Plant Sciences (BS)

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

The Plant Sciences Department at Cal Poly offers students an opportunity not just to learn, but to learn-by-doing. Our students benefit from a broad spectrum of opportunities ranging from hands-on experiences in our fields, groves, nurseries, and greenhouses to real world application through internships and other collaborations with our industry partners. We also excel in providing a foundational plant science background and instilling a passion for plants, as we produce the next generation of leaders in plant sciences.

Students in this major begin with core courses that provide a thorough introduction to the various concentrations. Each concentration, in turn, has required courses and electives, which may be shared by other concentrations. In their first year, students explore curricular and professional opportunities to enable them to choose a concentration. In consultation with professional and faculty advisors, students have the flexibility to select electives within the concentrations according to their career goals and interests.

Internships are readily available to students and are highly recommended. Interns are typically placed with private industry or public facilities across the United States but may also take place in foreign countries.

Program alumni are employed nationally and internationally and are often leaders in their industries. Many pursue careers in research and development or go on to attend graduate school in related fields. Graduates of the department are in great demand. Typically there are more internship and job opportunities than there are students and graduates to fill them.

Concentrations

Fruit and Crop Science

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

The Fruit and Crop Science concentration provides students with detailed knowledge of the production of tree fruits and nuts, small fruits, vegetables and other row crops, and forages. The concentration details key factors influencing the growth, development, and productivity of these crops (e.g., site selection, cultivar selection, field and plant establishment, pest management, harvesting, and postharvest handling). The concentration also focuses on ongoing and newly emerging specialty industries and concerns such as beekeeping, food safety, plant breeding and biotechnology, integrated (sustainable) pest management, and precision agriculture.

Environmental Horticultural Science

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

This concentration offers students a comprehensive preparation for positions in the nursery, turf, greenhouse, landscape, and floriculture industries, including public horticulture.  Graduates are employed as business owners, growers, managers, researchers, educators, arboreta and botanical garden directors, landscape contractors and designers, landscape management professionals, pest control advisors, and park and green space managers. The curriculum stresses production and marketing of nursery plants, fresh flowers, and flowering and foliage plants, landscape contracting, design, installation and management, turf installation and management, integrated (sustainable) pest management, and horticultural education, native plant restoration, green roofs and walls, and the public display of plants.

Plant Protection Science

Offered at: San Luis Obispo Campus

Approximately one-third of the world’s food crops are destroyed each year by insects, rodents, diseases and other pests. Finding ways to reduce these losses is the challenge of the plant protection specialist. In this concentration, students learn a broad range of pest management subjects including entomology, plant pathology, and weed control, all of which employ the integrated (sustainable) pest management approach, which seeks to provide acceptable pest management that minimizes environmental, social, and economic impacts. Students develop an understanding of crop production principles, ecology, biotechnology, pesticide toxicology and environmental science. Employment opportunities continue to grow for those holding professional licenses, and this concentration prepares students to take the California Pest Control Advisor (PCA) and Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) license exams.

Program Learning Objectives

1. Demonstrate technical competence in their concentration by identifying the majority of globally important food, and/or ornamental plants and demonstrating applications of theoretical sciences to their production, maintenance and post-harvest handling.
2. Effectively evaluate and adapt basic cultural practices, economic uses, and environmental interactions in the production of food, fiber, or ornamental plants.
3. Assess and implement appropriate sustainable growing and/or horticultural design practices based on region and microclimate, especially as they relate to water, soil and other natural resources.
4. Make informed and ethical decisions regarding environmental, social, and economic impacts of horticultural and agricultural activities and will contribute to their professions’ continued relevancy by identifying, evaluating and responding to changing public perceptions, governmental regulations and industry challenges.
5. Practice a range of complex problem-solving exercises and excel in diagnosing and resolving plant health issues in outdoor and enclosed plant production systems.
6. Organize, synthesize, evaluate, and reconfigure information about complex, multivariate, living systems to gain new insights and communicate their findings to multiple stakeholder groups clearly, scientifically, and ethically.

Degree Requirements and Curriculum

Note: No Major, Support or Concentration courses may be selected as credit/no credit. In addition, no more than 12 units of cooperative or internship courses can count towards your degree requirements.

¹

Required in Major or Support; also satisfies General Education (GE) requirement.

Concentrations

Fruit and Crop Science

¹

A minimum of 9 units must be taken at the 3000-4000 level.

²

A maximum of 3 units may count towards Approved Electives.

³

A maximum of 4 units may count towards Approved Electives.

Environmental Horticultural Science

¹

A maximum of 3 units may count towards Approved Electives.

²

A maximum of 4 units may count towards Approved Electives.

Plant Protection Science

¹

A maximum of 3 units may count towards Approved Electives.

²

A maximum of 4 units may count towards Approved Electives.

General Education (GE) Requirements

• 43 units required, 13 of which are specified in Major and/or Support.
• If any of the remaining 30 Units is used to satisfy a Major or Support requirement, additional units of Free Electives may be needed to complete the total units required for the degree.
• See the complete GE course listing.
• A grade of C- or better is required in one course in each of the following GE Areas: 1A (English Composition), 1B (Critical Thinking), 1C (Oral Communication), and 2 (Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning). 

¹

Required in Major or Support; also satisfies General Education (GE) requirement.

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