In an effort to offer more educational classes for commercial horticulture producers, UK Extension Specialist and Extension Agents teamed up to offer webinars on a variety of horticultural topics. These webinars were broadcast state wide using Zoom and were presented by a combination of agents and specialist. One of the webinars within this series was on tomato production. The tomato webinar was broken down into two session the first being on site selection, irrigation set up, weed management, and insect/mite control. The second session took place two weeks later and covered topics on disease, abiotic disorders, marketing and cultivar selection.

Attendees of both webinar sessions were a mix of small commercial growers, new growers planning to become commercial and a small amount of backyard gardeners. All participants except one were growing less than an acre of tomatoes a year.

When surveyed at the beginning of the class participants were asked a variety of questions on their background when it comes to tomato production. During the first session 50% of the participants felt they had moderate control over insects and mites. Following the webinar 60% of the participants thought they could achieve good control with the knowledge they gained. In the second session before the webinar 60% of the participants expressed a need to improve their disease identification and control methods. Post webinar survey showed 71% of participants had a good understanding of disease and control methods.

Between the two sessions 80% of the participants believe they will increase their yield by 1-25% more fruit per plant. Webinars like these are providing a great resource to get information out state wide to commercial growers. It is likely Extension Specialist will partner with agents again in the future to offer these programs.