Resource Input Management in Container-Grown Petunias to Reduce Water Use and Leachate   Container-grown production depends on frequent fertigation to maintain optimal water and nutrient levels. In some scenarios where water volumes exceed crop requirements, an excess of nutrient runoff rich in nitrate-nitrogen and phosphate-phosphorus can contaminate our water sources and generate environmental degradation, which generate the need of improved irrigation practices while achieve sustainable horticultural production. The goals of this research were to 1) Quantify the difference in water consumption between the two automated irrigation systems throughout the growing season, and calculate the cost savings achieved through reduced water use; 2) Estimate the gray water footprint of three types of irrigation combined with two fertilizer rates for greenhouse production of Petunia milliflora F1 (Picobella Pink) and compared the environmental impacts of these practices; 3) Estimate water savings, plant growth, ornamental quality, and leachate reduction when irrigating petunia plants at low container capacities; 4) Assess if chitosan as a substrate amendment combined with reduced container capacity could result in marketable quality petunias at the completion of production cycle and after a two-week postharvest period; 5) Assess if mycorrhizae applied as a substrate amendment during germination, combined with reduced container capacity, could result in marketable quality petunias at the completion of production cycle. The first study showed that weight-based precision irrigation reduced water consumption by 21-26% and costs by 24-28% compared to time-based systems. The second study reported that mist irrigation consumed five times more water than drip or subirrigation systems, with phosphate-phosphorus serving as the more sensitive environmental indicator due to its lower regulatory threshold. Subirrigation systems eliminated leachate entirely, resulting in zero GWF. The third study established that maintaining substrate at 70% container capacity reduced water use by 21-26% without compromising flower coverage. At 40% CC, irrigation water use efficiency reached 3 g·L⁻¹. The fourth and fifth studies registered that chitosan reduced water use and improved post-harvest heat tolerance, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi improved performance only under severe stress (40% CC). These findings demonstrate that integrating precision irrigation technologies with moderate deficit irrigation and strategic biostimulant applications can substantially reduce environmental impact while preserving marketable quality in ornamental production.

Container-grown production depends on frequent fertigation to maintain optimal water and nutrient levels. In some scenarios where water volumes exceed crop requirements, an excess of nutrient runoff rich in nitrate-nitrogen and phosphate-phosphorus can contaminate our water sources and generate environmental degradation, which generate the need of improved irrigation practices while achieve sustainable horticultural production. The goals of this research were to 1) Quantify the difference in water consumption between the two automated irrigation systems throughout the growing season, and calculate the cost savings achieved through reduced water use; 2) Estimate the gray water footprint of three types of irrigation combined with two fertilizer rates for greenhouse production of Petunia milliflora F1 (Picobella Pink) and compared the environmental impacts of these practices; 3) Estimate water savings, plant growth, ornamental quality, and leachate reduction when irrigating petunia plants at low container capacities; 4) Assess if chitosan as a substrate amendment combined with reduced container capacity could result in marketable quality petunias at the completion of production cycle and after a two-week postharvest period; 5) Assess if mycorrhizae applied as a substrate amendment during germination, combined with reduced container capacity, could result in marketable quality petunias at the completion of production cycle. The first study showed that weight-based precision irrigation reduced water consumption by 21-26% and costs by 24-28% compared to time-based systems. The second study reported that mist irrigation consumed five times more water than drip or subirrigation systems, with phosphate-phosphorus serving as the more sensitive environmental indicator due to its lower regulatory threshold. Subirrigation systems eliminated leachate entirely, resulting in zero GWF. The third study established that maintaining substrate at 70% container capacity reduced water use by 21-26% without compromising flower coverage. At 40% CC, irrigation water use efficiency reached 3 g·L⁻¹. The fourth and fifth studies registered that chitosan reduced water use and improved post-harvest heat tolerance, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi improved performance only under severe stress (40% CC). These findings demonstrate that integrating precision irrigation technologies with moderate deficit irrigation and strategic biostimulant applications can substantially reduce environmental impact while preserving marketable quality in ornamental production.

This thesis focused on developing a Swift UI iOS application with an embedded large language model and retrieval-augmented generation for branded food category classification and contextualized explanations for food additives.

Improving management recommendations for Alternaria leaf blight and head rot of broccoli using fungicide resistance monitoring and population genetics Daniel G. Cerritos Garcia PhD Candidate Plant Science and Landscape Architecture Department Major Advisor: Sydney E. Everhart

Structural variation mechanisms and their rates in inbred mice