Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Purdue University, 1972
Master of Science, Purdue University, 1969
Bachelor of Science, Cornell University, 1965
Awards/Special Recognition
Elected President of American Society for Plasticulture, 2005
* Best research paper award in 32nd Proceedings National Agricultural Plastics Congress, 2005
Research Focus
Dr. Taber’s area of research is in earliness techniques, microirrigation practices, and mineral nutrition with the commodity vegetables.
Teaching/Advising Responsibilities
Dr. Taber’s teaching responsibilities are Vegetable Crop Management, (Hort 471); Survey of Horticultural Crops (Hort 222); and Undergraduate honors/research (Hort 490). Graduate student advising.
Extension Program
Assist commercial vegetable producers in production techniques (cultivars, soil management, irrigation, earliness techniques, etc.) of vegetable crops. Activities include individual visits, meetings, field days, workshops, demonstration plots, preparation of newsletters, bulletins, fact sheets, progress reports, computer programs, slide sets, videotape, and preparation of material (written and graphics) for World Wide Web site (see ‘commercial vegetables’ on the department’s outreach/extension page).
To train and update county and area agents on techniques involved in vegetable production. Provide agents with slide sets and videocassettes for their use with local clientele. Producer clientele consists of 2 major groups: 1) traditional, long-time growers located in 4 regions (Mississippi River, Waterloo-Cedar Rapids, North Central muck growers, and Missouri River areas); 2) new, small scale growers for farmer markets scattered throughout the state.
Organizations/Appointments/Activities
American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) – 1967 to present
Vegetable Crops Mgmt Working Group: elected to steering committee 1982- 1985.
Acting chair in 1983, elected chair in 1985.
Graduate Student Activities Committee – 1980-1983. Chair in 1982.
Member of mineral nutrition and commercial extension working groups.
Associate Editor of HortScience, 1992-1996
American Society for Plasticulture (ASP)
1978 to present. Elected to the Board of Directors for 1983-1986 and 1992-1995. Editor of 27th Proceedings(1998). Served as program chair, vice-president, and president.
North American Farmers Direct Marketing Assocaiton, 1986, 1992, 2006.
American Society for Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) – 1968 to 1986.
Selected Publications
Taber, H. G., P. Perkins-Veazie, S. Li, W. White, S. Rodermel, and Y. Xu. 2008. Enhancement of Tomato Fruit Lycopene by Potassium is Cultivar Dependent. HortScience 43:159-165.
Taber, H.G. and V. Lawson. 2007. Use of diluted tomato petiole sap for potassium measurement with the Cardy electrode meter. Commun Plant Sci. Soil Anal. 38: 713-718.
Taber, H.G. 2006. Potassium application and leaf sufficiency level for fresh-market tomatoes grown on a Midwestern United States fine-textured soil. HortTechnology 16: 247-252.
Romero, F, H.G. Taber, and R.J. Gladon. 2006. Nitrogen Source and Concentration Affect Growth and Performance of Bedding-Plant Impatiens. J. Plant Nutr. 29: 1315-1326.
Taber, H. G., V. Lawson, B. Smith, and R. Gansemer. 2005. Fresh market tomato production with red plastic mulch. Proc. Nat’l Ag Pastics Congr. 32: 134 (Best paper award)
Taber, H. G. 2004. Boron analysis of Mehlich No. 3 extractant with modified inductive coupled plasma techniques to eliminate iron interference. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal. 35: 2957-2963.
Taber, H. G., D. Shogren, and G. Lu. 2002. Extraction of silicon from plant tissue with dilute HCl and HF and measurement by modified inductive coupled agron plasma procedures. Comm. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. 33: 1661-1670.
Taber, H. G., V. Lawson, B. Smith, and D. Shogren. 2002. Scheduling microirrigation with tensiometers or watermarks. Int’l. Water & Irr. 22: 22-26.
Taber, H. G. 2001. Petiole sap nitrate sufficiency values for fresh market tomato production. J. Plant Nutr. 24: 945-959.