By Peter Chaires
Many have been following the development of the Georgia citrus industry with great interest and curiosity. Though satsuma remains the dominant fresh citrus crop, other varieties are in varying stages of trial and adoption.
The University of Georgia (UGA) has been supporting citrus growers in this process for more than a decade. Wayne Hanna, though his appointment was not specific to citrus, studied and released several citrus varieties as a means of supporting growers in the border counties. Jake Price followed in 2013, and more recently, Dario Chavez and Mary Sutton have been added to the UGA citrus team. Georgia growers are well supported in the areas of citrus breeding and Extension. Let’s examine their areas of focus.
DARIO CHAVEZ
Chavez began work at UGA in 2014 as an assistant professor in peach horticulture. He developed and led a successful research and Extension program focused on:
- Fruit quality
- Critical bud freezing temperature determination
- Irrigation and fertilization management
- Fruit thinning management
- Plant growth regulators aimed at improving growth, flowering, yield and fruit quality
His role expanded in August 2024 to include research on citrus. As an associate professor, Chavez is presently working to develop a research program addressing the complexity of citrus genetics to eventually develop citrus cultivars with improved traits (e.g., cold hardiness, rapid growth, cropping consistency, yield, resistance to pests and diseases, nutritional value, etc.) suitable for production in the Southeast. His goal is increasing citrus production in the state of Georgia. He is currently seeking collaborations with other citrus research programs in the United States to evaluate their materials for cold hardiness.
MARY SUTTON
Hired in 2024 as an assistant professor and citrus Extension specialist on the UGA Tifton Campus, Sutton is working to create an Extension program that will provide recommendations for Georgia’s citrus growers. The areas she is studying include freeze-protection methods, canopy-management strategies, fertilizer requirements, irrigation scheduling, disease management, and evaluation of current and new scion/rootstock combinations. The research conducted in her program will support these recommendations. Her goal is to increase citrus production throughout the state of Georgia by addressing the unique and geographic needs of its citrus growers.
JAKE PRICE
Jake Price is the county Extension coordinator and agricultural and natural resource agent in Lowndes County, Georgia. He has been working with citrus since 2013 after introducing it as an alternative crop to small landowners and growers. In 2022, he added responsibilities as an area citrus agent for the state.
Price currently has three active citrus rootstock trials. The first trial, planted in 2014, uses Owari 874 grafted onto 10 rootstocks with six repetitions. The rootstocks are US-942, US-897, US-852, US-812, Cleopatra, Kuharske, Swingle, X-639, Sour Orange and Rubidoux. The second rootstock trial, planted in 2018, uses Sugar Belle as the scion, grafted onto four rootstocks with five repetitions. The rootstocks are US-897, Rubidoux, US-942 and US-852. A third trial, planted in 2020, uses Tango as the scion, grafted onto 10 rootstocks: US-1516, US-942, US-1279, US-852, SuperSour 2, UFR-6, UFR-17, US-1282, Rich 16-6 and US-812.
For these trials, he is collecting data on yield, total soluble solids, titratable acidity and cold hardiness. He has also been working to assess when 30 varieties ripen in Georgia. Price is currently working with Sutton on a pruning and thinning trial with Owari satsumas to try to increase fruit quality and decrease alternate production. He has also worked with Angelos Deltsidis, UGA assistant professor and post-harvest Extension specialist, to use ethylene to degree satsumas so they can be marketed earlier as they ripen internally before they turn orange.
Finally, Price has two inactive trials with 10 early-ripening satsuma varieties acquired from University of California-Riverside grafted onto Rubidoux rootstock. The first trial was planted in 2016 and has six repetitions. The second trial is Silverhill satsuma planted onto the same rootstocks as the Tango trial with eight repetitions.
OTHER CITRUS PLAYERS
It should be noted that Jonathan Oliver is a UGA pathologist supporting citrus, and Apurba Barman provides entomological expertise. We hope to cover these gentlemen in a future article.
Citrus Nursery Source is brought to you by
Share this Post
Sponsored Content