Florida Citrus Mutual hosted its spring informational meeting for growers at Golden Ridge Groves in Alturas on May 13. Golden Ridge Groves is growing fresh fruit in citrus under protective screen and recently added you-pick and agritourism options for the public.
Steven Hall, executive director of the Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) Foundation, gave an update and recounted the success of last year’s cycle of funding. One highlight was the new Emerging Varieties Program to incentivize planting of newer varieties. The program puts a special emphasis on varieties or rootstocks that growers have expressed interest in planting.
The CarriCea T1 rootstock by Soilcea is among those emerging varieties. With its recent approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, the CRISPR (non-GMO) rootstock is cleared for planting. With CRAFT support, more than 300,000 CarriCea T1 rootstock trees are expected to be planted in 2027.
Hall said funding for the next round of CRAFT programs is yet to be determined as the Florida Legislature is currently in a special session to finalize the state budget.
During the meeting, Tripti Vashisth, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Citrus Research and Education Center assistant director, presented her research on how plant growth regulators (PGRs) like gibberellic acid can improve tree health and yields. Field trials have shown that applications of PGRs in conjunction with trunk injection of oxytetracycline have a synergistic effect in improving tree health, yields and quality of juice.
Weston Johnson, food scientist with The Coca-Cola Company, spoke about research by the company looking at several mandarin hybrid citrus varieties that could be candidates to blend with sweet orange juice to improve quality. Most of the varieties he highlighted have Brix levels higher than 12%.
One variety of particular note is the Brixy mandarin hybrid recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He said it is sweet with relatively firm fruit that will transport well to processing plants.
“We are looking at expanding the definition (through USDA) of what a sweet orange is, and this variety is the main poster child for that because it tastes like a sweet orange,” Johnson said.
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