SOILLESS SUBSTRATE SCIENCE

Horticulture is rooted in soilless culture, with ample opportunities for ever-evolving systems to better produce specialty crops while overcoming a diminishing availability of soil fumigants, increasing pest pressure, and the need for flexibility in a constantly changing world of new cultivars and production methods. Soilless culture, specifically using growing media (i.e. soilless substrates), provides an unprecedented opportunity to rethink how we produce nuts, small fruits, tree fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, pharmaceuticals, and hemp. The foundational science and knowledge used to produce containerized greenhouse and nursery crops over for the past half-century can inform future innovations while also incrementally improving existing ornamental production systems... The United States Department of Agriculture Specialty Crops Research Initiative has awarded a Planning Grant to a multi-disciplinary team of seven North American universities and federal laboratories, led by Dr. Jeb..

Also known as: soilless substrates