Project Number: 3607-21000-011-08
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 23, 2005
End Date: Jun 30, 2010

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative project is to determine the fate of agrochemicals and their degradation products that are commonly used in the greenhouse industry including growth regulators, fertilizers, pesticides, and soilless media components such as polyacrylamide hydrogel.

Approach:
Greenhouse and bench-top studies will be designed that allow for collection of leachate to track fertalizer and soilless media components fate. Soilless media and tissue samples will also be collected for fertilizer and pesticide tracking. Periodically, samples will be taken of the media and leachate for acrylamide analysis. These samples will be analyzed for elemental content with a C-N-S snalyzer and ICP-OES. More complex compounds that will be tracked will need to be extracted with organic solvent, followed by a chromatographic cleanup prior to injection into the gas chromatograph. Using these thchniques, the mass balance and fate of agrochemicals that are in use in greenhouses can be determined.