Q&A with Andrew Ristvey

NM: How did you get started in horticulture?

AR: When I was an undergraduate, I really wanted to work with marine ecology. I was very interested in marine zoology, and I didn’t like plants (laughs). I got my master’s degree at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and it was with the marine ecology estuary and science program because I wanted to work with Chesapeake Bay ecology, especially blue crabs, oysters, things like that. … During my master’s degree, I had a summer job doing wetland delineation, and I began to have an appreciation for native plants. I later got a job with a shoreline restoration company in eastern Maryland. We’d go to eroded shorelines to clean them up and restore them.

Then I moved down to the Eastern Shore to work at an arboretum that was inside a state park on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I worked there for two years, and I loved it. I was doing education programs for kids and adults about plants and ecology. I was growing native plants because they had a little nursery. I met a professor at the University of Maryland, Dr. John Lea-Cox. He was teaching greenhouse and nursery production. I asked him if I could take some horticultural classes, and he said ‘I got something better for you. How would you like to have a PhD? I have a research assistantship available for you.’ So, I went back to school, and I got my PhD in horticulture.

Now, instead of working on the Bay with the ecology, I’m working for the Bay because my area of research is nutrient management. That’s how I got here. After my PhD, I got this job at the University of Maryland extension as extension specialist for commercial horticulture. My primary focus is to do nutrient management work with ornamental horticulture. My two areas are nutrient management and irrigation management, both very much tied together when you’re growing plants in containers.

NM: What is your favorite part of the job?

AR: My favorite part of the job is working with growers to help them with their nutrient management and irrigation management needs. In my world, there’s a triangle of plant production. It’s substrates, irrigation management and nutrient management, and in that order. I work a lot with helping growers understand their substrates so they can determine their irrigation management; then with their irrigation management comes their nutrient management. So nutrient management in ornamental container production is really irrigation management, but you need to know your substrates in order to understand how you irrigate. And if you irrigate well, you keep your nutrients in the container and in the plant. I love working with growers and helping them solve their problems.

What can attendees expect to learn at your session?

AR: For the session at Cultivate’24, I’m working with a colleague who’s the production hort advisor for nurseries, floriculture and CEA at UC Cooperative Extension in San Diego, Gerry Spinelli. We’re going to be focused on substrates and irrigation management. We’re also going to have a little demonstration on managing fertilizer injectors and keeping fertilizer injectors calibrated and in working order.

NM: What are some of your hobbies?

AR: My hobbies are finding unusual plants and growing them. I have a small greenhouse attached to my house, and I grow some interesting stuff. I have coffee, Brugmansia and bougainvillea. I like watching these plants grow, and I’ve actually had my first coffee harvest. I’m not going to be able to make much coffee out of it, but I thought it was cool that my coffee plants actually flowered and gave me fruit.