vegetable gardening guide

Popular UF/IFAS Vegetable Gardening Guide now Available in Spanish

Dan Industry News Release, Research, Vegetables

(UF/IFAS) — With COVID-19 lingering, it might be a good time to use your green thumb to grow some vegetables in your garden. While you’re at it, you can get help from the UF/IFAS Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide — now also in Spanish — and as a downloadable web app. Because we’re nearing the holidays, let’s look at some vegetables you …

blueberry variety

New Blueberry Variety Honors Benefactor and UF Alumnus Alto Straughn

Dan Florida, Fruits, Industry News Release, Research, Specialty Crops

(UF/IFAS) — When Patricio Muñoz developed the University of Florida’s newest blueberry variety, he wanted to name the fruit in honor of Alto Straughn, a longtime, strong supporter of UF’s blueberry breeding program. Muñoz decided to call the new variety the ‘Sentinel.’ “A ‘sentinel’ is a watcher or guardian,” said Muñoz, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of horticultural sciences. “It is …

soil covid

UF Plant and Soil Diagnostic Labs Essential to Florida Agriculture, Economy During COVID-19

Dan Florida, Industry News Release, Research, Soil

(UF/IFAS) — In the time of COVID-19, plants still get sick, and the soil that nourishes them needs care. The health of plants and soil is critical to agriculture, an industry designated an essential service in response to the pandemic. That’s why, when many American universities have transitioned to online-only and their employees adapt to working from home, scientists at …

soil covid

UF Plant and Soil Diagnostic Labs Essential to Florida Agriculture, Economy During COVID-19

Dan Florida, Industry News Release, Research

(UF/IFAS) — In the time of COVID-19, plants still get sick, and the soil that nourishes them needs care. The health of plants and soil is critical to agriculture, an industry designated an essential service in response to the pandemic. That’s why today, when many American universities have transitioned to online-only and their employees adapt to working from home, scientists …

hemp

Hemp, Hops and More Crops Highlight Florida Ag Expo

Dan Field Crops, Florida, Fruits, Hemp, Industry News Release, Nursery Crops, Research, Specialty Crops, Vegetables

BALM, FL (UF/IFAS) — Farmers, nursery managers and others can get a glimpse of the latest and greatest UF/IFAS research into tomatoes, strawberries, hemp, hops and ornamental plants at the annual Florida Ag Expo at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center. Informative sessions will fill the day, with events running from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Nov. 21, …

avocado

UAV-based Remote Sensing Can Help Avocado Growers by Detecting Asymptomatic Pathogen

Dan Florida, Fruits, Research

Remote imaging can effectively detect a pathogen that endangers the $100 million-a-year Florida avocado industry – even before the trees show symptoms — University of Florida scientists say. Yiannis Ampatzidis, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, led recently published research that shows that multispectral cameras can detect laurel wilt …

roundup

No Flowers? No Problem. UF Study Shows Bees Have Other Ways of Finding Sugar

Dan Florida, Research

What’s a bee to do when there are very few flowers available and it needs a sugar fix? Wild bees may be responding to climate change and urban expansion by relying on insects to get the sweet stuff, according to a study by Joan Meiners, a Ph.D. student at the University of Florida IFAS School of Natural Resources and Environment. …

Repellant Could Keep Dangerous Beetles Away From Avocado Trees

Dan Florida, Industry News Release

By: Brad Buck, University of Florida/IFAS Using some pleasant-smelling chemicals, avocado growers may soon be able to repel beetles that inject a potentially deadly fungus into their trees, saving fruit and money, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers say. When they’re infected with the laurel wilt fungus, redbay trees – a close cousin to the avocado …