WERA58: Production, Transition Handling, and Reestablishment of Perennial Nursery Stock
(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)
Status: Inactive/Terminating
WERA58: Production, Transition Handling, and Reestablishment of Perennial Nursery Stock
Duration: 10/01/2004 to 09/30/2009
Administrative Advisor(s):
NIFA Reps:
Non-Technical Summary
Statement of Issues and Justification
Plant production, transition handling, and reestablishment of nursery stock continues to be challenging in light of new plant introductions and growing techniques. Environmentally friendly practices at every step are expected by the general public. It is essential for researchers to understand past and current problems and constraints in order to design integrated research approaches to address issues facing perennial plant producers.
Commercial production is concentrated in regions with climate favoring rapid and cost effective plant growth. Visiting these major production regions affords the opportunity for WCC-058 participants to interact with growers and handlers in identifying production handling and reestablishment issues. . Through these site visits and subsequent interactions of committee members, this committee has identified several important areas of research and coordinated experimental approaches. For instance, transplanting was identified as an important issue, so the gravel bed growing system is being investigated in humid (Missouri) and arid (Idaho and Utah) climates with deciduous (Missouri and Utah) and coniferous species (Idaho) being tested. Drought tolerance of landscape plants and their water usage are also being investigated in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. Extension efforts are also being coordinated among committee members. This committee has worked on several extension topics such as usefulness of in-ground fabric bags (Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Utah) and adaptability of native plant species to managed landscapes (Iowa, New Jersey, and New Mexico).
Plant material is shipped throughout the U.S. where plants are acclimated to local conditions, grown for additional seasons, and sold at various times. Research addressing proper acclimation and handling of perennial plants before shipment to climatically diverse regions is critical to their quality, survival, and ability to re-establish. Visiting production and retail nurseries throughout the U.S. enables WCC-058 participants to see problems firsthand. Business meetings then allow committee members to evaluate research problems, coordinate experimental approaches, and design extension programming aimed at solving problems. The WCC-058 also is seeking to include an international perspective on technology and trade.
Objectives
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To provide a forum where integrated research and education approaches are designed regarding problems facing plant nurseries involved in plant production, transition handling and reestablishment of perennial nursery stock.
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To share new research information about transition handling and reestablishment of perennial nursery stock and identify high priority areas and foster interdisciplinary research and education projects among WCC-058 scientists.
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Prepare reviews or summaries of topics relevant to the plant production, transition handling, and reestablishment of nursery stock with the general research community and other interested persons by publishing information in journals and on the website of the WCC-058.
Procedures and Activities
Expected Outcomes and Impacts
- Enhance research efforts: Collective analysis and discussion of major concerns facing nursery growers who produce perennial nursery stock by WCC-058 scientists allow them to emphasize and cooperate on high-priority research needs. Joint projects with external competitive funding will continue to evolve. The interaction of participants across major production areas in the Western States and other regions of the U.S. allows projects to combine diverse expertise.
- Multidisciplinary involvement: Multidisciplinary and interregional participants in the WCC-058 have included scientists from 20 states. This diverse background and experience in all aspects of production, transition handling and reestablishment of perennial nursery stock results in dynamic discussion and enlightened research planning and interdisciplinary projects. The participants have expertise in areas such as genetics and breeding, plant growth and development, post-harvest physiology, plant stress physiology and plant-water relations. Participants in meetings have also included faculty with expertise in biosystems engineering, plant pathology, entomology, agrometeorology and economics. Efforts are made to include local scientists and graduate students in the committee meetings to extend the scope of information exchange and potential for cooperative research. Thus, the coordinating committee has provided an effective vehicle for communication and sharing between scientists, educators, and industry professionals which otherwise would not exist.
- Improved nursery stock production: Recognition of emerging problems involving the perennial nursery stock industry and the exchange of research information amongst scientists will result in practices reducing post-production losses, improving efficiency and producing high quality plant material while sustaining environmental quality. Consumers are the ultimate benefactors of the interdisciplinary and interregional approach through greater selection of new material and improved performance, survival, utility, and quality of landscape plants.
- Standardization: Research-based development of standards for production-transition-establishment of perennial nursery stock has resulted from interregional cooperative research. These standards continue to provide a database for improved technology transfer and problem-solving. Interregional cooperation ensures that information is readily and widely transformed into practice as it develops.
- Improved education: Opportunities for students and university personnel interested in nursery production to interact with WCC-058 members at the annual meetings expand educational opportunities. Tours of nursery facilities, plant collections, or landscapes enhance all participants? understanding of challenges in producing or using perennial nursery stock in different climate zones. Visuals taken at these tours are valuable teaching aids for all participants in the classroom and for training of professional growers. Comparison of teaching methods amongst participants is another valuable educational component of this group. Students have the opportunity to meet faculty from other universities and explore graduate studies.
Projected Participation
View Appendix E: ParticipationEducational Plan
WCC-058 is a vehicle for intraregional and interregional, multidisciplinary research approaches to identify and integrate environmentally sound production, transition, and establishment strategies for perennial landscape plans. WCC-058 is the only coordinating committee focusing on these critical issues. With participation from 20 states, the WCC-058 essentially serves as a national coordinating committee. There are individual and joint research efforts by WCC-058 participants dealing with the problems of the nursery and landscape industry. New applied information is disseminated in classrooms and through professional and popular/trade magazine publications. For example, WCC-058 members are developing a joint extension publication on the use of gravel beds for post-harvest holding of bare-rooted nursery stock. This publication will be based on the cooperative research of many of the project scientists. All members of the WCC-058 are involved in presentations at workshops and field days through their respective university outreach programs. WCC-058 members are actively sponsoring colloquia on WCC-058 related research at the American Society for Horticultural Sciences.
Organization/Governance
WCC-058 officers are the secretary, vice-chair, and chair. A new secretary is elected every year and elevated to the position of chair in their third year. The secretary is responsible for recording minutes of the annual meeting and coordinating names, addresses, telephone numbers, etc. The vice-chair assists the chair in arranging the business meeting and serves in the absence of the chair. The chair of the WCC-058 conducts the business meeting, generates informational materials, participates in renewal of the petition and assists in coordinating meeting sites with a local arrangement committee.
Literature Cited
See attachment