Plants, Places and People
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Colorado State University
March 2023
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Spring is almost here!
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
My first winter in Colorado is almost over and you can feel spring from the green grass poking their head above ground. I was almost convinced that Spring was here when seeing cherry blossoms in Washington D.C., when I happily ran into someone from Colorado. Thank you for contributing to this March 2023 issue. The work that you are doing is phenomenal. I appreciate the opportunity to share them with the world.
Read on!
Mengmeng
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Can technology make Colorado's peaches even jucier?
A new, nondestructive sensor aims to help growers with quality control, harvesting and shipping these time-sensitive fruits. Every spring, when he was growing up in northern Greece, Dr. Ioannis Minas would look out over valleys of pink—flowers blooming on the area’s abundant peach trees. In his family’s orchard, Minas was always focused on making things easier; he wanted to ensure a sustainable industry by providing the highest-quality fruit to consumers. A few decades later, he’s still working to improve the peach industry, just from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean (more).
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The race to breed a better potato chip
“Chippers have to be a certain size and shape to fit through processing machines so they can be sliced appropriately and form the right sized potato chip,” said Dr. Jessica Chitwood-Brown, assistant professor of potato breeding and genetics at Colorado State University, who also consider qualities like shape, coloring, sugars, yield, and disease resistance when cultivating new varieties. These details could make or break a potato’s popularity among processors — and, more importantly, consumers (more; Jessica Chitwood-Brown).
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HLA/CAS at ProGreen
At the ProGreen Conference, Our faculty and students each did a research update based on their work. It was well- attended by almost 200 people. Thank you, Dr. Jim Klett, for being the best moderator and inviting us! And the Dean of College of Agricultural Sciences, Dr. James Pritchett (below), joined us for CSU Alumni Coffee.
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CFVGA
Dr. Josh Craver led a panel discussion on 'Trends in controlled environment agriculture in Colorado'. Dr. Eduardo Gutierrez-Rodriguez led a workshop on 'Identifying and managing risks in packing areas' and Dr. Mark Uchanski coordinated the 'Specialty crop block grant program poster session'. HLA affiliate faculty Dr. Jianbing Ma shared 'Vegetable genetics and new cropping systems for Colorado farm challengers'.
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Agrivoltaics Research
At the most recent Ag. Experiment Station conference at Spur, three HLA faculty member, Drs. Jen Bousselot, Horst Caspari and Mark Uchanski were featured for their work on Agrivoltaics at Denver, Western Colorado Research Center in Orchard Mesa and Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center in Fort Collins.
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Professional Mixer
With 38 companies, 90 registered students and more in Knowledge Well and the adjacent classroom, HLA mixer was a huge success!!! Thank you to our Student Activity Committee led by Dr. Chitwood-Brown, Lori Catalano, Katherine Isaacson, Sarah Wilhelm, Tony Koski and Karen Allison. They and Sam Holtshouser from Student Success Team put in a lot of work for this event re-scheduled due to inclement weather.
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Spur Produce Lab
Led by Dr. Eduardo Gutierrez-Rodriguez, the now-activated Produce Lab will process fresh fruits and vegetables, conduct produce safety research, test novel food safety technology and develop new fruit and vegetable products.
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Semilla Project
CAS Elias G. Quinonez completed their first Spur visits through the Semilla Project with high school students from Adam City, Fort Lupton, La Junta and Rocky Ford---140 student and 14 advisors. We appreciate you involving HLA Sam Rosado (Graduate student, TSP team member), and Zach Johnson, Scott Curry and Chris Tragakes----the virtual tours were a hit and the home run was the Ag Ambassador who shared her story as a student in the program!
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SRMAC
Three HLA banners debuted at Southern Rocky Mountain Ag. Conference and witnessed presentations by Drs. Jessica Chitwood-Brown, Andrew Houser and Samuel Essah, and celebration of Dr. Dave Holm's 45 years at CSU.
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Moldova trip
This past October Jeff Pieper participated as a volunteer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Farmer-to-Farmer program in Moldova. While there he traveled with a team consisting of members of local non-profit organizations and another private sector volunteer. The team visited several farm operations and discussed stone fruit production techniques with growers and worked with farmers on no-till production practices. They were also to tour the State Agrarian University of Moldova where Jeff was able to lecture students about research methods and peach production practices utilized in Colorado.
If you have ever looked for ways to apply your horticultural skills in new contexts, like to travel to new places and experience new cultures, languages, and environments, the Farmer-to-Farmer (FtF) program may be for you (Jeff Pieper).
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Spur potato day
Our stakeholders, faculty and students from both Fort Collins and San Luis Valley came to Spur and provided rich content for a Potato Day. It was featured on Front Porch-Northeast
Denver and Potato Growers (Dave Holm).
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Barbara Hyde Boardman
Barbara Hyde Boardman, a two-time CSU graduate who served as a CSU Extension horticulture agent in Boulder County for 17 years, passed away in mid-January, just a month shy of her 99th birthday.
A pioneer in her industry, Boardman was the first woman to enroll in CSU’s horticulture program. She earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University and ultimately went on to become the country’s second ever female Extension horticulturalist (more; Katie Dunker).
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T-shirt design contest
If you have graphic design talents, submit your entries to CNGA per these rules:
> designs are due to CNGA offices by March 31
> designs to include no more than 2 colors
> create design based on the theme - "Plant Happy"
> design will incorporate the 'Grown in Colorado' and 'CNGA' logos
> submitted design format should be .jpg, with other formats to be requested from winner
> winning designer will receive a $100 gift card
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Where was the Department Head?
· Feb. 1 --- ProGreen Conference in Denver
· Feb. 2 --- AES Research Center Conference at Spur
· Feb 2-4 --- ASHS Board meeting at SRASHS
· Feb. 7-8 --- Southern Rocky Mountain Ag. Conference at SLV
· Feb 21-23 --- CFVGA and Colorado Ag Forum in Westminster
· Feb 28-Mar 1 --- ASHS Leadership Academy in Washington D.C.
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Spring Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Seminar Series
Every Tuesday from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Nutrien 163
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