News

Summer Undergraduate Research Highlight

Stefanie Severin was our summer undergraduate researcher in the 2021 University of Delaware College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Summer Institute program. Her research focused on how light intensity and schedules influence growth, morphology, and stress responses in seedlings of tomatoes and leafy greens grown indoors. In August 2021, she presented part of this research at the 2021 Undergraduate Research and Service Scholar Celebratory Symposium.

Presenting at the 2021 ASHS conference

In August 2021, Dr. Qingwu Meng delivered an oral presentation entitled “Blue Photons in Broad Spectra Determine Lettuce Yield, Morphology, and Color" at the 2021 American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) annual conference. He conducted this study with Dr. Erik Runkle at Michigan State University.

A summary article of this study will be published soon in the Produce Grower magazine.

ASHS Vegetable Publication Award

Dr. Qingwu Meng's paper entitled “Blue Radiation Interacts with Green Radiation to Influence Growth and Predominantly Controls Quality Attributes of Lettuce" [J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 145(2):75–87.] was named the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) Outstanding Vegetable Publication Award winner for papers published in 2020. He accepted this award at the 2021 ASHS conference in Denver on behalf of him and his co-authors, Drs. Jennifer Boldt and Erik Runkle.

GLASE webinar on new CEA research programs

In June 2021, Dr. Erico Mattos of the GLASE (Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering) Consortium held a virtual round-table discussion with new faculty members working on controlled-environment agriculture, including Dr. Qingwu Meng.

Each of the six panelists talked about their new research, teaching, and/or extension programs and answered questions. Watch the full recorded Zoom webinar here.

Online teaching of DIY home hydroponics

In Fall 2020, Dr. Qingwu Meng taught the Introduction to Hydroponics lecture course online. To provide hands-on learning, he sent students kits to try making DIY home hydroponic systems and growing hydroponic leafy vegetables and herbs. To demonstrate how this is done, he built an indoor hydroponic garden at home and posted regular updates online along with students. This video is a collection of visuals to showcase different crops he grew and the system setup.

New paper in Frontiers in Plant Sciences

In October 2020, Drs. Qingwu Meng and Erik Runkle published a research article titled "Growth Responses of Red-Leaf Lettuce to Temporal Spectral Changes" in the journal Frontiers in Plant Sciences.

Click here to read the open-access paper.

A scientific presentation of this paper is below.

Presenting at the virtual 2020 ASHS conference

In August 2020, Dr. Qingwu Meng delivered an oral presentation at the virtual 2020 American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) annual conference. Findings were from a research project conducted by Drs. Qingwu Meng and Erik Runkle in the Controlled-Environment Lighting Laboratory at Michigan State University. It investigated growth responses of red-leaf lettuce 'Rouxai' under changing light spectra during two growth phases. Watch the full talk here.