In April 2019, the Food Crop Horticulture Program Team created a blog for fruit and vegetable news, titled “The South Carolina Grower” (scgrower.com). The idea was to create a platform for sharing field updates, pest alerts, upcoming events, and new production information with produce growers and other interested parties. The ultimate goal for the blog was to facilitate better communication between the food crop agents and keep growers up to date with what is going on around South Carolina.
The most notable feature of the blog is the weekly field update. Horticulture agents send weekly field observations and photos from their respective areas to be included in the updates, which are compiled and posted each Monday morning. These updates provide a summary of what is being planted and picked, the pests or diseases that are active, and the weather conditions from around the state. Participation from the whole team has been instrumental in making the weekly field updates a success.
Other features of the blog include research updates and Clemson Extension publication highlights, a schedule of upcoming produce-related events, information about each horticulture agent, and links to important resources.
The audience and site traffic have grown steadily since the launch. Currently, there are 190 subscribers and the blog has received over 9,600 views, including viewers from 68 countries. The weekly field updates have been a hit as growers and agribusiness professionals routinely comment on how they look forward to reading them each week. Growers also stated they enjoy reading about what other farmers are experiencing nearby, as well as in other areas.
The blog has also been successful in accomplishing the goal of improving communication among Horticulture Program Team members. Agents have gained more awareness of what is happening in other areas of the state and are more familiar with what fellow agents are working on. This has been particularly valuable during the COVID-19 restrictions since growers, agents, specialists, and industry leaders have fewer opportunities to interact in person.
Submitted by: Cory Tanner, Horticulture Program Team Leader & Justin Ballew, Commercial Horticulture Agent
