Category: Florida

Nursery Value Select Growers Need to Make Insurance Decisions Soon

Tallahassee, Fla. — The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (USDA RMA) remind Florida Nursery Value Select growers that the final date to apply for crop insurance coverage for the 2022 crop year is May 1. Current policyholders who wish to adjust their existing coverage also have until the May 1, 2021 sales closing date to do so.

Growers applying for the first time may purchase coverage at any time.

“As Florida’s nursery growers continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, we thank our federal partners for making available resources to protect their livelihoods and help their agricultural businesses thrive,” said Commissioner Nikki Fried. “We encourage our nursery growers to get informed and take advantage of this coverage before the deadline.”

Federal crop insurance is critical to the farm safety net. It helps producers and owners manage revenue risks and strengthens the rural economy. Coverage is available for Nursery Value Select growers in select Florida counties. Please contact your insurance agent to see if your county is covered.

More information on nursery crop insurance is available at RMA’s Nursery Policy Web Page.

Growers are encouraged to visit their crop insurance agent soon to learn specific details for the 2022 crop year. RMA is authorizing additional flexibilities due to coronavirus while continuing to support producers, working through Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs) to deliver services, including processing policies, claims and agreements.

More information can be found at farmers.gov/coronavirus.

University of Florida/IFAS research hopes to yield a new crop for Florida producers.

Though it is not likely to be ready for farmers for years, coffee is a potential commodity that the state’s growers could utilize one day.

“It’s really outside the box. Often times we’ll start researching a crop, but growers have already started trying to produce it. This one is likely to be farther off into the future because coffee requires those low temperatures for good quality. It’s going to take a bigger lift to identify varietals that would produce good quality in Florida,” said Diane Rowland, chair of the agronomy department and UF/IFAS’ research lead on the project. “It may even become a controlled condition production where maybe we’re in greenhouses or we’re in hoop houses. There’s so many questions on the table. That’s what makes this one particular challenging.”

One pleasant surprise in this project that is still in its infancy is how quickly the plant flowers.

“We brought it into the greenhouse and started to see that it flower, and it produced very, very quickly. That was a surprise. Normally it would take a couple of years in the field for it to become established and to start to produce,” Rowland said. “Almost immediately we saw flowering and some production of berries. That led to the option of exploring, would it be economically feasible under controlled agricultural conditions? That’s one of the questions we’re going to start to explore.”

Unique Plant

Coffee is a unique plant in that it needs temperatures that are low enough but not too low. If it is hit with a frost, it will die. The research team is growing Arabica coffee. It is the most commonly grown variety around the world and the most valuable one on the market.

UF/IFAS is also utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) in its research. Researchers are using minirhizotrons, or clear plastic tubes with tiny cameras inside. These devices are placed underground to record images of the plants’ roots.

“The roots are essential for water and nutrient uptake. The more we understand about where the roots are in the soil, that helps us determine part of the health of the plant itself. The way this camera is set up, we can go back and look at the same place on the roots over time. Normally you would have to dig up, collect soil cores or whatever, to get the roots out,” Rowland said. “This is non-destructive, so we can go back to the same root and see if it’s still alive.”

Another Potential Crop?

One of the main reasons for pursuing a research project like this is it could provide Florida producers another tool in the cropping toolbox. With a climate conducive to various crops, growers like to have options to choose from when deciding what to plant every year.

“I think it’s part of the benefit and part of the detriment of living in Florida. We’ve got these great growing conditions which makes a lot of crops possible. But we also have a lot of issues we have to deal with, from invasive species to diseases to insects. We’ve got climate change. We’ve got changing rainfall patterns, storms, all of those things,” Rowland said. “It makes it important for us to have a diversified agricultural system, too. It’s more sustainable, certainly more economically sustainable for a producer. I think our goal in IFAS is to make sure we provide as many as those opportunities that we can.”

It’s been a “good year, not a great year,” for Florida’s vegetable and specialty crop producers.

Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (FFVA) President Mike Joyner uttered those words last week. He believes the main reason for the season not being a total success has been market prices.

“I spoke to a blueberry grower (last week). They’re coming in about a week later than they’d hoped. You know those (market) windows matter. He’s a little bit concerned because he’s a week behind, and Mexico’s bringing in about a million pounds a day right now. He’s a little concerned, but that remains to be seen,” Joiner said. “Unfortunately, for strawberry growers, Mexico came in a big way. The feedback that I’ve gotten from that industry is, it was an okay year, not a great year.

“I’m not seeing any product being left in the field. Yields are good. I think the issue is just the prices. (Producers are) just not getting a premium price right now for it.”

Florida’s vegetable and specialty crop sector could have used a profitable year following last season that was upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Growers couldn’t sell a lot of produce because of the closures to restaurants and schools.

But the hard times felt last year didn’t impact the amount of acreage devoted to both vegetables and specialty crops this year, however.

“I think when they were ordering seed and inputs in August, they ordered the same that they had ordered the year before. Obviously, restaurants are opening back up. So much of what we do in Florida goes to the food service industry. I think (farmers) will tell you, they’re not back where they were pre-pandemic, but they’ll tell you that products are moving,” Joiner said.

Lack of Fumigation a Concern for Growers This Production Season?

Excessive winter rains threw a monkey wrench into the plans of some Southeast vegetable producers. Farmers were sidelined at a time when they needed to be in the fields applying fumigation and laying plastic.

Now, in a race against time to get their plants in the ground and meet their market window, some growers are bypassing the fumigation option altogether. Will they regret it later in the fight against such pests as nematodes and sedge weeds?

Knowing Their Fields

Josh Freeman, an associate professor in Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida/IFAS, believes those farmers’ success may come down to how well they know their fields and make the necessary adjustments throughout the season.

“If you eliminate fumigation, that’s just one less tool in the toolbox to work with. It’s like, well I’m growing tomatoes and I’ve got these herbicides at my disposal so maybe I can manage my sedge. I’m not going to double crop this plastic. That’s where growers have got to start,” Freeman said. “They may, if they’re in a pinch, and especially in South Georgia where it’s a double or triple crop situation and they’ve got some marginal nutsedge density, it could be a problem, depending on what their first crop is, especially if their first crop’s pepper.”

Freeman said there is not a good post-emergence herbicide to control sedges in pepper.

“That population is going to build over 110, 120 days. Then their second crop of whatever they put in, cucurbit wise, it’s going to be subjected to that pressure,” Freeman said. “If they know what their primary yield-limiting factor is in that field, there may not be an issue. If it’s a single crop of tomato and they’ve got some nematodes in the field… we’ve got some post-plant drip applied nematicides.

“It’s just what they know they’re facing. The beauty of fumigants is they cover all those bases and give those plants a really good head start on a lot of pests.”

What is Fumigation?

Fumigation is a necessary component of vegetable production in how it controls nematodes, diseases and weeds.

It is usually applied under plastic about 21 days before planting starts. However, with excessive rainfall, growers were late in applying plastic this year.

“It is impressive. That’s their value. They’re broad spectrum. They cover a lot of their bases with a single application prior to the season starting,” Freeman said.

In order for growers to not be delayed by applying fumigation – the gas needs to exit the soil before a plant is produced – many producers are foregoing the option and taking their chances with alternative management strategies.