Dr. Russell T. Nagata

Associate Professor
Horticultural Sciences Department
Specialty: Plant Breeding and Genetics

Education
Doctor of Philosophy, 1984, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Major: Horticultural Science, specialty - Plant Breeding and Genetics
Minor: Plant Pathology
Master of Science, 1980, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI
Major: Horticulture Science, Plant Breeding and Genetics
Bachelor of Science, 1977, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI
Major: Tropical Horticulture

Description of Present Job Duties

Research (0.65 FTE)
St. Augustinegrass Cultivar Development and Genetics Program
In the state of Florida there are more than 3.3 million acres of turfgrass planted in parks, athletic fields, homes lawns and businesses. A majority of the home lawns utilize St. Augustinegrass turf, in all, totaling more than a million acres. There is a need to select and develop new cultivars of St. Augustinegrass that will provide for current and future needs for a sustainable Florida. These needs reflect the desire of people wanting an aesthetically pleasing lawn with minimal maintenance inputs and to impacting the environment as little as possible. The development and introduction of new cultivars of St. Augustinegrass turf having resistance to disease and insect pests can lead to the reduction of inputs, while maintaining an aesthetic, high quality lawn. The research approach is to develop and select new cultivars of St. Augustinegrass through a multidisciplinary approach, combining the disciplines of pathology, entomology, plant physiology, and horticulture to that of plant breeding. Individual targeted areas are southern chinch bug resistance, tolerance to nematodes, gray leaf spot resistance. My program has also selected line of St. Augustinegrass that have reduced rates of leaf elongating, hence the possibility of reduced mowing frequency and thus saving fuel and time. Shade or reduced light conditions is on e of the most important physiological stresses that turfgrasses encounter today. Therefore, shade tolerance was quantified for St. Augustinegrass which will lead to the development of guideline recommendations for growing St. Augustinegrass under shaded conditions.

Lettuce Breeding and Genetics
Research objective for lettuce is to develop pest resistant cultivars that are adapted to the Florida climatic environment. Currently, the development and quantification of multiple insect resistance cos lettuce lines through the selection and testing for host plant resistance is on-going. Resistance to the following insects have been documented or observed: beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hubner); aphid, Uroleucon pseudoambrosiae (Olive); banded cucumber beetle, Diabrotica balteata Leconte; and leafminers, Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess). Development of adapted cultivars for Florida.

Extension (0.30 FTE)
My extension program is based on the development of cultivar and new crop evaluation program to aid in crop selection for sustainability of farms. In the changing climate of farming in south Florida, smaller farms that cater to a more localized and often high end markets are growing in number. Often, little information is available on new crops or crop varieties to help farmers decide on what to plant.

Accomplishments

Graduate Student Activities
7 - Ph.D. student committees, 1 as chair
3 - M.S. student committees, 1 as co-chair