Dr. Garrett Owen

My interest in greenhouse and nursery crops was first sparked in high school when I enrolled in the horticulture class. With no previous greenhouse experience, I became fascinated with rooting cuttings, and how to grow fall pansies, Boston ferns, and poinsettias. This experience led me to start my own greenhouse and nursery business (Owen’s Greenhouse and Nursery) for my supervised agriculture experience as a part of the National FFA Organization (formerly known as the Future Farmers of America). With the help of my parents, I was able to operate the business for ~10 years until I pursued my doctorate degree. During the time of operation, I was able to apply my undergraduate and graduate education and commercial greenhouse growing internship experience into my business. 

I currently have three graduate students – Lauren Seltsam, Ty Rich, and Gavin Saunders. Each student’s thesis project will focus on sustainable crop production of containerized ornamentals and will begin this spring 2023. 

• Lauren Seltsam will be investigating and establishing carbon and water footprinting benchmarks for containerized floriculture crop production.
• Ty Rich will be investigating plant growth regulator drench activity and efficacy. 
• Gavin Saunders will be investigating plant nutrition and fertilizer pollution mitigation.

Dr. W. Garrett Owen earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Horticulture from North Carolina State University. In 2017, Garrett earned his Ph.D. in Horticulture from Purdue University. During his Ph.D. education, Garrett was a research technician for the Purdue floriculture research and Extension program. In 2017, Garrett joined the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University. Garrett served as the Greenhouse and Controlled-Environment Outreach Specialist for Southeastern Michigan and Metro-Detroit from 2017 to 2020 with an appointment split of 85% Extension and 15% research. Garrett served as an Assistant Extension Professor of Greenhouse and Controlled-Environment Horticulture at the University of Kentucky from 2020 to 2022 with an appointment split of 65% Extension, 25% research, 10% teaching, and 5% service. In 2023, Garrett became an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Greenhouse and Nursery Production Systems in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University. His responsibilities are in floriculture and nursery crop production with an 50% Extension, 30% research, and 20% teaching appointment. His major program initiatives include floriculture crop production, plant nutrition and growth regulation, nutritional monitoring, and crop diagnostics. He is also a leader and contributor of two national Extension initiatives – e-GRO (Electronic Grower Resources Online; www.e-gro.org) and Fert, Dirt, and Squirt (Nutritional Monitoring of Greenhouse Crops; https://fertdirtsquirt.org).

TBD…

I have two – AmericanHort Cultivate AND the European Flower Trials.

I’m most excited to see the department to continue to grow with new colleagues, students, courses/curriculum, and Extension programming.

When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with my two Australian shepherds, running, gardening, and photography.