Voices of Horticulture: Gene Giacomelli

Moon Farming with Gene Giacomelli

by Steve Millett

Dr. Gene Giacomelli has a dream to grow veggies on the moon. Gene has dedicated his research at the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) at the University of Arizona in Tucson to designing a lunar greenhouse that will enable astronauts to grow food in outer space. As a student of the UofA’s Greenhouse Tomato workshop I was given the opportunity to visit Gene’s Lunar Greenhouse. Walking into the room and first seeing the Lunar Greenhouse gave me goosebumps. Being that close to something that important to the future of space exploration gave me an adrenaline rush of inspiration. Gene’s work and the work of others at NASA and around the US will enable us one day to live on another planet. Thanks to Gene we are one step closer to that dream.

Continue reading Voices of Horticulture: Gene Giacomelli

Voices of Horticulture: Dr. Alex Krichevsky’s Glow in Dark Plant and the Plant Infirmary

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

Dr. Alex Krichevsky’s Glow in Dark Plant and the Plant Infirmary

dr-alex-krichevsky-glow-in-the-dark-plants

Dr. Alex Krichevsky is an eclectic plant scientist with a penchant for entrepreneurialism. Dr. Alex was born in the Soviet Union and began his formal education in Israel. He immigrated to the United States and after a few stints in academia in New York he found his roots in St. Louis where he created two unique plant centric businesses. The first business he started, now called Gleaux, centers around his invention – the world’s first glow in the dark plant. Alex’s new company, The Plant Infirmary, is a molecular plant diagnostic lab for the ornamental private sector. Dr. Alex talks with me briefly about BioGlow and The Plant Infirmary.

plant-1

For more:

The Plant Infirmary

BioGlow

Gleam

Plus One article

LinkedIn


Voices of Horticulture: Ben Bylsma, Michigan’s Food Innovator

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

Ben Bylsma, Turning Chefs into Growers

The Food Innovation Center
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
kvcc_greenhouse_ben-bylsma
Ben Bylsma, production manager at the Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Food Innovation Center is helping chef’s become growers. The Kalamazoo Valley Healthy Neighborhoods Food Innovation Center is unique mix of culinary arts, health care and horticulture is evolving in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Great State of Michigan and private donors have invested $46.1M to construct a campus dedicated to improving the health and well-being of residents through improved nutrition and diet.  Culinary students learn how to grow food as well as how to prepare and cook food. The Food Innovation Center will focus on sustainable food systems, food safety essentials, winter crop production, and food industry career planning. The Food Innovation Center features classrooms and labs, an indoor hydroponic grow room, an instructional greenhouse, and a native soil garden.  Ben Bylsma and KVCC are innovating food our food system.  Ben talks with me briefly about food as the core to hour health and what the Food Innovation Center is doing right now.

kvcc-flood-bench kvcc-food-inovation-center-gh

For more:
Ben BylsmaProduction Manager
Kalamazoo Valley Community College Food Innovation Center
Food Innovation Videos


Facebook

Voices of Horticulture: Dr. Ep Heuvelink and Rose Bud Break

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

Dr. Ep Heuvelink and Rose Bud Break

lumen_building_greenhouse-ep-heuverlink

Dr. Ep is uber cool from the Netherlands. Ep is a well know researcher and has written books on Tomato Greenhouse Production and Greenhouse Crop Physiology. You can find his books on Amazon. Ep has a great sense of humor and is a botanical fashion trend setter. In our brief conversation, Ep talks about the ISHS Light in Hort Symposium and the influence of light on rose bud break.

 

Links:

Book: Tomatoes (Crop Production Science in Horticulture)

Book: Plant Physiology in Greenhouses

ResearchGate

LinkedIn

SlideShare

Canada Greenhouse Conference Presentation

Email: ep.heuvelink@wur.nl

Voices of Horticulture: American Veterans become Community Farmers

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

Jasmine Walden, Newark Inc.
Jasmine Walden, Newark Inc.

“American Veterans become Community Farmers”

Our American Veterans have bravely served and protected our nation, our freedom and our people. Although we can never repay them for what they have done we can help them continue their journey after serving our country. Rutgers University’s V.E.T.S. program is a creative effort where a community has come together to help our American Veterans cope with life after the military. Rutgers University, the City of Newark, the Metropolitan Baptist Church, and the Willing Heart Community Care Center have joined forces to train, educate, and inspire our American Veterans. The American Veterans in the program are taught horticulture skills and are getting involved in the Newark community. In the classroom, unemployed Veterans are taught the needed skills to get back to work and the hands-on part of the program gives them the needed experience and confidence. The Veterans grow vegetables aquaponically in the V.E.T.S. greenhouse and also garden in soil in at-risk neighbors. While helping others grow food they also teach the citizens how to enjoy healthy eating and grow their own produce. Rashad Radyun, the Rutgers V.E.T.S. coordinator talks with me briefly about this successful and inspiring community effort. For more information please visit the Rutgers V.E.T.S. program site: http://www.rutgersvets.org

 

Rutgers VETS documentary:

Rutgers VETS facebook:

Rutgers VETS in the news:
Rashad Radyun, Rutgers VETS coordinator

Voices of Horticulture: Dr. A.J. Both, Rutgers University

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2
dr-aj-both-rutgers-university

“The Horticulture Light Label”

Dr. A. J. Both outlines the need for a standard horticulture lighting label and proposes a “Quick Facts Horticulture Lighting Label.”

 

draft-proposed-lighting-label

Research Articles:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aj_Both
https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=ZzoETD4AAAAJ&hl=en
http://leds.hrt.msu.edu/research/

Hort Americas Blog – Discussing LED Lights

A.J. on YouTube:

Voices of Horticulture: Dean Kopsell, University of Tennessee

Dean Kopsell greenhouse University Tennessee

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

 

Dean Kopsell greenhouse University TennesseeDean Kopsell, University of Tennessee
Eating marigold petals

Dr. Dean Kopsell talks about why we should eat marigold petals and what his students found to be the best red to blue ratio for peak carotenoid concentrations.
Dean is a professor at the University of Tennessee and has studied an eclectic range of crops including Arabidopsis, basil, broccoli, cilantro, kale, lettuce, microgreens, onions, purslane, spinach, squash, turfgrass, and tomatoes.

1. Dean’s UT url:
http://plantsciences.utk.edu/kopsell.htm

2. Selected work of Dean Kopsell:
https://works.bepress.com/dean_kopsell/

3. Dean’s Social Media:
Dean on Twitter: @UTPhytonut


Dean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-kopsell-5b707a45

Voices of Horticulture: Dr. Gioia Massa, NASA

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

 

Gioia Massa and Veggie

Dr. Gioia Massa, “Veggie” Scientist at the Kennedy Space Station, NASA

“NASA’s Veggie and Space Kids”

Dr. Gioia Massa is a plant scientist in NASA’s Veggie program which aims to grow plants in the International Space Station (ISS). Gioia is a Future Farmers of America (FFA) alumni and has grown her early love for plants to a career that is now helping us explore space and preparing humans for space travel. Her professional talks are captivating, inspirational, mind-boggling and always end up giving me goosebumps. She talks with me briefly about NASA’s “Veggie” program on the ISS and how kids on earth are being inspired to reach for the stars.

 

 

Gioia-Massa-young-NASA-lettuce
Gioia on “Ask Me Another” Game Show
LinkedIn
Twitter.com/plansinspace
Twitter.com/NASAKennedy
NASA Veggie:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/veggie-plant-growth-system-activated-on-international-space-station
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/863.html
Gioia on StarSpot
Gioia on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QJpNVrS3yw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvIpqI41_eU

Publications:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gioia_Massa

Voices of Horticulture: Bruce Bugbee, Utah State University

Voices-of-Horticulture-logo2

 

Research-Bruce-Bugbee-2016Dr. Frits Went and the Pursuit of the McCree Curve

Dr. Bruce Bugbee of Utah State University was the opening speaker at the 2016 International Society for Horticulture Science Symposium on Light in Horticulture. Dr. Bugbee talks candidly with me about how understanding history can give us a keen insight into today’s botanical questions about light and the outlook of our future.

 

 

 

For more information on Dr. Bugbee’s program visit these sites:

1. https://cpl.usu.edu/htm/about-us/directory/memberID=5316

2. https://tedx.usu.edu/portfolio-items/bruce-bugbee/

3. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0099010