Multi-county and Multi-programmatic Efficiencies for Extension Agents and Clientele

Extension Agents program similar classes separately in the Tri-county area of Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns Counties. This represents an inefficient use of manpower and resources. Commercial blueberry producers, Master Gardener volunteers and homeowners have similar educational needs in order to grow health, productive crops, in this case, blueberries.

A commercial blueberry production workshop was developed at the UF, IFAS Partnership for Water, Agriculture and Community Sustainability at Hastings (FPWACS). Since the stations were already in place, Dr. Jacque Breman asked Joe Sewards if the Putnam County Master Gardeners would be interested in learning about blueberry production in the home landscape.

Sixteen volunteers attended a brief Power Point presentation about blueberry culture and then assisted Dr. Breman in gathering valuable yield data on the various growing systems used to grow two varieties of blueberries to evaluate which system might be the most productive for area commercial growers.

As a result of this combined effort to educate both commercial blueberry producers and homeowners, 261 pounds of blueberries were harvested from less than 1/3 of the blueberry research plot at FPWACS. This data was published in the "Tri-County Agriculture Newsletter" which is distributed to over 700 individuals in the area.

This kind of collaborative effort is being extended to stone fruits and grapes also being evaluated at FPWACS. Many homeowners and Master Gardeners are also interested in growing these crops in the tri-county area and find the education they receive relevant to growing edible crops successfully.

Files

Nomination

Partner Award 2010 Multi-county and Multi-programmatic Efficiencies for Extension Agents and Clientele

Power Point Presentation

Poower Point presentation for homeowners

Program description and evaluation