With more than 25,000 square feet of greenhouse space, the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses are dedicated to research and teaching associated with the NH Agricultural Experiment Station and College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.
The facility provides highly controlled environments for a diversity of research projects, including ornamental and food crop breeding, sustainable ornamental plant nutrition and development, biological pest control, bioremediation, and plant genetic diversity as well as substantial graduate instructional activities. The greenhouse environments are monitored and precisely regulated through a computer-based control system that creates a sustainable growing environment through the conservation of heat, electricity, water and fertilizer, and increased plant resistance to insect pests and diseases.
In addition to on-campus research and teaching, the greenhouse facility is a significant resource for teaching and outreach to our local communities and horticultural professionals across the country. Our annual Spring Open House engage the general public in ongoing research and increase overall awareness of local, sustainable horticultural production here at the university and throughout the region.
Learn about the scientists and latest research at the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses below.
13 Botanical Ln.
Durham, NH 03824
United States
CONDUCT RESEARCH AT THE FACILITY
With many users at our greenhouse research facility, it is critical to ensure that we have knowledge of all ongoing and planned activities in order to ensure compatibility and to coordinate resources required to provide support and facilitation as needed. Importantly, we have responsibility for compliance with federal, state, university and local regulations, and to ensure safety for our staff, students, faculty and visitors.
To request the use of the Macfarlane Research Greenhouse facilities, please complete the Macfarlane Research Greenhouse use request form.
In the form, you will be asked to provide information about the proposed project well in advance, so that we can evaluate our abilities to accommodate your requested use of facilities and resources. For questions, please contact the Macfarlane Greenhouse manager, Matt Biondi by email or phone, 603-862-2061.
Innovating Tomorrow’s Squash and Pumpkins
Led by Chris Hernandez, UNH’s cucurbit breeding program—North America’s longest continuously running pumpkin and squash breeding initiative—is advancing genomic tools and contemporary breeding methods to create new varieties with improved yield, disease resistance and nutritional content. The program has led to over 100 new variety releases, 50 exclusive licenses held by UNH and more than $2 million in royalties that continue to move this UNH research program.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Hernandez, graduate students Joshua Addo and Mustafa Cerit, and research assistant Renee Goyette are working to develop new varieties of these staple New England crops with improved characteristics like increased market yield, disease resistance and nutritional quality. With an eye on global agriculture, Hernandez plans to release breeding lines through commercial seed producers to farmers inNew Hampshire and around the world.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. Hernandez's cucurbit breeding program
Bringing Underutilized Crops to New Hampshire
Iago Hale is always on the lookout for the hidden gems of the agricultural world. Hale is interested in the characterization, maintenance, and utilization of crop genetic diversity as means of enhancing small farm viability, rural livelihoods, food security, and ecosystem integrity. For Hale, crop improvement is fundamentally about increasing the options available to both growers and consumers within a context of dynamic market forces, increasing land-use pressures, and uncertain environmental factors.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Hale leads the Kiwiberry Research and Breeding Program at UNH, founded in 2013 to develop elite varieties and best management practices to increase commercial potential of this under-utilized grape-sized, tropical-tasting fruit that is a delicious, nutrient-dense crop. Many of the over 2,000 breeding lines begin at the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses. A newer endeavor is In a recently begun Tartary buckwheat breeding program, which is assessing whether this promising underutilized crop would be a good fit for the northeast. Fast growing and highly drought tolerant, even in depleted soils, this gluten-free pseudo-grain boasts a rich flavor and impressive nutritional profile.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. Hale's breeding program
Optimizing Crop Production in New Hampshire
Becky Sideman's research program takes an integrated approach to research and extension activities that focus on high-value specialty crop production and methods of extending the growing season for NH farmers. She is particularly interested in researching strategies to minimize production costs and ecological impacts, while producing economically viable yields of high-quality crops. Dr. Sideman's projects have focused on identifying new crops, cultivars and production practices, including season extension technologies, that expand opportunities for vegetable and berry production in northern New England.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Sideman is assessing radicchio, a popular Italian fall vegetable that brings unique color and flavor, either in salads or braised and grilled. Recent research is determining the varieties that can most effectively be produced in the cool-climate New England region to determine how planting date can impact harvest timing, yields and quality. Recent findings indicate that several varieties exhibit promising characteristics that could potentially be crossed for further improvements.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. Sideman's crop management research program
Finding Alternative Means to Grow Plants
Sazan Rahman is an agricultural engineer with a passion for Controlled Environment Agriculture. His research mainly focus on increasing the yield and quality of agricultural products using minimum resources and reducing environmental degradation with minimal carbon footprint by applying different innovations, optimizations, waste management and renewable techniques. Rahman's multi-disciplinary lab is intent to overcome each specific challenge of controlled environment agriculture, from the substrate to the roof cover and anything in between, through sustainable technologies.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Rahman and graduate students Robiul Islam and Hafizur Rahman are testing various growing substrates and growing methods to see which effectively grows the best food crops. There are many different substrates (peat moss, coconut coir, rockwool) and methods (container grown, hydroponics, aquaponics) to choose from, with countless combinations and ratios to trial; the research greenhouse experiments are using science-based approaches to find the optimal components.
The Science of Plant Physiology
Duoduo Wang is a plant physiologist who is focused on understanding the physiological, genetic and molecular basis of fruit ripening and plant response to environmental stresses, and developing novel crop genotypes with desirable traits using advanced molecular breeding strategies including CRISPR technologies.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Wang is focused on characterizing a range of tomato CRISPR-edited tomato lines—hybrids of the Ailsa Craig variety—and several genetic stocks to investigate molecular regulation of fruit ripening and post-harvest traits. The goal is to develop tomatoes that have stronger cell walls that will increase their shelf life and help them to be better protected against pest pressure.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. Wang's crop physiology research program
From Native Plants to New Crops
Tom Davis is a plant geneticist who is interested in understanding how to utilized an untapped natural resource in northern New England region: its wild and weedy plant species. But can locally adapted, endemic species be rapidly domesticated into plants suitable for cultivation (a process known as de novo domestication)? Davis's research is evaluating candidate native food crops and weeds and genetically defining traits for effective cultivation.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Davis is working with graduate student Mamta Kajal to domesticate new commercial strawberry varieties using wild strawberries from around the world. Additionally, Davis and research scientist Clay Ludwig and collaborating to interbreed quinoa—native to Peru and unsuitable in existing varieties to grow in a humid and cool New England climate—with weeds of the same genus as quinoa but that grow readily in New England. Ultimately, their goal is to develop quinoa hybrids that can grow in New England's specific climates.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. Davis's plant genetics research program
Aquatic Duckweed as Food Crop Fertilizer
Anna O'Brien's research focuses on plant interactions with their microbiomes in the context of global change stressors. She considers how evolutionary dynamics in plant-microbe interactions alter responses to stressors, and the reciprocal: how adaptation to stressors might modify plant-microbe interactions. O'Brien makes use of sequencing and epigenetic sequencing, population and quantitative genetics tools, genetic evolutionary modeling, and experimentation to investigate these topics.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. O'Brien and graduate student Alyssa Daigle are assessing whether floating aquatic plants called duckweeds offer an option for use as a green manure in place of synthetic fertilizers. Duckweed are naturally occurring and help sequester nutrient pollution, but the duckweed microbiome may have toxic cyanobacteria may be present. O'Brien's research is assessing the risk of using naturally occurring aquatic plants as green manures by growing lettuce with duckweed green manures, measuring growth performance when duckweed is used and performing toxin analyses on plants grown with green manure.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. O'Brien's host-microbiome interaction program
Improving New Hampshire's Strawberries
Lise Mahoney is a plant geneticist who has been advancing the release of locally bred strawberries. Her goal is to be able to produce plants that can be used for ornamental purposes and organic production in cool climates. Dr. Mahoney has focused on breeding strawberries that produce not only on delicious fruit, but also rich foliage and flowers ranging from red to yellow and everything in between.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Dr. Mahoney continues to cross multiple promising lines of strawberries, which will then be transplanted for further assessment to the Woodman Horticultural Research Farm in the spring.
Rock-Eating Microbes for Plant Health
Lou Tisa studies how different bacteria use cell-to-cell communication for their life style and how bacteria from different systems generate natural products. His interests are in identifying these natural products and their role in the life cycle of the bacterium. Through these explorations, Dr. Tisa seeks to find tools to fight infection, remediate environmental damage and improve ecosystem outcomes to dramatically improve human and environmental health.
Recently at the research greenhouses: Bedrock has long been known to be a source of essential nutrients to enrich agricultural soils, particularly in thinly soiled landscapes such as those in New England. Silicate rock powders are also emerging in agriculture as low-cost fertilizers and potential ways to enhance carbon storage. Dr. Tisa and co-researcher Julie Bryce are studying how natural microbial communities can be manipulated to benefit weathering, and assessing these impacts on sugar maples.
Click this link to learn more about Dr. Tisa's research program
