Exploring Plant Science at Flash Forest: A Deep Dive Into Seedpods
At Flash Forest, our mission to combat climate change through automated reforestation hinges on the innovative work of our plant science team. By developing cutting-edge seedpods, we’re able to optimize germination and survivability of our seeds, promoting success in all of our projects. Today, we take a closer look at the vital role our plant science team plays in this mission, through an interview with Sheaza Ahmed, our Director of Plant Science R&D and Plant Scientist Afrodita Pulendzovska.
Can you describe your role and responsibilities as a member of the plant science team at Flash Forest?
Ahmed: I head the plant science team at Flash Forest, and I am responsible for developing a new recipe for our seedpods each year. The seedpods are designed to improve the germination of the seeds and survivability of the seedlings. My role includes designing and conducting experiments to test different ingredients to provide the seeds and seedlings with adequate nutrition and water needed for the first few weeks until the seedling becomes independent, improve our pods to tolerate environmental factors such as heat stress and drought and to understand the pod behaviour.
Pulendzovska: My role at Flash Forest is to support the execution and monitoring of the experiments. My day to day work involves collecting data from the experiments that are running and monitoring and implementing the growing conditions. I could be irrigating, setting up experiments and climate controls, or troubleshooting any challenges that may arise.
What does a typical day look like for you in the greenhouse?
Ahmed: With the new greenhouse in Hamilton, we have a lot of space to work, which means we can perform multiple experiments simultaneously. A typical day in the greenhouse would include data collections, moisture measurements of the soil substrate as we run drought experiments, and irrigating the experiments.
Can you explain the process of developing a seedpod recipe from start to finish?
Ahmed: To secure a seedpod recipe each year, we do extensive research on different ingredients that can improve the germination and survivability of the seedling. We reach out to vendors, professors and researchers to gain more knowledge about new ingredients and to understand how an ingredient could improve our seedpods. Each new ingredient goes through a series of experiments to test their interaction with other ingredients in the seedpod and to observe the pod behaviour before conducting germination tests in the greenhouse. If an ingredient works out in our first set of experiments, we do additional experiments to understand what share of an ingredient is optimal for our seedpod. This entire process can take about 11-12 months and several rounds of experiments.
What factors do you consider when selecting seeds for the seedpods?
Ahmed: Seed selection for R&D is done based on interest from clients around the world. We test seeds from different countries, continents, and biomes in our seedpods and conduct multiple iterations to see how we can improve the seedpods so the germination and survivability of the said seed can be increased.
What are some of the most common issues you encounter when developing seedpod recipes, and how do you solve them?
Ahmed: The most common issues we encounter when developing seedpod recipes is learning the interaction of new ingredients with existing ingredients, which in some cases might have a negative effect on pod behaviour, germination of the seed, or survivability of the seedling. We make multiple recipes and pods to understand the ingredient interactions and conduct tests on them to understand the pod behaviour which may be followed by a greenhouse germination test.
What are seedpods made out of?
Ahmed: Our seed pods consist of one or more seed/s, water retention additives to support with the water requirements, beneficial fungi and bacteria to support the seedling in water and nutrition absorption from the surrounding and making it independent, minerals and nutrition to support the seed and seedling for the early few weeks until the seedling becomes independent, and a growth medium conditioner to support the germination of the seed and survivability of the seedling.
What do we need to be commercially viable? How do we go from a pod experiment to a commercially viable product?
Ahmed: We test over one hundred recipes and pods every year in our greenhouse and outdoor trial area to find the optimal seedpod recipe for each of our seed species. The best recipe is what makes it to a commercially viable product. This seedpod is used for hand transects during our spring ops, so that we can learn how our seedpods perform in the real world.
How do our seedpods help protect against drought?
Ahmed: Our seedpods have the ability to go through multiple rounds of hydration and support the seeds with the much-required water for the germination of the seed. The seedpods can hold water much longer than the surrounding soil surface even in warmer temperatures, supporting the seeds in drought conditions.
Are there any other interesting experiments or projects that the plant science team is working on at the moment?
Ahmed: In addition to working on a new recipe, which goes on throughout the year, the plant science team is currently testing out different species from around the world in our current seedpods - for example, pinus and eucalyptus species - which will give us insight on how to improve our seedpods for each of those species. Our goal is to eventually have species-specific seedpods for all the species that we would plant. We are also in the process of making a drought resistant pod recipe that helps the seedlings to survive in the increasing temperatures and the constant heat waves. Finally, we are testing the ability of pods to delay germination when conditions are sub-optimal.
How many recipes have we tested to date?
Ahmed: This is a difficult question because we have kind of lost track of the number of recipes we have tested so far, but we test more than 100 recipes every year.
What inspired you to pursue a career in plant science and environmental conservation?
Ahmed: I personally have a very broad background; I did my bachelors and master’s in biotechnology and bioinformatics. I did my PhD in plant molecular biology and plant physiology and a postdoc in insect physiology. But ever since I did my PhD, I knew my heart lies in working with plants and trees. The work I do at Flash Forest gives me immense happiness because it gives me the opportunity to see that I am helping the real world which will have a positive effect not only now but forever.
Pulendzovska: What inspired me to pursue a career in plant science and environmental conservation was following my intuition. I always wanted to help people and when I was in high school the goal was to be a doctor or a nurse. I started a plant science minor in university purely to stand out on medical school and masters degree applications. I turns out plant science is actually what I excelled in the most. By the end of my undergraduate degree I had finished an undergraduate degree in science with my plant science major and a certificate in business. In my previous roles I have worked in pest management and disease prevention in plants so I could say I was a plant doctor instead of a human doctor. Looking back, the path to plant science was always something I needed to do. Even as a kid I would always beg to be outside climbing trees enjoying the outdoors. Now I get to be a part of an organization that helps reforestation and help future generations experience the same. So it all worked out the way it's supposed to.
What’s your favourite tree species?
Ahmed: My favourite tree species is a larch, also known as tamarack. It's Ontario’s only native deciduous conifer, which means we can find it in a coniferous forest but just like a deciduous tree, it will change colours and shed its needles in the fall season.
Pulendzovska: My favorite tree species is Prunus Cerasus L.(Cherry trees). Growing up we had two big cherry trees in our backyard that had the most delicate fragrance. They were finishing blooming right around my birthday in May. As a result the ground would be white resembling snowflakes. It was magical and Cherry trees will always be my favorite because of that.
Stay tuned as we highlight some amazing updates from each of our departments over the next few weeks!
