An Interview with a Plant Scientist

We interviewed one of our Plant Scientists, Hannah, to dive into her thoughts about being a Plant Scientist, how she got into it and what things she likes about the role. 

Firstly, why plant science?  What was it that drew you in?
When I started studying biology, I really didn’t think ‘plants’ straight away!  But I was lucky to meet some people who really inspired me.  I had a tutor whose work was centred on making food crops more resistant to climate change.  That opened my eyes up to the potential – it just seemed like such an important goal.  
A couple years later, I worked on a project researching a parasitic plant that was really devasting food crops in parts of Africa.  This parasite attaches itself to the root of a plant and steals all the nutrients.  Farmers would end up losing their whole crop to this parasite.  So we were trying to develop crops that could withstand it.  And in the end, we were able to develop a few rice cultivars that this parasite wasn’t able to attack.
That project was all based in hydroponic growing methods, and that’s really what caught my interest.  After that project, I knew I wanted to keep working with plants.

Was that how you discovered hydroponic growing?
Yes!  All the controlled environment chambers, and the technology involved – and even just the day-to-day maintenance of the rooms – it was just so fascinating to me. 
I liked the hands-on side of it, and the potential for experimentation!
And a lot of what drew me to hydroponics, also, is the amazing potential it has to change the way we eat and where our food comes from.  The interest in hydroponics is only expanding as the technology develops.  I think there’s real potential to get people invested in growing their own food at home.

That’s fantastic!  We love seeing more and more people giving hydroponic growing a try. 
Yeah, it’s really nice!  I’m really passionate about getting more people into growing plants.  The benefits on people’s wellbeing – not just physically, but their mental well-being – is huge.


What does a day at work look like for you?
Every morning I’m in the greenhouse straight away.  If it’s a hot week, everything needs watering every day.  The greenhouse can get up to 40°C when it’s sunny, so it’s really important it gets checked all the time. 
At the moment many of the tomatoes and peppers are ready for harvesting, so I’ll also look to see what I can pick.
After that I’ll do maintenance on all the systems we have running – look at the pH and EC readings, and a lot of cleaning!  It’s very important to keep everything clean, especially in the areas where we are testing humid environment conditions.


Do you do a lot of testing?
Yes, it’s a big part of what we do here.  I have a background in experimental design, which means I know how to test for the effect of a specific chemical or environment condition.  So in my day-to-day I’ll make a lot of checks and observations on any of the tests I’m running.
For instance, I’m currently running a microgreens trial using a flood and drain system, and I’m growing basil in a nutrient film system.  These both need checking daily.
Every time a trial comes to an end, there’s a lot of analysis to do.  Everything gets harvested – roots, shoots, flower heads, fruits.  We count these and weigh them.  I’ll look at the data and perform statistical analysis, which helps us control for random effects or natural variations.  This side of the trials is really important, as it helps us make sure that the data we’re getting proves what we think it does.

Finally...what’s your favourite VitaLink product?!
That would have to be VitaLink Coir MAX!  I use it every day.  Currently the entire greenhouse is growing in VitaLink 100% Coir, and Coir MAX is just such a wonderful base for everything that’s grown in coco coir.  I get through litres of it!