Open House/Field Day Set at CREC

Ernie Neff HLB Management

Citrus Research and Education Center Director Michael Rogers

The work that University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences faculty members have done on HLB will be featured Nov. 16 at the Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) in Lake Alfred. The center will host growers and others that day at an open house and field day.

The morning program will kick off with a panel discussion with CREC researchers highlighting “what growers can do now to improve tree health.”

Next, more than 20 hands-on exhibits will feature the latest research findings to help growers keep their diseased trees productive, increase yield, fight fruit drop, manage a number of diseases including HLB, and provide the right nutrition and irrigation.

The afternoon will feature field tours of a new Jackson grapefruit trial featuring HLB-tolerant trees on six different rootstocks with high-density spacing that monitors insect and mite management and uses two sizes of individual protective covers (IPCs). Another field tour will feature an integrated project looking at reflective mulch, kaolin clay and IPCs and their impact on nutrition, irrigation, plant pathology and overall tree growth.

The CREC Processing Pilot Plant that contains most of the equipment necessary to perform studies related to citrus, beverage and byproducts processing will also be open for tours. Visitors will be able to see the operations of fruit washing and sizing, state test extraction, juice extraction and finishing, centrifugation, evaporation, pasteurization and filtration. Research capabilities are available to support scientific studies and for cooperative industry projects.

The open house and field day will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and lunch is provided. The event is free, but preregistration is required here. More information can be obtained from CREC at 863-956-1151.

Source: University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

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