The Precision Horticulture Laboratory conducts applied, systems-based research focused on improving the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of vegetable and specialty crop production. Our work integrates field experimentation, controlled-environment studies, sensing technologies, and grower-driven validation to address real-world production challenges.

Research activities are organized around interconnected thematic areas that span crops, environments, and management scales.

Research Themes

Precision Water and Nutrient Management

We develop and evaluate irrigation and fertilization strategies that optimize resource use while maintaining or improving crop performance. This work includes sensor-based irrigation scheduling, fertigation strategies, and nitrogen management programs tailored to specialty crops. Current projects include nitrogen rate and timing studies in tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries and tea production systems in North Carolina.

Crop Stress Physiology and Heat Resilience

We also study plant physiological responses to heat, water, and nutrient stress to inform management practices that enhance yield stability and crop quality. This work supports the development of planting strategies, irrigation approaches, and cultivar selection tools designed to mitigate abiotic stress under increasingly variable climatic conditions.

Sensors and Decision-Support Technologies

We integrate thermal, multispectral, soil, and emerging sensor technologies to monitor crop and soil conditions and support data-driven decision making. Research includes the development and validation of practical decision-support tools for irrigation, nutrient management, and stress detection, with an emphasis on field applicability and grower adoption.

Soil Management, Fumigation, and Bed Architecture

We investigate soil and root-zone management strategies that improve treatment efficacy and crop performance. This includes research on soil fumigation through drip irrigation systems and the evaluation of alternative bed architectures for tomato and strawberry production. Projects compare drip-applied and conventional shank fumigation methods for nematode and weed management while assessing impacts on water movement, fumigant distribution, and crop response.

Automation and Labor-Saving Production Systems

We evaluate mechanized and automated solutions designed to reduce labor dependency in vegetable production systems. Our research includes the development of production systems for compact growth habit tomatoes suitable for mechanical harvesting, as well as the optimization of planting density and nitrogen management to support yield and harvest efficiency. In parallel, we integrate sensing and modeling tools into conventional tomato systems to enable automation-ready practices, including plant detection and positioning. This work is conducted in collaboration with faculty and technical specialists across North Carolina State University and leverages engineering and prototyping support from the NC State Plant Sciences Initiative MakerSpace.

Latest Peer-reviewed Publications

UAS-Based Spectral and Phenological Modeling for Sustainable Mechanization and Nutrient Management in Horticultural Crops. 2025. A Suero, E Torres-Quezada, L López, M Reiter, A Biscaia, ..Horticulturae 11 (12), 1451

Data-Driven Integration of Remote Sensing, Agro-Meteorology, and Wireless Sensor Networks for Crop Water Demand Estimation: Tools Towards Sustainable Irrigation in High-Value Fruit Crops. 2025. F Fuentes-Peñailillo, ML del Campo-Hitschfeld, K Gutter, E Torres-Quezada...Agronomy 15 (9), 2122

Impacts of Nitrogen Fertilizer Application Timing and Rate on Sweet Corn Production Under Subtropical Environmental Conditions. 2025. J Paranhos, W Foshee, T Coolong, E Torres-Quezada, ALBR da Silva. Nitrogen 6 (2), 20

Remote Sensing and Soil Moisture Sensors for Irrigation Management in Avocado Orchards: A Practical Approach for Water Stress Assessment in Remote Agricultural Areas. 2025. E Torres-Quezada, F Fuentes-Peñailillo, K Gutter, F Rondón, …Remote Sensing 17 (4), 708

Spatializing Temperature Data for Climate-Resilient Biosystems Engineering through Adiabatic and Topographic Methods. 2024. F Fuentes-Peñailillo, R Vega, K Gutter, H Castro, E Torres-Quezada, … IEEE International Conference on Automation/XXVI Congress of the Chilean Association of Automatic Control (ICA-ACCA)

For more information, please visit: Dr. Torres ORCID