****************************************************** August 2015 Upcoming Events Citrus Expo 2015 Florida Fall Peach Seminar FireWall T 50 WP Receives Section 18 for Citrus Canker Food Safety Plan Workshop: “Building Your Own Farm’s Food Safety Manual” Time for Blueberry Nutrition Tune-up Florida Pomegranate Association 2015 Annual Meeting New Machine Designed to Steam Treat Citrus Trees Demonstrated at the Thermotherapy Field Day CHMA Map of the Month Central Florida and Fruit Crops Update 1 1 Upcoming Events August 19-20 Citrus Expo at the Lee Civic Center in Ft. Myers September 16-18 int. Citrus & Beverage Conference at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach September 17 2015 Florida Fall Peach Seminar at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm October 6 Food Safety Plan Workshop: “Building Your Own Farm’s Food Safety Manual” at the UF/IFAS Extension—Lake County Office in Tavares October 8 Florida Blueberry Growers’ Association Fall Seminar at the Trinkle Center in Plant City October 20-22 Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA October 25 Florida Pomegranate Association 2015 Annual Meeting at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred October 30 Farm Safety Day at the UF/IFAS Extension—Lake County Office in Tavares November 10 Commercial Blueberry Workshop at the UF/IFAS Extension—Lake County Office in Tavares November 24 Citrus Irrigation Field Day at the Mid Florida Citrus Foundation in Avalon December 1 Winter Weather School at the UF/IFAS Extension—Lake County Office in Tavares
Commercial blueberry fields should have put on a significant amount of
growth since post-harvest pruning a few months ago. This is a good time of year to consider checking the nutritional status of your field as we
prepare to enter the fall.
Having an adequate nutritional status in your blueberry plants prior to entering dormancy is important. Deciduous plants such as blueberry utilize
nutrient reserves in the stems to get off to a good start in the spring.
Taking a soil sample to test pH is a good idea in case application of an amendment to lower pH is required. One of the most common soil
amendments to lower pH is the application of elemental sulfur. If your soil test result indicates the need for pH lowering (pH value over 5.2 or so) and
if elemental sulfur is applied in the next few weeks, there will be sufficient
warm temperatures to support the microbial activity responsible for converting elemental sulfur to compounds that actually reduce pH.
Results of a tissue sample will provide the levels of important macro,
secondary and micro nutrients in the leaves. Even though the time for ending application of macro nutrients in fertilizer for this growing season is
rapidly approaching, a tissue test result indicating deficiencies in particular nutrients can be a guide for designing your fertility plan going into the
spring.
Soil or tissue samples should be taken from a sampling unit of similar soils, irrigation management and plant age typically not exceeding 10 acres. You
should stop in 15-20 different sites in the sampling unit and take enough soil cores and/or youngest fully expanded leaves to yield approximately 2
cups of cores and/or 100 leaves from the sampling unit.
It is important to take tissue samples as long as possible after application
of foliar sprays to avoid skewing the results. Also, no matter how long you take a tissue sample after a foliar application, it is a good idea to lightly
wash the leaves with a flowing distilled water to remove spray residues that may persist on the leaf tissue and dry before shipping.
Information on collecting, handling and submitting tissue samples to the
UF/IFAS Extension Soil Testing lab follow the link below:
New Machine Designed to Steam Treat Citrus Trees Demonstrated
at the Thermotherapy Field Day
On Thursday, July 9, 2015, nearly 50 central Florida citrus growers gathered for the UF/IFAS Thermotherapy Field Day held at Whittaker
Groves in Grand island, near Eustis, FL.
Grove owner, Mr. Cliff Whittaker, was a gracious host for the field day as he gave great detail on their work
with both steam and solar thermotherapy for trees infected
with HLB. Mr. Whittaker mentioned that there is a lot of
good things to see in the grove right now but that the true test of
the thermotherapy work will be
seen in March, when there is a harvestable crop on the trees that
does not drop prematurely. Watch future newsletters and e-
mail notifications, as we plan to hold another field day during that
time.
In the middle picture, UF/IFAS Researcher, Dr. Reza Ehsani,
discussed how his work with thermotherapy has lead to the
development of his latest machine to treat citrus trees with steam
featured in the bottom picture.
In initial tests of this prototype,
Dr. Ehsani was shooting for a temperature above 130° F. Dr.
Ehsani and his team continue to evaluate this concept in
commercial groves. If you are interested, please contact me and
I will forward your request.
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, Dr. Nick Place, Director, in cooperation with the
United States Department of Agriculture, publishes this information to further the purpose of the May 8 and June 30, 1914 Acts of Congress; and is authorized to provide research, educational
information, and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation,
marital status, national origin, political opinions, or affiliations. Single copies of extension publications (excluding 4-H and youth publications) are available free to Florida residents from
county extension offices. Information about alternate formats is available from IFAS Communication Services, University of Florida, PO Box 110810, Gainesville, FL 32611-0810.
CHMA Map of the Month
The map below is for the Green Swamp CHMA through July 17. Psyllid populations have
increased throughout. In depth interpretation of these results can be obtained by logging
in to the CHMA Sectional Mapping Program on the CHMA Website Main Page:
Central Florida Citruslines and Fruit Crops Update is published 6 times a year by the Central Florida Fruit Crops Advisory Committee and Central Florida Fruit Crops Extension Program: Gary K. England—Multi-county Extension Agent III [email protected] (352) 343-4101 Ext. 2729
