Industry News

Congratulations to the 2022 and 2023 Graduates of the Tennessee Master Nursery Producer Program and Advanced Tennessee Master Nursery Producer Program

By Amy Fulcher, UT Extension Specialist and Professor for Sustainable Ornamental Plant Production and Landscape Management and Whitney Yeary, UT Extension Assistant

The Tennessee Master Nursery Producer (TMNP) and Advanced TMNP programs are professional development opportunities for nursery crop producers led by the University of Tennessee with support from the TDA, TSU and the USDA. They were the first programs of their kind in the nation and were designed to provide Tennessee nursery producers with up-to-date, sciencebased information with the goal of enhancing nursery profitability and environmental, economic, and community sustainability. Growers from across the state can access the latest information on production, irrigation, fertilization, pruning, propagation, pest management, economics, and marketing. Those in the Advanced TMNP program experience a core and elective module structure which enables them to complete the program by selecting modules with greater relevance to their business and focusing on topics such as advanced irrigation and water concepts, advanced pesticide application concepts, hydrangea production, and succession planning. New for 2024: social media and certain pest management modules are being updated!

• Growers who take the TMNP and Advanced TMNP learn! There is on average a 55.9% increase between pre-test and post-test scores for TMNP and a 38.7% increase between pre-test and post-test scores for the Advanced TMNP!

• Growers who take the TMNP acquire knowledge and skills that they can put into practice! More than 97% of graduates say they will adopt new practices as a result of information they learned in the TMNP!

• Growers who successfully complete the TMNP and Advanced TMNP are rewarded! Growers indicate they save $91.22 for every dollar spent on registration in the form of input cost savings or increase in crop value.

For more information, please visit the TMNP website: www.tnmasternursery.com.

If you have questions about the Tennessee Master Nursery Producer Program, please contact Dr. Amy Fulcher afulcher@utk.edu, 865-974-7152 . For questions about the TAEP, please contact Grant Pulse, producer.diversification@tn.gov, 615-837-5324

Participating in the TMNP and Advanced TMNP can also help the nursery industry as a whole. Recent comments from graduates on the state of the nursery labor supply include:

• “Don’t have everyone I need. It is begging. There are no workers. It doesn’t matter what you pay them, no one wants to work. For all nurseries this is our next huge problem.”

• “Terrible. Using H2A next year.”

• “Not 10 people standing in line to work at our nursery anymore. Using H2A since 2 years ago.”

These TMNP and Advanced TMNP program graduate comments along with listening session feedback helped UT and collaborating institutions successfully compete for a planning grant that supported a national nursery survey. Several resources that all Tennessee nursery producers can benefit from are based on the survey results, including three articles published in the Tennessee Green Times in 2022 – 2023”, UT extension publication “The Role of Automation in Addressing the Nursery Industry Labor Shortage: Current Automation Adoption” https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/W1147.pdf, and this comprehensive article in HortScience “Overcoming the nursery industry labor shortage: A survey of strategies to adapt to a reduced workforce and automation and mechanization technology adoption levels” https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI17230-23

Congratulations to the 2022 and 2023 Tennessee Master Nursery Producer Program graduates!