Madison Kraus is in her fourth year at UW-Madison and is earning her bachelor’s in horticulture. This past summer, she interned at Ball Horticultural, working specifically for PanAmerican Seed as their seed breeding and culture research intern.
What made you interested in studying horticulture?
I always loved working and being around plants. I was always interested in the growing and cultivation process as well as the industry overall.
What is the most interesting class you’ve taken at UW-Madison?
I loved taking Greenhouse Cultivation (Plant Science 334 & 335) last spring. My favorite part about it were the labs and the experiments that were taught. Each experiment related to something we learned in class and made the content more digestible.
What was your favorite project in Greenhouse Cultivation?
My favorite project that we did in Greenhouse Cultivation was the photoperiodism project. Using chrysanthemums, each week we would take out 5 plants of the shade cover, which gave us short-day plants. By the 8th week, we had plants who only had a week of short-day light and plants who had 8 weeks of short-day light. It was cool to see that respecting the photoperiod suggestions for the crop benefited it’s growth, not only in height but in flowering. The plants we took out the first week were long and leggy with no blooms, whereas the 8 week plants were shorter and had flowering blooms on them.
What kind of work did you focus on in your internship with Ball Horticultural?
The work I did spanned over multiple areas. I did field and lab work where I was doing data collection and analysis. I worked along with the Project Management team for one of my projects. I also conducted survey research throughout the company and analyzed that data.
What methods did you use to breed plants in your internship?
The internship was only a summer long so there wasn’t time to truly do “breeding”. However, my projects and research did relate the company’s breeding efforts. I used some propagation techniques I learned my sophomore year. I also used the knowledge about breeding timelines and techniques that I learned junior year.
What are you interested in doing with your knowledge and degree in horticulture?
I’m hoping to go into research and development, specifically working in industry. I would love specifically working in culture research. I would also love to volunteer within the cities I live in to benefit the community.