University of Florida schedules online disease management courses
A Disease Management online training course offered by the University of Florida IFAS Extension can improve attendees’ prevention and management of diseases in nurseries and greenhouses.
The intermediate-level course is and designed for people with some experience or entry university level who are in production, technical, or sales role for greenhouse and nursery crops.
Topics covered include how to differentiate between a disease and other issues, disease prevention tips, organic and conventional disease management options, and how to safely apply and handle fungicides. The course is offered in English and Spanish.
Carrie Harmon, Ph.D., director of the UF/IFAS Plant Diagnostic Center in Gainesville, Florida, and co-director of the National Plant Diagnostic Network, teaches the course. Growers have described the training as “detailed but digestible, with an emphasis on practical, field-applicable knowledge,” and that the course material “is very dynamic, which makes it easy to understand and apply to our day-to-day work in the greenhouse.”
The course runs from Sept. 11 to Oct. 6 and is $265 per participant, with a 20% discount if you register five or more people. All course material is online and available at any time of the day, and includes pre-recorded videos, an interactive discussion board with Ph.D. professors, and quizzes.
Two new modules are activated each week during the course, for a total of eight learning modules. Instruction is at your own pace and time within the four weeks of the course, with a typical time commitment of about six hours per week.
Disease Management is one of six courses that counts toward the Plant Health Professional certificate offered by University of Florida UF IFAS Extension (UF Greenhouse Training Online) and the Michigan State University Floriculture Program Extension (MSU Online College of Knowledge) to help greenhouse clientele grow their career in plant health management.
For more information, go to http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/training/, or contact Greenhouse Training, Environmental Horticulture, University of Florida, email: [email protected]
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