Key Takeaways From Citrus Nutrition Day

After being postponed this fall due to Hurricane Milton, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) hosted its annual Citrus Nutrition Day on Jan. 22 at the Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) in Lake Alfred.

The event was well attended and featured several presentations aimed at optimizing citrus nutrition programs in the HLB era. UF/IFAS research Davie Kadyampakeni helped organize the event. He also presented the latest research on developing new recommendations for citrus fertilizer applications. These recommendations will also be utilized as guidelines for Florida’s best management practices program for citrus.

Kadyampakeni has been conducting trials across the state looking at various rates for major nutrients like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. With two years of research completed, one of the significant take-home messages is the research indicates there were no yield differences regardless of treatment and application rate. However, fruit quality analysis is still underway. Kadyampakeni noted that previous experience shows that it might take three years of applications before a fertilizer program will begin to impact yields under HLB-endemic conditions.

Jamie Burrow, UF/IFAS Extension coordinator for citrus canker and HLB, and Tripti Vashisth, CREC associate center director and associate professor, presented their research on the Citrus Nutrition Box program. The program worked with growers to track their citrus nutrition monitoring and fertilizer requirements over three years.

One of the key takeaways from the research was tissue analysis of citrus leaves at least twice per year (June and September) allowed growers to better gauge nutrition needs and can help them tailor their programs to benefit tree health.

According to Vashisth, the research has indicated that fruiting and non-fruiting leaves have very different nutrient profiles. Preliminary evidence suggests that fertilizing based on fruiting leaf analysis should be considered for improved productivity.

All of the presentations given during Citrus Nutrition Day will be posted on the Citrus Research and Education Center website.

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