Departmental Assignment:

      •  Research (100%) - Research to develop advanced cultural systems and technologies for 

    production of new or existing floricultural crops encompassing plant nutrition, water

    management, pest management, environmental impact of management systems, 

    photoperiod, plant growth regulators, and root media;  2) develop new crops which includes 

    evaluation of native plant species, defining cultural requirements for production, and 

    selecting or breeding for vegetative and flowering characteristics to improve acceptance

    and marketing potential;  3) interdisciplinary research efforts to determine the interactive 

    effects of  pest management with production practices, harvesting, and post-harvest 

    longevity;  4) research to define the effects of production practices on plant establishment

    or hardiness in various landscapes or restoration environments.  

Research Projects: 

• Develop best management practices for irrigating caladiums, define the optimal water table depth for drainage and supplying subirrigation for caladiums, and determine the effects of water table depth and periodic flooding on development of Pythium root rot.

• Develop caladium tuber indexing and propagation program using tissue culture to provide    clean, disease-free stock and rapid mother-block production.

• Breeding for heat-tolerance and basal branching in Eustoma grandiflorum (lisianthus).  

• Evaluate performance of commercially-available and native ecotypes of Rudbeckia hirta, Black-eyed Susan, for use in road-side plantings with collaborators in four Florida locations.  

• Develop production practices for potted seed Pentas lanceolata and Trachelium.  

• Thrips management on impatiens by manipulating nitrogen and phosphorus tissue levels during  production.  

• Epidemimiology and management of Fusarium root, crown, and stem rot of lisianthus.  

• Utilization of bacteriophages for the biological control of bacterial diseases on floricultural crops.