Horticulturae recognizes Barickman with 2020 Best Paper Award
Casey Barickman explains how Salad Days, LLC, a Flora-based greenhouse hydroponics lettuce producer, monitors and applies its nutrient solution to the lettuce during a visit to the operation on October 7, 2020. A series of sensors and proportioners are used to dose out the proper amount of water, soluble fertilizer, and pH adjuster for the lettuce. The system monitors the electroconductivity, pH, and temperature of the nutrient solution. Barickman studied how changes in electroconductivity can improve yield and quality in hydroponic greenhouse lettuce. PHOTO: David Ammon | Agriculture and Natural Resources Marketing
Casey Barickman, associate research professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in Mississippi State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, won the 2020 Best Paper Award from Horticulturae, an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal focused on horticulture.
The paper titled, “The Effect of Environment and Nutrients on Hydroponic Lettuce Yield, Quality, and Phytonutrients,” was published in the journal in 2018.
The applied research focuses on ways greenhouse lettuce growers can improve yield and quality by changing the electroconductivity -- or concentration of mineral elements --of the nutrient solutions in which lettuce grows at intervals throughout the year.
“Greenhouse lettuce growers can directly use the paper's information to improve yields and quality by changing the strength of their nutrient solution with the changing of seasons,” said Barickman, who is also a researcher with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at the North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona.
Collaborators on the paper include William Sublett, a former graduate student under Barickman’s direction who graduated with a master’s in plant and soil sciences with a horticulture concentration in 2018 and Carl Sams, distinguished professor in crop physiology at the University of Tennessee.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
Vanessa Beeson | Agriculture and Natural Resources Marketing
