Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Research”
By Ruby Tiwari and Ramdas Kanissery Yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) and purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus) are perennial weeds that resemble grass. They commonly appear in raised bed vegetable plasticulture systems every year. These weeds spread and reproduce through rhizomes, bulbs and small tubers called nutlets. Just one tuber can generate hundreds of shoots, forming a dense patch that can span …
Two research grants will help improve domestic hemp production in the future. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research’s (FFAR) Hemp Research Consortium provided two grants totaling $1.17 million to Cornell University to support a breeding program aimed at cultivating hemp for grain, fiber and CBD production in U.S. growing regions. Consortium partners contributed matching funds for a total investment …
A team of researchers from the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) is partnering with colleagues from Texas A&M University to find more effective production practices for organic onion growers in the southern United States where short-day onions — those that bulb with 11 to 12 hours of sunlight each day — are primarily grown. …
By Gerardo H. Nunez Long gone are the days when blueberries were a seasonal product. Nowadays, blueberries are available at the grocery store year-round thanks to innovations in plant breeding and a flood of imported fruit. This is changing the scenario for blueberry growers in the Southeast. Suddenly, growing fruit for the early spring market is not enough. The market …
By Clint Thompson One University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researcher is using artificial intelligence (AI) to apply herbicides more efficiently. Nathan Boyd’s research will help growers to not make chemical applications where they are not needed. “We use artificial intelligence that we’ve trained to differentiate. You could train it to differentiate species. We’ve decided that’s …
By Clint Thompson The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Mid-Florida Research and Education Center (MREC) has a new director, and it is a win for Florida’s ornamental horticulture industry. Rob Gilbert, interim senior vice president at UF/IFAS, talked about the appointment of Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski, previously the associate center director at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education …
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) reached a new record for fiscal year 2023 with more than $300 million in research expenditures. This number is up 8% from last year’s $278 million. UF/IFAS is the second-largest contributor to UF’s record-breaking $1.25 billion in research spending for fiscal year 2023, a nearly 15% increase from 2022. …
The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA), a national coalition of more than 200 specialty crop organizations representing growers of fruits, vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, nursery plants and other products, endorsed legislation that would address major priorities tied to research, nutrition and trade laid out in the group’s 2023 Farm Bill recommendations: “The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance has …
Matthew Mattia recently provided an overview of work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) transgenic test site in Fort Pierce. Transgenic refers to an organism that contains genetic material into which DNA from an unrelated organism has been artificially introduced. Scientists at the Picos Farm screen transgenics for suppression of citrus Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), the bacteria that causes …
By Clint Thompson Florida strawberry growers are on the brink of planting this season’s crop. One University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) expert is cautioning producers about disease control. One disease specifically comes to mind, says Natalia Peres, professor of plant pathology at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center. “I think Neopestalotiopsis is still …
