Horticulture classes?

[TheFertilizer]

After a decade long hiatus I'm returning to school. My local college has some horticulture classes, anyone ever studied such courses and put what they learned to use?

 

[JuanCarlos]

Unless it is a community college I would think that the cost would outweigh the benefit. You can learn a ton from cheap books and trial and error.

 

[MajinGreen]

After a decade long hiatus I'm returning to school. My local college has some horticulture classes, anyone ever studied such courses and put what they learned to use?

If it's a hobbie - books
If it's a career - school

 

[uptheholler2]

I have a B. S. in Horticulture from S.I.U. Carbondale. I also studied at Hort at Purdue for 2 years. I can honestly say that with the exception of the basic scientific study and analysis and botany basics that I was exposed to, most of my education could just have easily been learned through employment in the industry. I worked at a large commercial greenhouse and nursery while attending classes. I also worked on produce farms and I interned with a large ag company during the summers in their turfgrass and growth regulator programs. I learned just as much there as at school. I also grew a large commercial produce truck patch every year to help finance my school, as well as some weed production. I learned as much there also. I believe that from a practical standpoint you can learn a lot of the botany and hort basics by spending time at the library. For the rest of it there is no replacing getting your hands dirty in this industry. You wanna be a farmer...go farm! Now if you are intent upon getting a higher paying job in the industry then you are probably at some point going to need the piece of paper. As the wizard of OZ proved...the paper makes the difference.....Look how well that scarecrow could do math once he got the degree! It was really amazing! Best of luck in all you grow!