Teaching greenhouses

Agricultural Science Center

UK Arboretum

Research and Education Center (Princeton)

Robinson Experiment Substation (Quicksand)

The Horticulture Research Farm is located in south Lexington and comprises approximately 80 acres. The farm has soils well suited for horticulture crop production. The Maury silt loam is deep and well drained. The elevation is high with respect to the surrounding area and thus has excellent air drainage for frost protection. The farm is within 10-15 minutes of the University and easily accessible.

Facilities at the Horticulture Research Farm consist of a field lab with a repair shop, a room containing walk-in coolers, a small lab, a large work room, and an apartment for students. An adjacent graveled and fenced container nursery contains a lath house and two unheated overwintering greenhouses. The greenhouse complex consists of 5,000 square feet ridge and furrow double-layer plastic covered greenhouses. In addition, the farm has an equipment storage building and a pesticide storage and mixing facility.

Faculty from Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Departments also conduct research at the Horticulture Research Farm, independently or in cooperation with Horticulture faculty members.

Teaching greenhouses

Excellent new greenhouses were recently completed for instructional programs in Plant and Soil Science. The 3,600 square feet of space is divided into three compartments and the environment of each is computer controlled. The foliage plant display used for teaching plant identification courses occupies one compartment. The other sections are used for production courses.

Agricultural Science Center

The majority of Horticulture faculty and staff are housed in the Agricultural Science Center on the Lexington Campus. The space includes offices and laboratories on the north side of the third floor and a laboratory on the second floor. Computerized environmentally controlled greenhouses of 5,000 square feet are used for the Horticulture research program.

UK Arboretum

The Arboretum was created in 1991 as a joint effort between the University of Kentucky and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. Named in March, 2000 the "Official State Botanical Garden for the Commonwealth of Kentucky," the Arboretum is 100 acres of preserved green space in the heart of Lexington. The Arboretum is located on the UK campus near Commonwealth Stadium.
For more information, visit http://www.ca.uky.edu/arboretum/

Research and Education Center (Princeton)

Physical facilities assigned to Horticulture programs include three offices and one laboratory shared with Animal Science. A 10-acre orchard/vineyard (including a storage and grading building) occupies more than 60 percent of available land in that block. Trickle irrigation and electricity are available. The 0.7-acre grape planting will be increased to more than 2 acres by 2001. One and one-half acres are assigned for small fruit/ornamentals. Trickle irrigation and electricity are available. The landscape around the office building is useful for demonstration of ornamental plants and their use. Additional information is available at http://www.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/index.htm

Of the 65 acres of good bottom land and 150 acres of secondary land at the Robinson Experiment Substation in Quicksand, approximately 10 acres are currently used for horticultural crops (tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cabbage, broccoli, sweet corn, blueberries, blackberries and hydrangeas). All 10 acres can be irrigated from the north fork of the Kentucky river which flows nearby. Approximately 0.4 acres of tobacco are grown as a double crop or rotational crop component with various vegetables. There is three-quarters of an acre of apples and Asian pears and 1/20 acre of ginseng and goldenseal located on a hillside above the river bottom land.

Horticultural field research is also conducted at two mine reclamation sites in Robinson Forest, several miles from the Robinson Experiment Substation. Additional information is available at http://fp1.ca.uky.edu/robinsonstation/

Send mail to cgcass0@uky.edu with questions about this site.

This site was last updated on September 26, 2007