Supporting SCRI

HRI Research • June 1, 2020

The Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) is a program housed in the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The program supports a range of specialty crops (defined by federal law as including horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture, fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, and dried fruits) by researching, developing, and disseminating science-based tools to address their needs.

The program has a mandate that its funds support work in five main areas:

Improving crop characteristics through breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods
Identification and mitigation of threats from pests and diseases
Improving producers’ productivity, efficiency, and profitability.
Research and development of new and innovative technology
Developing methods to improve food safety

Why Is SCRI Important?

SCRI was created to ensure that specialty crops would have some funding available to address their specific critical needs. In general, research on specialty crops is often not funded as robustly as research on row crops. Crops that fall under the specialty crops umbrella are diverse and numerous, but do not represent large acreages (as row crops do). Collectively, they represent about one quarter the value of all U.S. agriculture, or roughly $60 billion.

This program has become a critical tool to advance research in environmental horticulture and an important means to help our industry succeed. Examples of SCRI-funded projects that benefit our stakeholders include management of rose rosette disease, lighting optimization in production, management of crape myrtle bark scale, and plant production that protects bees.

We have involved from the beginning. USDA’s NIFA mandates that all SCRI projects must support a valid industry need. To that end, NIFA built a review process that starts with a review by industry members. If a proposal is not prioritized through an Industry Relevance Review Panel, it is not invited for full consideration by the Scientific Merit Panel.

In addition to recruiting stakeholders as volunteer reviewers, members of AmericanHort and the Horticultural Research Institute’s team volunteer as reviewers themselves. Members of AmericanHort’s research and advocacy team frequently participate in the review process. Dr. Jill Calabro has twice served as the Industry Relevance Panel Manager and once as a Scientific Merit Panel reviewer. Craig Regelbrugge is often an Industry Relevance Panel reviewer as well. Jennifer Gray, along with Jill and Craig, also supply letters of support for many of the projects that benefit environmental horticulture. Strong letters of support are key to a proposal’s success.

NIFA stresses the importance of outreach in the SCRI program. If the industry does not know about the new information generated, the research is essentially meaningless. We also help on that end by frequently participating on advisory panels for funded projects relevant to environmental horticulture. Through this, we can learn new information in a timely manner and help share it with stakeholders.

AmericanHort lobbies to ensure adequate funding of the SCRI program and address funding issues as they arise. Since passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, AmericanHort has tirelessly worked to fix an omission that threatened investment in SCRI’s research.

While research programs like SCRI typically have requirements that researchers provide one-to-one matching funds for any federal investment, USDA’s research programs have traditionally included the ability for the Secretary of Agriculture to waive these requirements where the research is in the public interest. While other research programs kept these waivers in the 2018 bill, the SCRI program did not. This omission threatened to direct much needed investments in research elsewhere.

AmericanHort made this a key issue of it's Impact Washington Summit last year and, we’re happy to report that the matching funds waiver was reinserted to ensure continued investment in the program. Visit AmericanHort.org for more information.

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Soilless Substrate Science - Ushering in the Next Generation of Growing Media

By Jennifer Gray • May 28, 2026

Soilless Substrate Science (S3) is a national transdisciplinary collaboration developed to support growers as we advance to the next generation of substrates. Our team is leading North American efforts to develop new substrate materials and techniques, and working with growers to support implementation, as we support the global transition to substrates that go Beyond Peat. In this webinar, Dr. Jeb Fields will discuss the S3 team efforts surrounding identification of new substrate materials, processing and development, and grower support. We will explore wood fiber processing, sugarcane bagasse substrate development, stabilization of organic fibers, databasing substrate materials, and opportunities for growers to get involved. Overall, attendees will learn about US efforts to develop domestically-sourced substrates and advance substrate science as we move towards the next generation of substrate science. Our Speaker Dr. Jeb Fields is a production horticulturist who works with growers in Florida and throughout the country to support more effective and efficient production practices through his environmental nursery research program. Jeb’s primary interests include growing media & substrate science, irrigation & fertilizer management, whole plant-water relations and plant abiotic stress physiology. Jeb is an internationally recognized substrate scientist, the leader of the Beyond Peat project through the USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative, and the national S3 (Soilless Substrate Science) team which pursues advancements of the global substrate industry and development sustainable substrate materials and practices, including substrate stratification. Jeb is the editor for Nursery & Landscape Insider, a biweekly e-newsletter from Ball Publishing, that reaches over 32,000 stakeholders worldwide. For his efforts, he has been recognized with numerous awards, honors, and leadership positions. Prior to joining UF, Jeb was a professor and research station director with the LSU AgCenter. Jeb studied at UF for his B.S., NC State University for his M.S., and Virginia Tech for his Ph.D. – with all degrees focusing on production horticulture.

A soft-focus background of varying shades of green, suggesting grass, foliage, or a forest landscape.

Understanding Why Rose Rosetting Disease Appears in Distinct Regions of a Shrub Rose Plan

By Jennifer Gray • April 9, 2026

This webinar dives into the problem of rose rosette virus. Shrub roses consist of multiple canes attached to a root system and produce beautiful spring growth in the form of new flowering stems and branches. Experts will provide an overview of how rose rosette virus first attacks flowering growth and can move throughout the stem. At the same time rosette symptoms appear in mature distinct stems of a plant and may be absent from others. The research delves into understanding how the vascular system connects the flowering stems and above ground canes. The research is to understand how virus movement between adjacent stems and only appears to cause disease in a few but not all canes of the same plant. This research is important to explore potential management approaches to safeguard rose.

From Propagation to Consumers: HRI Research Powers Every Link in the Green Industry Supply Chain

By Jennifer Gray • March 24, 2026

The horticulture industry continues to change as new technologies, production practices, and consumer expectations reshape the marketplace. Research plays an essential role in helping growers, landscapers, and retailers adapt and succeed. That’s exactly where the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) enters the chat. Every year, HRI selects and funds research projects that advance horticulture. In 2026, HRI is investing more than $560,000 in 18 research projects that target challenges across the horticultural supply chain, including plant production, pest and disease management, landscape plant performance, and consumer insights. “What makes HRI research so valuable is that it focuses on real challenges the industry is facing right now,” said Mark Yelanich, HRI President and Research Director at Metrolina Greenhouses. “The 2026 HRI-funded projects were selected because they develop knowledge, processes, or tools that businesses can actually use.” HRI’s four strategic research priorities guide funding decisions, focusing on quantifying plant benefits, creating innovative solutions, gathering consumer insights, and producing practical solutions to industry challenges. The 2026 projects reflect these priorities across the horticulture supply chain.