 School of Agriculture
Nursery Research and Service Center
The Tennessee Tech Nursery Research and Service Center serves the horticulture industry of Tennessee. The nursery industry in Tennessee includes about 2,000 plant dealers, which employ more than 10,000 full and part-time employees. Clientele also includes the professional associations for nursery producers and retailers. These include the Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association, Inc., Middle Tennessee Nursery’s Association, East Tennessee Nursery’s Association, and the Horticultural Therapy Association. The Nursery Research and Service Center also cooperates with other state and federal organizations such as the Tennessee Department of Transportation, the USDA, NRCS, the National Arboretum, and Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville, TN.
Greenhouse Research Complex
The greenhouse complex at Tennessee Tech’s Oakley Farm was started with an initial gift from Millard V. Oakley the Spring of 2013. The gift allowed the School of Agriculture at Tennessee Tech to build a 2,000 square foot high tunnel for vegetable production that spring and a 6,000 square foot high tunnel in the summer. That same spring, students from the farm management class assembled the 2,000 square foot greenhouse and planted tomatoes in the soil as a class project. The larger greenhouse was built by a greenhouse construction class taught by Drs. Best and Fennewald later that year in the summer. That first summer the tomatoes grew very well in the small high tunnel and the students started selling them at the local farmers’ market in Cookeville.
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