Dr. Paul Fisher
Professor and Extension Specialist / Floriculture
Dr. Fisher manages two university/industry groups to undertake applied research and grower training for greenhouse floriculture production and water conservation. Floriculture is a globally connected network with flow of plant material, inputs, and diseases/pests. We collaborate with other UF researchers, as well as universities and companies around the U.S. and overseas.
Dr. Fisher manages two university/industry groups to undertake applied research and grower training for greenhouse floriculture production and water conservation. Floriculture is a globally connected network with flow of plant material, inputs, and diseases/pests. We collaborate with other UF researchers, as well as universities and companies around the U.S. and overseas.
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RESEARCH
We collaborate in multi-state projects on applied research for the commercial greenhouse industry.
- The Floriculture Research Alliance is a university-industry consortium for applied research on production, propagation, and shipping of floriculture crops. Our focus areas are root zone management (growing media, fertilizer, water), production training, and economics.
- The Clean Water3 research program focuses on water sanitation and quality to help growers capture and reuse irrigation runoff.
- The Resilient Plants Project is funded by a grant entitled “Production, Shipping and Postharvest Techniques to Maximize Sales and Sell-Through while Minimizing Inputs (including labor)” through the USDA-ARS Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative. The overarching research objective is to increase plant resilience in floriculture products to reduce crop losses at production, retail, and consumer phases.
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TEACHING
I supervise graduate and undergraduate students in applied research projects.
These include:
- Student research on indoor propagation of transplants
- Advanced greenhouse climate and irrigation control
- Substrates and nutrients in hydroponics
- Water treatment technologies
Courses Taught
- I guest lecture in courses such as nutrition for horticulture crops, and hydroponics
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EXTENSION
I lead Greenhouse Training Online, a series of English/Spanish online professional development short courses for growers.
We are developing mobile-accessible grower training and calculators in BackPocketGrower.org to help growers to improve production efficiency with information technology.
Water conservation, sanitation and quality is the focus of Clean WateR3 to minimize runoff and disease-related issues.
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EDUCATION
- Ph.D. in Horticulture (Michigan State Univ.), 1995
- M.Appl.Sci. in Resource Mgmt. (Lincoln Univ., New Zealand), 1988
- B.Sci. in Botany (Univ. of Auckland, New Zealand), 1985
- PUBLICATIONS
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RECENT SERVICES AND HONORS
- 2024: Alex Laurie Award from the Society of American Florists (SAF)
- 2018: ASHS Extension Division Material Award (Website) for Greenhouse Training Online
- 2018: Contributor to “Light Management in Controlled Environments”, winner of American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Educational Aids Blue Ribbon and the 2018 American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) Extension Division Material Award (Book).
- 2017: UF Term Professorship Award for faculty achievement.
- 2017: ASHS Kenneth Post Award for best graduate student research publication in ornamental horticulture by my student Ryan Dickson
- 2017: LEAD21 Leadership for the 21st Century participant sponsored by University of Florida IFAS Extension
- 2017: Member of team winning National Experiment Station Section Excellence in Multistate Research Award
- ADDITIONAL LINKS