PDX Plant Girl

08/05/2025

We set up a drip irrigation system for another grad students today, out behind the research greenhouse. It’s pretty much done, no leaks, we just need to do some flow testing. Phew what a day!

06/09/2024

Did some field work for the first time yesterday, scouting out lupine plants to dig up for their root nodules. We learned a lot - mostly that older lupine are SO HARD to dig up. We didn’t find a ton of nodules. I took cuttings to try to propagate in the greenhouse on campus. We’ll be going back to collect seeds. Pictured is Lupinus argenteus, aka silvery lupine.

12/21/2022

12/20/2022

12/19/2022

Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean greenhouses go dormant! All around the country, green businesses are preparing and selling greenery as holiday decoration. When I visited Michigan this month, I learned about a special type of greenery called a “grave blanket”. Super regional, but very traditional and popular. Other greenhouses were busy making wreaths, baskets, and even some green Santa’s. Happy holidays!

12/17/2022

From Joel Cuello out of University of Arizona:
U.S. Lettuce Prices Skyrocket to Historic Levels

This year through November, U.S. prices rose almost 20 percent, not adjusted for seasonal swings, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Just from October to November, its price jumped almost 9 percent, seasonally adjusted.

The major culprit? Low supply and low quality of lettuce caused by an insect-borne virus (INSV) that decimated acres of lettuce crops in the in California where almost half of U.S. lettuce is grown, according to the University of California, Davis.

The infestation translated into approximately 80 percent lettuce yield loss in the Salinas Valley, according to California Farm Bureau Federation.

And the seasonal shift in production site from California to , which happens every Fall, only appears to have contributed to the supply disruption.

It has been reported this week that a wholesale box of 24 heads of romaine lettuce that normally sells for $25 to $30 -- now sells for $100 on the U.S. East Coast.

With the vagaries of the changing climate, occurrences for open-field crop production like this can only be expected to rise going forward.

https://lnkd.in/guJPDmrt

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After months of inflation and interest rate hikes, some are concerned that currently skyrocketing lettuce prices could be a new normal. However, there’s more to the story.

12/15/2022

Roots might be out of sight, out of mind for a lot of growers, but they are entire world unto themselves and have a huge impact on plant health and productivity. This post from Michal Slota at Content Farmers takes us on a tour if the rhizosphere and what we can expect to find there.

The microcosm of root rhizosphere🔭🦠 Changes in space and time

📚 The rhizosphere is the area of soil that is directly influenced by the roots of a plant.

🌱 The composition of the rhizosphere changes over time as the plant grows and its root system develops, and can also vary depending on the specific plant species and the surrounding environment.

🦠 The presence of beneficial microorganisms in the rhizosphere can improve soil fertility and promote plant growth, while the presence of harmful microorganisms can have the opposite effect.

🧪 The gradients of microbial density, activity and diversity have direct and indirect effects on root growth, and the release of secondary metabolites and other signal compounds from the root shape the rhizosphere microbiome.

🔬 The travel distances and concentration gradients of signaling compounds and secondary metabolites are very dynamic and depend on soil properties (e.g. organic matter content), moisture availability, and the phytocompounds released by the root.

📐 The response distances for most microorganisms are within 1 mm from the root, but Rhizoctonia sp. can respond at 5 mm, Gaemannomyces sp. at 12 mm, and arbuscular fungi species up to 16 mm away from the root.

👨‍🌾 The better understanding of the plant-microbial relations in the soil and chemical signaling in the rhizosphere has fundamental importance for maintaining the health and productivity of crops.

📷 Image: diversity of chemical and biological gradients in the rhizosphere (credits: Kuzyakova & Razavi 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2019.05.011)

12/14/2022

In this month's CEA Tech Tip: Grodan's Improved Hugos and veg-stage irrigation!

Irrigation is a difficult topic and can be made even more complicated when switching between medias. Special considerations need to be taken with specific media. Grodan’s Improved Hugo blocks are a popular choice for cannabis. These are most commonly used in greenhouses or indoor production. Understanding how to best irrigate these blocks from beginning of production to the end will set growers up for success.

Read the full tech tip here: https://lnkd.in/gsyfcDfy
**p Grodan

12/14/2022

NASA is finally sending (micro) tomatoes into space!

Why? Fresh sources of nutrition are critical for long-term space missions. Tomatoes provide important nutrients like Vitamin C that don’t store well for long periods of time.

What are they growing in? (Pic 2) The Veggie system, in project VEG0-05, which uses hydroponic “pillows” and LED lights to grow plants and control water delivery.

Why is the light like that? Red and blue LEDs are used because they are the most electrically efficient and photosynthetically efficient! But these lights can be difficult for human eyes to deal with.

12/13/2022

I’ve seen some beautiful indoor cannabis this year in my travels. Here’s one pic from earlier this year.