Tom Fernandez, a Michigan State University professor in the Department of Horticulture, has spent much of his 25-year career at MSU studying how to effectively manage water in greenhouses and nurseries to increase water-use efficiency and reduce nutrient runoff.
With funding support from Project GREEEN — Michigan's plant agriculture initiative based at MSU and supported by the Michigan Plant Coalition, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, MSU AgBioResearch, and MSU Extension — Fernandez has developed management strategies to ensure agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides aren't washed away from their intended targets, harming the surrounding environment and diminishing water quality.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about a half million tons of pesticides, 12 million tons of nitrogen, and 4 million tons of phosphorous fertilizer are annually applied to crops. The runoff of these inputs contributes to some of the leading strains on water quality.
In greenhouses and nurseries, it's easy to overwater many plants because the containers they're in allow water to easily drain. Fernandez has found that by applying water based on a plant's daily water use, irrigation can be reduced between 30%-80% depending on the species, and growers can conserve water and reduce the runoff of nutrients from the potting mix.
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