Michael Batame represented the Lamm Lab and the University of Georgia sociological team for the Soilless Substrate Science research project at this year’s Cultivate event in Columbus, Ohio.
While there, Michael presented updates on the UGA team’s work to date to the project’s Advisory Board. He also presented a poster titled Communicating Peat-Alternative Substrates: Exploring Growers’ Adoption Decisions through the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, which used the Diffusion of Innovations theory to understand the factors influencing specialty crop growers in the United States to adopt peat-alternative substrates in their production systems. The study’s findings suggested that successful adoption of peat-alternative substrates depends largely on economic feasibility, compatibility with existing production systems, and opportunities to evaluate alternatives on a small scale before full adoption.
Michael also toured the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Research Complex at The Ohio State University, where he learned more about innovative research and technologies supporting controlled environment agriculture.
