Growing California’s Fruit Industry
California produces over three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts, creating a unique environment to study fruit production and innovation. In the fruit science minor, you’ll explore the science and technology behind growing healthy, high-quality fruit and nut crops while gaining knowledge you can apply to today’s agricultural industry.
What You’ll Study
You’ll study plant physiology, viticulture, water management, soil conservation and climate-smart agriculture while gaining hands-on experience in fruit and nut production.
What You’ll Take Away
You’ll graduate with the knowledge and hands-on experience to support sustainable fruit and nut production through modern growing practices, resource management and plant science.
Dig Deeper
A minor in fruit science provides you with the knowledge and experience to successfully grow, harvest and market orchard and vegetable crops.
Global Food Sources
You’ll gain technical proficiency in growing global food crops and the theoretical sciences to their production, maintenance and post-harvest handling.
Managing Natural Resources
You’ll gain experience with the systems approach to organic crop management, as well as the current regulations and modern technologies implemented in industry.
Economic and Environmental Impact
You’ll study nut crops as well as small and large fruit crops, with an emphasis on the factors affecting their sustainable growth, production and management.
Coursework Highlights
Through hands-on coursework and applied learning experiences, you will develop the technical knowledge and practical skills needed to lead in modern agriculture.
Classes and Labs
You’ll explore California’s tree fruit, nut, and small fruit crops while learning how environmental, physiological, and biological factors influence their sustainable growth, production and management.
You’ll learn to identify and diagnose diseases affecting California’s major crops and explore sustainable approaches to disease prevention and management.
You’ll learn about advanced viticulture theory and practices, as well as the factors impacting yield and berry composition and the role environmental conditions have on vine physiology and canopy management.
You’ll learn about the impact of climate change on agriculture as well as agriculture’s contribution to climate change and the mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable crop production.
You’ll learn how agriculture and climate change affect one another and explore strategies for sustainable crop production that support climate adaptation and mitigation.
Explore the Fruit Science Minor
Check out the course catalogue and learn more about the courses you’ll take and what you’ll learn.
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