Tours of Greenhouses &
Specialty Crop Production in Wilson County

PROJECT LEADER(S): Billy Little

IMPACT: Several Wilson county growers have been utilizing specialty crops as an alternative for tobacco for the past couple of years. Growers interested in trying this mainly greenhouse production were able to see the actual methods utilized for these crops in our visits via a PowerPoint presentation developed on a grant-funded laptop. In addition, 12 interested growers traveled to Kinston Research Farm to explore greenhouse strawberries. One grower has already adopted the methods learned.

TABLES & PHOTOS

With 50% of our tobacco greenhouses available for other uses, tomatoes and sweet potato production are catching on.	We were able to demonstrate some of the planters in field conditions.
A van load of 12 interested growers traveled to Kinston Research Farm To explore greenhouse strawberries.	The attempt was made to incorporate many factors of specialty crops, such as visiting one of our no till cucumber test plots we had in Wilson County

The need and resources of Bee Hives was one topic we covered at a Twilight tour as pollination is a key to many of our specialty crop needs	Our growers have also been shown operations via slides from across The country of methods they may want to incorporate into their plans