How can changes in soil health impact citrus and other sub-tropical tree crops? That’s a question UF/IFAS researchers hope to answer in a four-year, $500,000 project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Specifically, they will examine how quickly soil health can change in Florida’s sub-tropical sandy soils and how changes in the soil’s health might impact yield.
“Our goal is to help producers by finding out what cover crops do to soil health in Florida groves,” said Sarah Strauss, assistant professor of soil microbiology in the UF/IFAS soil and water sciences department and the lead investigator on the grant project. “While there’s a lot of interest in soil health right now, much of the research and metrics for assessing it are not based on sub-tropical sandy soils like we have in Florida. In order to determine if soil health is improving, growers need to know what the best parameters are to measure. That includes determining which indicators are the most useful for monitoring the soil health of tree crops.”
Sometimes, though, impacts may not be observed for several years. Strauss and her team want to know what indicators can be measured only once a year or more frequently that might show progress even if yield hasn’t changed yet. This would provide grove management information to producers in a more timely fashion.
Research Specifics
The team will first measure soil physical, biochemical and microbial parameters involved in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling at two Florida citrus groves. This provides a detailed assessment of the changes to the soil environment and microbial groups with cover crops. After measuring cover crop impacts on soil in the groves, scientists will see which soil health indicators can carry over to the non-citrus setting. They will also share Florida-specific information with producers.
“In vegetable or row crop systems, cover crops are planted during the fallow season for a few months and then the cash crop will be planted in the same field. That’s not the case for a tree crop, and in Florida, we can keep cover crops growing in the middle of rows between the trees all year,” said Strauss, a faculty member at the UF/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee. “So, metrics for how quickly things change in the soils for a tree with cover crops may be very different than in a vegetable or cotton field.”
Strauss said they will also compare results with some commercial soil tests to see how indicators relate to what is currently available on the commercial level. Many commercial tests may not provide suggestions or recommendations specific to tree crops.
“Ultimately, this study will provide a list of meaningful soil health indicators that Florida producers can use to meet their unique needs in sub-tropical tree fruit systems,” she said.
Vidalia onion harvests are underway in Georgia. It has been great harvest conditions for producers in the Southeast Georgia region. G&R Farms in Glennville, Georgia is one of the biggest Vidalia onion producers in the area. Pictured are photos from Thursday’s harvest.
Photo by Aubrey Shirley/UGA
G&R Farms will continue harvesting through mid-May.
April 19 was the pack date this year for Georgia Vidalia onions. An advisory panel comprised of industry leaders determined that April 19 be the first day of the year consumers could buy Vidalia onions.
Growers first dig onions and let them field cure. Then they’ll clip the onions and send to the grading house to be packaged and boxed up.
Florida and Georgia remain two of the leading cucumber-producing states in the country. Along with Michigan and North Carolina, they harvest more than 60% of the nation’s fresh market acres, according to USDA Vegetable and Pulses April Outlook.
However, imports continue to challenge the two states for market supremacy, accounting for more than three-fourths of domestic availability, up from less than one-half in 2000.
Imports of fresh cucumbers totaled 2.19 billion pounds in 2020 and are projected to increase in 2021 amid the pandemic. Mexico remains the leading source of imported cucumbers, averaging 80% of the annual volume from 2018-20. Canada provided 16% of import volume during that same timeframe.
Imports accounted for 87% of domestic availability, up from 61% in 2010. From 2015 to 2019, cucumber imports increased by 5% every year.
Greenhouse production accounts for 11% of the domestic cucumber production, up from 10% in 2014 and 3% in 2009. Greenhouse import share, which was 15% during 2010-12, is slowly increasing.
Cucumbers and squash were the source of an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The hearing centered on the impact that imports are having on the domestic industry.
A couple of weeks into Jim Bennett’s first season and the Alabama strawberry producer already regrets not planting more acres than he did.
“We’ve talked about planting strawberries since we opened. This year it kind of worked out and decided we’d go for it,” said Bennett, owner of Bennett Farms in Heflin, Alabama. “It’s right at two acres of strawberries. The first year I didn’t want to bite off more than I can chew. But I wished I had planted five more acres of them. We get picked out pretty quick with the amount of strawberries we’ve got right now.”
Bennett’s strawberry patch is in its second week of production, allowing U-pick the past few days.
“It’s great to see these kids. They love it. We have a lot of other activities, other than the U-pick. They can come out and pick and spend the rest of the day with the food and activities and all that we offer,” Bennett said. “It’s fun to watch the kids and how they react and enjoy the farm. It makes it worthwhile.”
While other producers in the Southeast have experienced diseases with their strawberry crops, namely Neopestalotiopsis Fruit Rot in Florida and Georgia, Bennett hasn’t observed any fungal diseases in his crop.
“The one thing I did learn, I did not build a fence around my crop when we laid the plastic. We were covered with deer, and the deer did some damage to the plastic and ate some crowns off some of the plants. But they’ve recovered and look good now,” Bennett said.
The biggest challenge so far for this Alabama strawberry producer has been the weather. Persistent rains and cold winter temperatures stalled the growth of the strawberry plants.
“I really anticipated picking probably two weeks earlier than we were. The cool weather and cool nights and rain has slowed us down a little bit. They’re coming into full production. They look pretty good right now,” Bennett said.
Hopefully, the cold temperatures on Thursday morning will not impact the crop moving forward the rest of the season.
Bees, flies and spiders are all attracted to floral resources and provide predation and pollination services in crop production.
By Jason Schmidt, Carmen Blubaugh and William Snyder
Before large monoculture agriculture became commonplace, farms had a bit of everything — from a vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, to a chicken coop and a honeybee hive, to a natural forest and even a lake or creek. These farms had rich and vibrant plant and animal life, healthy soils and good yields.
In the last 80 years or so, farms have become larger, more uniform in crops, with higher inputs of water, fertilizer and pesticides — all to be able to get high-quality yields, feed a growing population and remain profitable. But another change is happening: our awareness that we need to restore some of that diverse farm life to sustain production.
Biological diversity or biodiversity, the diversity of living things, has gained attention in the last decades due to the great value of many ecosystem services (i.e., natural ecosystem components that benefit humans) such as pollination and natural pest control. Building diverse, healthy and sustainable food production requires more than knowledge of pesticides, nutrients, irrigation and plant germplasm.
Current messaging emphasizes “Protecting the life that sustains us” (the mission of the Xerces Society), and large global research teams are mobilized to evaluate the importance of biodiversity for crop production. A biodiversity-based economy places greater worth on biodiversity than just direct products. Conservation and restoration of landscapes is gathering interest as methods to provision biodiversity and associated ecosystem services.
Could a field full of insects ever be a good thing?Maybe, if you are into “biodiversity-friendly” farming. For each pest, there are likely 1,000 species that are either beneficial or have an unknown role in agriculture. For the most part, having a field full of insects could be a good thing when there are many different types of insects. This is especially good if we see lots of bees, butterflies and predators, and a lot fewer pests damaging plants. Sadly, it is more common to hear about the bad bugs, especially when one species is having a tremendous impact on production.
Generally though, more species provide more functions for a system. With diverse communities, there are many workers to do the necessary tasks (i.e., nutrient cycling, pollination, pest control, etc.) in the system. Having multiple species doing the same type of work can provide a back-up in case a player in the starting lineup goes down and a sub is needed. This is called resistance or ecological resistance.
Planting wildflower strips along the edge of fields in marginal habitat not suitable for production can support diversity.
Building diverse systems with many different species boosts resistance in the farming system because there is less risk to lose key functions like pollination and pest control. For example, growers are currently relying very heavily on one species of pollinator, the honey bee, to do a lot of work. Now that the honey bee is facing new parasites and other challenges, pollination is at risk.
Another attribute of diverse systems is resilience. When things do go wrong or conditions change, diverse systems commonly bounce back quicker. Let’s looks at the steps growers can take to help restore and maintain biodiversity.
STEP 1
Plan for biodiversity during land conversion. Research has revealed that loss of diverse lands is likely one of the big drivers of biodiversity loss. We can tell this by using land cover maps to understand large patterns of habitat change. One clear pattern is that most (if not all) of the high-quality arable land is already in use, and in some areas, there is not much undeveloped land left to expand or we will be farming in wetlands, lakes, rivers or deserts.
Habitat loss has become a strain on biodiversity because plant and animal species simply do not have places to live. Land-use analysis tells us that planning of any new land for conversion should also plan for providing permanent, non-cropping areas for buffering between waterways and other fields. These areas can be wetlands, stream edges, etc. The current rule of thumb, which requires a lot more study, is that 20% of land should be in non-cropping areas such as native forests and diverse wildflowers to buffer areas and provide food and shelter for biodiversity to prosper.
STEP 2
Grow fields with off-season cover crops to provide resources for aboveground and belowground diversity.During winter, when crop vegetation is dormant, habitat may be lacking in very large stretches of farmland. This means that valuable pollinators, parasitoids and predators have nowhere to dwell so they must rebuild their populations from scratch every year. Growing more green material builds a healthy insect and microbial community (which breaks down organic matter, brings nitrogen into the soil and improves soil structure). However, a soil left bare rapidly breaks down last season’s plant roots and releases carbon to the atmosphere instead of storing carbon and nitrogen for the next season. This results in a loss of valuable components of the nutrient cycle.
Cover crops and mixed plantings can diversify production.
The good news is that there are some simple, cost-effective ways to retain and build biodiversity aboveground and belowground. Cover crops (either single or mixed species) bring nitrogen and carbon into the soil and hold soil in place to reduce nutrient loss and erosion. They also provide habitat and food for species during times when the major crops are not growing in the field. Cover crops are an inexpensive solution to building soil organic matter, soil structure, and to feeding the invisible biodiversity of microbial (fungi, bacteria and algae) life.
Researchers are just beginning to understand the complexity and dependency of the soil microbial community on cropping systems. Microbial life is incredibly diverse and very small. Biodiversity in soils can reduce vulnerability to extreme weather and to insect and pathogen attack by boosting plant defenses.
Step 3
SNAP to it! An acronym coined by Steve Wratten at Lincoln University in New Zealand is SNAP — provide shelter, nectar, alternative food and pollen. Habitat planning and restoring native habitat to agricultural landscapes can achieve SNAP conservation goals for the future of sustainable food and fiber production and help maintain valuable ecosystem services we depend on. Loss of habitat is a significant driver of biodiversity loss, so habitat management will help restore and sustain biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.
So, what can we do? Practice integrated pest management and use pesticides only when there is evidence that they are needed (i.e., if scouting has shown the number of pests is over a harmful threshold). Practice crop rotation, diversify production with multiple crops, maintain permanent plantings of flowering plants in marginal areas of the field, and improve forest edges and buffers between agricultural land and waterways.
Let’s SNAP our farms into rich, biodiverse lands to stimulate natural regulation of our food and fiber production ecosystems and to further agroecosystem tourism.
Jason Schmidt is an associate professor, Carmen Blubaugh is an assistant professor, and William Snyder is a professor — all at the University of Georgia.
Dead and dying strawberry plants with Neopestalotiopsis (image from Shane Curry; Appling County Cooperative Extension Service).
The strawberry disease that has ravaged crops in Florida and Georgia has now been attributed to two nursery sources.
According to the University of Georgia Extension strawberry blog, a nursery in Canada received plants from a North Carolina nursery, which is the source of the pathogen related to Neopestalotiopsis Fruit Rot. Phil Brannen, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Fruit Disease Specialist, said the Canadian nursery has been identified as a source of spread through transplants this year and has had difficulty cleaning up its operation.
“For next year and moving forward, Georgia strawberry producers need to make sure that nursery sources do not have any connection to this pathogen. Once it is in a field, there is no evidence to date that we can get rid of it. It will reside in old residue or weeds in and around the field,” Brannen said in the blog. “The best thing to do is to keep it far away from your strawberry operation.”
How Bad is it?
Just how bad can this disease get? Just ask Tifton, Georgia farmer Bill Brim. His entire strawberry operation of 12 acres was wiped out because of Neopestalotiopsis Fruit Rot. Brim was not alone this year. Brannen said the disease devastated multiple strawberry farms in Georgia.
Thiram and Switch are the only fungicides that have efficacy against this organism, though their activity is not 100%. The pathogen can reside in a field from season to season. It speaks to the importance of growers keeping it out of their fields altogether.
Growers can remove spotted leaves, starting in the fall, and destroy them outside the field. This should be done when plants are dry to prevent further spread of the disease and infection through these activities.
Producers need to rotate to another site for production next year if possible. This is if farmers had a problem with the disease this year.
Industry leaders took exception to the notion that consumers prefer Mexican produce over what’s grown in the United States and that has contributed to the domestic market decline for both commodities. Florida Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried was asked about the quality of her state’s vegetable and specialty crops.
“Of course, I’m going to be a little bit biased here. The state of Florida produces some of the best in the country as far as our agricultural products,” Fried said. “Everything from our cucumbers and squash to our blueberries, strawberries and specialty crops, tomatoes. We are the best in the country.”
What the Opposition Says
Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, claimed that “U.S. farmers not having enough labor.” That contributes to a quality disadvantage for American producers.
“Perishable products such as cucumbers and squash are labor intensive crops, particularly for the harvesting and packing. Without adequate labor, southeast growers are at severe disadvantage in how they grow and pack. Their products result in a distinct quality disadvantage that U.S. retail customers clearly recognize,” Jungmeyer said.
Others point to the fact that Mexico is dumping produce or bringing vegetables into the United States and selling it at a fraction of the cost of an American farmer’s load.
Those are the reasons Southeast producers point to as why they can’t compete against Mexico.
The legislative session in Florida provides opportunities for farmers to voice their concerns on what programs need funding. The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (FFVA) encouraged its producers to contact senators and representatives about the need to fully fund the Fresh From Florida program at $10.05 million.
“Appropriate funding for the Fresh From Florida program is incredibly important. We understand there are difficult decisions to be made with the state budget this year and deeply appreciate the positive steps the budget conference committee has already taken to appropriate funds. That said, fully funding the program means Fresh From Florida can increase its reach and impact, providing Florida farmers with even more resources to market their products to a national and global audience,” FFVA president Mike Joyner said.
The program helps market products for Florida’s 47,000 agricultural producers.
Mike Joyner
The “Fresh From Florida” logo is displayed on product packaging and signage. Only members of the Florida Agricultural Promotional Campaign are able to utilize the logo. It associates the members’ products with Florida agriculture’s worldwide image of excellence.
“With a $22 return on investment for every $1 invested, the Fresh From Florida program has generated $130 million in additional cash receipts and has reached over 60 million consumers annually through retail partnership programs. The difference is substantial, and our grower members would not be able to establish this level of engagement with national retail buyers or consumers outside of Florida without the program,” Joyner said.
With that said, it is up to the growers to inform their legislators about the difference this program has made.
“When our members engage, policymakers get to hear straight from the men and women who see firsthand how effective the program is in marketing support. After a devastating year for so many amidst the pandemic and with increased pressure from the supply of foreign products – most notably from Mexico, growers need every tool available to remain competitive in the global marketplace and help raise awareness about the importance of supporting local farmers and buying Florida-grown fruits and vegetables. Never has that message been more important,” Joyner said.
Florida’s legislative session will end on April 30.
Georgia blueberry growers overwhelmingly voted to extend the assessment of $5 per ton of marketed blueberries for an additional three years. The extension was passed with nearly 82% of the eligible ballots returned with a ‘yes’ vote. The balloting period for the market order was conducted from March 1-30, 2021.
The Georgia Agriculture Commodity Commission for Blueberries utilizes funds for blueberry research, education and promotional projects. The Georgia Blueberry Commission has been actively supporting efforts to encourage the Federal Trade Commission to investigate trade practices of other countries for dumping blueberries into the U.S. market.
The Commission was established by the Georgia State Legislature in 2008 and has continued to support important projects for Georgia blueberry growers, with most of the funds committed to research projects on fertility, variety evaluation, insects, disease management and weed control.
A crop that already has its annual challenges is struggling to overcome its latest obstacle.
Strawberry with Neopestalotiopsis spot and pepper-like fruiting structures in spot (photo provided by Ansuya Jogi; University of Georgia Plant Pathology Department) .
Florida strawberry farmer Dustin Grooms confirmed that Neopestalotiopsis Fruit Rot has provided uncertainty for the future of the industry in Florida.
“I do feel like this year was amplified a little bit more with that new disease because normally you can come out there with something to spray on it and you can maintain it,” Grooms said. “Overall, we don’t know what’s going to happen next year. It’s on the back of everybody’s minds right now.”
Worse Over Time
The disease has progressively gotten worse since it was first discovered on five farms during the 2018-19 season. It was attributed to one nursery source in North Carolina. The disease is quickly expanding across Florida and has moved northward. It even wiped out one Georgia farmer’s 12 acres this year.
Grooms said he spent more money to hand-prune plants to remove leaves while also applying additional sprays to keep the plants healthy.
“We had a real bad flareup industry wide after a rain. It flared up pretty much on the whole industry there,” Grooms said. “We battled it and battled it. Some blocks were worse. Why? Who knows?”
Grooms’ challenging season also included continued competition against early-season imports that suppressed market prices. Grooms also sprayed the most he’s ever sprayed for chili thrips and spider mites which wasn’t enough in some instances.
“It takes a lot of money right now to be a Florida strawberry farmer. The risks are getting moreso every single day. I’m 39, my dad is 74. That’s a long road ahead to get to 74 where he’s at,” Grooms said. “I’m sure I’m going to see a lot more problems than this disease. But we’re going to put our best foot forward and just try to adapt and overcome, that’s all we can do.
“The price did end up going back up, and it’s actually really high right now for the month of April. We were able to maintain a handful of blocks. It wasn’t enough to offset the low production of the year. The X and Y axis didn’t cross there good. Tough season, a lot of problems. We’ll just have to try it again next year and see what happens. No two years are alike.”
