Dylan Olive
News Editor
A new horticulture major is coming to Florida Southern in the fall, which includes a few different courses and a curriculum that focuses on the business side of agriculture.
The “horticulture, land and resource management” major will be available in August for any incoming students and current students who want to add a major/switch majors. It consists of 28 credit hours (without general education courses) – 16 come from horticulture science, and the rest are business oriented with a focus on environmental issues and land management.
Prior to the horticulture, land and resource management major was the citrus and horticultural science major that primarily focused on the science and the production side of agriculture. Biology and chemistry courses were a part of the old major and are not in the new curriculum, so the horticultural science minor (24 credit hours) requires a biology and chemistry course – that way, students who are interested in science rather than business have an option as well.
Dr. Malcolm Manners, professor of citrus science and the program coordinator, is the person who initiated the concept of the new major that’s been in development for two and a half years. He has been at FSC for 42 years as a faculty member in the citrus and horticulture department. Despite what some people might have heard, Manners is not retiring yet, but he felt that in the near future there needed to be a change with the program before he starts retirement.
“It’s kind of changing its philosophy,” Manners said. “I’m here at least two more years, but the idea there was that it’s a good time to make a change, and I think within the industry, they really wanted more business. I’m not sure they want it much less to horticulture, but as we build the program, hopefully we can add some pure horticulture back into it.”
For the last two years, the department was not accepting any new citrus and horticultural majors in preparation to launch the new major. There are currently seven students in the department because there haven’t been any new horticulture majors. In previous years, there have been times where there are over 75 majors within the department.
“The citrus industry has shrunk a lot in the last few years,” Manners said. “So that has hurt us. Now that this one [major] has opened, we hope to build it back up. Hopefully fairly quickly.”
A few courses have been created for the new major that combine/rearrange classes from the previous major. Soil and plant nutrition (HRT 2500) is one of the added courses, and is built from the old soil science and plant nutrition courses that integrate material from both. Survey of fruit crops and agricultural field management (HRT 3200) blends the old tropical and temperate fruits course with the citrus production and business practices course.
Considering that FSC is the only college/university with a horticulture department in the state besides the University of Florida, the program here is unique since there aren’t many in-state options to pursue citrus or horticulture. Warner University in Lake Wales has an agriculture major, which blends animal sciences and horticulture.
Students interested in the major should contact the Barney Barnett School of Business for more information.
