University of Florida Greenhouse Training Online offering courses on disease and climate management

University of Florida Greenhouse Training Online is offering courses on disease and climate management in November.

Practical Disease Management and Climate Management are the last two courses of the 2025 Greenhouse Training Online program.

Climate Management is taught by Ph.D. instructors Paul Fisher from the University of Florida; Erik Runkle and Roberto Lopez from Michigan State University; Jim Faust from Clemson University; John Erwin from the University of Maryland; Jennifer Boldt and Kale Harbick from USDA-ARS; and Charlie Hall from Texas A&M, as well as environmental control experts from Argus, Priva and Wadsworth.

This well-rounded team will help attendees select and operate climate control equipment and sensors for ideal crop growth. This advanced course will take attendees' environmental control knowledge to an expert level and help them produce crops under optimal conditions.

This course is not offered every year. It is an advanced course suited for experienced, well-trained growers and upper-university level attendees. The course has been rated 4.6 out of 5 by grower participants.

Practical Disease Management is taught by Carrie Harmon, Ph.D., director of the UF/IFAS Plant Diagnostic Center in Gainesville, Florida, the first university-based lab in the U.S. to earn accreditation from the National Plant Diagnostic Network, of which Harmon is deputy executive director.

Growers in the course have described Harmon as a “clear, concise and informative instructor” and said they “liked the way she provides the logic about how to choose disease treatments and the steps to achieve it.”

This intermediate course will help attendees prevent diseases by learning how diseases develop and spread, understand basic organic and conventional management, and safely apply and handle fungicides. This intermediate course is part of the Plant Health Professional Certificate.

It is an intermediate course suited for those with some experience and training or entry university level attendees. It's been rated 4.4 out of 5 by grower participants.

The courses run from Nov. 10 to Dec. 12, 2025, and are taught in English and Spanish. Each course costs $285 per participant, with a 20% discount for registrations of five or more.

All course material is completely online and available at any time of the day. It includes pre-recorded videos, an interactive discussion board with Ph.D. professors and quizzes. Two new modules are activated each week during each course, for a total of eight learning modules.

Click here to register and for more information. For questions, contact greenhousetraining@ifas.ufl.edu.