Plant Improvement Specialist to Ensure New Citrus Varieties Have Best Traits

Many citrus growers want to replant their groves that are withering because of greening. But they need field data to know which varieties to plant.

Gathering that information takes time. As a rule, though, it takes 15 to 20 years to develop a new citrus variety and get data on how it will perform in the field before it is released for public sale, said Michael Rogers, director of the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC).

“With citrus greening putting pressure on growers, UF/IFAS has been urged to release new varieties sooner rather than later, and oftentimes we don’t have data from replicated field trials in different growing areas of the state to help support the planting decisions when some of the new varieties are being released,” he said.

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