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Sara Eff on soil health and drought solutions
April 2026
Senior Scientist Sara Eff’s research focuses on two key areas for better gardening: soil health (using soil respiration to measure beneficial microbes) and developing new biologicals that help plants withstand drought stress to conserve water.
Sara was recently named to Greenhouse Product News’ 40 Under 40 Class of 2025. The award recognized 14 years of commitment to advancing horticultural science on our R&D team.
Video transcript
I get to work with plants every single day. That's so amazing. I get to be out there in the greenhouse out there in the field. It really is important to me to allow our consumers to have that green space and to have that love for the earth and getting to grow things and see how amazing their journey through gardening can be.
Some research that I've been really passionate about is diving deeper into soil health. So we know soil health is a comprehensive concept. So we're talking about the physical, the chemical, and the biological. Some cool work that we've been doing is looking at soil respiration. So actually measuring the CO2 emissions of your soil. And that can be a direct correlation to microbial health and those beneficial microbes that you want in there. And so we know the fundamental to all gardening success is good soil. So if we can provide consumers with products that not only help their plant health, but also their soil health, that's great for us.
Some really exciting research that I've been working on lately is looking at biologicals. So this is a newer technology for us. They really help plants withstand abiotic stress. So specifically drought stress. If we know that water conservation is extremely important. So if we can provide solutions to our consumers that allow them to use less water, but also still have a happy and healthy plant, that's a win-win for us.