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February 2015 - December 2015
March 2011 - January 2015
Publications
Publications (25)
Over the past six years, our national team has developed, tested and commercialized wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and advanced software which allows for automated decision irrigation, based on grower-defined irrigation strategies. WSNs have been implemented in ten commercial greenhouses and nurseries across the Unites States, where irrigation eve...
Advanced wireless irrigation sensor networks that can monitor and control irrigation are only recently available commercially, but on-farm research has found a number of advantages compared with current irrigation practices including reduced water application, disease incidence, production time and labor, together with increased profitability. We e...
Researchers received funding for the Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) Coordinated Agricultural Project “Clean WateR3 —Reduce, Remediate, Recycle—Enhancing Alternative Water Resources Availability and Use to Increase Profitability in Specialty Crops” in September 2014. This project stemmed from a coordinated effort by scientists through a...
In September 2014, researchers received funding for a SCRI Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) entitled “Clean WateR3—Reduce, Remediate, Recycle Enhancing Alternative Water Resources Availability and Use to Increase Profitability in Specialty Crops.” This project was initiated as a coordinated effort among a number of scientists through a multis...
Water scarcity is likely to increase in the coming years, making improvements in irrigation efficiency increasingly important. An emerging technology that promises to increase irrigation efficiency substantially is a wireless irrigation sensor network that uploads sensor data into irrigation management software, creating an integrated system that a...
As a Coordinated Agricultural Specialty Crops Research Initiative Project, the Managing Irrigation and Nutrition via Distributed Sensing (MINDS) team has focused for four-plus years on delivering a commercial wireless sensor network capable of supporting the intensive production system requirements for field nurseries, container nurseries, greenhou...
Agricultural water use typically accounts for 80% or more of consumptive water use, and up to 90% of water use in many western states. Population growth, changing rainfall patterns, and drought will continue to stress the relationship between water for agriculture and domestic uses. One way to reduce agricultural consumption is through increasing w...
Using wireless sensor irrigation networks (WSIN) in ornamental production has been shown to result in many benefits for growers, including water savings, reduced production times, improved plant quality, and reduced plant losses. These on-farm benefits increase profitability, and potential adoption rates. Higher adoption rates and efficiency gains...
We describe and estimate the potential environmental benefits associated with the adoption of wireless sensor irrigation networks (WSIN) in United States ornamental crop production. Benefit estimates are based on results from on-farm research conducted during the previous three years, using both conservative and optimistic assumptions about the lev...
Improvements in sensor technology coupled with advances in knowledge about plant physiology have made it feasible to use real-time substrate volumetric water content sensors to accurately determine irrigation timing and application rates in soilless substrates in greenhouse and container production environments. Sensor-based irrigation uses up-fron...
Irrigation management systems that use wireless transmission of substrate moisture data are beginning to become commercially available for ornamental growers, particularly for use in soilless substrates. These systems allow growers to precisely monitor and control irrigation in real time and are being shown to save time and other resources. On-farm...
Restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay recently intensified with the 2010 introduction of federal total maximum daily load (TMDL) limits for all 92 bay watershed segments. These regulations have specific, binding consequences if any of the six states or the District of Columbia fail to meet interim goals, including loss of federal dollars for va...
Nursery, floriculture, and propagation production accounted for 81% ($9.48 billion) of the 2009 specialty crop production in the United States. Access to high quality water sources is increasingly limited for irrigating these economically significant crops. Given the production, environmental, and economic issues associated with the use of water —i...
Wireless soil moisture sensors have been successfully used to manage water in greenhouses and nurseries settings, and have been shown to improve plant quality, save water, and reduce disease pressure. Most publications discussing progress in this area have focused on the sensors and wireless networks used to provide the data to growers. In order fo...
The use of wireless sensor networks to determine irrigation timing and application rates can reduce water application rates and thus irrigation costs (including energy and labor in addition to direct expenditures on water). Sensor networks may also reduce disease pressure through more efficient irrigation, which can reduce or eliminate fungicide us...
Continuous cut flower production of snapdragons (Antirrhinum sp.) requires substantial inputs of energy and resources. The use of wireless sensor networks can benefit growers by cost reductions achieved through input reductions and potentially by reducing time to harvest and improving quality. Input reductions also have environmental value by reduc...
Grower priorities in water research need to be regularly identified. The most recent strategic outlook on water management was reported by Beeson et al. (1). While many previous concerns remain, their priority has changed with the inclusion of emerging issues. This publication provides a synopsis of a nationwide survey and grower listening sessions...
Defining operational efficiencies within the nursery and greenhouse industry is challenging for a number of reasons. Production practices are highly variable between field, container-nursery and greenhouse operations. In addition, many individual growers produce hundreds of species and cultivars, and use a variety of production, irrigation, and fer...
Restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay recently intensified with the 2010 introduction of federal Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) limits for all 94 bay watershed segments. These regulations have specific, binding consequences if any of the six states or the District of Columbia fail to meet interim goals, including loss of federal dollars for va...
We are focused on providing the nursery and greenhouse industry with cost-effective tools and real-time information, to make more timely decisions not only about irrigation and nutrient management, but wherever possible, for other aspects of the operation. One key tool has been the information provided from a simple weather station. Traditionally,...
Agriculture contributes a substantial portion of non-point source nutrient and sediment loads that reach the Chesapeake Bay. Research in this area has traditionally focused on agronomic farm contributions, with limited research on the nursery and greenhouse industry. In order to obtain a better understanding of the impact of this industry in Maryla...
Container nursery, field nursery and greenhouse operations are intensively managed with regard to nutrient and irrigation inputs throughout the United States. This leads to the potential for high levels of nutrient (greenhouse and container) and sediment (container and field) runoff, if proper nutrient application and abatement practices are not fo...
Wireless sensor networks are allowing specialty crops growers to collect precise environmental and production data, including temperature, relative humidity, total and photosynthetically active radiation, rainfall, leaf wetness, wind speed and direction, soil moisture, irrigation water application, leaching volumes and soil / substrate electrical c...
Introduction Soilless Substrates Nutrients Water Conclusions Literature Cited
Projects
Project (1)
Enhancing Alternative Water Resource Availability and Use to Increase Profitability in Specialty Crops
Our objectives are to: (1) publish an online decision support system to aid growers with identification and implementation of innovative technologies to recycle water for reuse or release from containerized crop production systems, (2) reduce contaminant loading into recycled water sources by (a) managing irrigation volume and chemical inputs and (b) installing treatment technologies; (3) identify and develop biological and physical treatment technologies, which (a) effectively remediate pathogen, pesticide, and nutrient contaminants and (b) integrate into existing operations with negligible reductions to production area and minimal energetic or chemical inputs; and (4) effectively communicate project outputs to stakeholders to encourage adoption of defined practices to reduce, remediate, and recycle production runoff.
