thus providing both water and nutients to plant growth with the same or less volume of water used previously. Four shade tree species grew approximately 0.24 inches larger growing in the engineered substrate than in the nonengineered substrate and were ready for harvest 3 months earlier. Both treatment and control trees used the same volume of water during the experiment. The grower has adopted a 20% by volume addition of an organic amendment to the substrates for the entire shade tree program in containers at the nursery. This was in repsonse to both the results of the experiment conducted at their nursery and a drought that occured in the area that left the grower with limited irrigation capacity. The engineered substrate holds the same volume of water as the nonengineered substrate, but has more airspace to help when extreme rain events occur in between droughts.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Owen, J.S., A.V. LeBude, J. Calabro, J.K. Boldt, J. Grey, and J.E. Altland. 2019. Research priorities of the environmental horticultural industry founded through consensus. J. Environ. Hort. 37(4):120-126.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
LeBude, A.V., Owen, J.S., J. Calabro, and J. Grey (2019). HRI uses research priorities to lead the environmental horticulture industry. Nursery Notes, 53(4), 16-18
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Owen, J. S., Jr., A. V. LeBude, A. Fulcher, J. Stanley, and L. R. Oki. 2019. Leaching Fraction: A Tool to Schedule Irrigation for Container-Grown Nursery Crops. Virginia/North Carolina Coop. Ext. Publ. SPES-128/AG-855
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Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The primary target audience included commerical producers of container or field grown ornamental plants in North Carolina, Ohio, and Califonia. Additionally, the target audience included NC Cooperative Extension Agents, as well as Master Gardeners, and commerical ornamental nursery employees, and landscape design install or maintenance workers attending workshops or conferences. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A professional development opporuntity was created for 20 NC Coopertive Extension Agents with commerical horticulture responsibilties in central and southeast NC. Agents visited a commercial container and field grown nursery during the NC State Univeristy and NC A&T University Annual Statewide Extension Conference in November 2018. They toured the irrigation facilities and gained knowledge about source water quality, production runoff, various remediation technologies avialable to producers, and the effects of source water quality on irrigation. At the Eastern NC Field Day, Tinga Nursery, Castle Hayne, NC 8 August 2018, a professional development opportunity for 15 NC Cooperaive Extension Agents was conducted for three hours. It was titled "Water quality and irrigation efficiency in nurseries," where attendees were taught, using hands-on experinteital learning methods, how to conduct an irrigation uniformity test and extract and measure leaching fractions from container plants. All those in attendance demonstrated proficiency in conducting both tests. A professional development oppportunity was created for 45 commercial nursery producers and 5 national Cooperative Extension agents at the Ohio Cultivate18 Conference in Columbus, Ohio, 14 July 2018. In collaboration with Drs. Amy Fulcher and Jim Owen, we designed, developed, and delivered a five hour training on hydrangea production that covered substrates, irrigation, plant growth regulators, nutrition, and pests. All who attended gained knowledge, ability, skills and attitudes toward adopting various best management practices to improve irrigation use, reduce nutrition, and decrease use of labor by using plant growth regulators. All who attended increased approximately one unit on a likert type scale, on average, from moderate to high as identified on a post workshop survey. A professional development opportunity was created for 27 NC County Cooperative Extension Agents with commerical horticulture responsbilities. On 1 Feb 2017, the webinare "Irrigation source water used for nursery production" was presented online as part of the NC Cooperative Extension Agent Training Webinar Series. All those in attendance improved their knowledge of source water quality for irrigation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A poster titled "Source water quality nurseries use for irrigation" was created and interpreted for the Eastern NC Twilight Field Day, Horticultural Crops Research Station, Castle Hayne, NC, 8 August 2018 for 73 growers and 15 county agents who attended for 2 hours. A presentation titled "Source water quality nurseries use for irrigation" was given to 60 commercial nursery producers at the annual meeting of the USDA Multi-state Working Group Meeting of NC1186 in Carmel, CA, 19 June 2018. A power point presentation titled "Update on nursery production in North Carolina" was created and delivered 10 May 2018 to 32 commerical field producers at the Caldwell County Nurserymen's Association meting. Portions of this project were discussed. A presentation titled "First Person Scouter" in collaboration with Amanda Taylor and Danny Lauderdale, the area specialized agents for North Carolina, was presented at the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association Green and Growin' Show in Greensboro, NC 17 Jan 2018. Approximately 75 people attended that included landscape design, installation, and maintenance employees, commerical producers of ornamental plants, pesticide applicators, county extension agents, and students. Portions of this program were discussed when scouting for problems using the pour-through extraction method. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue investigating source water quality in terms of weed seeds introduced into production through the irrigation system. This will include over ten nurseries and another FTE of technical support over two years. Experiments will begin Spring 2019 and continue into the next phase of this project. Publish the results of the source water quality project. Presentation have already begun training NC Cooperative Extension Agents and commerical producers to conserve irrigation, reduce nutrient runoff, and imrpve plant quality. Attend the NC1186 annual meeting.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impact: The program has been investigating the effect source water quality that growers use for irrigation has on growth of containerized flowering shrubs. Most growers in the southeast US use open ponds for source water to irrigate plants and these ponds can increase in pH as the summer progresses. The best management practices (BMP) for source water quality dictate that pH be between 5.8 and 7.0, however almost all ponds measured are above this BMP range (> pH 7.0) and therefore may affect plant growth. Unfortauntely there are no conclusive studies investigating this quality of water and plant growth. Therefore, this project investigated these effects on growth of five flowering shrubs over two years in six nurseries in North Carolina. The control treatment was irrigated with pond water at the nursery with a pH range from 7.0 to10.0, depending on the nursery. The treated plants received the same irrigation water, however, it was adjusted to keep a stable pH 6.0 during the experiments. Photosynthesis and stomatal conductance were measured to estimate how quickly plants were growing and how much water they were using, respectively. Total amount of stems and leaves produced was also measured after each year to determine effects on total growth by weighing them completely dry. There was no effect of high pH water on plant growth. This is encouraging because growers routinely collect water samples and are confused by the ranges of pH in water. Some are faced with purchasing systems to remediate the water in order to bring it within BMP levels. This research suggests that they do not need to purchase equipment to reduce the pH of their irrigation water as long as it has less than 50 ppm alkalinity. This might save each grower between $10,000 and $50,000 in design, injector installation, and chemical costs. Of the six nurseries we worked with that would be a savings of $60,000 to $300,000.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
nurserycropscience.info
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Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is commercial growers of ornamental nursery stock in North Carolina, the Southeast U.S., and the United States. Additionally, the target audience is county Cooperative Extension agents with responsibilities in commercial horticulture and indirectly Master Gardeners. Presentations were made to approximately 125 growers and agents at the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association's Winter Green and Growin Show. Two webinars reached 50 Coopearive Extension agents in both Virginia and North Carolina. Hands-on presentations reached 25 master gardener volunteers. A symposium and tour of nurseries reached 40 growers and producers of ornamental plants as a direct result of attending a symposium held with funds from this project. Eigth graduate studens attended an asynchroouns, on-line only graduate level class HS550: Environmental Nursery Production through NC State University and AG*IDEA. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?1) Professional development annual meeting for members of NC1186 described above. 1) Approximately 40 growers attended a day-long symposium to learn the objecvtives below: A. Learn how to expand production when current water supplies are limiting. B. Reduce crop production times and apply fewer pesticides. C. Obtain a comprehensive understanding and critical evaluation of all irrigation technologies available to you right now to save water and money in nursery production. D. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn about irrigation strategies from the researchers who developed, implemented, or evaluated them. 2) A webinar was provided to Cooperative Extension Agents of Virginia and North Carolina about the aspects of the source water quality project and prelminary findings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?2) Right now all phases of all projects are in preliminary mode and have not been disseminated whole or in part in order to fuly understand the outcomes and effects on plant growth. Presentations and webinars have been presented, but only to inform the target audience of the project and its scientific underpinnings. 3) Approximately 5 hands-on hour long presentations have been admnistered to various landscape contractors to teach them how to conduct an irrigation audit and interpret the data from the findings. These occurred in Charlotte, Asheville, Fayetteville, Tarborro, and Wilmington, NC. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?2) Install and apply treatments to ongoing research to complete projects in the 2018 year. 2) Conduct webinars to train Cooperaive extension agents about source water quality effects on plant growth. 2) Contribute to a day-long, hands-on demonstation of findings for both Cooperative Extension agents and producers of ornamentals plants in eastern NC.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1) The NC1186 annual meeting was held in Raleigh, NC, from June 13-16, 2017 at NC State University and the J.C Raulston Arboretum. Approximately 20 members of NC1186 attended the event and Robin Smith (Robin Smith Law Office PLLC) was a guest speaker to provide professional development to the members. 1) A symposium was held for growers to learn about tools and technologies for use in managing irrigation in the nursey. 1) A tour of nurseries occurred with growes from the symposia. 2) Reseach was conducted to determine the effect source water quality on plant growth of various ornamenals on nursery, by lowering the pH to 6.0 for six nurseries in eastern North Carolina. This work is partially funded by a NCDA&CS Specialty Crops Block Grant. 2) A master of horticulture, distance education option, graduste student in the Horticultural Science Dept. at NC State in collaboration with Jim owen at Virginia Tech, investigated the effects of substrate physical properties, fertilizer rate and placement, and irrigation volume on growth of two ornamentals plants.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
LeBude, A.V., A. Fulcher, J.-J. Dubois, S. K. Braman, M. Chappell, J.-H. Chong, J. Derr, N. Gauthier, F. Hale, W. Klingeman, G. Knox, J. Neal, and A. Windham. 2017. Experiential nursery integrated pest management workshop series to enhance grower practice adoption. HortTechnology 27:772-781.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
LeBude, A.V., J. Owen, and A. Fulcher. 2017. Hydrangea primer: flowering & bluing. Nursery Management 33(9):14-20.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Owen J., A. LeBude, and A. Fulcher. 2017. Hydrangea primer: nutrient management. Nursery Management 33(8):16-22.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Fulcher, A., A.V. LeBude, and J.S. Owen. 2017. Hydrangea primer:PGRs. Nursery Management 33(10):14-20.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
LeBude, A.V. and J.S. Owen. 2017. Pinpoint irrigation problems with a pre-winter check-up. Nursery Notes 51(4):45, 47.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
LeBude, A.V. 2017. Irrigation source water quality in North Carolina nurseries. Nursery Notes Spr (Apr.-June):49-52.
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Progress 10/07/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is commercial growers of ornamental nursery stock in North Carolina, the Southeast U.S., and the United States. Additionally, the target audience is county Cooperative Extension agents with responsibilities in commercial horticulture and indirectly Master Gardeners. Presentations were made to approximately 75 growers and agents at the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association's Winter Green and Growin Show. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A webinar tilted "Water Quality in Nurseries in Southeast North Carolina was presented during a lunch and learn series produced by Virginia Tech. The webinar was attended by 30 nursery plant producers for one hour. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been dissemintated by journal article, presentations in various counties around North Carolina, extentsion articles as well as e-mail. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Conduct various experiments to determine the effect of high pH irrigation water on plant growth. We will conduct numerous experiments in six nurseries to acidify pond water and compare that to the pond water available in nurseries.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
An experiment was constructed at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center to investigate varous levels of irrigation water pH on plant growth. In 2016 the infastructure of piping, nozzles, dosing instruments, and irrigation was designed, purchased, and installed.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Fulcher, A., AV. LeBude,J.S. Owen, Jr., S.A. White, and R.C. Beeson. 2016. The Next Ten Years: Strategic Vision of Water Resources for Nursery Producers. HortTechnology 26:121-132.
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