Success StoryNursery Crops Extension Research Website



Nursery Crops Extension Research Website

Author: Joshua Knight

Planning Unit: Horticulture

Major Program: Commercial Horticulture

Outcome: Long-Term Outcome

Nursery Crops Extension Research Website: https://NCER.ca.uky.edu

Prior to 2015, various websites had been developed to provide information to the green industry in Kentucky. Ranging from topics such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and regulatory information to upcoming green industry events. As these websites were developed using funding from a variety of sources and a range of developer tools, their maintenance responsibilities and locations were scattered and the sites themselves did not look or feel related. In late November, the Josh Knight created a new, comprehensive site pulling from, connecting to, and developing new grower resources using the new Drupal-based development tools being rolled out across the College of Agriculture Food and Environment. The site went live at the beginning of 2015, steadily increasing in traffic from an initial 39 page views in January of 2015. To date, (July 10th, 2018) the site has received 3,730 hits with 2,295 of those being returning visitors.

Resources are added and updated monthly, advertising upcoming Extension and industry events while creating a convenient one-stop-shop for Nursery production information catering to a diverse audience including growers, Extension personnel, and academic researchers.