The Department of Horticulture and Crop Science encompasses academic programs, research, and outreach activities in the areas of crop science, turf grass science, landscape horticulture, and professional golf management.
The breeding and genetics group applies genetic technology to solve problems of the production and use of economic plants.
The environmental horticulture program addresses challenges in the landscape, nursery, and public horticulture industry.
Although the culture of crops has changed greatly in recent years, improvements in production efficiency must continue if the world is to feed itself. Our crop production and management group initiates and directs the evolution of crop management systems to this purpose while collaborating with pathologists, entomologists, chemists, engineers, and other scientists.
The physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology group investigates how plants work at the whole plant, cellular, or molecular levels. Understanding physiological mechanisms makes it possible to optimize plant growth conditions and manipulate genetic make up to enhance important traits or reduce production costs and environmental problems.
Seed biology, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary program, focuses on seed production, quality, pathology, physiology, genetics, molecular biology, and weed seed ecology. The program addresses diverse agricultural commodities from soybean, maize, and wheat to vegetable, turf, and floral crops.
The objectives of the weed science program are to advance scientific knowledge of the biological and ecological mechanisms by which weeds invade, infest, compete, and disseminate and to develop economically and environmentally sound management strategies to reduce their negative impacts.
Visit http://hcs.osu.edu/ for more information.
