Research and Extension
As part of our land-grant mission, the Department of Horticultural Sciences is a member of Texas A&M AgriLife, serving the state through research, Extension, and outreach. Research programs in the Department of Horticultural Science spread across 12 broad areas from molecular plant physiology to international floriculture marketing. Aggie Horticulture, the extension arm of the department, began serving up gardening and horticultural crop production information in October 1994. Our factsheets, guides, and databases are based on years of testing and practice. More than 50 teachers, scientists, and Extension specialists contribute their work to this website. Our goal is to serve the students, producers, professionals and gardeners of Texas…and the World.
Current Initiatives
As a founding pillar of Texas’s land-grant university, our department continues to innovate, teach future leaders and support stakeholders across the state. We collaborate with various state agencies, universities, government organizations and industry groups around the world to develop and disseminate impactful research and Extension programs.
Developing Solutions through Research
Research in the Department of Horticulture Sciences is at the forefront of advancing horticulture practices. Covering a broad range of topics, researchers in the department explore techniques to provide solutions to real-world challenges faced by industry partners and farmers.
Serving Texas Communities
The Aggie Horticulture network offers a vast amount of practical information on topics including Earth Kind Landscaping, Fruit and Nut resources, Vegetable resources, the Texas Master Gardener and Jr. Master Gardener programs, Ornamental production, Small acreage crops, and more.
Horticulture Research and Extension in the News
VIEWpoly provides visual map for polyploid plant geneticists, breeders
VIEWpoly, a new user-friendly software tool created by Christiane Hayumi Taniguti, Ph.D., is changing how plant geneticists and breeders identify and visualize genetic traits in polyploid plants. These plants are everywhere in daily life and have more than two identical or similar chromosome sets.
Texas Wine: Down to a science
Did you know the “grape” State of Texas has changed wine as we know it? Many grapes used across the world for wine, including those from centuries-old European vineyards, have Texas roots, literally.
Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension
Texas A&M AgriLife Research is the state’s premiere research agency in agriculture, natural resources, and the life sciences. Through Texas A&M AgriLife Research, we conduct hundreds of projects spanning many scientific disciplines to deliver life-sustaining and industry-changing impacts to citizens throughout Texas and around the world. The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is a unique education agency with a statewide network of professional educators, trained volunteers, and county offices. With a vast network of 250 county Extension offices and some 900 professional educators, the expertise provided by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service reaches into every Texas county to address local priority needs. We value people, programs and partnerships.