URBANA - USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded a $1.5 million grant today to help University of Illinois researchers establish guidelines for increasing environmental, social, and economic sustainability in ornamental crop production systems.
Lead researcher Ryan Stewart of the U of I Department of Crop Sciences said a major concern of greenhouses, nurseries and other ornamental crop production systems is waste generation due to the use of plastic pots.
"The Green Industry uses plastic pots to establish plants," he said. "Unfortunately, the main source of material to make these pots is petroleum. Biocontainers appear to be an excellent sustainable alternative to petroleum pots, Also, growers love the idea of marking up the retail price of a plant by having it available on the shelf in a garden center."
Biocontainers utilize plant-based fibers, plant or animal proteins and recycled byproducts. Examples include containers made out of sterilized cow manure, wood pulp, coconut coir, rice straw, peat moss, rice hull and proprietary bioplastics developed by horticultural companies.
Stewart is collaborating with researchers at seven other universities throughout the country on the project, which is titled "Impact and social acceptance of selected sustainable practices in ornamental crop production systems." Their first order of business is to generate a life cycle analysis for each biocontainer, Stewart said.
"We will evaluate the biocontainers from cradle to grave. In other words, we're going to measure all the energy inputs and outputs related to their processing, production, and distribution," he said.
The biocontainers will then be evaluated in greenhouses and containerized nurseries. Stewart said the containers will be run through automated greenhouse production systems to see how they will fare in automated planting and filling stations. After plants are inserted in them, they will also evaluate how the biocontainers are affected by overhead irrigation.
"In a conventional production system, plants and the containers that hold them experience a lot of stress," he said. "These biocontainers, particularly in a nursery setting, need to be tough to withstand the mechanical damage they'll be subjected to. We've done some preliminary work and it appears that some of the biocontainers might not make the cut. However, many appear to be very promising."
After studying the pots and the plants grown in them in the greenhouses and nurseries, researchers will evaluate how the plants perform after being transplanted into the landscape. Can these plants grow normally in a biocontainer? How do they degrade in the landscape?
"A huge issue surrounding these pots is whether they can be planted directly into the ground without impairing plant growth," he said. "If these pots allow the root to grow down through the container, that's a win-win situation for all."
Of course, in the end, it will come down to the numbers. Economists collaborating on the project will study the data generated and evaluate the economics and sustainability of these biocontainers to form recommendations.
"We want to help industry leaders make critical decisions on the use of sustainable practices related to container choice and irrigation management based on solid data and research," he said. "There is great interest in producing ornamental crops more sustainably. If a biocontainer made of cow manure or other biodegradable materials can survive in an automated production system, growers will be able to sell both the plant and the pot."
NIFA awarded more than $46 million through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), which was established by the 2008 Farm Bill to support the specialty crop industry by developing and disseminating science-based tools to address the needs of specific crops.
Specialty crops are defined in law as "fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture." Funded projects address five focus areas: 1) to improve crop characteristics through plant breeding, genetics and genomics; 2) to address threats from pests and diseases; 3) to improve production efficiency, productivity and profitability; 4) to develop new innovations and technologies and 5) to develop methods to improve food safety.
"The specialty crop industry plays an enormously important part in American agriculture and is valued at approximately $50 billion every year," said Roger Beachy, NIFA director. "These projects will be key to providing specialty crop producers with the information and tools they need to successfully grow, process, and market safe and high-quality products."
Collaborating researchers include Guihong Bi of Mississippi State University, Robin Brumfield of Rutgers University, Michael Evans of the University of Arkansas, Tom Fernandez of Michigan State University, Robert Geneve and Rebecca Schnelle of the University of Kentucky, David Kovacic of the University of Illinois, Genhua Niu of Texas A&M University, and Sven Verlinden of West Virginia University.