Professor Carl Rosen has loved growing plants since he was young.
While still in grade school, he tended to his own garden and learned how to grow healthy vegetables. Rosen still has his own garden, but now he's sharing his knowledge with growers throughout the world.
Rosen graduated from Penn State University with a bachelors (1976) and masters (1978) in horticulture. He observed firsthand the many stages of plant growth, but was soon curious about what was happening beneath the surface. That intrigue led Rosen to the University of California at Davis where he started his Ph.D. work in soil science.
"I became interested in plant roots and plant nutrition and with my background in horticulture I felt that a degree in soil science would be very complementary," he says.
Rosen now holds a joint appointment between the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate and the Department of Horticultural Science, demonstrating his knowledge of both disciplines.
Through his efforts, Rosen has helped devise better management techniques for applying nitrogen on large commodity crops such as potatoes, as well as fruit and vegetable crops. Finding ways to maximize quality and yields with only the essential amount of inputs is an area of agricultural research with many opportunities for practical application, Rosen says.
"And, people always need to eat," he jokes.
Rosen joined the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate in 1983 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1989 and then to full professor with the Department in 1995.
During the past two decades, Rosen has studied everything from soil fertility to nutrient cycling from industrial and municipal wastes. But, Rosen is perhaps most known for his work with potatoes, a crop requiring large-scale usage of nitrogen and water application.
He continues to work on more efficient nitrogen use. It's an effort that can be difficult as potato farmers do not want to risk yield losses and may sometimes apply higher amounts of nitrogen than what is necessary. Contamination of groundwater with nitrate is a problem often associated with intensive potato production on sandy soils.
"Potatoes are a high-income, cash-value crop and have particular problems, especially when they are grown on sandy soils" Rosen says. "Because the income potential is high, you don't want to be short."
Besides his efforts on potato nutrient management, Rosen has conducted research and extension work with a number of other fruits and vegetables on various topics, including calcium nutrition of apples, sulfur and nitrogen fertility effects on production of anti-cancer compounds in cabbage, and general fertility studies on garlic, strawberries, and peas.
His work also extends from the garden to the green as he conducts research and outreach with the University's Turf Extension program. Rosen says it's usually a popular program because Minnesota leads the nation in most golf courses per capita.
Rosen usually doesn't have to time to squeeze in nine holes as he actively works with the Master Gardener Program and regularly attends Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Educational Meetings, Minnesota Apple Growers Association Meetings, and Potato Growers Educational Meetings.
He is also a coordinator for the Commercial Vegetable and Fruit Production Extension Program and numerous other College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences Extension Programs.
Rosen won the Outstanding Extension Educator Award from the American Society for Horticulture Science in 2001 and in the same year added to his list of honors the Dean and Director's Award for Distinguished Extension Campus Faculty from the Minnesota Extension Service.
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