Some livestock, pets and even children occasionally nibble on poisonous plants, presenting a potential pitfall to the animals and youth. Now, a new, free app designed by UF/IFAS researchers and Extension faculty helps you identify toxic plants. Not only is this the first app to identify strictly Florida plants, it’s also the first to distinguish between toxic weeds. “This app …
White Strawberry One of Two New UF/IFAS Varieties Ready for Harvest Season
December 1, 2020 By: Brad Buck, 813-757-2224, bradbuck@ufl.edu, 352-875-2641 (cell) BALM, Fla. — A white strawberry? Not red? Yes, you “read” that right. And it smells a little like a pineapple. It’s also novel in that it’s the first white strawberry to go to market in the United States. Just in time for the west-central Florida strawberry harvesting season, which …
UF Still Calculating Damages Following Eta
The University of Florida Food and Resource Economics Department estimates between $85 million and $320 million in agricultural losses and damages stemming from Tropical Storm Eta. Christa Court, assistant professor of regional economics, said the storm’s timing was significant since it impacted Florida’s vegetable crops two weeks before Thanksgiving. “I know that we grow a lot of the vegetables and …
Popular UF/IFAS Vegetable Gardening Guide Available in Spanish and as an App
November 10, 2020 By: Brad Buck, 813-757-2224, bradbuck@ufl.edu 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 …
UF/IFAS Extension Farm Labor Education Program Online in English, Spanish
By: Lourdes Rodriguez, 954-577-6363 office, 954-242-8439 mobile, rodriguezl@ufl.edu FLORIDA. – The fall crop season is underway in Florida and over the next few months, an increase in the farmworker population will help plant, maintain, and harvest our crops in the Sunshine State. Agriculture is an essential industry where farmworker safety is paramount to the successes underlying timely and efficient crop production activities. …
New Blueberry Variety Honors Benefactor, UF Alumnus Alto Straughn
October 29, 2020 By: Brad Buck, bradbuck@ufl.edu 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 …
Tomato Juice with UF/IFAS-Bred Garden Gem Pleases Palates
October 21, 2020 By: Brad Buck, bradbuck@ufl.edu Florida-grown tomatoes – particularly the UF/IFAS-bred Garden Gem – pack a tasty punch for tomato juice, new University of Florida research shows. By and large, the biggest market for Florida tomatoes remains food services. They’re not generally harvested for processed products, such as juice, paste and more. But they’re still fresh, whole tomatoes. …
UF Scientists Make Big Stride Toward Greening-Resistant Citrus Trees
By: Brad Buck, 813-757-2224, bradbuck@ufl.edu University of Florida scientists achieved a major milestone in their quest to develop a citrus greening-resistant tree by sequencing the genome of a fruit plant that’s a close cousin to citrus trees. You’d need to print 54,000 pages of copy paper to see the complete genome sequence. But within it, scientists believe they’ve found genes …
Jamie Ellis, Director of UF/IFAS Honey Bee Lab, Wins National Excellence in Extension Award
By: Samantha Murray, grenrosa@ufl.edu, 949-735-1076 Recognizing visionary leadership and diversity in educational programming, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Cooperative Extension, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) announced that Jamie Ellis of the University of Florida will receive the 2020 Excellence in Extension Award. USDA-NIFA and Cooperative Extension have sponsored …
New AI Technology ‘Agroview’ Named UF Invention of the Year
September 23, 2020 By: Brad Buck, 813-757-2224, bradbuck@ufl.edu Yiannis Ampatzidis and his research team combined their collective minds to find the artificial intelligence technology to best help farmers save money and better care for their crops. Out of that process, they invented a system known as Agroview. The system utilizes images from drones and satellites and from the ground – …