Job Openings

Job Opportunities

Carrroll Gardens of Asheville has two job openings.  The links below will take you to the descriptions of the jobs:  Share with those you may know that are looking for new opportunities.

Lead Member



Crew-Member





For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Organic Certification for Medicinal Herb Growers

Learn the basics of the USDA National Organic Program. Interactive presentation followed by Q&A for medicinal herb operations, greenhouses, organic wild harvesting, and certified forest grown. Updated state and federal cost-share programs, Certifying Agents available in western NC, as well as free organic certification consulting opportunities thru CFSA will be discussed. 

For WNC Medicinal Herb Growers (also open to others interested in Organic Certification).

Hosted by NC Alternative Crops and Organics Program (NCSU Dept. Of Horticultural Science) and Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA).

When: Friday, January 29, 2016 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM (EST) - Add to Calendar
Where: Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center - 455 Research Drive Mills River, NC 28759 - View Map

Please Register at the Eventbrite page link Here

Questions may be sent to Margaret_Bloomquist@ncsu.edu

Hiring - Plant-Partners, Inc.

Plant-Partners, Inc. is a progressive, third-party merchandising company working with live goods in the garden centers at Lowe’s Home Improvement.  They are beginning to hire temporary, part-time positions that typically run March through June.

Do you know someone in need and looking for additional income? This is a physically demanding job requiring bending, stretching, lifting, etc.  It would be a perfect fit for those that enjoy physical work and working in all types of weather. 

If you know someone looking for part time employment, please direct them to our website www.plant-partners.com or they can contact the District Manager directly at the contact information listed below.

Larry McCreary
826 District Manager
Plant Partners
www.plant-partners.com
C: 704-699-1610

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Connect NC Bond

Bond Referendum on Ballot

On March 15th Voters in NC will be able to choose to support  or deny a bond referendum called Connect NC.  This bond will provide capital funds for many of the Universities, Community Colleges, and other public entities.   We would like to ask that you read the materials provided to become an informed voter.   This link will take you to the information from NCSU and describe the projected benefits to the university as well as the rest of the state:  https://connectnc.ncsu.edu/

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Certified Turfgrass Professional Short Course

CTP Short Course

Registration is now open for the 12th annual Certified Turfgrass Professional Short Course.  The link to the course is included here:  2016 CTP Short Course.   Please note this year's location in Haywood County.  We try to rotate the course throughout the region to allow more access to the training.  

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Excessive Rainfall Affects Preemergent Herbicides

by Travis Gannon, Matt Jeffries, and Fred Yelverton

November 5, 2015

A preemergent herbicide application is an effective, commonly performed practice for annual weed control in many established turfgrass systems.  As the name suggests, a preemergent application should be made prior to germination, which in North Carolina is no later than mid-September for winter annual weed control.  While preemergent herbicide labels typically state irrigation/rainfall is required for herbicide activation, they probably did not mean quite as much as our state received in late September through early October.  The State Climate Office of North Carolina reported September 28, 2015 to October 4, 2015 was the seventh wettest (i.e. most accumulated rain) seven-day period in North Carolina dating back to 1895.  So what effect, if any, did the cumulative rain have on a preemergent application made prior to the rain setting in?  That depends on numerous factors that are covered in the following paragraph, but ultimately scenarios may unfold where preemergent herbicides move laterally across, or downward in the soil which may compromise weed control later during the season. 

The potential for adverse impacts on your preemergent application prior to prolonged periods of saturated soils caused by heavy rainfalls can be broken into three camps:

1. Site specific information
• Preemergent herbicide movement potential increases as:
• Soil texture coarseness increases (i.e. increasing sand content)
• Soil organic matter decreases
• Slope increases
• Turfgrass cover decreases
2. Herbicide applied
• Most notable properties pertain to soil/organic matter binding affinity.  Herbicides with lower binding affinities are more prone to move from the intended site.
• General binding affinity ranking for common PREs is (from least to highest):

Simazine = Atrazine < Indaziflam < Dithiopyr < Oxadiazon < Pendimethalin = Prodiamine

1. Time between application and excessive rainfall onset
• This is not so much from a calendar day-count perspective, but the number of soil wet-dry cycles.  The more cycles that occur between preemergent application and excessive rainfall, the more likely the herbicide is to be bound to the soil, which should reduce its potential to move laterally or downward via water flow.

So you think you may have a problem, but not sure?  Unfortunately, only time will tell as the season progresses but if breaks occur, additional weed control measures can be taken to compensate.  Monitoring historically weedy areas, as well as areas with conditions conducive for preemergence herbicide movement and weed encroachment (ex. upper portion of a south facing slope with marginal turfgrass coverage) should provide an early indicate for an herbicide break; however, a postemergent herbicide will be required at this point.  Further, depending on when the break occurs, tank-mixing a preemergent herbicide (at a reduced rate) with your postemergent herbicide may be needed to maintain adequate control until spring preemergence applications are made.  Another option to assess preemergence remaining and being able to potentially avoid applying a postemergent herbicide is pulling a few soil cores over time from both areas you expect your preemergent moved from, and moved to (i.e. upslope areas where movement may have occurred and downslope areas where products may have concentrated) and complete a bioassay. Once pulled, pot the plugs up and seed a sensitive plant species such as perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) on the surface.  If germination varies between areas cores were pulled, this MAY be an indication to expect reduced preemergent efficacy and one should consider an additional application at a reduced rate in the areas with anticipated weed control concerns.  Always read and follow product label directions.

http://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/alerts/weeds/excessive-rainfall-affects-preemergent-herbicides

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

IPM Symposium at the NC Arboretum

TODAY

is the last day for early-bird registration for the 

IPM Symposium 

Get registered today, and join us on 

October 1st, 2015 at the NC Arboretum.

Pesticide credits for NC, SC, and TN are available.

For all the information and to register, click HERE!

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

2016 WNC AgOptions grant application cycle!

WNC AgOptions will be offering $3000 and $6000 cost-share grants to individual farm businesses, this includes green industry operations!

The application is now available for download on the WNC AgOptions website. 

Click Here

Here are some important dates to keep in mind:

September  2015: Outreach to farmers 
WNC AgOptions has scheduled regional application workshops throughout the West District to reach as many potential applicants as possible. We find that applicants who attend these sessions have an easier time completing the application and submit higher quality applications. Please encourage any farmer who is interested in applying for an AgOptions grant to attend one of these meetings. More details on the sessions will be available soon on the AgOptions website. So far, here are the workshops:

Jackson County Extension Center (Sylva): Thursday, September 10th (time TBD)

Watauga County Extension Center (Boone): Tuesday, September 22nd (time TBD)

Caldwell County Extension Center (Lenoir): Tuesday, September 29th (5:30-7:00 p.m.)

Cherokee County Extension Center (Murphy): Date TBD

Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center (Mills River): Date TBD

October 16, 2015: Intent to apply deadline 
Interested applicants should contact their County Ag Agent by this date to set up an appointment to discuss their project.

November 13, 2015: Applications due (must be post-marked by this date)

November 30/December 01, 2015: Application review days. 
Review locations will be in Asheville and Marshall.

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Horticulture IPM Symposium

Horticulture IPM Symposium 2015

Mark you calendars for October 1 and plan to attend the areas premier Horticulture Symposium.  Pesticide Credits are available for licensees in both Carolina's and Tennessee.   Landscape Contractor CEUs have been applied for and a short press release will be shared as soon as they have been approved.   Please read the attached links:

IPM Symposium Press Release

Registration Form and Agenda




For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.

Landscape Contractor Continuing Education Credits

CEUs for Landscape Contractors

A question keeps coming up regarding classes to get the 7 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or hours to keep your NC Landscape Contractor's License.   I have been in contact with the Executive Director of the NCLCLB to address this issue and here's the answer:

" The continuing education committee is diligently working on the process to approve courses that will qualify for credits toward the Landscape Contractors’ License.  While that process is still being finalized, I do expect we will have something, hopefully by the end of this month."

What is the time frame for credits to be received: 

"To be eligible to renew, licensed landscape contractors will need to have obtained seven (7) credit hours from August 1, 2015 through July 31, 2016.  .......  the renewal period relative to continuing education is an Anniversary date relative to the license valid date."

So anyone acquiring a new license now that the grandfathering period is over (and it was entirely over on August 1st 2015, 11 days ago)  will have a year until their Anniversary date to obtain the 7 hours. 

While we are still unsure about the process of getting classes qualified for credits, it does not appear that it will be long before that has been resolved and I don't personally expect there to be a problem with most of our existing classes qualifying for CEUs  so don't panic you will have several opportunities between now and next July 31st to get your credits.

One opportunity that did not get proper publicity as the credits were granted literally at the last minute will be the Summer Green Road Show starting tomorrow in Hickory.  I'm not clear on the actual number of hours granted for each event but it appears that attendance on both days could get you most of the required hours.  Got to the bottom of this page and click on Brochure to get more information.  https://ncnla.memberclicks.net/summer-green-road-show-attendee-information

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.