Entomologist Lauren Diepenbrock is seeking Florida citrus growers’ help in determining information gaps and future directions for her research on pests. To get that help, she’s asking growers to participate in a survey, which is available here.
Diepenbrock
Diepenbrock, a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher, would like to have growers take the survey by March 31, 2021. The survey should take 15 minutes or less to complete. The anonymous survey begins with questions about what counties growers farm in, what varieties they are growing, and the pests that have been problems for them during various times in the past. It also asks about insecticide and miticide use history with relation to Asian citrus psyllid establishment and frequency of sprays. In addition, the survey aims to determine what growers believe are the top five priorities for pest management research.
“Since arriving at the CREC (Citrus Research and Education Center) in 2018, I have had the pleasure of interacting with many of you,” Diepenbrock states. “From these interactions and reading through my predecessors’ work, I’ve come to realize that we have some large gaps in information which we need to better understand changes over the past two decades of insect and mite management in citrus.”
“I just hope that people will take the time to provide this information,” Diepenbrock says. “I want to both do research that is interesting to me and to meet the needs of our growers.”
Asked what pests already concern her, Diepenbrock responds, “Well this is part of what I want to learn. Obviously ACP (Asian citrus psyllid), CLM (citrus leafminer) and lebbeck mealybugs come up a lot, but we’ve seen some pests popping up that haven’t been problematic for decades, like woolly whitefly. So I’m hoping to learn if these are a huge concern for growers or not.”
“Grower information is critical to identify the information gaps and help determine future directions of research in my program,” Diepenbrock adds. “My goal is to always provide useful, research-driven data to our growers, and their input enables this.”
She plans to share the survey results in future webinars and industry publications.
The Florida Citrus Hall of Fame will induct four new members in 2021. They are John L. Jackson of Sorrento, Florida; the late Lew J. Prosser of Plant City, Florida; Adam H. Putnam of Memphis, Tennessee; and Steven D. “Steve” Sorrells of Arcadia, Florida. They will be inducted during a luncheon tentatively scheduled for Nov. 5 at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. The luncheon is normally held in March but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
JOHN JACKSON Jackson was inducted into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame last year and was a county Extension agent (professor) for almost 40 years before heading up the Florida Citrus Industry Research Coordinating Council. The council determined citrus industry research priorities and projects.
Jackson
Jackson was responsible for such innovations as Florida’s Automated Weather Network and Water Conserv II, encouraging citrus producers to use reclaimed water for irrigation. He established the Mid-Florida Citrus Foundation (MFCF) as the research arm of the effort and served as the MFCF manager for more than 20 years. Jackson is the only Extension agent in Florida ever to have been recognized twice with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s distinguished Award of Superior Service: one for his work with reclaimed water, the other for his work with FAWN.
Some of Jackson’s other noteworthy accomplishments include the establishment of an annual equipment operator’s school, now known as Farm Safety Day; the Central Florida 4-H Citrus Project, which over a 20-year period engaged more than 2,000 middle and high school students in agriculture; and grower meetings for citrus producers.
He was a member of the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame for more than 40 years, serving as chairman from 2006 to 2019. He led the organization from near-bankruptcy to a partnership with Florida Southern College that now has an endowment of more than $300,000. The endowment helps preserve and promote the heritage of the Florida citrus industry through an engaged learning program with fellowship students.
LEW PROSSER Prosser, who lived from 1899 to 1996, began his career in citrus in 1921, working for R.W. Burch Inc. and eventually assuming ownership in 1928. Two years later, he had become the third largest independent citrus shipper in Florida. He created the first farm production credit association in the Plant City area, sponsored by a forerunner to the Federal Production Credit Association.
He organized the first and only citrus canning plant in the area, Citrus Products Co., and created the Florida Mixed Car Company, which specialized in marketing mixed carlot shipments of citrus and produce on one rail car. He underwrote a case against the Interstate Commerce Commission in the mid-1930s that resulted in significant relief for produce growers and shippers by requiring express companies to provide full refrigerated car service for produce at reduced rates. The landmark ruling resulted in increased shipments of produce from Plant City, eventually paving the way for the state’s largest farmers’ market.
Prosser traveled extensively with A.F. Camp to research citrus production practices in other countries, which resulted in the development of two patents that became widely used throughout the state. One patent was for the use of the trisodium phosphate bath, which retarded decay and eliminated the need for individually wrapping each piece of fruit. The other patent was for a color-added process to improve fruit appearance. Prosser was the author of “Early History of the Produce Industry in Plant City.”
ADAM PUTNAM Putnam is a fifth-generation Floridian and third-generation farmer whose public service career began in the Florida House of Representatives from 1996 to 2000. He was then elected to the United States House of Representatives for five terms. He served as the Florida commissioner of agriculture from 2011 to 2019. During his tenure, he assisted and coordinated virtually every political aspect of the Florida citrus industry’s needs to preserve and protect the industry. He helped to obtain much needed funding to combat a variety of problems over the years, such as canker, hurricanes and citrus greening.
Putnam
Putnam has provided leadership on food safety laws, water issues, government transparency and the preservation of the Florida Everglades. He created the Fresh from Florida campaign to raise awareness and access to fresh fruits and vegetables from Florida. His efforts in maintaining international market access for Florida citrus trade helped keep export markets viable. His leadership in recovery efforts after the hurricanes in 2004 helped farmers get back on their feet.
Currently the CEO of Ducks Unlimited, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, Putnam owns Putnam Groves Inc., a family-owned and operated citrus farm and cattle ranch located in Central Florida.
STEVE SORRELLS Sorrells grew a family citrus business from 400 acres in 1972 to its current production of 5,500 acres. One of his biggest contributions to the industry was being the first grower to utilize the U.S. Department of Labor’s H-2A visa program to obtain labor to harvest citrus more than 20 years ago. He helped promote the program to other growers and to make it a common practice that has modernized the industry’s labor force and state regulations.
Sorrells has served on numerous industry boards and organizations and is the only two-time president of Florida Citrus Mutual, where he led the industry through the tariff and anti-dumping battles with Brazil. Sorrells chaired the Citrus Tariff Oversight Committee, which directed the industry strategy on how to preserve the tariff on imported orange juice while also making sure that exporters were playing by the rules. An innovator in production, Sorrells served as chairman of the original Florida Citrus Production Research Advisory Council and has embraced new technology and practices in rehabilitating groves. A 20-year member of the board for Orange Growers Marketing Association, he has helped maintain that group’s position as Florida’s Natural Growers’ largest fruit supplier.
EVENT TICKETS Tickets to the Hall of Fame luncheon, which is co-sponsored by Florida Citrus Mutual and the Florida Department of Citrus, are $100 for patron seating or $1,500 for a sponsor table, which includes preferred seating for eight. The event will be followed by the Florida Citrus Processors’ Association’s OJ Meet & Greet with the inductees.
A portion of the proceeds from all ticket sales will go to fund an educational outreach program to help promote the history of the Florida citrus industry. More information is available from Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Executive Director Brenda Eubanks Burnette at 561-351-4314.
Citrus fruit on trees in orange groves. Photo taken 06-22-18.
(UF/IFAS) — University of Florida citrus researchers continue to be sought out as partners in ground-breaking research projects to fight Huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening disease.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), recently awarded nearly $4.5 million in grants to UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences faculty to find novel ways to fight the disease.
But UF/IFAS researchers are serving leadership roles in four other multi-million-dollar grants awarded to colleague institutions from across the nation. Collectively, these projects provide an aggressive, integrative strategy to finding sustainable solutions in the fight against citrus greening.
Cultural and Genetic Approaches
Ute Albrecht, amdas Kanissery and Sarah Strauss, assistant professors at the UF/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) are working with University of California-Riverside on a $10 million grant to examine root decline associated with HLB-affected trees.
UF/IFAS will receive $2,240,000 over five years. Strauss, Albrecht and Kanissery will conduct large-scale field trials, working with Florida commercial citrus growers to explore the efficacy of using cover crops and soil amendments and the interaction with rootstock to improve soil and root health in newly planted and established groves. The project will also examine the impact of cultural practices like herbicide application on soil health and tree productivity.
Evaluation, Validation of Novel, HLB-Resistant or Tolerant Citrus Hybrid Scion Cultivars
Ute Albrecht and Zhengfei Guan, an associate professor at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center will work with University of California-Riverside, Texas A&M, and Washington State University, and USDA ARS on a $4.6 million project to test and deliver novel, HLB resistant/tolerant, non-transgenic, and commercially acceptable citrus scion cultivars to citrus industries. The scion cultivars will be tested in field trials, working with commercial citrus growers, to assess HLB resistance/tolerance and whether they produce fruit with acceptable fruit quality.
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)– Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP)therapeutic molecule evaluation and field delivery pipeline for solutions to HLB
Lorenzo Rossi, an assistant professor at the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC), and Jawwad Quershi, an assistant professor at UF/IFAS SWFREC, will collaborate with the USDA ARS on a $9,380,000, multi-state grant, examining different ways to deliver therapeutic growing methods to citrus growers. Rossi will manage greenhouse and field studies aimed to evaluate HLB-therapeutic molecules’ effects on root and plant physiology, with the final goal to identify the most cost-effective strategy to deliver these molecules to growers. Qureshi will lead UF’s outreach efforts with growers and the other institutions involved in the project. UF/IFAS will receive $1,334,252 over five years for this work.
The lead institution is the USDA ARS located in Fort Pierce, FL and the project involves several USDA ARS facilities (Ithaca NY, Wapato WA, Albany CA, and Dawson GA), as well as, public institutions: Indian River State College in Florida, the University of Florida and the University of California, and private companies in California and Florida.
This project has also been designated as a Center of Excellence. The designation means the technology used in the project has the potential to transform rural agriculture, advances technologies for therapeutic molecule production beyond control of citrus greening to diseases in other crops, humans and other animals, coordinates activities across several national citrus greening research programs and will include community participation in evaluation of HLB therapeutics.
UF Glow variety of citrus. University of Florida photo taken 11-17-17
By: Ruth Borger, 517-803-7631, rborger@ufl.edu
LAKE ALFRED, Fla. — University of Florida (UF) researchers hope to discover new methods to help citrus growers fight the deadly citrus greening (or Huanglongbing) disease with cost effective, long-term sustainable treatments with the support of recently awarded federal grants.
Three teams of scientists from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences received nearly $4.5 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture funds to study new ways to manage the invasive insect causing millions of damage to Florida’s citrus crops.
“These grants build on an existing portfolio of success in finding solutions to combat citrus greening throughout Florida’s citrus groves,” said Michael Rogers, director of UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center and coordinator of the UF/IFAS statewide citrus program. “They will contribute to the solutions we are providing that support citrus growers in sustainably and profitably growing citrus throughout the state.”
Managing the Asian Citrus Psyllid With Environment in Mind
Bryony Bonning, eminent scholar and professor in entomology and nematology, leads a team from Gainesville and the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Florida in a project that uses a bacteria-derived pesticidal protein combined with gene silencing to manage the invasive Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) population. The long-term goal of the proposed work is to create an environmentally benign approach for citrus growers to control ACP that works within an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy. The project intends to identify the optimal components for an ACP control product for grower use.
The grant project aims to: 1) optimize ACP-active proteins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that suppress psyllid populations; 2) further develop genetic solutions that would disrupt ACP; and 3) screen for the best combination of these methods for use against ACP. On completion of this project, researchers will be well positioned to produce transgenic citrus and/or trap plants that will suppress ACP populations for use by citrus growers.
This method of effective vector control, combined with other measures, will help the citrus industry in Florida rebound, and protect the industries in California and Texas. The results of this research are anticipated to reduce the need for tree removal and replanting as well as reduce insecticide applications and increase yields and fruit quality, contributing to the long-term profitability and sustainability of U.S. citrus production.
Attacking Citrus Greening From Inside Out
Amit Levy, assistant professor of plant pathology, received a NIFA grant to examine how the Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) bacteria interacts with a narrow tissue – known as the phloem – which is buried inside the stem of the citrus tree. CLas resides in and plugs the phloem in the stem of the citrus tree, leading to inhibition of sugar and nutrient transport into the tree’s sink tissues, including the fruit.
Eliminating these plugs can presumably result in renewed sugar transport and increased fruit yields.
However, there is a significant gap in understanding CLas-phloem interactions in citrus, which has been a major limiting factor for controlling the disease. Levy and a team of UF/IFAS researchers and Sainsbury lab and Cornell University scientists plan to address these challenges with a novel seed coat-based system that supports in-depth analyses of phloem dynamics and CLas-phloem interactions in HLB-affected citrus. The project will identify key players required for phloem plugging, host immune response and CLas colonization inside the phloem. These key players can later become novel targets for manipulation with gene editing techniques that can be translated into usable products, such as transgene-free CRISPR/Cas9 edited plants to block the disease propagation and movement, and increase sugar and nutrient translocation into fruit thus increasing tolerance or resistance to HLB.
A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for HLB-Infected Trees
Huanglongbing (HLB)-resistant or tolerant citrus trees are the long-term solution for citrus greening disease. Existing research has generated transgenic citrus lines that provide robust tolerance to HLB. These transgenic lines are already in field tests as a potential management possibility for HLB. However, these trees will have to go through an extensive approval process before being made available to growers.
A research team led by UF/IFAS microbiology and cell science professor Zhonglin Mou and faculty from the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center and UF/IFAS Southwest Research and Education Center are working to speed up this process by reproducing the greening resistant or tolerant genetic makeup in non-transgenetically modified plants by gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9. This is a better long-term approach but will take time.
The primary goal of this project is to develop an interim treatment for HLB. The project hopes to turn off the genes that negatively control the citrus immune system and result in disease symptoms in citrus when exposed to disease-causing pathogens. Coupled with other work to target the HLB-causing bacterium itself, the overall goal is to develop new management strategies making citrus varieties highly tolerant to this disease. The project will use a vector derived from citrus tristeza virus(CTV) to remove negative regulation of the citrus immune system, leading to improved immune response and HLB tolerance. The same CTV vector will also deliver antimicrobial peptides to reduce HLB pathogens.
The synergism between the immune system-provided tolerance and the antimicrobial peptide-mediated pathogen reduction is expected to provide effective control of the HLB disease. Importantly, CTV naturally occurs in the field and does not make genetic changes to the citrus genome, and thus the employed strategy is a non-transgenic approach.
Beep. Beep. Beep. That’s the sound of the alert, telling a citrus grower it’s time to spray fungicide to help prevent fruit from falling off the tree.
When the new fruit fall off a citrus tree, post-bloom fruit drop (PFD) can cause major losses for citrus growers. Infection of flowering citrus by the fungus that causes PFD can lead to crop loss of up to 80%, although losses are seldom that high, UF/IFAS researchers say.
In the battle against PFD, UF/IFAS scientists have developed the Citrus Advisory System (CAS), which sends web-based alerts to citrus farmers via mobile devices. That way, growers can tell when to spray their trees with fungicide.
“We believe that CAS represents an important contribution to help the citrus industry in Florida increase resource-use efficiency, reduce costs and increase profitability,” said Clyde Fraisse, a UF/IFAS professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the main campus in Gainesville, who led new research to develop and test the system.
In newly published research, Fraisse, his lab members and faculty colleagues tested CAS over three years at farms in Polk County. Among those who helped Fraisse with the research were Megan Dewdney, an associate professor of plant pathology at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center and Natalia Peres, a plant pathology professor at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.
CAS, available at http://agroclimate.org/tools/cas, uses real-time weather data from stations with the Florida Automated Weather Network, which are scattered throughout the state. The data determine whether risk for PFD is low (green), moderate (yellow) or high (red). Specific fungicide spray recommendations are given according to the disease-risk conditions. If desired, notifications can be sent via SMS or e-mail for an alert to check the system.
Prior to CAS, there were two forecasting models for post-bloom fruit drop, Dewdney said. The most recent was the PFD-Fungicide Application Decision (PFD-FAD), which was developed as part of Peres’ Ph.D. dissertation about 20 years ago. Growers found PFD-FAD too complicated to use regularly since the weather information was not automated and it required grower input to determine if the fungus was present.
“In the new CAS, we consider the fungus to be present at all times and the weather data input is automated, so the system is simpler to use,” Dewdney said. “We also have newer models for how leaf wetness and temperature affect spore germination. They’re incorporated into the system to help predict when infection is likely to happen or has occurred. Combined with a more modern, simple interface, this will hopefully allow growers to use CAS regularly. During our last outbreaks, many growers were applying weekly fungicide applications, whether they were needed or not.”
CAS mirrors the Strawberry Advisory System (SAS), developed by Fraisse and Peres several years ago. SAS also sends web-based alerts to growers, so they know when to spray for diseases like anthracnose. Until scientists developed that system, strawberry growers sprayed for the fungus on a calendar-basis; for example, every other week, whether the fungus was there or not.
Peres said it’s important to note that anthracnose and citrus post-bloom fruit drop are both caused by the same fungus, Colletotrichum acutatum.
Just like the Strawberry Advisory System, “CAS aims to take the guesswork out of whether an infection occurred or not,” Dewdney said. “Some growers are already using CAS and have been happy with the outcomes.”
“You can use the system now, and we encourage it,” she said. “We are still confirming the accuracy of the predictions, but it is still better than just a weekly application.”
The system is already available in Brazil, where it’s been tested extensively.
Fred Gmitter is seen at a research farm at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, Florida. He’s looking over a Flying Dragon trifoliate orange, a special trifoliate orange because of its curved stems and thorns. As a rootstock, it behaves a bit differently from other trifoliate oranges because it results in dwarfed trees.
University of Florida scientists achieved a major milestone in their quest to develop a citrus greening-resistant tree by sequencing the genome of a fruit plant that’s a close cousin to citrus trees.
You’d need to print 54,000 pages of copy paper to see the complete genome sequence. But within it, scientists believe they’ve found genes to lay the groundwork to make citrus more tolerant and even resistant to certain diseases, including citrus greening.
UF/IFAS researchers sequenced the genome from trifoliate orange, in collaboration with scientists from the University of California at Berkeley, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute and UF’s Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research. The new genome will help those who breed new citrus trees that will survive under today’s challenging conditions, including invasive pests, viruses and changing climates. Their research provides a powerful new tool to control the deadly consequences of the greening disease, which has severely damaged the state’s multibillion dollar-a-year citrus industry.
“Very importantly, trifoliate orange and its hybrids have genes that can confer high tolerance to citrus greening and resistance to the Asian citrus psyllid, the insect that transmits greening to citrus,” said Zhanao Deng, a senior author on the new UF/IFAS-led study. “This genome can be used as a reference template to sequence widely used trifoliate orange hybrid rootstock varieties.”
“Most people – even citrus growers – rarely see trifoliate orange. This is because they usually are the rootstock part of the tree, mostly underground,” said Fred Gmitter, a UF/IFAS professor of citrus breeding genetics and a co-author on the study.
Trifoliate oranges or their hybrids are grown at nurseries, and farmers use them as rootstock to grow the citrus that’s above ground. Trifoliate orange and its hybrids were used as the rootstock for more than three million citrus trees in Florida alone in 2018-2019, UF/IFAS researchers say.
Trifoliate orange and its hybrid rootstocks accounted for 82% of the top 20 rootstocks used in the 2018-2019 citrus propagation cycle in Florida.
“Our trifoliate orange genome will allow scientists to develop new tools that can more speedily transfer beneficial genes into sweet oranges, grapefruit and breeding of new scion cultivars, which grow above the ground,” Deng said.
“Releasing the first trifoliate orange genome can be valuable for our citrus gene-editing efforts,” Gmitter said. Scientists are using gene editing to produce canker-resistant and greening-tolerant citrus.
“Because of our high-quality genome, re-sequencing of trifoliate orange hybrid rootstock varieties will be much easier, much quicker and much more cost-efficient,” said Deng. “Re-sequencing will enable development of new breeding tools, such as DNA marker-based selection, genomic selection of new rootstock varieties with resistance and tolerance to citrus greening, citrus tristeza virus and citrus nematodes. The new varieties might give higher yield and fruit quality.”
Citrus breeders want to introduce desirable genes from trifoliate orange into sweet orange, grapefruit and other varieties. It took decades to produce the first citrus scion variety (‘Sun Dragon’) from crossing trifoliate orange and transferring some of its genes across multiple generations into sweet orange. With this new information from genome sequencing, that timeline can be dramatically reduced.
This project was funded by two grants from the Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) and a grant from the USDA/NIFA Citrus Disease Research and Extension (CDRE) program.
Citrus production in Georgia is rapidly increasing each year. There are citrus plantings in backyards, production, and plant nurseries within at least 32 GA counties. The growth of citrus in Georgia is only expected to increase over time. However, there are some threats to expansion.
Citrus has many viroids, a tiny virus-like pathogen, that harm the plants throughout the world, but few have been found on citrus within Georgia. Hop stunt viroid (HSVd) is one of several viroids known to infect citrus. This viroid has been reported within Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, Washington state, and throughout the world. HSVd is typically transferred from plant to plant on contaminated grafting and pruning tools. HSVd can infect many different plants, including hops, grapevines and citrus. A large host range helps the pathogen spread.
In the United States, HSVd has been found on many different grapefruit, orange and tangelo varieties. Symptoms include discolored and gumming inner bark, pitting (small holes) in stems, bark splitting (coming apart) and stunted growth. There are typically not leaf or fruit symptoms. Some citrus varieties are resistant to HSVd, but others, including tangerines and their hybrids will show damage. There are also different types of HSVd, called cachexia and non-cachexia variants. “Cachexia” means severe chronic illness, so the cachexia variants are much more dangerous and the noncachexia variants typically do not cause damage.
In May and June of 2020, leaf samples were collected and tested for HSVd. The samples were collected from 12 different citrus plants from two nurseries located in southern Georgia. The cultivars sampled included Citrus reticulata ‘Dekopon’ and ‘Owari’ as well as Citrus unshiu ‘Miho Wase’ and ‘Brown Select’. The sampled trees looked relatively healthy with little or no signs of damage, but were selected for routine screening. Three to five leaves were taken per plant from throughout the leaf canopy.
Small pieces of leaves were cut and used for RNA extraction. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequencing was used to verify infection with HSVd. Recombinase-polymerase-amplification (RPA) technology was also used to further confirm positive samples as HSVd. Nine samples were negative for HSVd, but the other three were positive. The positive samples were all taken from Citrus reticulata ‘Dekopon’. The sequencing results revealed that the positive samples were non-cachexia HSVd variants.
This is the first time HSVd has been found in Georgia. This and other viroids could pose a threat to the growing citrus industry within Georgia in susceptible varieties.
Currently, only noncachexia variants have been found, but nursery stock infected with this viroid should still be destroyed to prevent spread. Georgia nursery producers and citrus growers should take appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of this viroid disease. Ensure that proper sanitization is used on citrus grafting and pruning tools. Further research is needed to determine the distribution of HSVd and its potential to impact commercial citrus production in Georgia.
LAKE ALFRED, Fla. — While the coronavirus pandemic has changed much of the University of Florida citrus programming, one annual tradition continues, albeit with some changes. The 2020-2021 UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Citrus Production Guide is now available to growers, just as it has in years past.
The difference is that growers usually would have the first chance to pick up their copy at the annual Citrus Expo held in Fort Myers. With that show going virtual because of the pandemic, distribution plans for the guide have been adjusted.
What is the same is the publication which includes the latest technical advice on citrus greening disease, tree nutrition, grove management and other aspects of Florida citrus cultivation. The 264-page document is a comprehensive reference meant to assist growers in development and management of citrus groves in Florida, said Lauren Diepenbrock, a UF/IFAS entomology assistant professor and a member of the guide’s editorial team.
Topics covered in the guide include planting, irrigation, fertilization, weed control, insect management and disease management, she said. It was previously known as the Florida Citrus Pest Management Guide, but the name was changed a few years ago, after the content was expanded, she said. About 50 UF/IFAS personnel contributed to the latest edition.
“Each year, we update the guide with new information as it becomes available, so that we can continue to meet the needs of our growers as we learn about and/or develop new tools and strategies for citrus production,” Diepenbrock said.
Hard copies of the guide are now available at local UF/IFAS Extension county offices (please see chart)
While Extension offices are open, it is always best to email or call the agent ahead of time to check that the office is open and ensure that they have the guides waiting for you. For a directory of citrus agents, visit http://citrusagents.ifas.ufl.edu/locate/index.shtml.
The 2020 Citrus Expo and Vegetable & Specialty Crop (VSC) Expo will be held Wednesday and Thursday, August 19-20. Due to COVID-19, this year’s event has transitioned to a virtual format, but growers can still get the same great Expo experience they are accustomed to.
Both the citrus and VSC seminar programs will debut online at CitrusExpo.net at 9:30 a.m. Eastern both mornings. Attendees will be able to view videos of the research presentations from their computers or cell phones. Those who attend the seminars as they debut online will be eligible to win one of four $200 gift cards from Bass Pro Shops.
One of the most anticipated features of the event will also be held virtually, as the trade show will take place. You can connect online with vendors to find every imaginable product or service your operation could ever need. Growers will be able to visit the online exhibitor corner to view videos from suppliers and obtain information about their latest products. There will be 15 premier exhibitors in the lineup with links to forms that growers can fill out. Growers who visit at least five premier booths and fill out the forms will be entered to win a $100 Bass Pro Shops gift card.
The exhibitor corner will also debut online at 9:30 a.m. EDT at CitrusExpo.net on Aug. 19–20 along with both the citrus and VSC seminar programs. But while the seminar programs will be available throughout the end of the year, the exhibitor corner will only be offered Wednesday and Thursday, so don’t miss out. AgNet Media would like to extend a special thanks to the exhibiting vendors and sponsoring companies who are investing in the event and the Expo attendees.
With more than one generation working side by side on the farm, there are situations that can be tricky to navigate at times. However, it’s important to take the time to look at things through another person’s vantage point and consider how to cater to the strengths of each generation to better the farming operation.
The most recent and concluding session of the six-part professional development webinar series by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) discusses effective strategies to navigate generational differences in agriculture and natural resource industries. (Another webinar in the series addressed mental health in agriculture; see more here.)
As of 2016, five generations — traditionalists, baby boomers, Generation X, millennials and Generation Z — were working side by side.
Megan Stein
“Research indicates that as people are becoming older, they are no longer retiring at the same age as they had in previous generations,” says Megan Stein, a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication for UF/IFAS and host of the webinar.
Working with multiple generations can be difficult. Generations are influenced by key events that took place as they were developing as children into adulthood. Social, political and economic differences as well as education and values all play a significant role in generations.
Generation Z, generally recognized as being born from 1997 to 2012, may play an interesting role as it relates to agriculture and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
As COVID-19 caused a shutdown across the state of Florida around mid-March and early April, this was the time that a lot of Florida’s spring crops were ready for harvest.
“For the first time in recent memory, there was a real challenge with the supply chain. We had the supply, we had the demand from people who were purchasing extreme volume of these items. However, there wasn’t the ability to get the product from the agriculturalist to the consumer through normal supply chain channels,” Stein says.
Because of this, many growers chose to sell directly to consumers or donate their produce. As mentioned in the webinar, Gen Z responds extremely well to socially conscious missions, meaning they tend to patronize and support companies that align with their values or that they perceive as socially responsible.
As the older members of Gen Z are solidifying their buying habits, experts have seen that Gen Z has responded greatly to the ability to connect with producers and the agricultural industry and learn more about the industry during COVID-19 times.
“As Generation Z takes up more of the buying power in our country, it will be interesting to see how that influence directly impacts them,” Stein says.
To learn more about the differences in generations and how to effectively navigate those differences, click here to watch the webinar.
Ashley Robinson, AgNet Media communications intern, wrote this article.
