MU Extension Offers Online Master Gardener Training

Jan 22, 2015

Do you have a green thumb and a desire to share your skill? Why not become certified as a Master Gardener.

“The motto of the Master Gardener program is ‘Helping others learn to grow,’” said David Trinklein, state horticulture specialist for University of Missouri Extension.

In the past, some people had to travel many miles to attend Master Gardener classes. Today, thanks to the Internet and a learning platform known as Moodle, classes are available online.

Trinklein and MU Extension regional horticulture specialist Jim Quinn put together the online Master Gardener training. “These classes aren’t a substitute for face-to-face training, but represent a viable option for people who can’t take the weekly classes,” Trinklein said.

The classes are growing in popularity. Trinklein said they launched the online training in the fall of 2013 and had six participants. Thirty people signed up in spring 2014, and 57 individuals joined the online classes that fall.

“Most of the people who take the online classes are really thankful that they have the opportunity to take the training, because some people don’t have access to the face-to-face classes,” said regional horticulture specialist Sarah Denkler, who will be teaching one section of the online class this semester.

Using Moodle, classes are delivered as a series of scripted and narrated PowerPoint presentations.

“Online, you can do the class work whenever it’s convenient for you,” Denkler said.

As you go through each segment, you’ll be tested on your understanding of various gardening subjects.

“Trainees are expected to achieve a composite score of at least 70 percent on chapter quizzes,” Trinklein said.

Subjects covered include basic botany, soils and compost, vegetable gardening, plant diseases and landscape plants.

The online classes and tests are only part of the requirement for certification. It also requires 30 hours of volunteer service, Trinklein said. Local Master Gardener chapters help online trainees find volunteer positions so they can meet the service hour requirements.

This nationwide program is an extension success story.

“There are Master Gardener programs in every state of the union and in most provinces of Canada,” Trinklein said.

The registration deadline for the online spring session is Jan. 23. Classes begin Feb. 1. The fall session starts Sept. 1. Registration deadline for the fall class is Aug. 21.

If you miss the January deadline, you don’t have to wait until the fall to sign up. Trinklein says you can register for future classes at any time.

If you feel that you are at your best with dirt under your fingernails and love to watch things grow, learn more about Master Gardener online training at http://extension.missouri.edu/MG.

Source:missouri.edu

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”