Field variety trials are a simple but effective tool to test plant horticultural performance under different environmental conditions and enhance the commercial adoption of new cultivars. Large-scale, rapid implementation of HLB-tolerant cultivars depends on reliable data, and the Millennium Block project is addressing the need of establishing field plantings to generate regional, updated information for the Indian River Citrus District.
The project has mainly two objectives: (i) Assess performance of new grapefruit cultivars with certain rootstocks under HLB endemic conditions in the IR district and (ii) ) Evaluate the influence of UFR and other recent rootstocks on grapefruit, navel, and mandarin in the IR in comparison to legacy or standard rootstocks. We are in the process of planting four independent studies at the UF/IFAS IRREC as outlined ion the grant.
We already planted approximately 3,600 trees and are awaiting for the remaining trees to become available from the nursery. Our Accomplishments were recently highlighted at CBS12.com (https://cbs12.com/news/local/largest-citrus-greening-grapefruit-experiment-starts-in-fort-pierce) and at the Citrus Industry (http://citrusindustry.net/2019/10/01/new-grapefruit-rootstock-scion-experiment/?fbclid=IwAR0LTWTZDfLcXoxx6jFn7RiRanJLIfXKdfV6IMQn1GJdi_EfR4XZN72mLMo).
We conducted a comprehensive soil testing for the fertilization assessment, and hired an agricultural field assistant. A local, domestic student was not identified. The PI opened the search for any student available at the HOS Department.
I am going to postpone the HLB leaf diagnostic in a few months due to the limited amount of biomass available from the young trees.