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Impact Report

For plan Plant Management Systems: Urban Horticulture (Quay County)
Date October 27, 2011, 4:43 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Urban Horticulture remains one of the most utilized areas of interest by clientele in quay County. The years busiest times include spring, summer and fall. At these times the majority of phone calls to this reporting agent pertain to a variety of gardening and home landscape issues. Such questions include but are not limited to pest and disease management, watering techniques and scheduling, variety selections, fertilizer requirements, pruning, and variety selection. Contacts are handled in a variety of methods. Phone calls are the most prevalent. Some situations require on site evaluation and consultation as well as handout information, demonstration and assistance. Most importantly contacts result in adoption of practice and behavioral change. Marie Thomas of Tucumcari stated “I feel the Extension service makes my gardening questions a priority.” Quay County Extension Education covers four towns over a 2800 square mile area with a population just under 10,000 residents. Regular radio and print media are used to reach clientele and inform of timely and seasonal practices. As a result of such a popular program area, educational instruction was as varied as the topics. Late fall of 2010 consisted of a Hoop House construction workshop held at the Tucumcari Community Garden. The day’s events included 12 volunteers sponsored by grant monies from USDA, Llano Estacado RC&D and City of Tucumcari. Since this workshop two producers have utilized the plans to construct their own hoop house. Five other volunteers are planning to build hoop houses within the next 3-4 years and implement this practice on their own farms. Pecan programming for 2010 consisted of another years pecan show. Producers bring in a sample of each variety, they are then weighed, processed and graded for marketing. This program was held in conjunction with the pecan food show exhibiting recipes for pecan producers to use in their respective marketing program. Twelve entries were recorded for the pecan show with two advancing to the Western Region Pecan show in Las Cruces. With the onset of spring, Quay County Extension produced a series of gardening programs for local and area producers. Every Thursday in April highlighted a topic of interest to gardening enthusiast. This programming was in response from clientele that requested information to grow vegetables for both home and Farmer’s Market. Additionally, gardeners interest were increasing in the areas of holistic and organic gardening, pesticide alternatives, variety compatibility, and drip irrigation technology. One program was held each week. Four programs lasting 1.5 hours each attracted an average of 27 participants at each session. Subjects included “Better gardening soil”,” Organic Pest Control”, “How to purchase plant material”, and “Growing Award Winning Tomatoes”. Retrospective post evaluations were submitted at the end of the series. Participants were asked to score themselves on the knowledge they had on the topics before the program and then score themselves on knowledge gained after the program. All of the participants stated to have gained some knowledge from the programs. 97% overall stated they would adopt skills taught at the series. Adoption of practice and behavioral change was rated at 96 % overall. “ Everyone who grows anything would benefit from these programs. Despite our dry weather, I can at least supply good vegetables for my family.” Stated local resident Pable Lopez. Other activities under this plan include IPM Organic Gardening Walks held in September 2011.