Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Brian Jeffiers
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Johnson County Farmers' Market has always provided strong revenue streams for producers, but the growing use of social media platforms for selling has created a real challenge for producers who sell off the farm. At the same time, a large market segment--low-income families--continues to struggle to locate affordable sources for fresh produce.With the guidance of the County Extension Agent and Program Assistant for Agriculture & Natural Resources, both needs are now being met. The ma
Author: Glen Roberts
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Collaborators: Glen Roberts, ANR agent, Terry Bertram, ANR assistant, Danny Adams, KSU Small Farm Assistant, Justin Horton, FFA Adviser/VoAg instructor, Kathryn Tucker, School Food Service Director, Master Gardeners, VoAg and FCS students. Situation: Today`s youth are unaware how their food is grown. School cafeterias struggle to provide fresh nutritious, affordable locally grown vegetables for their food service. The ANR agent approached a school board member and the superinte
Author: Paul Sizemore
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Farm diversification has become a must to compete in the ever changing market place of agriculture. Owsley County Cooperative Extension Service conducted a workshop to help farmers diversify their operations and find resources to assist in developing infrastructure at their operations. Owsley County Cooperative Extension, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Kentucky Sate Small Farm Program worked with farmers to obtain High Tunnels and other Projects that would help them to Diversify.&nbs
Author: Kathryn Wimberley
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Due to Covid 19 Pandemic in fall of 2020, the usual way of offering training to award continuing education units (CEUs) to workers in Commercial Pesticide Application (CPA) were not possible. For the past 10 years at McCracken County Extension Service workers were able to earn 1 specific and 3 general hours late in the calendar year after the growing season had ended. In 2020, it was not possible as an in-person event. In December of 2020, area workers in need of (CEUs) contacted McCracken
Author: Stacy White
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
According to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, "The demand for affordable, fresh, local and healthy foods is growing. With more than 160 successful farmers’ markets across the Commonwealth, spanning more than 110 counties and 2,700 vendors, farmers’ markets and direct-to-consumer marketing are great ways to meet that demand. It’s simple for the consumer to find the products their looking for and buying local puts a face on your food with a connection between the cons
Author: Robert Kirby
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
By following the CDC, KDA and local health department guidelines, the Knox County Farmer's Market had another successful year. The Knox County Farmer's Market outdoor season began Thursday, May 28 through November 29, 2020. On average during peak season we had roughly 300 customers per week. During the beginning and end of the season, Knox Farmer's Market averaged 75-100 customers a week. Individual vendor revenues ranged from $100 to $1,500 per week. Estimated market revenue for the
Author: Anthony Tackett
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Bourbon County Extension Service serves local communities through a wide variety of outreach activities. We have faced special challenges during the past year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these incredible challenges the Bourbon Extension Office has never been closed and we have continued our work in new and innovative ways to help keep everyone safe. Outreach efforts continued but, in some cases, looked different this year. Direct educational field o
Author: Kristin Hildabrand
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Warren County Extension Office observed that new growers selling their products at the farmers market would slowly build up their customer base and then leave in order to sell their goods off the farm. While this is good for farmers, area farmers markets are left with fewer vendors and limited produce variety at the market. In response to this situation, the Warren County Extension Office worked together with the SOKY Marketplace where they applied for and were awarded a Specialty Crop grant
Author: Robert Smith
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
In the early part of the century, Nelson County was enjoying a resurgence of interest and expansion in the grape and wine industry. Nelson County Extension was heavily involved in helping educate interested individuals in the process of growing grapes for the wine market. We addressed the many pitfalls of growing grapes including how to avoid growing what couldn’t be successfully grown. As we moved through the process of planting and planning, it became apparent the winemakers
Author: Alexis Amorese Sheffield
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Cut flower production is a growing horticulture enterprise segment in Kentucky and more than 70 operations across the state have been identified. Since July is nationally recognized as American Grown Cut Flower Month, for 2020, the Kentucky Horticulture Council (KHC) partnered with UK Cooperative Extension Service ANR Horticulture Agents, Alexis Sheffield (Boyle County) and Kristin Hildabrand (Warren County) to launch a social media promotional campaign highlighting cut flower growers across the
Author: Glen Roberts
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Collaborators: Glen Roberts, ANR Agent, Terry Bertram, ANR Assistant, Danny Adams KSU Small Farms Program, Cassie Munsey, FCS Assistant, Farmers Market Vendors, County Judge, and customersSituation: The Downtown Farmers Market Facility could not comply with CDC guidelines. We moved to property owned by the Wayne County Extension District Board. They own a former Do-It Center lumber yard with lots of covered buildings and concrete. It took a lot of 12 hour days and an
Author: Glen Roberts
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Collaborators, Glen Roberts, ANR agent, Terry Bertram, ANR Assistant, Danny Adams, KSU Small Farms Program, Toni Humble, 4-H Youth Development Agent, Cassie Munsey, FCS Assistant, Sherry Coffey, 4-H Program Assistant, Seth Hart, Program Assistant, FFA members, extension volunteers, school foodservice staff, Kathryn Tucker, Food Service Coordinator and parentsSituation: Due to COVID-19 and a virtual learning schedule some of the traditional school garden produce could not be used by t
Author: Adam Leonberger
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
During January 2021, a local orchard hired a new farm manager. The new manager has previous experience working with grapes and vineyard management, but lacked knowledge of tree fruit management. The orchard has over a 100 apple trees and 200 blackberry bushes that needed to be properly pruned to ensure years of production. The Franklin County Horticulture agent coordinated with the Extension Fruit Specialist to visit the farm and teach the new manager how to properly prune the trees
Author: Keith Hackworth
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Directed by our leadership, Extension has been involved with local farmers to assist them with new enterprise development. The local agriculture leaders suggested that some efforts be directed at improvements in horticultural production. Several educational programs were offered to those interested in high tunnel, greenhouse, and bedding plant production. Assistance from Extension Specialists and other agents were utilized in these endeavors. Because of these efforts, we now have four commercial
Author: Stacy White
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
As the demand for locally grown foods continues to grow, the interest of some new farmers to supply this demand also grows. Some of these growers are not traditional farmers with conventional farm equipment on hand. Many have invested in small tractors and other implements to farm on a small scale. Seeing this situation and knowing that most of these new growers could improve their efficiency with the availability of smaller shared use equipment, three new pieces of equipment w
Author: Paul Andrew Rideout
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Growing vegetables is very different than traditional row crops. Weed control is the primary concern and very few products are labeled for post emergent weed control. Most commercial producers grow on plastic. New growers entering into small scale vegetable production, often have a learning curve and often lack the resources to purchase the needed equipment to start growing on plastic.Utilizing some funding from the State Agriculture Development fund and matching local funding,
Author: Kara Back
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
After the biological controls program was started in Taylor Co. through the entomology department at UK, growers showed an interest in having scouting in their greenhouses. The horticulture agent fulfilled this roll and introduced the use of sticky cards to each grower. The growers see how useful the sticky cards are in their IPM program. This year we have increased the number of growers using the cards on a regular bases from two to a total of seven. The cards this year have already alerted the
Author: Gary Bell
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Metcalfe County Farmers Market Agriculture Development Grant expansion project has finished phase 1, with the completion of the new much larger Farmers Market Pavilion. The Farmers Market was able to utilize the new pavilion beginning in August 2020, but due to COVID restrictions, has not yet been able to hold a "grand opening" event. Phase two of this project, the build - in of the old Farmers Market pavilion, to turn it into a community teaching and commercial kitchen
Author: Dee Heimgartner
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Moving to a new state can be a daunting task in just acquainting yourself with new neighbors, community dynamics and general life changes; however when you are a serious gardener and those changes include climate, planting dates and most importantly the soil type it can create an even bigger challenge. This is exactly the situation a Crittenden County landowner found themselves in when they sought help out from Crittenden County Extension ANR agent Dee Heimgartner. The new client cam
Author: Adam Huber
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Mammoth Cave Area Virtual Field Day The Covid-19 pandemic has presented challenges to many people. It has changed the way we live and work. One of the challenges that has developed for Extension Agents is how do we continue to deliver quality educational programs to our clientele during this health crisis? Most traditional face-to-face program delivery methods are not currently an option.An alternate method is electronic delivery of programs. Because most of our traditional field days were
Author: Sheri Crabtree
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
During much of this past year, Extension programming was virtual due to COVID-19 restrictions. Most seminars, presentations, and workshops were easily transitioned to virtual platforms such as Zoom and Facebook live, but farm visits were more challenging. To solve this problem, virtual farm visits were conducted with clientele via video calls (FaceTime). The growers were able to video call via FaceTime so I could see their site in 'person' in real-time, when I could not be there physical
Author: David Koester
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Like all Extension related conferences, the Tri Sate Green Industry Conference had to go virtual in 2021, Regardless of the circumstances Tri State Green Industry personnel must maintain their pesticide and professional certifications. 23 committee members representing Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky Universities as well as industry professionals met and planned the virtual conference. The committee decided to waive all fees for the 2021 conference to make it truly available to all. 30 expert speaker
Author: Kristin Hildabrand
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
With cut flower production becoming a fast-growing horticulture enterprise in Kentucky, Horticulture Extension Agents from Boyle and Warren Counties saw the need to offer commercial cut flower production classes. Extension agents met over Zoom and planned out 4 sessions to be offered seasonally throughout the 2021 growing season into early winter 2022 to give new and interested growers more insight into Kentucky cut flower production. This series of classes was later titled Kentucky Cut Flower S
Author: Nick Roy
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
In Adair County, small farmers are looking for ways to increase on-farm income with minimal inputs of land and machinery. Annual horticultural crops can often provide such an opportunity to farmers. In 2020, a demonstration plot was conducted growing green beans using no-till practices. To plant the beans, a sweet corn planter owned by the Adair County Cooperative Extension Service was utilized. A variety was selected based on trials conducted by the University of Kentuck
Author: David Koester
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Boone County Horticulture Demonstration Plot is in its fifth year of production. For growing season 2021 the plot was divided into plasticulture tomatoes, beans, cut flowers, squash and peppers. Varieties are evaluated on each of these commodities and the plot is open to commercial as well as the public. All are welcome to view the plot and make their own evaluations. 6 commercial farm market vendors have adopted and are growing one or more of the varieties highlighted at the demonstration p
Author: David Koester
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Boone County Extension Service has for many years hosted commercial green industry conferences. Plans were made in 2020 to collaborate with University of Kentucky Turf Specialist Travis Shaddox on a 2 day in person conference held at the Boone County Enrichment Center. Due to Covid restrictions plans had to be changed and a virtual conference was held. Specialists in turf, entomology, pathology, and landscape horticulture were enlisted to present virtually. Specialists from the industry were
Author: David Koester
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Recommended rootstocks for the grafting of fruit trees are always difficult to acquire. Boone County has had a standing order with a rootstock nursery in Oregon. Due to the pandemic we tried to alter our order for early spring 2021. Unfortunately they had already shipped. At the time of receiving our order of rootstock we were restricted from holding in person classes. The rootstock was placed in our Cool Bot refrigeration unit.Thankfully in March we were able to hold in person classes with a ma
Author: Christy Cassady
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
In 2020, faculty and staff from the Department of Horticulture, the Center for Crop Diversification (CCD), and the Kentucky Horticulture Council collaborated on an updated version of HortFact-3002, Fruit and Nut Cultivar Nursery Sources - 2020. This publication was developed to help growers locate sources of fruit and nut cultivars across the United States that are recommended for Kentucky, or that growers typically ask for in Kentucky. Earlier versions of the publication had been available only
Author: W. Garrett Owen
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Fert, Dirt, and Squirt (fertdirtandsquirt.com) is a nutritional monitoring of greenhouse crops portal that was developed to provide crop-specific nutritional information. To date, the website has received 24,377 page views with users representing 107 countries. Nationally, greenhouse growers from all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia represent 65% of the total users and account for 68% of the 17 top-producing floriculture states. Over the past year, site traffic on the website ha
Author: W. Garrett Owen
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Electronic Grower Resources Online (e-GRO) was originally created in 2012 where Alerts style bulletins were distributed to notify greenhouse growers of current issues and challenges that the collaborators with expertise in nutrition, water, plant growth regulators, light, temperature, pests and pathogens have observed while visiting growing operations. The e-GRO team represents 14 cooperating universities and extension affiliations.In 2020 and 2021, e-GRO published 30 editions of e-GRO Alert and
Author: Shawn Wright
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
We survived the March 2021 Flood. We lost around $100,000 worth of equipment and supplies, but are back functioning as a viable program at RCARS
Author: Shawn Wright
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Planted a plasticulture strawberry herbicide trial at the Horticulture Farm in Lexington testing Chateau, Goal 2xl, and Devrinol all labelled for plasticulture strawberries. Growers hesitate to use Chateau because of the expense, but the trial showed that Chateau provided approximately 90% control of winter annuals compared to the control. Because of disease in one plot and hand weeding that had been done prior to data collection we could not determine statistically different differe
Author: Roger Mollette
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Apple AtchaMartin County has plans for one of the largest apple orchards in the state with 120,000 trees planted for the first round. More Honey Crisp trees are planned for the near future. A processing facility will be located on the orchard site. The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service will play a vital role in the “Apple Atcha” project by working with farmers in Martin, as well as, the surrounding counties to educate and encourage the production of appl
Author: Robert Kirby
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
With most of the high tunnels in Knox County being NRCS grant funded, certain stipulations are agreed upon by producers when receiving the grant. One of the stipulations is that producers will agree to grow produce in the ground of the high tunnel for a minimum of four years. Almost all producers in the county have selected tomatoes as their primary crop because of the profit potential but have struggled growing in the ground the second and third years because of nematodes. To address the
Author: Kimberly Leonberger
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
According to USDA – NASS the value of vegetable and fruit production in Kentucky totaled $7.8 million in 2012. In addition, there were 29, 963 farms in Kentucky with sales of less than $2,500 each year, which makes up 39% of total farmers in the state. Many small-scale producers grow crops in a high tunnel, as a way to extend their growing season and generate additional revenue. As of 2019, it is estimated that there are more than 1,000 high tunnels in Kentucky. These growers are faced wit
Author: John Grove
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
I received a call from a beginning blueberry producer. Her plants, still in the pots and intended for commercial blueberry production, were not doing well. The symptoms were consistent with salinity stress. Determined that the nursery from which she and her husband had bought the plants had recommended a fertilizer material, and rate of that material, that was causing the salinity problem. Daniel Becker had first diagnosed the salinity problem and she called me to confirm. They have been putting
Author: Daniel Becker
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Jenny Clark, proprietor of Urban Paradise Produce in Princeton, Caldwell County is participating for a second year in the Kentucky Small Fruit Initiative, a grant program for small growers provided through the Kentucky Horticulture Council. In April she wrote "I have received the cool-bot and the plants from Indiana Berry. I also got the check in the mail for Deerfield Supply. I am going to take a half vacation day next week to go over there to purchase the rest of the supplies
Author: Joshua Knight
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
> From July 1st, 2020 to June 30th, 2021 the Nursery Crops Extension Research Website (http://ncer.ca.uky.edu) has received 12,289 views. Compared to the previous 12-month calendar period, it received 9,173 views meaning it is exceeding last years' traffic and use by 33.97%. Additionally, the number of new visitors to the site is up 58.31% over the previous 12-month calendar period, supporting the theory that the audience for the website is still growing and possibly a reflection of
Author: Joshua Knight
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Nursery Crops / Horticulture YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/UKRECHort started in 2011 as a channel to distribute video content generated at by the UKREC Horticulture Unit for Nursery Crops related content. After program cuts and personnel changes, it has gradually transitioned over the years into a repository for video content for horticulture production practices, focusing on short length videos targeting narrow topics. However, it also hosts longer videos of recorded p
Author: Brett Wolff
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Second COVID-19 Business Adaptation Webinar Series Builds on Success of FirstBrett Wolff led a second webinar series in November and December of 2020 following up on delivering content small agricultural businesses—particularly those selling directly to the public, to pivot toward more online and other adaptive methods to cope with emerging impacts of COVID-19. Some webinars were presented just by Brett while others were presented in collaboration with the Kentucky Center for Agricult
Author: Kelly Jackson
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
During the height of the COVID pandemic, Christian County saw an increase in produces sales and many people started growing their own vegetables. To help curate a listing of local businesses selling fresh produce and vegetable transplants, the Cooperative Extension Service partnered with the Christian County Master Gardener Association to develop a Plant and Produce Directory. Master Gardeners divided the county into five sections and then spent time driving those areas to locate farms, greenhou
Author: Jonathan Larson
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
As part of Katie Grubb’s plan B master’s practicum, we produced a 5 part zoom based training focused on how to implement biological control successfully in high tunnel agriculture. This work was partially supported by a Kentucky Specialty Crop Block Grant. Each of our 1-hour sessions had two speakers with 30 minute presentations. This allowed us to cooperate across disciplines with Dr. Rachel Rudolph (UK Horticulture) and two Extension agents, Kara Back (Taylor County) and Alex
Author: Sharon Flynt
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
What began as a short term stop-gap for in-person programming during the 2020 Pandemic, has become a much-attended weekly horticulture program. Due to the continuing popularity of the Horticulture Webinar Wednesdays program a team of Kentucky Horticulture agents have continued to present weekly Wednesday webinars at 12:30 ET (11:30 CT) as a “lunch and learn” horticultural program. This team also includes agents, specialists, and other experts who present a 30–45-minute horticul
Author: Kelly Jackson
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Kentucky has the fastest-growing Amish population in the U.S. According to the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, the population of Kentucky Amish grew by 8,740 people since 2010 and is currently 8th in population with approximately 13,595 Amish. Christian County and neighboring Todd County are two of the three most populated counties in Kentucky with a combined population of 2,700. Many Amish in these two counties, grow and sell vegetables and depend on these sales for their
Author: Annette Heisdorffer
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Managing trees and shrubs on city property can be time consuming and costly, especially if not managed properly. The Daviess County Cooperative Extension Service and City of Owensboro partnered to offer the Certified Arborist Preparation Training at the request of the City Grounds Manager. The grounds manager wanted to become a Certified Arborist and to teach the employees he supervises how to properly prune and manage trees in parks, along streets, and in sports complexes owned by t
Author: Kara Back
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The Taylor County Farmers' Market received a USDA small business promotion grant last year to use toward the famers' market in Taylor County. In cooperation with the health department and the extension office the market is working toward a revitalization. Increasing interest within the market throughout the community by increased advertisement on radio paper and social media. While also, providing opportunities for vendors to utilize free advertisement, resources provided by the market,
Author: Samantha Anderson
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The University of Kentucky Center for Crop Diversification reports that Kentucky, an active adapter of high tunnel production systems, comprises over 2.8 million ft ² of production capacity across more than 1,200 tunnels. High tunnel production systems allow growres to facilitate growing season extension as well as provide supplemental field production for small scale producers. In partnership with the University of Kentucky Extension Entomology department, McCracken County Agent for
Author: Rachel Rudolph
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Broccoli production in Kentucky has grown by nearly seven fold from 2012 to 2017 (USDA, 2017). According the University of Kentucky Center for Crop Diversification farmers market price report, the average price of broccoli has increased in both urban and rural farmers markets. From 2017 to 2018, the price of broccoli increased 25% in rural markets and 32% in urban markets. Although still small compared to other states, there is potential for further growth with the increase in the use of season
Author: Rachel Rudolph
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
High tunnels are primarily use for specialty crop production, including fruit and vegetables, and have been shown to increase quality and yield. There are over 1,000 high tunnels in Kentucky. However, many growers still struggle with production challenges that are unique to high tunnel systems. This includes integrated pest management (IPM) methods. High tunnels are still relatively new and many less experienced growers acquire a high tunnel. Cooperative Extension Service (CES) agents do not hav
Author: Raul Villanueva
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
The immature form or larva of the codling moth (CM) is the most devastating global pest of apples with a huge potential impact on the post-harvest quality and yield of the product. Detection is hard due to the small size of its larvae and potentially hidden behavior, simple visual inspection is ill-suited for accurate infestation detection. For two years a multidisciplinary effort involving three UK faculty: Drs. A. Adedeji, K. Donohue and R. Villanueva from three departments (Biosystems and Agr
Author: Raul Villanueva
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
Ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are boring insects that inoculate species specific symbiotic fungi into the sapwood of their hosts. Some fungi are innocuous, but others are pathogenic and can kill plants in a short time. The detection, phenology and identification of the later and its management are the main objectives of this study. This project was funded in 2017 and 2019 but due to the phenology of these pests the start of the projects in each year of the funding lagg
Author: Raul Villanueva
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
I was solicited to present in-person however to avoid risk this task was conducted online using zoom. The event was to make aware to the agricultural workers, and palm growers (coconut or oil) about the destructive effect this weevil species can have on the Caribbean. People were receptive and positive comments were obtained during presentation.
