Greenhouses replace glasshouse in research

Joe Hampton, superintendent of the Piedmont Research Station near Salisbury, discusses his partnership with the N.C. Research Campus while inside N.C. State's greenhouse at the station. Photo by Emily Ford

Dr. Jeremy Pattison, Andy Myers and Joe Hampton walk through N.C. State's greenhouse at the Piedmont Research Station near Salisbury. Two identical greenhouses will go up at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis. Photo by Emily Ford

Dr. Allan Brown

Some of the broccoli plants growing in the N.C. State greenhouse at the Piedmont Research Station are recognizable, while others are not. Photo by Emily Ford

Dr. Jeremy Pattison holds a flower he removed from a strawberry plant growing in the N.C. State greenhouse at the Piedmont Research Station. He will use the pollen to pollinate another plant. Photo by Emily Ford

Dr. Jeremy Pattison emasculates a strawberry plant grown in the N.C. State greenhouse at Piedmont Research Station near Salisbury. Photo by Emily Ford

Andy Myers, Piedmont Research Station operations manager, sits near Dr. Allan Brown's broccoli project in the N.C. State greenhouse near Salisbury. Photo by Emily Ford

By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com

KANNAPOLIS — Although the high-tech, horticultural glasshouse that could attract a major private partner to the N.C. Research Campus is still on hold, N.C. State University will construct two smaller greenhouses next month.

The two greenhouses off Glenn Avenue in Kannapolis will be identical to one already standing at the Piedmont Research Station near Salisbury.

N.C. State erected that greenhouse last summer so the university's scientists would have a place to grow and cross-pollinate plants all year.

Originally, the university had planned to construct a 75,000-square-foot glasshouse complex at the Glenn Avenue site about a mile from the Research Campus, complete with growing fields and a headhouse. The large, expensive project has been delayed indefinitely due to the poor economy.

The three greenhouses are smaller and cheaper, measuring about 3,000 square feet and costing $64,000 each.

The university wants all three up and running in time for the spring growing season, said Tara Vogelien, director for business and research for N.C. State's Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis.

"It's a key part of our mission," Vogelien said. "It's something that we needed to get on the ground."

N.C. State is one of eight university partners at the Research Campus, a $1.5 billion biotechnology hub created by David Murdock to study health, nutrition and agriculture.

Dr. Allan Brown, a molecular geneticist, has dozens of broccoli plants growing in the greenhouse at the Piedmont Research Station, which he called a "valuable resource."

"The broccoli in the greenhouse at Salisbury is a population that differs in its concentration of glucosinolates — anti-cancer compounds in broccoli," Brown said in an e-mail. "I am using it to study how broccoli produces these compounds."

Brown wants to know what genes are involved in the production of anti-cancer compounds, as well as how the environment in which the broccoli is grown can effect their concentration.

Scientists use state-of-the-art instruments at the Research Campus to analyze their plants.

The long-awaited greenhouses have been in the works since last December. N.C. State recently came to an agreement with Castle & Cooke, the campus developer that owns the land off Glenn Avenue.

Castle & Cooke will lease the land to N.C. State for a small price and prepare the site, which will take about six weeks, Vogelien said. The greenhouses, which are manufactured in Kinston, N.C., will take about three weeks to construct.

While the university and developer were working out the agreement in the midst of the state budget crisis, Dr. Jeremy Pattison asked the Piedmont Research Station to host one of the greenhouses.

"It was a necessity, but it also just made sense to do it here," said Pattison, an N.C. State strawberry breeder who has numerous projects at the Research Station.

The station had the equipment and manpower to prepare the site, and now staff help maintain the plants and structure.

"Expanding the research platform is what the Research Station is all about," Superintendent Joe Hampton said. "Anytime you can add to that, it's a good thing for the station."

The greenhouse, which stays between 45 and 75 degrees, has helped move the plants ahead one full season, Hampton said.

Unlike the Research Station's high tunnels, where Pattison grows experimental strawberries in pursuit of a new variety tailored to North Carolina's climate and soil, the enclosed greenhouse allows scientists to control every aspect of the environment.

The greenhouse, a first for the 100-year-old Research Station, coincides with the station's new focus on horticulture, Hampton said. Until recently, the station only had dairy, poultry and field crop units.

"The needs of the Piedmont are evolving and changing," Hampton said. "Consumers desire to buy local."

Research stations across the state serve growers, providing new varieties of plants and information to help make farming more profitable.

While dubbed "temporary," the three greenhouses should last 20 years, Vogelien said.

Besides N.C. State not being able to afford the larger glasshouse project this year, the university doesn't really need it yet, she said.

"We don't want to construct space and not have it used," she said.

Due to budget constraints, N.C. State's Plants for Human Health Institute has four Kannapolisfaculty, fewer than once predicted, Vogelien said.

The Kannapolis operating budget this year is $6.3 million, compared to the $9.6 million originally planned, she said. However, the institute has approval to hire two new faculty members this year.