ISU Graduate Student Horticulture Society

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Last week our members attended the American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference in New Orleans💚💜💛

Akshaya presented a poster and an oral presentation titled: Evaluating the impact of organic amendments in broccoli transplant production

Smriti presented a poster and an oral presentation titled: Optimizing the use of dry media amendments to enhance vegetable transplant growth in organic production systems
Smriti ALSO placed in the top 3 Graduate Student Poster competition!

Hannah presented two oral presentations titled: Quantifying the effects of pH on fresh-cut culinary herb growth in recirculating nutrient solution
And
Increasing micronutrient concentrations does not mitigate high pH nutrient solution induced growth suppression

Nicole presented two oral presentations titled: Growing environment has a greater effect on containerized Basil growth than fertilizer type or concentration
And
Ammonium to nitrate and nitrogen to phosphorus ratios of commercial fertilizers have limited impact on containerized herb growth

Ray presented a poster and an oral presentation.

Pictured L-R are Laith, Nicole, Hannah, Ray, Akshaya, Liv, Smriti and Dr. Nair.

Dr. Walters is a GSHS Alumni! ❤️💛

Early Career Award Competition

First Place - Kellie Walters, University of Tennessee
Second Place - Dennis Nicuh Lozada, New Mexico State University

Congratulations to the MS Poster Competition Winners!

First Place - Jessica Rohde, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Second Place - Smriti Chaudhary, Iowa State University
Third Place - Oksana Bihun, Cornell University

Congratulations to our Spring and Summer 2025 graduates: Keyshell (Turfgrass), Carly (Vegetable), Hannah (Greenhouse) and Nicole (Greenhouse), pictured here at the spring commencement ceremony 🎉❤️💛
Congratulations on receiving your Master’s Degrees in Horticulture ladies!

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our club this year! It was an amazing weekend for a plant sale and the perfect Mother’s Day.

See you again next year!

-GSHS💛❤️

‼️Mother’s Day is TOMORROW‼️
We have what Mom WANTS💯🪴

Open to the public today at 9!
We’ll be here until 6 today at Reiman Gardens❤️💛

‼️It's almost time‼️

The Plant Sale Extravaganza at Reiman Gardens is THIS WEEKEND!
We are busy this week tagging plants and moving our awesome vegetable and herb transplants over to Reiman Gardens.
You can find us under the big white tent in the parking lot between Reiman and the football stadium, Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend!

We will have lots of unique varieties and All-American Selections winners along with classic cultivars. We have something for everyone!

You asked and we listened: this year we have limited quantities of hot peppers: habanero (and mild habanero!), serrano, and cayenne🌶️🔥

We also have lunchbox peppers and sweet snacking peppers.

🍅🫑This year we have TRIPLED the number of heirloom tomato and pepper quantities 🫑🍅

We have heirloom slicing tomatoes: German Johnson, Brandywine and Cherokee Purple and heirloom red bell pepper!

We will of course have our F1 hybrid slicing and paste tomatoes as well as sweet red and orange cherry tomatoes!

🪴HERBS🪴
Back by popular demand, we have increased the quantity of sweet, purple, and lemon basil this year.

This year we have increased the number of our classics: thyme (French), dill, oregano (Italian), sage, and cilantro.

***NEW this year are holy and Thai basil***

We have also added curly parsley and lemon balm to the mix!

And lastly, we will have our gallon containers of lavender (Hidcote) and rosemary (BBQ)!

🍉🍈🥒Vining crops🥒🍈🍉
We will have cantaloupe and watermelon transplants again this year!
As well as pickling AND slicing cucumbers, and of course, zucchini 😋
**NEW** this year is butternut squash!

Our inventory moves quickly, for the best selection consider coming this Saturday when the sale opens to the public at 9 am !

GSHS members have been working hard this semester growing vegetable and herb transplants for the Reiman Gardens annual Plant Sale Extravaganza!

We have increased our heirloom and AAS winning cultivar selections this year🍅🌶️🫑🍉

Find us next week under the tent at Reiman Gardens, no admission necessary!

Before 2024 ends, let's take a moment to celebrate all that we have accomplished this year!

As a club, our members have volunteered at Rieman Gardens, Food at First, and with the Master Gardener program. We had our most successful plant sale to date this year (thank YOU!!).

Carly was our only member to attend ASHS this year in Hawaii! At ASHS, Carly gave a presentation of her research and presented a poster! Carly has also given presentations at the Iowa Specialty Crop Conference, to the Practical Farmers of Iowa Short Course, and at the Marbleseed Organic Conference (Pictured with GSHS members Akshaya, Smriti, and Anne). In addition to all of that, she has volunteered for Food At First (as a volunteer coordinator and in both the garden and kitchen) and at the Farm Progress Show.

Prathyusha has presented posters at the R.F. Baker Plant Breeding Symposium, the Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Symposium, and the Norman Borlaug Lecture poster competition. She also placed in the Top 3 at the Norman Borlaug poster competition! Pratz also attended the RegenPGC annual research meeting.

Keyshell received the Lumir and Sara Dostal Family Award (1 of 3 awarded) this year. She also just got the very exciting news that she has been chosen to receive the Paul Zwaska Scholarship presented by Beacon Athletics! She will be receiving this award in January at the SFMA Conference in California.

Shillah has had a year of excitement, here she is pictured speaking at the Normal Borlaug Lecture earlier this semester.

Hannah and Nicole attended NCERA earlier this spring (hosted by Iowa State!) and gave their first research presentations! They also were able to present their research at the CEA Herb research meeting earlier this semester. Along with Carly they volunteered at the Farm Progress Show. They also attended the Greenhouse Short Course hosted by Iowa State. Hannah volunteered in the spring and fall Master Gardener training days.

Vipul attended the annual research meeting for RegenPGC, and presented posters at the ASA, CSSA and SSSA Conferences. Most excitingly, however, he has become a FFAR Fellow (2024-2027)!

Smriti and Akshaya recently received the Michigan Fruit and Vegetable Council Scholarship while attending the Great Lakes Expo!

And not to forget our graduates, Anne and Dalena, who successfully defended their PhD and Master’s degrees earlier this year!