Kanissery in the weed garden
A weed garden established this spring beside the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee is intended to help growers, Extension agents and others identify weeds in the grove.
“The key ingredient in a weed management toolbox is to correctly identify the weed,” says Ramdas Kanissery, weed scientist at the center. “We’d like to invite groups to this garden. They can smell the weeds and touch the weeds.”
Kanissery says the garden contains most common weeds found in Florida citrus groves. “We will have field days and demonstration programs where we invite groups of growers,” he says. Also, growers may just stop by the center and visit the weed garden on their own, he says. “We have a brochure that comes with the garden, and it has all the details on the different types of species we have here.”
Weed control has long been a major production issue for Florida citrus growers. With the industry suffering from HLB disease since 2005, however, weed control and many other practices took on less importance for some growers as they struggled for survival. But with no “silver bullets” expected for HLB, growers are once again focusing on all aspects of citrus production in hopes of keeping groves as healthy as possible.
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