Pima master gardeners answer 10,000th online Ask an Expert question

University of Arizona Cooperative Extension has a century-long history of helping Arizonans grow everything from commercial cotton to backyard bougainvillea.

The Pima County Master Gardener Program recently hit a milestone on that front. The cadre of trained volunteer educators answered the 10,000^th ticket through Extension’s Ask an Expert portal, an online tool created in 2020, said Celeste Gambill, Pima County Master Gardener Program coordinator. 

“It's a collaborative network of Extension specialists and master gardeners coming together to answer these questions and get people the right advice,” Gambill said.

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The Ask an Expert portal, which is for the entire state, funnels questions by county and topic, then Extension connects the right expert to each question.

There are three main categories: plant problem, gardening practice and plant/insect identification. Extension also staffs a walk-in Plant Clinic two days weekly at the Campus Agricultural Center, Gambill said.

Questions cover a wide range of topics. People often want insect or plant IDs (you can upload pictures). Citrus and watering questions are popular, but irrigation, citrus and tomatoes top the list.

“Those are the ones we get the most questions on, and those are our most heavily attended talks, as well. And Tucson is very conscious about sustainability, so watering practices are brought up in most answers. We're either over- or under-watering everything,” she said.

Master gardeners, all trained in an Extension 17-week course, are drawn from all walks of life, but they’re all educators at heart.

“We've got a lot of doctors. We've got lawyers, a judge, a lot of teachers. A master gardener is a community educator, someone who's passionate about gardening and loves sharing that knowledge,” she said.

Larry Lynam, a retired microbiologist, is a Pima County master gardener. He started with University of Florida Cooperative Extension, then moved to Tucson in 2020 and started over from scratch to learn desert landscaping and gardening. Some questions are harder than others, though often master gardeners know the answer.

“Sometimes when people come into the clinic, I just have to tell them, ‘OK, I don't have the answer for you right now. Give me a couple of days. Let me research this, and I'll get back to you.’ We never give an answer unless we know for sure what the answer is. We always try to give good information because you can't take back bad information,” Lynam said.

Master gardeners draw information from thousands of Extension publications dating back 100 years and often get information from Extension specialists, many of whom are U of A faculty in entomology, plant science or other disciplines. They answer questions from all parts of Arizona.

In Yavapai County, master gardeners have answered more that 1,700 questions this year, and Maricopa County, which had an online portal before Pima County, answered their 10,000th master gardener question a few years ago.

The Pima program also hosts Zoom talks, which often draw more than 600 participants, and publishes month-by-month gardening guides. Ultimately, the volunteer master gardeners make it all work, connecting the science to the people.

“Some people have scientific backgrounds. We have a lot of people who are educators, librarians, farmers. But we all have one common thing we like to do, and that's curiosity. We learn, we share," Lynam said.

See the Master Gardener Program page to find a master gardener near you.