By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

University of Georgia vegetable scientists are planting this
fall’s crops in a place planned to bring quick, usable
information to Georgia’s growing vegetable industry.

Scientific work often focuses on specific, isolated studies. A
study on weeds may ignore disease or insect problems. But a
farmer’s field isn’t like a study plot, said Stanley Culpepper,
who chaired the committee that planned the Tifton Vegetable
Park.

The 12-acre park will give scientists a place to conduct
interdisciplinary research to provide Georgia farmers real-world
solutions to their vegetable-crop problems. It’s on the Tifton,
Ga., campus of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.

“The goal of the park is to provide a place for different
disciplines to come together and take a systems approach to
vegetable studies,” said Culpepper, a weed specialist with the
UGA Extension Service. “We can work out ways to better do things
as a whole that the growers can take straight to their
fields.”

Horticulturists, plant pathologists, entomologists, engineers
and crop-and-soil scientists with UGA and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture will work on research together. The first studies
started last spring.

Projects are chosen on their value to vegetable growers, level
of interdisciplinary approach, cooperation between research and
extension scientists and external funding.

The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association will advise
scientists on issues critical to Georgia’s vegetable industry.

The park is a work in progress. Future plans include a small
storage and packing shed, where after-harvest handling studies
can be conducted.

Funding for the park came from a $144,000 grant from the United
States Department of Agriculture through the Georgia Department
of Agriculture.

The state’s vegetable industry is growing. In 2003, it was worth
about $900 million, up from $660 million in 2002. It ranks about
fourth in the nation in total production value.