As the agricultural statistics administrator with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Florida Agricultural Statistics Service, Candi Erick has been a key leader in the Florida citrus industry. You might recognize her as the “crop forecast lady.” Read a past Citrus Industry magazine feature about her here. Erick recently retired after a long, fulfilling career of working …
Q-Biotype Whitefly Expands to 8 Florida Counties
The Q-biotype whitefly, a significant pest that could damage agriculture, has spread from Palm Beach to seven other Florida counties, according to a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researcher. Crops that could eventually be affected include tomatoes, squash, beans, watermelons and many other vegetables and ornamentals, said Lance Osborne, an entomology professor at UF/IFAS. The …
El Niño Impact on Blueberry Crop
This year’s Florida blueberry season had a unique challenge to overcome. The unusually warm winter, combined with an El Niño climate phase of cloudy and cool conditions in early spring, resulted in harvest of the 2016 Florida blueberry crop hitting its peak approximately three weeks later than normal. Gary England, a multi-county Extension agent, says by the time that Florida growers …