Hi everyone
Several of us from NC1186 US research/extension team were involved in the Water Workshop in South Africa in Feb 2023, which was hosted by the Seedling Growers Association of
South Africa, with a nursery tour and demos at Fall Creek, and featuring a presentation by our colleague Dr. Adele McLeod from Stellenbosch University.
A huge thank you to Amy and Karl from University of Tennessee for analyzing the feedback from growers at the event, which is summarized in Amy’s email below and in the attached
Excel file. This is very helpful as each of us provide impact reporting for annual reports. And all super positive, and a great experience for everyone!
Several growers mentioned the excellent level of organization – thank you, Shaun, Sascha, Jean and co! And also the great content (thanks to Adele and all of our team).
I will be in New Zealand in April this year at the NZ International Plant Propagators Society meeting, and will be discussing with my nursery friends there the possibility of
fitting a similar workshop into the International IPPS tour in October 2025. I am ccing Hayden, Antony, Lisa and Philip on this message to get an idea of the format we presented last year and could adapt for IPPS. I will provide an update to the NC1186 team
later in our spring.
Best regards, Paul
Paul Fisher, Ph.D.
Professor and Extension Specialist
2549 Fifield Hall, 2550 Hull Road,
PO Box 110670, Gainesville, FL 32611-0670
From: Fulcher, Amy <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 2, 2024 3:02 PM
To: Fisher,Paul <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Fulcher, Amy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: evaluation tally and impact statement
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[External Email]
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Good afternoon, Paul,
Thank you very much for the evaluations from the workshop last Feb.
Karl tallied them (attached) and I made an impact statement (below) as well as pasted participant comments below.
Please feel free to share both with the rest of the team.
Thank you for all that you did to make the workshop so successful! I love that someone said it was an 11 out of 10
😊!
Amy
South Africa Grower Workshop on Nursery Irrigation
In February 2023, a team of Extension Specialists and scientists conducted a workshop that included one day of demonstrations and one day of classroom sessions in South Africa as an outreach effort of the NC1186
working group. The event attracted 120 nursery producers from across the country, including some who slept in their cars in order to participate because hotels were sold out! After the workshop, growers rated the usefulness of the nursery tour, demonstrations
and presentations as 4.5, 4.9 and 4.8, respectively, on a 1 to 5 scale. I demonstrated how to measure leaching fraction and delivered a classroom-style presentation on irrigation calculations that included leaching fraction in order to help producers better
schedule irrigation, as well as assisted with evaluating the event. After the workshop, >50% of participants planned to 1. test substrate porosity, EC, and pH, 2. test water EC, pH, and alkalinity, and 3. measure leaching fraction at their nursery. Growers
estimated saving ZAR 42,250 per nursery as a result of changing their practices due to information gained at the workshop for a total economic impact of ZAR 5,070,000. This is the equivalent purchasing power of US$272,766 based on 2022 data, the most current
year for which purchasing power parity data are available.
Comments:
Well organized; Thank you!! Thanks; It was well organized with a lot of expertise together; Great venue for lecture room presentations, great food; Keep up the good work; Thank you for organizing; Really enjoyed
- thank you!!; Great to be part of this; Thank you for a great workshop-appreciated! Thanks for awesome presentations; Thanks a lot learned a ton; Thank you 11/10 :-) valuable information and discussion of great value; Fantastic organization; I personally
wish this kind of workshop could be offered every year and increase the number of days and increase the time per speaker; Great presenters; Thank you; Thank you; Well organized; I did enjoy and learned a lot; Need to go to USA! Great stuff; Overall very impressive!!
Thank you!; Very worthwhile workshop. Thank you; Well organized, excellent venue and catering.
Amy Fulcher
University of Tennessee, Dept. of Plant Sciences
Extension Specialist and Professor for Sustainable Ornamental Plant Production and Landscape Management
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