Features Reporter
Most buildings on campus have been built in the last decade or renovated recently. One of the newer additions to campus is the Wubben Science Building addition, which included the campus greenhouse.
“It’s pretty state of the art,” greenhouse manager Dr. Margot Becktell said. “It’s fully automated, temperature controlled with watering systems.”
The greenhouse keeps the plants in their ideal state, automatically adjusting to keep the temperature constant.
A combination of vents, fans and evaporation coolers keep the greenhouse cool in the summer. During the winter, hot water is pumped through pipes with metal fins that radiate heat throughout the greenhouse.
“When we get 100 degree weather we can keep it in the 80’s,” Becktell said. “If the greenhouse gets too hot or too cold I get a call on my cell phone.”
The greenhouse also controls just how much sunlight the plants get. Even in the dead of winter, the greenhouse simulates 16 hours of sunlight a day. Not only does the greenhouse protect the plants from weather, it also helps shield them from bugs and diseases.
“The biggest pest problem I have is aphids,” Becktell said. She released a wasp that lays eggs inside the aphids to combat the problem.
Aphids crawl on the plants and suck sugar from their sap, which starves the plant of the necessary nutrients that it needs.
The other problem pest that Becktell faces is Scale, which is an insect that likes to stay in one spot and drain the plant of nutrients. Becktell released an insect that eats the Scale, but has not released enough to entirely rid the greenhouse of it yet.
“My pest’s threshold is much higher than a production greenhouse. Most of what I have right now is teaching specimens,” Becktell said.
The greenhouse contains many different plants, from simple mosses to flowering plants, including a Pitcher plant, which is carnivorous. There are a few trees growing as well as a few edible plants, such as Stevia, or better known as Sweet Leaf, a natural sugar substitute.
“The greenhouse is pesticide free,” Becktell said. “It’s not 100% organic but it’s close. Only minimal chemicals are used.”
The plants that are treated usually are diseased. Miracle-Grow is also used as spot treatment for plants that need the help.
Besides growing teaching materials, the greenhouse also grows plants for botany and biology classes, as well as for the professor’s research. During the summer, Becktell conducted some research about a disease that affected potatoes, tomatos and a few other vegetables.
She grows the plants in the greenhouse then moves them to another room to be infected.
“Kill a few, save the many kind of thing,” Becktell said.
The greenhouse is located on the third floor of the Wubben Science building in the southwest corner. For more information about the greenhouse, email Dr. Margot Becktell at mbecktel@coloradomesa.edu. The greenhouse is not open to the public, but students can set up a time with Dr. Becktel for a tour.
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