Growers will have opportunities to learn in interactions with University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researchers at Citrus Expo on Thursday afternoon, Aug. 15.
“We wanted to do something a little bit different to keep folks involved and keep folks coming back for that second afternoon” of Citrus Expo, says Michael Rogers, director of the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center.
“There’s no substitute for getting your hands on, and talking to people and having that back-and-forth dialog,” Rogers says.
So, the citrus session on Thursday afternoon, in the Davidson House at the Lee Civic Center, will offer just such an opportunity. At each of several stations, growers will participate in “hands-on” activities with researchers. Topics to be addressed include soil and water pH management, pests and diseases, food safety, soil moisture sensors, and the diagnosis and recommendation integrated system. At this session, the new Citrus Production Guide prepared by UF/IFAS will be available for free.
On the same afternoon and also in the Davidson House, Meet the Specialist sessions will be conducted. “There’ll be a number of round tables set up for discussion with some of our IFAS specialists,” Rogers says.
Topics to be discussed in a “back-and-forth dialog” between researchers and growers include plant nutrition and overall citrus health improvement. Rogers says such discussions allow researchers to learn what’s important to growers. Much progress on HLB management has come from such researcher-grower interaction, he says.
Citrus Expo is a combination of educational sessions and a trade show held annually in North Fort Myers, Florida. This year’s event takes place Aug. 14-15. Pre-registration is available at www.CitrusExpo.net/registration.
Rogers’ comments about Citrus Expo are part of the July All In For Citrus Podcast. The podcast is a joint effort of UF/IFAS and Southeast AgNet.
Listen to the full podcast here.
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