CUPS Expensive but Beneficial

The benefits of implementing citrus under protective screen (CUPS) could be major for growers in the cold-hardy region. But they first must overcome the major limiting factor associated with the system — its cost.

Arnold Schumann, a professor of soil fertility and water quality at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Citrus Research and Education Center, discussed CUPS during the UF/IFAS Cold-Hardy Citrus Meeting in Quincy on Oct. 30.

CUPS is a type of indoor growing system used in central and southern Florida. It is effective in protecting trees from the Asian citrus psyllid, the insect vector of citrus greening disease. Growers in the cold-hardy region (North Florida, South Georgia and South Alabama) must consider the financial hurdle that exists with implementing this effective but costly system.

“You need some source of a loan, or you’ve got to have a lot of money yourself. It costs $43,000 per acre,” Schumann said. “It’s a big cost, but the rewards are great. There’s a lot of initial input costs. Once that has been paid, the maintenance costs as far as agricultural inputs are actually less. The trees are growing twice as fast, and the yields are very high; 800 boxes of grapefruit per acre. That’s worth $20,000 in today’s prices per year, starting as early as three or four years. Your revenue is coming in very large, and payback is as early as seven or eight years. The financial economic formula is there. People using CUPS are expanding because it’s profitable.”

Schumann estimates there are about 1,250 Florida acres in CUPS production. The system’s main benefit is preventing HLB from devastating production. There has been less than 2% of HLB confirmed in 10 years of CUPS production.

Along with finding the finances to start the system, location is a vital component. Growers need to plant on the right soils, which are the historically productive areas for citrus prior to HLB.

“It needs to have the right land,” advised Schumann. “It wouldn’t be wise to put it near the coast because of hurricanes. Impacts would be greater there. Wind velocity from a hurricane is less the farther inland you go. If a Category 4 hit the coast and there’s CUPS there, it would probably just wipe it out.”

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