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Sponsored Student jprocjram VEGETABLE AND REPRODUCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF HERAPLOID AND TETRAPLOID BLUEBERRY CULTIVARS IN NORTH FLORIDA Keif Wade Citrus Institute The selection of the blueberry cultivar should meet the Florida Southern College attainable chilling requirements for the area and the harvest Lakeland, Florida 33801 dates should be in late April to early May for the higher prices. Florida blueberries can be shipped to the Northern U.S. Blueberries are being planted in Florida at a fast pace. markets and to Europe. To date, the price of the blueberries Today, Florida has in excess of 20,000 acres of blueberries. range from $4 to $8 per pound. Each plant could yield up to Key elements which dictate what type of blueberry bush 8 pounds with possibly 1,000 plants per planted acre. to plant are soil type, chill-hour requirements and maturity Harvesting is very important. Without mechanical harvest dates. Blueberries should be planted in soils preferably with ing the berries must be harvested by hand. It was suggested pH levels ranging between 5.5-6. They require a slightly moist that the Plant City area could be a desirable area for blueber soil, and often need irrigation as many other Florida plants do. ries since the harvesting time would follow the strawberry crop. NATIVE PLANTS THAT ATTRACT FLORIDA WILDLIFE John Halgrim Citrus Institute the proper native plants can help offset this. Native plants Florida Southern College provide a wide range of food* and cover that meet wildlife Lakeland, Florida 33801 needs. The University of Florida's IFAS (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences) will provide information you need to Gardening for wildlife is enjoyable and environmentally up-date your landscaping. The more native trees and shrubs beneficial. With the huge amount of land being lost to urban you use, the greater the variety of wildlife that will be at development, it has become increasingly important to land tracted. A small well-designed area can provide food and scape in a manner that promotes Florida wildlife. Florida's habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. Wildlife is our greatest wildlife habitat is constantly decreasing. Landscaping with resource, we should do everything in our power to preserve it. DECISIONS BETWEEN FRESH AND PROCESSED MARKETS Clay Chancey fresh fruit pest control programs normally are higher in cost Citrus Institute than processed. The main question is whether the exterior Florida Southern College quality needed for fresh fruit can be reached economically. Lakeland, FL 33801 The pound solids the fruit must reach in recent years should be considered, because if it is high in pound solids, it could In this paper R. P. Muraro, G. F. Fairchild, and R. M. Behr be more profitable to sell for the processed market. In addition discussed the outlook of Florida citrus in the near future: (a) projected fruit prices for the year are important because if Florida citrus crops will be larger, (b) there will continue to prices are low more returns may be achieved from the fresh be competition from Brazil, and (c) there is still the uncertainty market. as to how the Mexican Free-Trade Agreement will effect the The future for the Florida citrus industry is very promising industry. For these reasons, Florida growers must improve their but it is going to require some planning and hard work. Foreign marketing skills to help increase returns on investments. competitors are getting stronger, and more effort at marketing The decision between selling the fruit for the fresh or the "Florida citrus" will be needed on a global scale to compete. processed market is difficult. The grower needs to decide prior Finally, the growers will need to start paying less attention to the season if they will try to produce fruit for the fresh to obtaining maximum yields and more attention to producing market. Many factors must be studied to make this decision. an excellent product and marketing it for the maximum profit The cost differential in pest control programs is important since possible. Proc. Fla. State Hort. Soc. 104: 1991. 383 ROOTSTOCKS FOR THE TAHITI LIME Mark Thompson Citrus Institute Florida Southern College In general, the limited research that has been done Lakeland, Florida 33801 suggests that macrophylla, rough lemon, sour orange, and volkamer lemon tend to produce good quality trees with good There has been an increase in the production of the 'Tahiti' production. Rootstocks of Key lime produced a very poor quality or 'Persian' lime in many tropical areas of the world. Because fruit. Marcottage also has produced good quality trees, but of this, many growers are faced with limited resources for can be susceptible to hurricane damage due to a less developed production of this fruit. root system. Rootstocks for this lime have been tested minimally. Much Macrophylla has shown a preference to calcareous soils research is still needed to determine which rootstocks are best that are prominent in many parts of South Florida and the for certain soil conditions, tree vigor and production. It also is Caribbean. Sour orange prefers a soil with a higher pH than fitting to mention that Carl W. Campbell knew of no research macrophylla. Once again we see that there is no ideal concerned with rootstocks for limes and their affect on fruit rootstock, and your location will determine which stock you size and quality. choose. ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF CITRUS IRRIGATION Robert Winfree look at irrigation from an economic standpoint. The grower Citrus Institute needs to know at what point his yield is at a maximum and Florida Southern College his cost is at a minimum. After this point the yield decrease Lakeland, Florida 33801 and costs increase. If the dollar increase from added irrigation is not substantially higher than the cost of the irrigation, then With all the restrictions that are being placed on water the grower has exceeded his minimum cost. use, it is important for the grower to know how much water It is essential to know the water requirements of your he should apply in order to get a maximum yield. It was found planting. Although water requirements may vary from season that at a certain point, the yield increase per unit of water to season, a good median range can be established to use as begins to decrease. With this in mind it becomes necessary to a base line. EVALUATION OF THIRTEEN NAVEL ORANGE CULTIVARS UNDER SCAFFORD BRANCH IRRIGATION FREEZE PROTECTION DURING THE 1989 FREEZE Mark J. Neitzke Citrus Institute the 13 navel orange cultivars were planted with a scaffold Florida Southern College branch irrigation freeze protection system before the 1989 Lakeland, Florida 33801 freeze. The results were amazing, considering the temperature was 0° C or lower for 80 consecutive hours. The over-all tree The paper which I found most interesting was the study regeneration percentage on the average was 85.2% of the involving thirteen navel orange cultivars. The experiment took original tree volume prior to the freeze. place at the Citrus Research Station in Louisiana. The project This experiment is very important in finding a cold hardy was established in the following manner: 2- 5 year trees of cultivar for present and future use. WINTER OVERSEEDING TRIALS ON FAIRWAY AND PUTTING GREEN BERMUDAGRASS Charles Pons Citrus Institute prepared properlly by mowing, verti-cutting, and topdressing. Florida Southern College The cool-season grass seeds were sown in October 1990 and Lakeland, Florida 33801 evaluated through May 1991. The results showed that most of the grasses, especially the As weather conditions become cooler, bermudagrass be perennial ryegrasses, performed on an equal level. Some of comes dormant and browns, so golf courses must overseed the bluegrasses and bentgrasses did not fare as well. These with cool-season grasses. This trial was to see if there was a results show that most commercially sold perennial ryegrasses difference in the performance from thirty-eight cool-season can be used to overseed fairways and putting greens at golf grasses offered commercially. The fairways and greens were courses during the Florida winter months. 384 Proc. Fla. State Hort. Soc. 104: 1991. OBSERVATIONS ON CITRUS IRRIGATION AND FREEZE PROTECTION Morris Griffith monitoring system consisted of flow meters and water level Citrus Institute recorders at the pump-in and pump-out stations to measure Florida Southern College water retention efficiency. The report indicated a 25%-70% Lakeland, FL 33801 + efficiency rate depending on the soil conditions and water movement efficiency throughout different areas of the grove. Larry Parsons and Ron Muraro reported on the economic Other reports in this section evaluated different methods impact of irrigating citrus. Their data indicated that irrigation of freeze protection for citrus. J. Mart so If and H. Hannah ob of a citrus grove can improve yields but the cost of operation served different levels of protection on young citrus trees on and maintenance of such systems may not be justified. The the University of Florida campus after the February 1991 ad- report also indicated the price of fruit and the increase in vective freeze. They observed the differences between in-tree yields needed to justify such costs. placement and under-tree placement of the emitter. Their re Brian Bowman studied the efficiency of using flood irriga port indicated that in-tree placement resulted in more limb tion on flatwood soil in the Indian River area. Flood irrigation breakage due to ice loading. Some variations in ice loading (pumping water onto the grove to fill the water furrows and were observed due to spray pattern and tree canopy differ then removing it before damaging the root system) was used ences. Initial results indicate better freeze protection when and monitored on a 960-acre grove over a 2-year period.