Surfin' the Internet for The Green Industry: university sites |
by Hans C. Groot, Ph.D. |
One of the earlier uses of the internet linked universities and researchers and allowed them to share information. Today most of this information is available to anyone with a computer and access to the internet.
The articles, publications, and databases made available at these university sites can be most informative; many of these sites also have links to other related sites.
An example of this is the Ohio State University (OSU) "Plant Dictionary" [http://www.hcs.ohio-state.edu/plants.html], "an indexed system of teaching resources" in horticulture and crop science. It has an interactive factsheet database for over 600 ornamental plants, information on biological processes and functions of plants, plant pests and diseases, propagation, and a history and literature of horticulture.
Ohio State has another site [http://plantfacts.ohio-state.edu/] that can help answer plant-related questions from 46 different universities and government institutions in the United States and Canada. The site provides access to over 20,000 pages of Extension fact sheets and bulletins with plant-related information; included are tips for searching and web addresses for each site.
This OSU site also has information from 40 university departments in the U.S. related to admissions, degree requirements, career opportunities, research projects, and online courses.
Closer to home, and if you are considering planting a tree, my alma mater, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), has a useful site with a searchable database [http://selectree.cagr.calpoly.edu/] that contains 1,484 trees and 49 selection criteria. It also has some 4,000 photos of 893 trees.
The Cal Poly site lets you look up trees according to family, genus, species, cultivar or common name. Once you make a selection, it describes the tree in terms of such site characteristics as Sunset climate zone, USDA hardiness zone, soil pH, soil texture, moisture and exposure. It also provides you with 16 tree characteristics - height;, growth rate, shape, longevity, foliage type, leaf density, etc. Lastly, it provides information on the trees landscape application.
This tree database helps create an awareness of the great variety of trees that will grow in California, and encourages people to think about planting a greater variety of trees. It should be pointed out, though, that some trees listed are not readily available and may be difficult to find.
The University of California system provides an extremely rich source of information. One, the 'Botanical Data Overview' website [http://calflora.org/calflora/botanical.html], hosted at the University of California/ Berkeley Digital Library Project provides access to information about all 8,375 currently recognized vascular plants in California, including over 660,000 records of plant observations and 20,000 photographs. Users may browse these collections by scientific or common names, or search by name, location, and other attributes.
The UC system also has a centralized Fruit & Nut Research Information Center [http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/] that links the efforts of UC personnel from several department at three of its universities (Davis, Riverside, Berkeley) conducting research related to the environmental and economic sustainability of California fruit and nut crops.
Another helpful UC database, the statewide integrated pest management project [http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/crops-agriculture.html] supplies the university's official guidelines for pest monitoring techniques, pesticides, and nonpesticide alternatives for managing insect, mite, nematode, weed, and disease pests in agricultural crops, floriculture and ornamental nurseries, commercial turf, and in homes and landscapes. The guidelines, written by researchers, specialists, and farm advisors, are updated regularly as pesticide registrations change and new methods become available.
If you are interested in entomology, a Colorado State University website [http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Entomology/] offers extensive links to entomology sites around the world.
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