Citrus Research and Field Trials (CRAFT) Program Year One

Citrus Research and Field Trials (CRAFT) Program Year One

Report Date: 04/13/2020
Project: 19-029C   Year: 2020
Category: Horticultural & Management
Author: Kristen Carlson
Sponsor: Citrus Research and Development Foundation

The contract executed between CRAFT and CRDF was effective November 6, 2019. The first invoices for payment from CRAFT to CRDF were sent to CRDF after March 31st, which was the end of the first full quarter since execution. Therefore, there was no Quarterly report for the Quarter October 1-December 30th, however deliverables during that period will be reported herein. CRAFT PARTICIPATION APPLICATION PROCESS: The CRAFT Technical Working Group, USDA/ARS and CRAFT staff were all involved with preparing the CRAFT application content for the online application experience. The application period was open to Florida citrus growers from September 20-October 15, 2019. CRAFT received 43 applications representing 2,046 acres, including 1618 acres for solid set plantings and 428 acres for reset plantings. The geographic distribution represented 16 counties and all citrus-producing regions in Florida. PROJECT SELECTION & DEVELOPMENT:After review of all projects submitted and the coincidence of application numbers correlating to the goal of 2,000 program acres, with good distribution by variety and project size, it was determined by the Technical Working Group that all of the projects could be accepted, dependent upon satisfactory development of experimental design, and be within the budget allocation by CRDF to CRAFT of $2 Million.Based upon the projects presented, grower participants were organized within subgroups of similar projects (for purposes of replication) and assigned a group leader to help develop  the project design. The groups are as follows:1.         Rootstock/Scion2.         Soil/Tree Fertility3.         Pest Management4.         Biostimulants5.         ResetsAll of the applications approved for grower contract finalization during the reporting period are available upon request. The contracts finalized and included in this report for completion of the deliverables are as follows: 1.         19_001R: Polk County, 40 Acres, Resets Group, Planted December 2019 Factor Tested: Individual Plant Covers on orange in combination with other practices 2.         19_003R: Polk County, 40 Acres, Resets Group, Planted January 2020 Factor Tested: Individual Plant Covers on orange in combination with other practices 3.         19_004R: Indian River County, 40 Acres, Resets Group, Planted January 2020 Factor tested:  Individual Plant Covers on Red Grapefruit in combination with other practices 4.         19_015S: Hardee County, 20 Acres, Soil/Tree Fertility Group, Planted November-December 2019 Factor Tested  – High and Low rates of specified inputs compared to standard practice        5.         19_022S: DeSoto County, 100 Acres, Rootstock/Scion Group, Planted January 2020 Factor tested Four selections ( UFR 4, US896, US1281 and UFR 6 budded on same Valencia clone) Pre-audits of each project are used to confirm the planting of trees and compliance with contract to date. The project designs for each contract are also available upon request. As of March 31, 2020, 29 applications representing 1,493 acres have been approved by the CRAFT Board of Directors and are finalizing contracts and planting. At this time the initial data for the first quarterly report has been collected for the five CRAFT participant contracts/projects above on the USDA portal, which is still under construction. The portion of the USDA portal that is completed is that for the grower supplied data. The data from growers is expected to be entered in real time or at least quarterly. The data portal will include a separate entry point for data/ measurements from third party partners (such as FDACS/DPI) and has not been finalized.  Data entered by participants and third parties for each project will be visible initially by the growers for their individual projects.  Data with actual production inputs by growers is expected for the first five projects prior to the next quarterly report.In addition to execution of contracts and commencement of projects, CRAFT staff conducted numerous industry information sessions and communications outreach events. Communications include articles in multiple industry and general publications; the design of the CRAFT website (craftfdn.org); public meetings of the Technical Working Group and Board of Directors; public workshops; and more. A full list of communications efforts is available upon request.   


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