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The green – a lot of green – is beingput into greenhouse research inBritish Columbia.

The Canadian Foundation forInnovation (a federal government founda-tion which funds research facilities atCanadian colleges and universities) awardedjust over $2.2 million to the Institute forSustainable Horticulture at KwantlenUniversity College in Langley, B.C.

Kwantlen horticulture professor JimMatteoni began the ISH in 2004 as anadjunct to Kwantlen’s School ofHorticulture. The school, which has anassociate dean (David Davidson) and 15faculty members, already trains more peo-ple for horticulture than any other post-secondary institution in the province.

However, to date, the ISH has been lit-tle more than a dream. After Matteonistepped down as ISH director for healthreasons, Deborah Henderson took over asits part-time director and Leading EdgeEndowment Fund chair designate.

“My job is to build research programsin horticulture,” Henderson explains.

To do that, she first needed to acquireboth research facilities and funding. Hergoal is $13.5 million dollars, including$5.5 million for capital projects, $2.5 mil-lion to endow the LEEF chair, $2.5 mil-lion to fund post-doctoral fellowships, and$2 million for operating costs and a lec-ture hall.

“The CFI award is a huge step for us,”Henderson said. “Kwantlen had noresearch facilities and no previous experi-ence with CFI, so our application was along shot.”

The provincial government is expectedto match the CFI funding through the B.C.Knowledge Development Fund, but thatannouncement is not expected untilspring. Add another $200,00 alreadyreceived from Western Economic

Green themeswith Kwantlenresearch plansDream of Institute for Sustainable Horticulture quickly becoming a realityBy David Schmidt

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Diversification Canada for growth cham-bers and other equipment, and Kwantlenis close to achieving its capital fundingtarget.

The province has also committed$1.25 million for the LEEF chair, provid-ing Kwantlen raises the other $1.25 mil-lion (they have raised $200,000 to date).CFI has promised to kick in another$600,000 for operating funds, so the“greenbacks” are well on their way.

The CFI capital funding is intendedfor a 430-square-metre bio-control prod-uct development laboratory building anda 500-square-metre geothermally heatedresearch greenhouse to complementKwantlen’s existing 1,500-square-metreteaching greenhouse. It could take up to30 months to build the new facilities,partly because a specific site has not evenbeen selected yet, and partly becauseskilled tradesmen are difficult to get inB.C.’s construction boom.

The facilities are also going to begreen. The greenhouse will use well-based geothermal heating instead of con-ventional boiler heating, allowingresearchers to advance climate controlapplications for a closed system.

“Climate control is a real challenge,”Henderson admits, noting geothermalheating is still not common in greenhouses.“This is an opportunity for us to be inno-vative.”

She also hopes to cover the lab buildingwith a “green” roof, saying “Kwantlen hasdone a lot of work in environmental andenergy sustainability, so this would beappropriate. We want to make this aLEED-platinum rated facility (LEED is aNorth American rating system for so-called green buildings). This will be soenergy-efficient, it will be suitable for a‘sustainable’ institute.”

Finally, the program will concentrateon “green” research into new production

Deborah Henderson dispenses biologicalsin the Kwantlen greenhouses.

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Geothermally heated research greenhouse is keycomponent of the project

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systems and new crops for green energygreenhouses and development of new bio-controls for indoor and outdoor horticulturalcrops.

This is Henderson’s particular field ofexpertise, having spent the past 18 years,not as an academic, but as a hands-on inte-grated pest management consultant.

“Very few people knew what IPM wasand I started with just three potato growers,”she notes, saying B.C. has since become aninternational leader in IPM in the privatesector, particularly among greenhouse veg-etable, potato, field crop, and cranberrygrowers. The province also has two majorcommercial producers of bio-control prod-ucts.

Her own company, E.S. Cropconsult,has mirrored that growth and now includesa half-dozen full-time staff and up to 30 sea-sonal workers. However, overall industryuptake of IPM still lags due both to a lack ofunderstanding of IPM techniques (“withIPM, you need to work smarter than withpesticides”) and a lack of products (“there isa real bottleneck in getting products out togrowers”).

She joined ISH to help correct bothshortcomings. “I needed to move to a placewhere I could support (her IPM trainees)more. I can do more by enabling other peo-ple.”

She hopes to use the labs to developmore bioproducts and the greenhouses tostudy their effectiveness, insisting the focuswill be on applied research.

“We’re going to be researchers whounderstand farming,” saying ISH will relyheavily on the province’s IPM consultantnetwork to both determine what industryneeds and to field test new options.

“We have to be multi-stakeholder fromthe beginning,” Henderson states. “For IPMresearch to be effective, we have to go fromthe bottom up. We have to start in the fieldor the greenhouse by asking what is neededto control a particular pest or disease, thenmake sure it can be produced commercially.If IPM solutions cost more, they won’t bepurchased.”

Henderson notes the ISH’s goal is tobecome an internationally respected regionalcentre for research and innovation in inte-grated pest management in both greenhouseand field horticulture production.

“The local industry is very positive,” shesays, saying the centre has strong supportfrom three of the province’s major horticul-ture commodity groups: the B.C.Greenhouse Growers Association, the B.C.Landscape & Nursery Association, and theUnited Flower Growers Co-op.

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