The University of Maryland is involved (along with several land-grant university partners) in a USDA-funded project to determine how new sensor-based irrigation networks can benefit the ornamental plant production industry. We would like your help to better understand current practices in the industry, and have developed a survey that asks questions about water, nutrient, and runoff practices in the industry, and about how the industry can take advantage of recent and anticipated advances in sensor-based irrigation networks.
The goal of this research is to use your answers, along with those provided by other growers across the country, to create baseline information, and to determine the potential of these systems to improve specific greenhouse, container nursery, and field nursery practices. This information will help us to document current irrigation and nutrient use practices, and help measure the impacts of changing practices in the future. It will also help us as researchers and as an industry to define our research goals at the local, regional, and national levels, to help growers address current and future needs.
We know your time is valuable and worked hard to minimize the amount of your time it will take to complete the survey. However, the survey still requests a lot of information. We estimate that the survey should take approximately 20-40 minutes to complete depending on how your operation is set up. Your participation is the key to the success of this project.
All information you provide will be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL, and only summary information about the industry and aggregated estimates of economic and environmental impacts will be presented. Your individual responses will not be shared with any state or federal regulatory agency, and will be protected as required by Federal law, as part of the University of Maryland human subjects agreement that you will be asked to agree to before you begin the survey.
Access the survey by clicking the link below (or typing the address into your internet browser): https://www.research.net/s/ornamental
Any questions or comments can be directed to John Majsztrik: jcmajsz@umd.edu (preferred) or by phone (301) 405-2778