Students learn researching principles while raising winter tomatoes

From N.C. State University Plants for Human Health Institute: KANNAPOLIS, NC – Students at high schools in Rowan County are immersed in a learning experience that takes them beyond their textbooks. Instead of reading about scientific test trials on agricultural crops, they are actually performing the trials themselves, with oversight from N.C. State University faculty member Dr. Jeremy Pattison. He is a faculty member of the Department of Horticultural Science and the Plants for Human Health Institute, located at the N.C. Research Campus.

Greenhouses at four high schools – South Rowan, West Rowan, Jesse Carson and East Rowan – are teeming with greenhouse tomato plants that are part of a regional study, “Optimizing Winter Tomato Production.” These plants also provide an added bonus: after they are harvested and weighed (one of the data points students need to record) they will be sold as a fundraiser. In February, these local, greenhouse tomatoes can be purchased at Father & Son Produce at 1774 Sherrills Ford Road in Salisbury.

The tomato project is an outgrowth of a strawberry data collection project the students participated in with Pattison, who is a strawberry breeder, during 2012. Because strawberries don’t begin yielding until April, Pattison and the teachers developed an experiment studying winter greenhouse tomato production. Each of the four schools is growing four different varieties, which they planted in November. Each school is responsible for studying a specific horticultural practice.

Click here to continue reading.