Clemson Extension Upstate District

By: Andrew Jeffers, Greenville County Horticulture Agent

In 2026, Horticulture Agent Drew Jeffers is lining up a full slate of practical programs that meet learners where they are—on jobsites, in community spaces, and online. We open the year with a Tree Workshop on January 22 in Greer, a half-day deep dive designed for crews and managers who want fewer callbacks and healthier canopies. Sessions move from tree ID challenges to invasive species awareness, then into “plant this, not that” alternatives and the soil/site realities that make-or-break urban trees—each talk aimed at decisions you’ll make the next day.

February stacks training options for every audience. Growers and land managers can earn credentials at the Private Applicator session on February 3 (Greenville DHEC training room). Home gardeners get a focused, myth-busting Hydrangeas webinar on February 18. And turf professionals can spend February 26 in an Advanced Turf IPM Workshop that walks through communication with clients and crews, cultural practices that strengthen IPM, insect and disease ID, scouting and thresholds, and advanced weed management—seven hours that connect diagnosis to action, start to finish.

Looking ahead to fall, the Master Gardener main course runs August 4–November 17, bringing a new cohort into research-based horticulture with plenty of hands-on problem-solving. We’ll also gather the industry at the IPM Symposium on October 22 (Canon Centre, Greer) to compare notes, sharpen scouting and decision-making, and leave with steps that improve outcomes across the Upstate. A second Private Applicator date follows on November 5 for those needing certification before year’s end.

Along the way, Drew will share tailored talks with local garden clubs and appear at regional and national meetings—including ASHS (August), the EMG Conference (August), and iLandscape (February)—to keep our programs aligned with current science and the real-world questions people bring to the table. It’s a year built around one goal: practical learning that turns into better decisions, healthier landscapes, and confident clients across Greenville County and beyond.

By: Andrew Jeffers, Greenville County Horticulture Agent

The 2025 Master Gardener class brought together 28 participants for a fall season of hands-on, research-based learning focused on real problems from Upstate yards and landscapes. Each Tuesday, the cohort moved from fundamentals to field application—building a shared language around soils and plant nutrition, plant physiology, integrated pest management, plant pathology, nuisance wildlife, and diagnosing plant problems.

Learning didn’t stay in the classroom. The group practiced sample collection and diagnosis, compared notes on “look-alike” issues, and took targeted site visits that connected teaching to practice—so what they learned in the morning showed up in better decisions that afternoon. A simple capstone kept it practical: every participant chose a real landscape issue, used credible (.edu) sources to identify causes, and outlined a step-by-step solution to share with the class.

By graduation, the cohort had what they came for: confidence to identify before treating, clearer judgment about when (and when not) to use pesticides, and a toolkit for communicating recommendations to neighbors, clients, and community groups. The next step is service—bringing those skills to help desks, demonstration gardens, and local outreach events across Greenville County.

By: Andrew Jeffers, Greenville County Horticulture Agent

The IPM Symposium has grown into a place where pros compare notes, sharpen their diagnosis, and leave with steps they can use the next morning. That momentum has been building—237 attendees at the 6th annual event underscored the demand for practical, field-tested guidance, and last fall’s 7th Annual IPM Symposium kept the focus on decision-making with sessions like “Will Consumers Purchase a Landscape Scouting Program?” that translated research into service design for real clients.

This year, Horticulture Agent Drew Jeffers is taking the next step. The 8th Annual IPM Symposium will be simulcast to extend access to teams who can’t travel—municipal crews, small shops, and out-of-area professionals—so more people can engage with the duplicate evidence-based content that’s guided the series, including insights from our work on consumer IPM knowledge. The goal is simple: reach more practitioners, keep the conversations grounded in data, and help crews make better choices that protect people and landscapes across the state.

By: Andrew Jeffers, Greenville County Horticulture Agent

This spring, Horticulture Agent Drew Jeffers published “Estimating Consumer Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Knowledge” in HortTechnology—a data-driven look at what homeowners actually understand about IPM. Coauthored with colleagues Behe, Vassalos, Bridges, and White, the article (March 3, 2025) provides a clear reference point we can use to tailor education, outreach, and industry communication.

Jeffers has already put these insights to work. In February, he led a pesticide-credit webinar for professionals—“Professional Pest Scouting Programs: Using Consumer IPM Knowledge for Pest Management Decisions”—to translate the research into tighter scouting routines and clearer client messaging (31 attendees). Master Gardener audiences engaged the public-facing side of this work in sessions on navigating consumer recommendations. In contrast, industry audiences explored how to use consumer IPM knowledge to market plants (125 attendees).

This paper also complements his earlier HortTechnology study on whether customers would purchase a landscape scouting program. It gives practitioners both what clients know and how they might buy. Together, these findings help to design services and education that meet people where they are—leading to better decisions and healthier landscapes.

By: Andrew Jeffers, Greenville County Horticulture Agent

The South Carolina Certified Landscape Professional (SCCLP) program took a big step forward this year by moving statewide training online through Clemson’s Canvas platform. Built for working professionals who need flexible, competency-based learning, the on-demand format lets crews and managers build skills on their schedule while preparing for certification. Now in its fifth year—with nearly 600 participants to date—SCCLP is also entering a new phase: the first renewals are underway, marking a significant milestone for the credential’s staying power and value across the industry. The current cycle runs September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025, and remains accessible statewide, giving companies a consistent, scalable way to onboard and upskill staff without pulling them off jobsites.

SCCLP is also getting an update. Jeffers is currently refreshing content and assessments, streamlining navigation, and aligning modules more tightly with current best practices and regulations so that what learners study online translates directly to safer, higher-quality work in the field. As we move into the next cycle, the focus stays the same: keep SCCLP practical, flexible, and closely tuned to what landscape professionals need day-to-day—so the skills learned online show up as better results on the ground.

By: Andrew Jeffers, Greenville County Horticulture Agent

Over the past year, Horticulture Agent Drew Jeffers’ pesticide education and safety work has centered on three simple goals: equip professionals to make compliant, effective decisions; give homeowners clear, confidence-building guidance; and keep practical training available whenever people have time to learn. That meant building durable on-demand options while continuing live, credit-bearing programs that meet people where they are.

On the asynchronous side, he expanded two self-paced courses that anchor our outreach: Commercial Pesticide Applicator: Core & Category 3 (Ornamental & Turf) and Pesticide Safety for Homeowners. As of August 31, 2025, 13 learners had enrolled in the Core/Category 3 course and 15 in the homeowner course, using modules on reading the label, PPE, application timing, and recordkeeping to translate regulation into day-to-day practice.

Live programs rounded out that foundation, offering recertification webinars that moved from diagnosis to action—like Managing Diseases in Ornamental Landscapes (November 13, 2024; 45 attendees) and Professional Pest Scouting Programs: Using Consumer IPM Knowledge for Pest Management Decisions (February 26, 2025; 31 attendees)—each designed to reduce misuse, align products with label language, and slow resistance through better timing and selection.

To maintain a clear pathway into legal, safe use for growers, we hosted Initial Private Applicator Training & Exam twice at the county office (June 7 and November 8, 2024; five participants each). Beyond test prep, these sessions emphasize storage, mixing and loading, spill response, and documentation—habits that protect people and places.

For homeowners, he ran a three-part Ornamental Pest Management series in spring of 2025 that kept IPM front-and-center: Insects (March 5, 2025; 48 attendees), Diseases (April 2, 2025; 21), and Weeds (April 30, 2025; 33). Each webinar walked through correct identification, non-chemical tactics, and, when necessary, how to choose and apply a pesticide responsibly—always by the label.

He also took these messages to where professionals gather. At the 7th Annual IPM Symposium (October 10, 2024; 87 attendees), we explored how consumer IPM knowledge can sharpen scouting and treatment decisions, and at the Urban Tree Health Workshop (June 13, 2024; 85 attendees), we connected diagnosis, calibration, and risk reduction for crews working at scale. At Cultivate 2024 (July 14, 2024; 168 attendees), our session on Pesticide Label Interpretations used real labels to build fluency in the parts that most often trip up compliance.

Finally, he compared how different Extension systems coach the public by sharing Navigating Differences on Pesticide Recommendations for Consumers with Master Gardener audiences in Florida (February 14, 2025; 21 attendees) and Ohio (December 10, 2025; 38), clarifying a common theme: start with identification, select the least-risk option that can realistically work, follow the label, and document the result.

Threaded through everything is the same approach—teach people to slow down, diagnose first, and let the label lead. By combining flexible, self-paced learning with targeted live sessions and field-tested examples, we’re helping professionals and homeowners make safer, more effective decisions that protect their families, clients, and landscapes.