Cycle 5 of the Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) new tree planting program remains open for applications until 5:00 p.m. on Nov. 30. The application can be found online here.
An update has been made to the general rules, expanding the acreage of eligible projects from a maximum of 100 acres to a maximum of 250 acres. As a reminder, there is no acreage limitation for an entity, only for individual projects. A grower or grower entity may submit as many applications for projects as they would like.
A new category has been added to Cycle 5. Along with the regular solid-set planting and reset categories, this cycle will include a Solid Set with Program for Expedited Propagation (PEP) Materials category. These projects, between 20 and 100 acres, will look at equal plantings of four of the five PEP scions (Parson Brown, Roble, Carney 2, Carney 3 and Donaldson) compared to a standard Hamlin, which will serve as a control. The CRAFT board of directors has agreed to amend the previous requirement that all PEP scions be on the same rootstock. Due to incompatibility between Roble and trifoliate rootstocks, an alternate rootstock may be chosen for that scion only. The remaining four scions within a PEP project must all be on the same rootstock. Growers who apply and are approved for participation in this category will receive $8,000 per acre over the course of their agreement.
The CRAFT board has also voted to allow current Existing Tree Therapies (ETT) projects to apply for inclusion in the Cycle 5 Reset category as well. Participants approved for inclusion in Cycle 5 resets that are also included in the ETT category will be required to submit data separately for both categories.
Additionally, the CRAFT board approved funding for all eligible applications recently submitted for Round 2 of the ETT program.This includes those projects that rolled over from Round 1. CRAFT staff is in the process of finalizing contracts for these projects and will be sending those out to growers as soon as possible. Along with the contracts, grower participants will receive a link to a survey for their project’s three-year historical data. Initial payments will be released following execution of the contracts and completion of the historical data reporting.
For more information on CRAFT, contact Tamara Wood at tamara@craftfdn.org or 863-698-9276 or Tina Buice at tina@craftfdn.org or 863-214-3731.
Share this Post