Skip to main content
Skip to main content
Give      University of Florida

Water

The enormity and complexity of the environmental horticulture industry in Florida necessitate the partnering of our faculty with colleagues from other agencies, institutions, universities, and departments to meet the research and education needs of Florida’s citizenry. For example, the Water Education Alliance for Horticulture is a partnership between universities and industry designed to help growers use water efficiently and sustainably. Their goal is to provide growers with information on water treatment and to fill informational gaps on technology efficacy. Similarly, a collaborative effort between UF and USDA scientists produced the CCROP (Container Crop Resource Optimization Program) web-based decision support tool that can be used by growers for daily irrigation scheduling as well as for estimating season-long water requirements. Likewise, UF turfgrass scientists located throughout Florida are addressing water quality issues (nutrient leaching) in partnership with Florida Department of Environmental Protection; landscape irrigation planning in partnership with the Southwest Florida Water Management District; and improved turfgrass germplasm in partnership with turf researchers from five southern US land-grant universities with funding provided by the USDA-NIFA.

 

Paul Fisher

Dr. Paul Fisher

352-273-4581
pfisher@ufl.edu
Environmental Horticulture 
University of Florida
2549 Fifield Hall
PO Box 110670
Gainesville FL 32611-0670

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.