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News for citrus growers around the globe
By Peter Chaires When June rolls around, the last of the oranges are generally coming in and it’s time to reassess what worked and identify areas for improvement. Research-based entities are making every effort to steer dollars to where they will have the most immediate impact. The name of the game right now is capacity preservation. We must do what …
Florida citrus growers gathered in rainy Bonita Springs last week for the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference. The event hosted by Florida Citrus Mutual drew a good crowd, who were happy to see the heavy rains brought by a no-name tropical system that helped break the drought in some areas of the state. The mood of growers was mixed. While …
The pros of using interstocks for HLB management seemed to outweigh the cons, based on a presentation horticulturist Manjul Dutt made at this spring’s Florida Citrus Growers’ Institute. Dutt is a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) assistant professor. An interstock is a graft of a citrus selection that can be used as a bridge between …
Texas A&M researcher Kranthi Mandadi has received the 2024 American Phytopathological Society (APS) Syngenta Award given to select scientists working in areas of crop protection and plant pathology. Mandadi is an associate professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco. He was selected for the award primarily for his breakthrough research on fastidious, …
By Ramdas Kanissery Finding the right time to apply post-emergent herbicides for controlling weeds in citrus groves is challenging in the summer months due to frequent rain. Rainy conditions delay grove maintenance, including herbicide spraying, while also impacting the effectiveness of the herbicides. Monitoring weather forecasts and identifying optimal conditions for herbicide applications can help achieve the best results. Below …
By Rob Gilbert, ragilber@ufl.edu, @IFAS_VP Let’s start with the most important thing. Citrus science remains a top priority of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). Citrus is special. My goal for citrus is sustainability. That means profitability. Here are a few new ways UF/IFAS has demonstrated its support for citrus science during the past five …
Continuing low orange production in Florida has left Florida processors relying significantly on imports to meet the ongoing demand for orange juice (OJ), the Florida Citrus Commission (FCC) was told in June. Economist Marisa Zansler told the FCC that world juice availability is expected to decrease in the 2024–25 season, influenced by the decline in Brazilian production and reduced inventory …
Citrus farming worldwidedelivers an annual 140 million tons of oranges, tangerines and other citrus fruits, but much of the postharvest crop is lost before it reaches the market. “Up to 30% of citrus fruit is lost to decay and disease following harvesting,” says food scientist Yang Shan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and head of the Dongting …
Brazil’s Harvest+ project coordinator, Efraim Albrecht, recently traveled to Europe in search of mechanized and semi-mechanized solutions to improve citrus harvesting in Brazil. Harvest+ seeks to establish partnerships with companies that develop equipment and technologies that serve Brazilian orchards. It also seeks to contact universities and research centers that have innovative projects. In Seville, Spain, Move Agro’s coordinator and process …
Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers in June maintained their April forecast for an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season in 2024. The maintained forecast for the 2024 season, with the average for 1991-2020 in parentheses, is: The researchers also maintained the probabilities for at least one major hurricane landfall on each of the following coastal areas: “This forecast is of …
Jianhua Mo, a research entomologist with Australia’s New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) authored an article about the release of parasitic wasps for the control of citrus gall wasps (CGW). Edited excerpts follow: CGW is a pest of major concern in the southern citrus-growing regions of the Riverina, Sunraysia and Riverland. With the exception of the adult …
The June 11 federal citrus crop forecast for 2023-24 shows mostly slight changes for all Florida varieties and no production changes in other states. ORANGES The Florida all-orange forecast rose less than 1% from May, or 60,000 boxes, to 17.86 million boxes. That exceeds 2022-23 production of 15.82 million boxes but is far below 2021-22 production of 41.2 million boxes. …
Sponsored Content In this special series, Tom Johnson, owner of TJ BioTech, tackles questions about optimizing trunk-injection applications to treat HLB. Q: Are there any advantages or disadvantages to making a ReMedium TI® Injection in the rootstock or the scion? Tom Johnson: To start, agronomically there is really no difference in a ReMedium TI® injection into the rootstock or the …
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) weed scientist Ramdas Kanissery offered numerous tips and observations for improving herbicide efficiency at this spring’s Florida Citrus Growers’ Institute. They included: In addition to discussing herbicides, Kanissery reported that cover cropping, an emergent practice in Florida citrus production, may contribute to longer-term weed management in row middles. Read more …
Back in the early days of the HLB fight, it was observed that what is going on underground in citrus tree root systems is just as important as what is happening aboveground. In 2013, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service researchers published that 27% to 40% root loss due …
Orange peels may hold a key to better cardiovascular health, new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)-led research shows. Some gut bacteria help develop cardiovascular disease. When they feed on certain nutrients during digestion, gut bacteria produce trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). Levels of TMAO can help predict future cardiovascular disease, according to researchers at the Cleveland Clinic. …
By Jawwad Qureshi The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP, Figure 1) continues to feed on citrus trees infected with citrus greening and spread the disease to newly planted young trees. Therefore, it is not possible to produce a healthy citrus tree in an environment where citrus greening is endemic. Only the citrus under protective screen (CUPS, Figure 2) system allows the …
By Tom Spreen When citrus greening was first discovered in Florida, it did not have a profound impact on production. The big news at that time was the multiple hurricanes that had crossed Florida in 2004 and 2005. The hurricanes served to spread citrus canker so sufficiently that the state of Florida was forced to abandon its efforts to eradicate …
Through the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP), the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (USDA FSA) will cover up to 75% of organic certification costs at a maximum of $750 per certification category. FSA is now accepting applications. The program provides cost-share assistance to producers and handlers of organic agricultural commodities for expenses incurred obtaining or maintaining organic …
An orange, to most people, is simply a piece of fruit. But to food scientist Yang Shan, it is much more. The discarded pith, pips, skin and membranes of citrus fruits are untapped reservoirs of useful compounds. “Our goal is to make full use of the citrus fruit,” says Shan, head of the academic committee of the Hunan Academy of …
