Dear Manatee County Plant Exhibitors,

I wanted to share some information with you on the plant project this year.

The Plant Project is a program for our youth to experience a simulated plant nursery production to engage them in agriculture which is an essential component of the national economy.

We have overhauled the program to create a more useful project for you with better educational components and streamlined activities. So, we revised the program rules to reduce confusion and improve your experience with the program

We created a dedicated webpage for the plant project (http://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/manatee/fnglaplantproject/), the page will have all deadlines and updated information and links of the program activities.

So, here is a quick summary of the program activities:

1. The first step is attending the rules meeting.
2. Then Register your plant entries. Registration is 100% online. Please note that there is ONE registration deadline for all the plant classes A, B, C, D, & E. Registration Deadline is October 14^th, 2020.
3. Plant Tagging is the next activity where you bring in your plants to be initially examined to confirm plant species/variety, quality, and provide feedback to participants on their plants or answer any questions. Plants are then tagged with stickers that will remain on the entries throughout the rest of the project activities. There are two tagging dates; October 21^st for entries in classes A, B, & C, and November 18^th, for entries in classes D, & E.
4. On January 18^th, Plant Exhibitors will bring in their entries to the fairgrounds for the Plant Check-in, where plants are inspected for quality and pest or disease problems then submitted to the fair to be judged by our volunteer commercial horticulture professionals.
5. During the period from plant tagging to the plant check-in, exhibitors will continue to grow and maintain their plants and get them ready for the judging and display.
6. After Judging, the plant exhibits will be available for public display.
7. During the fair, exhibitors will display their plants to be auctioned.
8. And remember to keep track of the inputs and outputs in your record book.

Please make sure to review the Rule Book for more details on each activity and attend either of the online rules’ meetings.

If you have questions, please review the FAQs section in the Rule Book, and if you have specific questions, please reach out to us, you can find the appropriate contact personnel on the plant page.

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