Visit the East Tennessee AgResearch Center for Informative Talks and Tours
KNOXVILLE – Learn about horticulture, hops, turfgrass and organic agriculture at the inaugural Hort, Hops and Crops Field Day on Thursday, September 18 at the University of Tennessee East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center’s Plant Sciences Unit.
The event features talks by UTIA faculty and researchers, exhibit booths, equipment displays and tours of the nearby Organic Crops Unit or the Plant Sciences Unit, a 212-acre research farm with many horticulture, turfgrass and crop production projects, including the UT hopyard.
The field day is free and open to the public. Gates open at 8 a.m. at 3450 Maloney Road, Knoxville, 37920. A lunch of UT beef burgers, chips and drinks is free to attendees. Please pre-register at tiny.utk.edu/HortHopsandCrops25.
The morning session includes concurrent presentations in three tents with speakers discussing hops, turf and turf management, landscape design, oilseeds, sprayer technology, orchard systems, hydroponics, pollinators, gardening for wildlife, ginger ale and eucalyptus. During the presentations, attendees may also look at equipment displays and visit exhibitors from UTIA and the local community, including the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Pendergrass Library, Second Harvest Food Bank, UT Beef and Forage Center, TN 811, Nourish Knoxville, UT Herbert College of Agriculture, Ijams Nature Center, Knox County Master Gardeners and more.
In the afternoon, attendees may choose to remain onsite and tour the Plant Sciences Unit to learn about turf or specialty crops or ride a shuttle bus to the Organic Crops Unit to learn about agroforestry, solarization, double-crop soybeans and grain production and cut flowers. The Plant Science Unit tour will end about 3 p.m. Those who choose to ride a shuttle to tour the nearby Organic Crops Unit should plan for the event to end a little later, around 3:30 p.m.
Visit agresearch.tennessee.edu/field-days for more details about the 2025 UT Institute of Agriculture Field Days or contact Kim Lane at kalane@utk.edu with questions. For more information about the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, visit easttn.tennessee.edu. Click on the link to the Plant Sciences Unit for a map to the field day site on Maloney Road.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.