The Millennium Block grove is a large-scale trial evaluating HLB tolerance of various rootstock/scion combinations at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC) in Fort Pierce, Florida. The trial is primarily focused on grapefruit scion/rootstock combinations.
Recently, a Millennium Block field day allowed growers to view various selections that show promise in tolerating HLB. The largest trial compares 18 scions from various sources, including UF/IFAS, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and selections from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services germplasm collection. Those varieties are being compared on three popular commercial rootstocks: sour orange, US-942 and X-639.
Flavia Zambon, UF/IFAS assistant professor of citrus production and other tree crops, joined the All In For Citrus podcast to share highlights of the field day. Zambon manages the Millennium Block experiment and helped to coordinate the event.
Growers were given a guided wagon tour through the grove looking at more promising selections. One stop featured an old grapefruit variety — Triumph — that made its way into the experimental block by accident. Zambon called it a “fortuitous mistake” because the variety has seemly high tolerance to HLB. Its only drawbacks are the fruit is not red and is quite seedy. But she added it will be integrated into future breeding efforts to see if the HLB-tolerance could be transferred to new selections.
Zambon also gave a sneak peek of an open house event be held at the IRREC on Dec. 7. To hear more about the Millennium Block field day and IRREC open house, don’t miss the latest episode of the All In For Citrus podcast. The podcast is a partnership between AgNet Media and UF/IFAS.
Share this Post
About the Author
Sponsored Content