Crop physiology and management, climate control and energy conservation focus. The plant nutrition research on greenhouse vegetables was initiated when Dr. Gordon Ward was transferred to Harrow from Ottawa in 1960. In collaboration with local growers,he systematically investigated the levels of nutrients in plant tissues, determined the total nutrient uptake by the plants, and then established a feeding schedule with soluble fertilizers that would maintain rapid growth and good sustained yields of tomato and cucumber when grown in soils. Much of the precise nutrient analysis would not have been possible without complicated laboratory equipment, and Dr. Ward was prompt to take full advantage of such new analytical instruments of the time, includingthe amino acid analyzer, gas chromatograph and absorption spectrophotometer.
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