Author: Sharon Flynt
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
A recent study showed that 55% of American households engage in gardening activities. The study also found that 67% of adults are growing or planning to grow edible plants, including vegetables (52%), herbs (33%), and fruits (31%). This has led to a boom in sales in garden centers and promotion of the benefits of growing your own food. This “boom in gardening” and gardening businesses was demonstrated in April, 2023, at the Scott County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer
Author: Delia Scott
The Beginning Farmer High Tunnel Production Basics Webinar and In-Person Workshop Series was created based on discussions and feedback received at the 2023 KY Fruit and Vegetable Conference. I worked with UK Dept. of Horticulture faculty to develop this series for those new to or interested in high tunnel production. The series was comprised of a two-part webinar series, followed by three in-person workshops held throughout the state (Central, Eastern, and Western regions). Both the webinars and
Author: Adam Leonberger
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, 200 blackberry bushes that needed to be properly pruned and sprayed to ensure years of production. The Franklin County Horticulture agent coordinated with the Extension Fruit Specialist and Extension Enotmologist to visit the farm and teach the new mana
Author: Kara Back-Campbell
Insect and disease scouting was requested by commercial producers in Taylor County. The Horticulture Agent starts the weekly site visits in January and continues through October. These visits help improve the producers' harvest / sales by identifying insects and pests as soon as possible. A new tool has been developed for more efficiency on these site visits. The Taylor County Horticulture Agent last year used a receipt book to track insect counts on sticky cards and diseases found in local
Author: Kimberly Leonberger
Kentucky commercial vegetable growers produce a wide range of crops, which as of 2019 contributed $40.9 million to the state’s economy (Balazs & Davis, “The Importance of Agriculture for Kentucky”, March 2022). In 2019, it was estimated that there were more than 1,000 high tunnels in Kentucky. Management of disease, insect, and abiotic issues in high tunnels often requires options and strategies that differ from those used in field production. Thus, growers are encour
Author: Anthony Tackett
The Bourbon County Horticulture program of the Cooperative Extension Service provides advanced orchard testing services and recommendations to local fruit growers. These tests include tissue analysis and soil tests, which are essential for monitoring the health and productivity of local commercial orchards. Recently, the program conducted numerous tests for a grower who planted thousands of new apple and peach trees in the county. The tests revealed some nutrient deficiencies and imbalances that
Author: Daniel Becker
Garrett Farms in Paducah is a diversified farm specializing in vegetable and fruit production and direct to consumer sales.The owner, Danny Garrett expressed interest in diversifying into other fruits besides strawberries. After consulting with Samantha Anderson, the McCracken County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent and Daniel Becker, the Vegetable and Small Fruit Extension Associate, Danny decided that blackberries would be the best fit for his operation. After applying for a grant throu
Author: Kelly Jackson
While most of the local educational efforts extended to growers focus on produce and greenhouse production of bedding plants, in recent years there has been increased interest in wholesale cut flower sales specifically among the plain clothes growers. To address production standards the Cooperative Extension Service in Christian County partnered with a local cut flower grower to offer two classes on production specifically targeting the plains clothes community. Topics included basic plants for
Author: Bethany Wilson
The green industry is a $9 billion industry and employs 26,000 in Kentucky with turfgrass and landscape businesses contributing to the local economy of both urban and rural communities across the state. In 2022, the Pulaski County Horticulture Agent joined two other agents and UK’s new Turf Extension Associate to form the University of Kentucky State Turf Team. This team provides turf programming and organizes and executes the Kentucky Turf and Landscape Short Course. 
Author: Shawn Wright
The Kentucky Horticulture Council has provided funding to expand the production of commercial small fruits. Jeff Howard is a small grower in Breathitt County that has been a recipient of this funding and has established new blueberry plantings, gooseberry and currant plantings, and has purchased a label maker and other suppkies for his enterprise. He has increased his production and quality and his farm has become more economically sustainable.
Upon discussions with colleagues in other states as well as with growers and County ANR Agents I initiated a request for a 24c SLN label for Reflex (fomesafen) in pumpkins, squash and watermelon. It is used pre-emergence and has been shown to be useful when managing pigweeds (Amaranthus sp.), lambsquarters (Chenopodium album), and velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrastii) among other weeds. This will give our growers an additional tool that is needed when growing cucurbits. Herbicides
Author: Nicole Gauthier
Extension brings the university to the people. It “extends” the university to all reaches of the commonwealth. Partnerships between county agents and campus specialists have always been strong, and farmers have come to rely on the strength of our Extension family to help them increase yields and feed their families. However, in 2020, Covid-19 halted Extension as we knew it. In-person meetings and specialty trainings were suddenly unavailable to the farmers who
Lettuce is a common cool season crop that provides early- and late-season profits for specialty crop farmers across the commonwealth. It is also a reliable source for healthy vegetables for home gardeners during spring and fall. Diseases such as lettuce drop can often cause losses that affect growers for many years. The causal fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum can affect a wide range of host crops and can survive for 8 to 10 years in soils. Management is difficult, even wi
Author: Alexis Amorese Sheffield
Cut flower production is a growing, profitable horticulture enterprise segment in Kentucky and KHC has identified more than 125 operations across the state. Since July is nationally recognized as American Grown Cut Flower Month, for 2022, a social media promotional campaign highlighted cut flower growers across the state. The target was to feature at least one grower per day on KHC’s social media channels. A change to previous years’ campaigns was to launch a dedicated Facebook
On November 21, 2022, Farmer Bailey, a native of Kentucky and popular cut flower influencer, was featured to speak about production of Lisianthus, a crop many Kentucky growers struggle to produce. More than 1,440 people registered for the Zoom session. Nearly 700 people participated in the webinar, with most present for the entire 1.5 hr session. 145 questions were answered, showing really great engagement of the participants. Nearly 300 completed the pre-webinar poll questions showing: 28
Author: Kenneth Clayton
The loss of two faculty in turfgrass and the setbacks of the covid time period led to some creativity in the forming of a new model of turfgrass extension at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Rebecca McCulley, Dr. Craig Wood, and Dr. Laura Stephenson were pivotal in the formation of a new model for turfgrass extension, a model that has proven a helpful path to providing outreach to stakeholders during this time period. I was hired in June of 2022 as an Extension Associate Senior and simultan
As covid measures reduced travel and in person events were at a minimum, the University of Kentucky lost two full time faculty members, and some staff in turfgrass science. Extension programs for turfgrass stakeholders were at a minimum during this time. Stakeholders had questions about what exactly they could expect in way of support through the university. Through efforts of Dr. Ray Smith (Department of Plant and Soil Sciences), the Kentucky Horticulture Council, and some longtim
