Students had a hands-on opportunity to inoculate oak logs with shiitake mushroom spawn in the Urban Horticulture Production, HORT 3713 course. The Urban Horticulture Production course covers principles and production of crops for public or community practices with emphasis on production associated with hydroponics, raised beds, containers, controlled environments, roof tops, high tunnels and farmers market.

Students are learning and developing deep water culture plants. The plant's roots are suspended in an oxygenated nutrient solution. Soil provides gaps where air is present, thus the water needs to be oxygenated for the plants to survive. Soil also contains macro and micro nutrients for the plants so in hydroponics the oxygenated water is supplemented with nutrients. In a deep water culture, the deeper the water level the more stable the nutrient solution will remain.

Katie Stenmark is collecting data. The project aims to develop baseline information for production of hops, a new crop for Oklahoma. As a new crop, this outreach component is critical to establishing networks for prospective farmers entering a new marketplace.