Microbial Horticulture

Our research considers sustainable horticultural production in a broad perspective, i.e healthy horticultural plants, good agricultural and manufacturing practices, safe  and health-promoting products and a healthy environment. It is based on a system approach. Microorganisms are inevitable and necessary for healthy plants but can also be detrimental to both plant and humans. We investigate the use microorganisms to prevent plant disease attack (biocontrol) and how the natural plant associated microbiota can assist (habitat management) in disease control and in achieving increased yields  and plant products of high quality in both field and greenhouse horticulture . Incidents with human pathogens on plants have increasingly been reported. We identify critical points for human pathogen transmission (shigatoxin producing E. coli and others) and emerging hazards (antibiotic resistance genes, nanoparticles) during primary production and develop measures to counteract their transmission.

Microbial horticulture activities consider horticultural indoor and outdoor production of well-established crops, such as vegetables, fruit and berries, ornamentals, and of novel crops in both rural and urban areas (urban horticulture). Our research considers both low tech and highly engineered production systems (e.g. hydroponics, aquaponics). We are involved in the development and optimization of novel sustainable production systems considering resource-efficiency, particularly of water, plant nutrients, growing media and energy, as well as efficient use of space.

Our research addresses grand global challenges, i.e. food security and safety as well as biosecurity and biosafety, sustainability, water scarcity, land use as well as urbanization in a horticultural perspective.