The Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo is fast approaching. During the July All In For Citrus podcast, Tripti Vashisth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) associate professor, discussed the extensive citrus seminar program scheduled for Aug. 20–21 at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. The citrus sessions will include more than 20 speakers over the course of two days. Register for the event here.
One of the biggest production practices impacting citrus over the past few years has been trunk injection of oxytetracycline to reduce the HLB bacteria in trees and improve tree health. There will be several talks dedicated to this subject.
“Trunk injection is still one of the important topics, and growers want to learn more about it,” Vashisth said. “With every treatment, we are generating more information and learning better ways to apply the therapy. So, we will have several speakers addressing those topics.”
In addition to trunk injection, the citrus seminars will cover a lot of ground in other areas. Many presentations are focused on applied research that can be used in groves now.
“We have a pretty full agenda this year. It might be one of our biggest agendas that we have had so far,” Vashisth said. “The good thing is, it’s everything that the growers can either adopt or would help them to learn more about adopting something new.”
While HLB management is a big focus of the seminars, other topics will be covered including new varieties and rootstocks in development, best practices for fertilization and irrigation, and optimization of citrus crop insurance.
“Crop insurance is not something we cover that often, but it is really important for growers to make informed decisions to select the best policies for their groves,” Vashisth noted.
Don’t miss the latest All In For Citrus podcast episode to hear more about the Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo. The podcast is a partnership between UF/IFAS and AgNet Media.
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