The $5.3 million Plant Growth Center opened in the spring of 1987, built with funding from the 1983 Montana Legislature. The building includes twenty-nine individual greenhouse bays, a 2880-square-foot multi-user greenhouse, a pathology isolation wing, an insect quarantine lab, and dozens of individual growth chambers. The high-tech systems that regulate light and temperature in these spaces allow researchers to grow multiple generations of plants per year. Energy-saving features include a heat recovery system, which uses waste heat from water-cooled growth chambers and growth rooms to heat greenhouses, and a recent conversion to LED greenhouse lighting systems that use less than half the electrical power of the previous greenhouse lights. The Plant Growth Center hosts a wide range of users representing multiple departments and colleges across Montana State University, from crop breeding programs and disease researchers to graduate students and professors with class projects. 

The research conducted in the Plant Growth Center supports not just the campus community but Montana’s broader agricultural industry. Lines of wheat, barley, and pulse crops from MSU’s breeding programs, which go on to be grown commercially across the state, are developed and evaluated in the Plant Growth Center's greenhouses. The Seed Potato Certification Lab, housed on the second floor of the building, works directly with producers to provide disease testing and certification services for Montana’s thriving seed potato industry. And the Insect Quarantine Lab, the only USDA-approved quarantine laboratory in the state of Montana, conducts research on biological control agents that are used across the state to control invasive noxious weeds and insect pests. All this knowledge is then disseminated across the state through MSU Extension’s network of county and reservation offices.

Facility Details

Growing Facilities: Descriptions of the PGC greenhouses, growth chambers, growth rooms, plant pathology isolation units and quarantine facilities.

Specifications: Details on supplemental lights, growing media, and suppliers utilized. Authors should look here for details required for publications.

Teaching Facilities & Classroom Schedule: Classroom facilities, scheduling, and audio/visual equipment options.

Resources for Facility Users

Policy Manual: Details on the management of the PGC, services provided by the PGC staff, and PGC rules and operating procedures.

PGC Primer: An introduction to greenhouse growing techniques and problem solving for all PGC users.

Pest and Disease Identification: A quick guide to identifying common greenhouse insect pests and diseases.

User Requests

Space Request: Request growing space in the PGC. Users must create a new login and password the first time they use the form.

Pesticide Request: Request treatment for pest or disease issues in a growing space. 

Teaching Greenhouse Space Request: Request growing space for smaller class projects (for professors only). 

For general inquiries, please contact the Plant Growth Center management team at pgc@montana.edu or by phone at 406-994-2231.

PGC Staff

Connor Schmitz, Plant Growth Center Manager
connor.schmitz@montana.edu

Allison Rognlie, Assistant Manager
allison.rognlie@montana.edu