The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) citrus breeding team hosted a field day on Nov. 19 at the UF/IFAS Eagle Lake Block.
The Eagle Lake Block is a 30-acre property that was gifted to CREC as part of the Jim Hughes estate. The grove tour featured several selections being trialed by the citrus breeding team. Among those are the line of OLL varieties, which have been developed by Jude Grosser, UF/IFAS citrus breeder.
“We saw a lot of things today, but I think the take-home message is that within conventional germplasm and through conventional breeding, we can develop scions — fruit varieties — that have adequate tolerance to HLB,” Grosser said. “And the same is true for rootstocks.
“In the tour, we saw examples of both functioning well here, including some really high-quality sweet oranges that are showing tolerance. This illustrates that conventional breeding is working; it just takes time. Now, the next step is to put the most tolerant scions, especially these really nice oranges from the OLL series, onto these emerging rootstocks that are showing the ability to transmit tolerance up into the top of the tree. Then maybe we can grow all the oranges we need to restore our industry.”
Grosser noted the trees showcased during the field day have not received trunk-injection therapy and no individual protective covers were used. So, these trees have been exposed to HLB and illustrate the natural tolerance of the varieties.
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