In a recent presentation titled “Juice Imports, Fruit Prices and Cost of Production,” Ariel Singerman provided the price and yield required to break even growing oranges in Southwest Florida. “Average cultural cost of $1,847 requires prices for E&M (early and mid) and Valencias to be $2.31 and $2.01 per pound solids, respectively, just to break even,” the University of Florida …
Battling the Bacteria Inside Psyllids
Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) associate professor, recently discussed her research on bacteria associated with Asian citrus psyllids. This includes endosymbiotic bacteria that live inside of psyllids as well as the liberibacter that causes citrus greening disease. Her research is looking at how these microorganisms can be targeted inside the psyllid to reduce …
Consumer Response to OJ During COVID-19
Yan Heng, Marisa Zansler and Lisa House have authored a new study on consumer response to orange juice (OJ) during the COVID-19 outbreak. Heng is a research assistant scientist and House is a professor, both with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Food and Resource Economics Department. Zansler is the director of the Economic and …
Cost-Effective Psyllid Control Strategies
Lukasz Stelinski makes the case that reducing HLB-spreading Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) populations improves tree health — even when trees already have HLB. The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) entomologist offers several tips about psyllid control in a new presentation available online. Keeping ACP populations down seems to help yield, Stelinski states. His hypothesis is …
New Opportunity for Citrus Growers to Earn CEUs Online
When the annual 2020 Florida Citrus Growers’ Institute was canceled due to the stay-at-home guidelines recommended by the state, growers were shut out of learning the latest research updates from University of Florida citrus scientists. In addition, they were denied access to earning valuable continuing education units (CEUs) needed to renew pesticide licenses. University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural …
Antibiotics Used in Citrus
A new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension document, Antibiotics in Crop Production, was published in May by Leigh Archer, Ute Albrecht and Pamela Roberts. The authors found that the use of antibiotics has resulted in the successful control of bacterial diseases in some crops but not in others. The publication includes research information on antibiotics …
HLB Brings Nutrition Guideline Changes
An updated nutrition guide from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) provides new information for properly fertilizing HLB-impacted trees. Nutrition of Florida Citrus Trees, 3rd Edition was updated by researchers Kelly Morgan and Davie Kadyampakeni. Morgan, director of the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center, says growers have been requesting an update of the guide …
Technology Helps Growers Count Citrus Trees
In his quest to find the right drone and other artificial intelligence to help ensure citrus growers get an accurate count of their crop, Yiannis Ampatzidis and his research team have developed a system known as Agroview. The technology saves farmers time and money and helps them accurately count their trees, which is important for insurance purposes. The latest results …
Trunk Injection Considerations
A presentation titled “Trunk Injection: Difficulties and Considerations” is one of the first from the cancelled 2020 Florida Citrus Growers’ Institute to become available online. The annual event was cancelled because of COVID-19. The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is working to make additional presentations that were intended for the Florida Citrus Growers’ Institute available …
Lessons Learned From Rootstock Field Trials
By Bill Castle “The notion that field trial data are of little value in the early years and trials must run for 15 years is outdated.” [Lesson 7] “Our new website provides the grower community with user-friendly access to our collective decades of rootstock trial data…” [Lesson 9] Those are two of many lessons shared in a recent article authored …
Research Pushes Forward in COVID-19 Era
As Florida moved to “safer at home” measures, not all University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) research projects could be put on pause. There are living plants, animals and insects to feed and maintain. Some projects have regular monitoring procedures for which postponement could have broader environmental consequences. “We are very proud of our faculty, staff …
Reduce Fruit Drop, Increase Yield
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) citrus scientists Tripti Vashisth and Fernando Alferez are trying to reduce the amount of fruit drop from Hamlin and Valencia trees prior to harvest. If fruit drops, growers can’t harvest it, and that leads to losses for farmers and less fruit at the market for consumers. Normally, about 10 to …
Sneak Peek: June 2020 Citrus Industry Magazine
Florida’s citrus harvest may be winding down for the season, but tree care continues year-round. The June issue of Citrus Industry magazine includes two timely articles on summer tree care practices. In the first article, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researchers Fernando Alferez and Tripti Vashisth discuss techniques to improve fruit quality and yield during …
All In For Citrus Podcast, May 2020
In May’s All In For Citrus Podcast, listeners can hear the latest huanglongbing (HLB) research and recommendations as well as how the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) citrus team is operating as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease. As always, Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) Director Michael Rogers begins the podcast. He shares news about …
Smartphone App Under Development for Diagnosing Citrus Leaf Symptoms
By Arnold Schumann, Perseverança Mungofa, Laura Waldo and Chris Oswalt Since the first Apple iPhone was launched in 2007, there have been many improvements to smartphone cameras and their increasingly powerful graphics-processing capabilities. In recent years, these powerful hand-held computers have also made their impact on agriculture, where they are being used for communications, mapping, navigation, information retrieval and diagnostic …
20 Florida Farms to Conduct Hemp Research Trials
Twenty commercial farms in 12 Florida counties have been selected to conduct on-farm hemp trials. The trials will be part of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Industrial Hemp Pilot Project. The farms are in different agricultural regions to provide a variety of conditions to study the growth and success of the crop across the …
Coming Attraction: Florida Finger Limes
Sweet oranges. Ruby red grapefruit. Sugar Belle mandarins. When one thinks of Florida citrus, these fruits immediately come to mind. But finger limes? A University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researcher believes that finger limes may be the next food trend that will continue to fortify Florida’s role as a citrus producer for the world. Manjul …
Irrigation Scheduling Methods Affect Water Use
By Sandra M. Guzman and Rhuanito S. Ferrarezi Irrigation scheduling has been one of the most important management practices to improve crop production. For citrus, there are multiple options to schedule irrigation, including evapotranspiration-, plant- and soil-based methods. These methods can provide different water requirement estimates based on environmental variables, plant uptake or water content in the soil. Although each …
Pesticide License Testing to Resume
Due to COVID-19, all pesticide license testing in Florida was suspended for more than six weeks. Now that the state has started to reactivate services, testing will resume at select University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension offices on May 18. Not all testing locations will open on May 18. Due to the number of COVID-19 …
Extension Agent Ajia Paolillo on the Job
Ajia Paolillo recently succeeded Steve Futch as the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) citrus Extension agent for DeSoto, Hardee and Manatee counties. COVID-19 social distancing measures have been keeping her out of the field. But she emphasizes that she is “still working and definitely available to help with any problems (growers) have, any questions, any …