Among Strawberries and Food Scraps, Students Find Science

At two Rutgers research centers, the familiar inspires questions about growing food and making better use of what remains

Following Honors College students on a first-ever journey to all of the Rutgers research stations in New Jersey to discover how science shows up for the state and its people.

It was October, but inside a greenhouse at Rutgers' research farm in Cream Ridge, N.J., strawberry plants were still flowering and bearing fruit.

Edward Durner invited the visiting Honors College students from Rutgers University-New Brunswick to try the berries, then offered a glimpse of how far the season might stretch.

"I expect these to still be producing next March," said Durner, an associate research professor with the Department of Plant Biology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. "Hopefully we'll keep them going till then."

The students were learning how much experimentation lies behind familiar things such as a strawberry.

At the roughly 250-acre Specialty Crop Research and Extension Center, researchers ask questions growers need answered before they invest their time, land and money. Later that day, at the Rutgers EcoComplex near Bordentown, N.J., the class would explore what useful things might be made from materials people discard.

The visits were part of "Beyond Campus: Research at Rutgers Off-Campus Stations," an honors seminar led by Dave Bushek, a professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, and Peter Oudemans, a professor in the Department of Plant Biology.

Monmouth County agricultural agent William Errickson speaks with Rutgers honors students in a research field at Cream Ridge. His trials of disease-resistant boxwoods and possible substitutes explore how the plants withstand insects, winter cold and other challenges before he recommends them to growers.

For Lily Ye, a sophomore studying pharmacy, the course offered a connection to her own research. During a summer at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, she studied how different oyster reef materials affect the animals living there. (She even cited one of Bushek's papers.)

"I'd done research on oyster reefs, but agriculture was new to me," Ye said. "I hadn't thought about how much experimentation goes into growing something as familiar as a strawberry or a tomato."

The work at Cream Ridge serves a substantial industry. New Jersey's nursery, greenhouse, flower and sod producers generated nearly $726 million in sales in 2022, about half the state's agricultural total, according to the USDA Census of Agriculture.

Cream Ridge Director Mark Robson recounts the farm's history, including the development of the doughnut-shaped Saturn peach, while plant scientist Edward Durner offers students a taste of his research. Durner studies how light and temperature can extend the harvest season for Albion strawberries. Course creators and Rutgers scientists Dave Bushek and Peter Oudemans are in the background, at left and right.

The facility originated from Rutgers' tree fruit research program, which began in the early 1900s. Mark Robson, a plant scientist and toxicologist who directs the operations at Cream Ridge, traced its move for the students from a Route 1 farm that became a Sears store to Cream Ridge, purchased in 1963. Apples and peaches were central to the work.

There, researchers developed 'Saturn,' a flat, doughnut-shaped peach, Robson said. The farm also hosted trials for Rutgers' strawberry program, which released 'Rutgers Scarlet' in 2015 and 'Rutgers D'Light' in 2022.

Durner, who has spent decades studying how light and temperature influence strawberry flowering, wants precise growing instructions for varieties such as 'Albion,' a strawberry widely used by greenhouse growers to produce fruit beyond the conventional harvest season. In his greenhouse, strings of light bulbs interrupt the darkness, changing the signals that tell plants when to flower.

Among the tomato rows, Burlington County agricultural agent David Hlubik handed students worksheets to rate the ground coverings beneath the plants.

(From left) Honors College students Kyle Yoon, Kanishk Sharma, and Foysal Sorwar assess ground coverings in Cream Ridge's tomato rows. The exercise reflects the seminar's hands-on approach, putting students in researchers' shoes as they make observations, compare results and consider what the evidence shows.

Hlubik, a faculty member in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, brings experience from his family's fruit and vegetable farm to his work helping commercial growers. His research includes insecticide trials to protect sweet corn harvests from corn earworm.

He compared conventional plastic mulch with biodegradable alternatives. Plastic conserves moisture and suppresses weeds but must be removed after harvest. Alternatives that could be tilled into the soil must last long enough to protect a crop.

Hlubik asked students to compare the conventional plastic in the first two numbered rows with the alternatives.

Burlington County agricultural agent David Hlubik asks Rutgers honors students to inspect and rate ground coverings beneath tomato plants at Cream Ridge. His research compares conventional plastic with biodegradable alternatives, testing how well they suppress weeds and hold up through the growing season.

"Did they hold up a lot better? Did you see any others that looked almost as good?" he asked.

"Seven was good," said one student. Others nodded their heads in agreement.

Hlubik explained the ground cover the student was referring to was biodegradable. The question he is still seeking to answer is whether the covering lasts long enough to be effective.

"When they break down, what are they breaking down into?" another student said.

Hlubik said he wanted to investigate further, including whether the products might leave microplastics behind.

"We don't want to recommend a product that could do harm in the long term," he said.

In a gently rolling green field nearby, Monmouth County agricultural agent William Errickson tested boxwood bushes bred to resist boxwood blight, along with possible substitutes. Disease resistance alone doesn't protect shrubs from insects or winter damage.

At Cream Ridge, researchers test boxwoods bred to resist disease to see how well these familiar landscape shrubs also withstand insects and winter cold.

"If we're going to recommend these blight-resistant boxwoods, because we don't want them to get that bad disease, how do they perform otherwise?" asked Errickson, who also is a county extension department head, with a level that is equivalent to an associate professor, in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The field offered a cautionary example. Japanese hollies could give homeowners a similar look without the threat of boxwood blight. But deer had chewed the plants, and winter cold had caused further damage, making for a poor combination for yards with hungry deer.

Errickson also studies native plants for landscaping and ecological restoration, including grasses that can help stabilize damaged shorelines. He compares wild forms with cultivated varieties to see how they withstand New Jersey conditions.

Cream Ridge also serves as a gathering place for New Jersey growers. Hlubik and Errickson lead "twilight meetings," which are evening field tours scheduled around farmers' workdays. Visitors can inspect the plants, handle the mulch and question the scientists before deciding what to try on their own land.

A 2022 twilight meeting at Cream Ridge drew 50 participants. All 11 who completed a survey said they gained knowledge about better growing practices and were likely to apply some of what they learned to their own operations.

"We want to do research that's very practical," said Hlubik, who also shares findings at winter grower meetings, giving farmers information they can use to plan the following season. "We bring it directly to the growers."

EcoComplex Director Serpil Guran at Rutgers' composter on Cook Campus. The system turns food scraps into compost for university farms and serves as a laboratory for testing whether biodegradable plastics break down and what they leave behind.

The bus ride toward the site near Bordentown took about half an hour, but the settings seemed worlds apart. From Cream Ridge's green fields and orchards, the students arrived at the EcoComplex "Clean Energy Innovation Center," near an Interstate 295 interchange and beside Burlington County's 500-acre waste-management complex.

Opened in 2001, its modern building has green walls, angular roofs and a tall glass entrance. A south-facing atrium admits daylight, with sunshades to control heat. Recycled materials went into its metalwork, carpeting and concrete, while its compact, two-story design limits disturbance of the surrounding land.

Early projects harnessed landfill gas to heat and power the greenhouse and main building. The center also helps young start-up companies and innovators turn research into businesses. By November 2023, its programs had served more than 100 companies. One, lithium-ion battery recycler Princeton NuEnergy, raised $16 million in a funding round that year while headquartered at the EcoComplex.

Rutgers honors students listen in the EcoComplex auditorium as Director Serpil Guran traces the center's history and explains how it helps young companies bring clean energy and recycling technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

EcoComplex Director Serpil Guran, a professor of professional practice in the Department of Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics, has led the center since 2011.

"The food waste we throw away still contains useful nutrients and energy," said Guran. "The challenge is figuring out how to recover that value in ways that are practical and affordable."

Her research extends into the dining halls on Cook Campus, where a pilot project collects scraps and transports them by an electric vehicle to the Cook Campus Animal Farm.

There, a vessel-aerated composter, commissioned in 2023, automatically mixes, grinds and adds air to organic materials. Resembling a shipping container, the machine was designed to process up to 30,000 pounds a month. It also serves as a laboratory for testing whether biodegradable plastics actually break down.

"A biodegradable label doesn't tell us everything we need to know," said Guran, who leads the composter project. "Under what conditions will the material break down, how long will it take and what will remain? We need those answers before we put the resulting compost back into the soil."

Rutgers' EcoComplex near Bordentown houses laboratories and young companies developing technologies for cleaner energy and new uses for waste. Opened in 2001, the building incorporates recycled construction materials, a south-facing atrium that admits daylight and sunshades that help control heat.

For Ye, the two visits revealed a connection she hadn't considered.

"At Cream Ridge, we were learning about growing food," she said. "At the EcoComplex, we were learning how what's left over could help grow something again. The places looked so different, but the research connected."

Guran explained to the students how food waste can help develop a circular regenerative food system. At Rutgers, compost made from food scraps can nourish crops such as eggplants on university farms. Produce from those farms goes to the cafeteria at Rutgers' New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health. Food scraps collected there return to the composting operation, where they become material to nourish the next crop.

"The nutrients should go back into the soil," Guran said. "So, we have to close this circle."

Explore more of the ways Rutgers research is shaping the future.