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Graphic: Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center Truck Crops Experiment Station

The Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station is located in Copiah County south of Crystal Springs. It was established in 1938 and concentrates on production of field grown and greenhouse vegetables, annual and perennial ornamental crops, fruits, and pecans. It is the largest research station dedicated to horticulture in the MSU system, encompassing 175 acres of rolling land.

signThe Station has two laboratories, shop facilities, and nine greenhouses. The staff includes three faculty jointly appointed to the MSU Plant and Soil Sciences Department; an Operations Coordinator; and research, clerical, and labor staff. A U.S. forest service weather station is operated at Truck Crops. Information is updated hourly by satellite.

The current vegetable research programs include field variety trials, fertilizer studies, cover crops, season extension technologies, greenhouse tomatoes, and organic production. Current studies include organic cover crops, zone tillage in winter cover crops, liming materials comparisons, disease control in greenhouse tomatoes, using industrial and agricultural by-products in greenhouse substrates, nitrogen fertilizer sources for field tomatoes, and numerous cultivar trials. The program also includes one of the largest observational vegetable trials in the U.S. as part of the Fall Flower & Garden Fest.

The ornamentals research program includes fertilizer management studies in floral pot crops, substrate ingredient studies, growth regulator research, season extension technology studies, and several cultivar trials, including both a spring and fall annuals trial with over 150 entries each.

The fruit research program includes cultivar and cultural practice evaluations for blueberries and muscadines, and several minor fruit demonstration plantings. Two pecan orchards are used to test low-input cultural practices and for training of growers and others in pecan management.

Over the last 30 years, the Truck Crops Station has hosted one of the South's most extensive fall vegetable and ornamental garden demonstrations, the Fall Flower & Garden Fest. The Truck Crops faculty and staff, supported by more than fifty other resource people and speakers from MSU and several cooperating organizations, host the two-day Fest. The grounds of the Fest feature a vegetable and herb garden trial containing more than 350 entries in more than one acre of raised beds, all planted by maturity dates for show and demonstration in October. One acre of annual and perennial flowers, trees and shrubs creates an attractive planting around a central gazebo area. Attendance at the Fall Flower & Garden Fest has averaged more than 5,000 visitors in recent years.