The mandarin hybrid — a mix of the sweet Clementine and the colorful, bell-shaped Minneola — has a rich taste and strong aroma, said UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences plant breeder Fred Gmitter.

The new sweet-tart fruit may be best described as a mandarin with a tangy punch.

“Many old-timers in citrus have said this is the best-tasting citrus they’ve ever had,” Gmitter said.

The fruit, which has a patent pending and is also known as LB8-9, has been in the works since 1985.

Mark McLellan, IFAS’ dean for research, said he believes the time that went into breeding this variety will be worthwhile.

“Sugar Belle is positioned in a unique market window, and its flavor characteristics are expected to make this variety a consumer favorite,” he said. “We’re very excited to offer it on behalf of the university.”

Recently, Florida Foundation Seed Producers Inc., a direct support organization of UF, awarded an exclusive U.S. license to the New Varieties Development and Management Corporation.

Funded by the Florida Citrus Commission, the not-for-profit corporation was set up in 2005
to help assure Florida growers access to new patented citrus varieties, manage new varieties and direct resources to citrus breeding research.

The corporation was granted the exclusive license for the fruit through the university’s Invitation to Negotiate process, designed to benefit everyone from IFAS to citrus growers.

“It’s becoming more common for grower-backed organizations to help monitor the markets for growers and ensure that everyone has a chance to be successful,” said John Beuttenmuller, the intellectual property and licensing director for Florida Foundation Seed Producers, which led the ITN process.

In that process, a company is selected to deliver new cultivars to the public. In return, the company pays royalties back to the Florida Foundation Seed Producers and the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, to be reinvested in breeding and development programs.

Sugar Belle is a unique variety, said the corporation’s executive director, Peter Chaires. He believes it will make a big splash in the $52 million specialty citrus market.

Chaires describes its flavor almost like one would describe a fine wine.

“It has a flavor that takes it to the top of the show wherever it goes. It’s got a very, very deep flavor,” he said. “I don’t want to say it’s rich, but it’s a very deep, complex flavor.”

Despite strong ties to the citrus industry, UF has never before released a citrus cultivar developed solely by its scientists — likely because citrus breeding is an excruciatingly slow endeavor. The average time for new citrus — from creation to its commercial release — can be up to 20 years.

And in this case, what became the UF’s inaugural citrus variety could just as easily have been plowed under.

Gmitter, who arrived at UF’s Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred as an assistant professor in 1985, was a young plant breeder desperate for citrus trees to work with. After locating a small tract of trees left by a retired professor, Gmitter went for a look.

“I went out in early November of my first year … This one tree had beautiful, bright orange fruit. The best citrus I’d ever eaten in my life,” Gmitter said. Those trees were used to create his new cultivar.

UF officials hope Sugar Belle will be as lucky when it comes to reaching consumers — which could be as early as this year, in some markets.

The fruit matures early, so it should be a good fit for the December holiday market, Chaires said. It can be grown in a manner to produce low-seeded fruit. And with his organization keeping tabs on how the fruit fares in groves and the economics of the citrus market, he believes the new fruit has the potential to be a big hit.

“Every time we’ve tested it with different groups, it’s been wildly popular,” he said.

Oysters are typically considered safest to eat in cooler months (September through April) because the shellfish-infecting bacteria in the genus Vibrio flourish best in warm temperatures.

Even in the “r” months, slurping an oyster opens some people to infection from these bacteria, which can cause fever, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea and has even led to finger amputation when it’s given a chance to penetrate a cut or skin lesion.

However, a new quick and inexpensive diagnostic test developed by DuPont Qualicon and refined by UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences could make weeding out pathogen-loaded oysters much more practical and efficient. Oysters are a $14 million industry in the Sunshine State, according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The test is based on a technology dubbed “quantitative polymerase chain reaction,” or QPCR diagnostics. Given a small sampling of oyster, shrimp or ahi tuna, the system tracks genetic material found in three harmful species of Vibrio by amplifying their DNA into large amounts that are easily detected.

This is the first time this technology could be used in detecting pathogens in seafood on an industrial scale. So, after initially developing the basic lab-bench test, DuPont turned to UF to prepare it for commercial use and regulatory approval.

“Whether you have raw oysters or if you’re trying to validate some sort of treatment method, the old way of testing these bacteria in oysters just isn’t very practical because it’s pricy and takes about a week,” said Anita Wright, a UF food science professor whose Florida Sea Grant work is validating and expanding applications of the new test for seafood processing and research purposes.

This USDA-funded research evaluates treatments such as freezing, high pressure, irradiation, or mild heating, and is funded by the Florida Gulf Coast Oyster Industry Council.

Wright will present findings from her work at the Oct. 17-23 biennial meeting of the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, followed by a workshop to demonstrate the methodology. Her findings will also be published in the next issue of the American Organization of Analytical Chemists.

The ISSC is a shellfish regulatory cooperation that will determine if the test is reliable enough to be used industrywide. If approved, the test could be an especially big boon for oyster harvesters in the Gulf of Mexico, the source of a third of all U.S. oysters.

Warmer water temperatures and factors such as pollution make Vibrio species a major concern for Gulf-harvested shellfish. Forty percent or more of Gulf oysters carry these pathogens in the “non-r” months, according to the FDA.

“We finally have our irrigation recommendations for establishing shrubs backed up with science. We need less irrigation than many people think,” said Ed Gilman, a UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences environmental horticulture professor who led the research study.

The six-year study’s objective was to determine how best to irrigate shrubs during “establishment” — the 20- to 28-week period when shrubs’ roots grow until the plant can survive without irrigation.

The research examined irrigation frequency and volume on the quality, survival and growth rates of three-gallon, container-grown shrubs. Plants were examined in Fort Lauderdale, Balm, Apopka and Citra, locations that span three water management districts in Florida and have varied growing conditions.

Some of the state’s most popular ornamental shrubs were evaluated, including both native and non-native species, such as yaupon holly and gardenia.

“One of the results that we noted was that there are no differences between native and non-native species for amount of water required for establishment, “Gilman said. “This often surprises people, but it emphasizes that the Florida-friendly principle — right plant, right place — is worth following.”

Florida-friendly gardening means planting that accounts for site conditions, maintenance needs and local climate. Such landscapes may use both native and non-native plants, as long as the non-native plants aren’t an invasive species.

Regular irrigation in the months after planting helps shrubs remain healthy and attractive as they establish. But one eyebrow-raising study finding is that light, frequent watering is much more efficient and effective than applying large volumes less frequently.

North of Orlando, Gilman recommends using as little as 1 gallon of water per shrub, applied every eight days. In South Florida, he recommends every four days.

More frequent irrigation, such as every four days in North Florida and every two days in South Florida, does result in more vigorous plant growth. But applying more than 1 gallon per irrigation doesn’t increase survival or growth, he said.

“Results showed that applying large volumes of water cannot compensate for infrequent irrigation,” Gilman said. “This means that you should water more often, but with less water at each irrigation event. That helps the plants achieve proper establishment and, in turn, means less watering in the long run.”

Gardeners should maintain their irrigation schedule until shrubs survive on rainfall alone, once roots have grown to the edge of the foliage canopy, usually within 28 weeks of planting.

In long hot, dry spells, occasional irrigation may be needed after shrubs are established. Such weather can occur at any time in Florida, but is most likely in the spring and fall – April, May, October and sometimes November.

In the first year after planting, use 1 to 2 gallons of water when there is less than a quarter inch of rain within a two-week period. Drought-sensitive shrubs, such as holly fern and wild coffee, may need more frequent supplemental irrigation, while drought-tolerant shrubs, like Burford holly, may need very little.

The study can be found at http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/irrigation. Or check out the fact sheet Establishing Shrubs in Florida Landscapes, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/EP391, for more information.

Several simple steps can help ensure your plants survive establishment:
· Consider planting at the start of the rainy season.
· Irrigate based on location, weather and desired plant vigor.
· Apply water directly to the rootball.
· Use low-volume irrigation. Don’t irrigate if a quarter-inch or more rain fell in the last 24 hours.
· After establishment, irrigate when there are signs of wilting, but before leaves begin to die.

“Fire is an art,” said Parker Titus, a specialist with more than 400 controlled burns on his resume. “It’s one of the most powerful influences on our natural systems. Knowing how to use it — and not let it get out of control — is an essential part of the conservation effort.”

This week, Titus and his crew, the newly formed Northeast Florida Resource Management Support Team, will be sharing that knowledge with 40 students and public agency employees.

The team will help teach how to stay safe while practicing controlled burns as part of a weeklong basic wildland firefighter training program conducted by the University of Florida, The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Areas Training Academy.

The course will be a mix of classroom instruction on the UF campus and a day of hands-on demonstration at the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station in Putnam County, where the team is housed.

“We have a full roster of students and a long waiting list,” said Linda Demetropoulos, the training academy’s program manager. “This is an issue that people who work in settings like parks and preserves need to know about.”

Controlled burns seek to use fire to remove the natural clutter that serves as kindling for larger and more dangerous wildfires.

Last year alone, 2,894 wildfires burned more than 100,000 acres in Florida. One blaze resulted in nearly $10 million in property damage. According to a report issued in an April edition of the journal Science, rising temperatures associated with climate change are increasing this wildfire threat nationwide.

However, prescribed burning is much more than just a preventative measure. Much of Florida’s wildlife relies on fire to renew natural habitat. Species like the gopher tortoise and the Florida scrub jay rely on it.

“We live in a balance with nature, or we try to,” said Zachary Prusak, state fire manager for the conservancy. “Controlled burning reduces the intensity of wildfires and keeps our habitats healthy.”

Managed by the conservancy and supported by UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the team consists of Titus, Andrew Rappe, Andrew Slack and Daniel Godwin. The four are responsible for helping many public agencies east of Interstate 75 from Orlando north to the Georgia border.

Also charged with tasks such as removing invasive species and monitoring wildlife, the crew has aided in nearly 50 controlled burns since it was established roughly a year ago with funds from a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission grant.

The typical tool used for controlled burning is called a drip torch, which looks a bit like a pesticide sprayer whose nozzle has been swapped out with a firelighter. This torch is what most of the students will be learning to use.

The team also has a few tools that aren’t for novices, such as a heavy-duty pickup and ATV, both equipped with mounted torches and other modifications. Then there are the even less conventional tools sometimes employed to set a controlled fire.

Titus says he’s seen flare pistols, bows loaded with flaming arrows, helicopters with flame throwers and even torches carried horseback.

“You use whatever you have that will work well,” he said. “But you never forget that your first priority is always safety.”

So it may be fitting that researchers from the University of Florida, home of the Gators, have found that bacteria growing in its wood may improve the process of making the fuel that might help solve the nation’s energy crisis.

Cellulosic ethanol fuel is derived from plant material often thrown away as trash. Typically, the processes use genetically engineered bacteria or tricky chemical reactions to break down complex compounds in plant cell walls to produce simple sugar molecules that can be fermented into fuel-grade alcohol.

A February report by the Sandia National Laboratories predicted that cellulosic ethanol could replace 30 percent of the nation’s gasoline by 2030 if the price can be brought down. A big part of reducing the price is making production more efficient.

Much of the inefficiency in cellulosic ethanol production lies in the fact that it must be given a head start by cooking the plant material with heat and acids to break down some of the components in the plant cell walls.
As the team from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences reported in the July issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a strain of the wood-decaying Paenibacillus sp. bacteria named JDR-2 has a knack for breaking down and digesting one of these components, hemicelluloses.

That knack could help modify preprocessing steps for cost-effective production of ethanol.

“The acids, the heating — all of these steps you have to take beforehand are expensive, require a lot of work and, let’s face it, no one wants to work with sulfuric acid on that scale if you don’t have to,” said James Preston, the team leader and a professor in UF’s microbiology and cell science department.

“By engineering the bacteria already being used to produce ethanol to also process hemicelluloses the way this Paenibacillus does, you should be able to significantly simplify the process.”

Preston came across the bacteria a few years ago, as he was using decaying sweetgum trees to grow shiitake mushrooms on his tree farm in Micanopy, Fla. After studying the unusually uniform composition of the decaying wood, he and his colleagues went on to study the genetics of one of the bacteria digesting that wood.

The team has now mapped JDR-2’s genome, and Preston expects that, within the year, they will transfer genes behind JDR-2’s abilities to bacteria used to produce ethanol. This would be followed by the design of processes for the cost-effective production of ethanol from wood, agricultural residues and other potential energy crops.

The gene, which helps regulate wood growth and the composition of wood fiber, could also lead to improved tree varieties for pulp and paper.

Matias Kirst and Gary Peter, plant geneticists with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, lead the team. They received one of seven 2009 Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy grants — a program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The grants, totaling $6.32 million, were announced this week. The UF team’s three-year, $643,000 grant will fund research on how the gene helps regulate cell wall chemistry and structure. The scientists will also investigate where and when its effects occur.

Eventually, they will create genetically engineered trees that overexpress or underexpress the gene, to study resulting changes in wood composition and biomass growth.

“We focus on understanding very fundamental biological mechanisms that may be critical for the productivity of tree species and the quality of wood products,” said Kirst, with UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation. “The gene cpg13 appears to play a critical role in these traits.”

Cpg13, which stands for Carbon Partitioning and Growth on chromosome 13, was identified by one of Kirst’s graduate students, Evandro Novaes. The gene was isolated in poplar trees but may exist in other species.

It appears cpg13 controls how much of the carbon taken up by a poplar tree is used to make cellulose and lignin, two major building blocks of plant cell walls.

Cellulose is a complex carbohydrate, which can be broken down into glucose and fermented to produce biofuels. Wood with high cellulose and low lignin content is better suited for biofuels such as ethanol, because it should convert more efficiently and with greater yields.

High cellulose content is also a desirable trait for producing pulp and paper.

What’s more, there’s apparently a link between high cellulose content and fast tree growth, Kirst said. It may be possible to engineer trees that not only produce large amounts of wood quickly, but also have the ideal properties for biofuel, as well as pulp and paper production.

However, there is a potential benefit to trees with high lignin content. Plant materials rich in lignin degrade slower than those with more cellulose. It may be possible to engineer high-lignin trees that could be used to store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases that cause global climate change.

Another possibility, Kirst said, would be to develop trees with high cellulose content in stems and high lignin content in roots, offering the best solution for mitigating greenhouse gases.

The team also published a paper in the June issue of New Phytologist demonstrating that nitrogen fertilizer has a significant effect on genes that regulate growth and wood composition in poplar trees.

One expert likened the UF paper to studies showing that the interplay between nutrition and genetics has consequences for human health.

Malcolm Campbell, a professor with the University of Toronto’s department of cell and systems biology, said scientists have often viewed improvement of tree crops as a matter of genetic selection, but the UF team’s work demonstrates that much can be changed in the wood composition by silvicultural practices.

“The way this will shape forestry for the future is quite cutting-edge,” Campbell said.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Coffee and tea drinkers, take note — a University of Florida study says a beverage made from a native holly tree might be just the thing to give you a caffeinated kick-start, plus a dose of antioxidants.

Yaupon (YO-ponn) holly is the only U.S. plant that produces substantial amounts of caffeine, said Jack Putz, a botany professor affiliated with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. A popular ornamental species, yaupon grows wild throughout the Southeast and can be grown in most coastal states.

Centuries ago, American Indians and Spanish settlers steeped yaupon leaves and twigs in hot water to make a stimulating beverage, but that use of the plant is virtually unknown today.

The resulting brew is dark brown and tastes much like green tea. If it makes a comeback, yaupon may spawn a cottage beverage industry, Putz said. And the antioxidants might be useful in nutritional supplements.

“A few years ago we were contacted from a pharmaceutical company in Texas,” he said. “At first, we thought their interest was in caffeine but they said that with all the decaffeinated beverages around, caffeine is cheap. What they were interested in was the antioxidants.”

Nitrogen fertilizer can boost yaupon production and caffeine content, according to a paper Putz co-wrote, published in this month’s issue of the journal Economic Botany. Nitrogen had little effect on antioxidant content.

The researchers focused on a popular ornamental yaupon variety called Nana, said Matt Palumbo, a botany master’s graduate and co-author of the paper. After receiving nitrogen fertilizer, Nana plants yielded 35 percent more leaves; caffeine concentration in the leaves shot up 265 percent.

Nana had about half the antioxidant content of green tea, he said.

“I have found genotypes with antioxidant concentrations at least as high as green tea,” Palumbo said.

Similarly, Nana’s caffeine content was low compared with concentrations reported in previous studies, he said.

Dry, unprocessed yaupon leaves contain between .65 percent and .85 percent caffeine by weight. Coffee beans are about 1.1 percent caffeine by weight and tea leaves about 3.5 percent caffeine.

More research is needed to learn which yaupon varieties have the greatest caffeine and antioxidant content, Palumbo said. Afterward, new cultivars can be developed.

One point seems clear — if U.S. residents begin drinking yaupon tea it could reduce demand for coffee, which may ease ecological pressure on coffee-farming regions of South America, Africa and Southeast Asia, he said.

It’s uncertain whether large-scale yaupon farming would be economically feasible in the U.S., but the antioxidants appear to have commercial potential, he said. And home gardeners might enjoy growing and using yaupon.

One caveat — before making yaupon tea it’s critical to obtain the correct plant, Putz says. There are numerous U.S. holly species, many of them not safe for consumption.

The taste of yaupon tea will be the make-or-break factor for potential users, says Dan Austin, an ethnobotanist based at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson.

If they don’t like the flavor — something Austin says is quite possible — then they’re unlikely to drink the beverage regardless of the health benefits.

Still, he says, “if the proper spin is put on it, the potential is there.”

On bell pepper plants in greenhouses, the mite consumed enough chilli thrips to keep the population to less than one per leaf, compared with 70 per leaf on control plants. Similar results were obtained with peppers grown outdoors. The study was published this month in the journal Biological Control.

Native to Asia, the invasive pest attacks more than 100 host plants, including corn, citrus, peanuts and tomatoes. Established first in the Caribbean, it spread to Florida in 2005 and then to Texas. Adult chilli thrips are about 1 millimeter long.

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate, if chilli thrips become more widely established in the U. S., they could cause agricultural losses of almost $4 billion per year.

For greenhouse crops — including bell peppers, strawberries, basil and flowers such as Gerber daisies — the mite could provide a much-needed alternative to pesticides, said Lance Osborne, a professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and an author of the study.

“This mite has a lot of potential for greenhouses, which is where it’s used now,” Osborne said. The mite, which has no common name but is known scientifically as Amblyseius swirskii, is available commercially to manage whiteflies and broad mites.

Because the mite is already approved for use in Florida, growers can try it against chilli thrips, he said. Osborne cautioned that the mite is not likely to be successful on every crop the pest attacks. Researchers were happy to find the mite held up well outdoors on bell peppers. Previous attempts to establish the mite outside on rose bushes have been unsuccessful, he said.

“Maybe there is a plant issue — they prefer peppers, but not roses,” Osborne said.

An upcoming project will investigate the use of peppers as “banker plants” — the mite equivalent of birdhouses, said Cindy McKenzie, a research entomologist with the USDA’s Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce.

In the project, ornamental peppers will be planted outdoors among rose bushes, to see if they can harbor mite populations that protect both plant species, said McKenzie, another author of the study.

If successful, this approach could be helpful to rose gardeners, especially in the Orlando area, hard-hit by chilli thrips. And if you’ve never heard of ornamental peppers, McKenzie said they make a nice addition to the landscape.

“We screened more than 20 ornamental peppers and narrowed it down to four,” she said. “They’re very pretty varieties, with dark purple and green leaves.”

Researchers also hope to develop a pesticide-resistant strain of the mite, Osborne said.

“That way, if a grower has to come in and spray, it won’t disrupt the biological control,” he said. Osborne previously developed a resistant strain of another predatory mite.

The current study was part of an ongoing collaboration between scientists with UF and the USDA, aimed at minimizing chilli thrips damage.

For more information on chilli thrips, see http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/lso/thripslinks.htm.

According to the annual Florida Land Value Survey, conducted by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, rural land and land outside of metropolitan areas — eagerly sought by developers in recent years — is now commonly being offered for sale at a fraction of its cost.

“In some cases, it’s almost like a fire sale,” said Rodney Clouser, the UF professor of food and resource economics who led the survey. Some respondents reported large blocks of land being offered at 20 to 30 percent of their purchase price.

A population boom between 2002 and 2006 contributed to a dramatic rise in land prices throughout Florida. But now, the state’s annual population increase is expected to be only 10 percent of the boom years’ growth, according to UF population projections.

The survey, which does not cover urban land values, showed that land outside of cities primed for development, dubbed transition land, decreased by as much as 55 percent in the northern half of the state.

Transition land within five miles of urban centers in the southern half of the state lost nearly 40 percent of its value.

However, in the one exception to the otherwise gloomy economic picture, transition land more than five miles away from urban centers in the southern half of the state increased by 5 percent. Most likely, this is because its low price and relative location to large cities was seen as the best deal by those still looking to buy real estate, Clouser said.

Nevertheless, the 5 percent increase is significantly smaller than the nearly 17 percent increase for the same area last year.

Lagging development hasn’t just affected areas destined for shopping malls and homes. It has also contributed to drops as large as 26 percent in farmland values.

Although such land is typically evaluated primarily by the profitability of the crop produced, urban expansion was so rapid in recent boom years that many began to evaluate the land based on what it would bring if used for housing or other development purposes, Clouser said.

Land prices are expected to continue their drop through 2009 — although not as dramatically as in 2008. Survey responses from individuals involved in the Florida real estate market predict an overall drop between 5 and 17 percent.

Even after the national economic picture brightens, Clouser said, a surplus of homes and other existing development would need to be sold before demand would once again drive land prices up.

The report can be viewed at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FE798.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With the nation’s economy withering, University of Florida experts say many state residents are looking to put food on the table — by growing it.

Sydney Park Brown, a UF extension specialist with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said extension agents around the state have noticed a big uptick in interest about vegetable gardening.

Extension agents have seen higher than usual numbers of people with questions about how and when to grow vegetables. And a videoconference IFAS hosted on the subject Feb. 28 drew more than 450 viewers, Park Brown said.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with people interested in growing their own vegetables,” she said. “And it’s really picked up in the last year.”

Extension agents’ interaction with the public dovetails exactly with the National Gardening Association’s recent survey, that shows 7 million more American households plan to grow their own fruits, vegetables, herbs or berries this year—a 19 percent jump from 2008.

There was also a 10 percent increase in households with gardening plans from 2007 to 2008.

The NGA’s Bruce Butterfield, involved with the survey for 30 years, said the results are tied to the economy. When people feel anxious, they often literally return to their roots, he said.

“There’s this whole sense of, in a world gone crazy, things might be terrible out there, but I’m not helpless, here’s something I can do,” he said.
But, he noted, the survey also showed that the economy wasn’t the only factor.

The annual survey, sponsored by Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and the Garden Writers Association and conducted by Harris Interactive, found that while 54 percent of those planning to grow food were doing so to combat high grocery bills:

• 58 percent hope to grow better-tasting food;
• 51 percent hope for better-quality food, and
• 48 percent plan to grow their own food to ensure its safety.

Butterfield said the survey results feel to him a bit like “back to the future.” When he was first involved with the study around 1978, Americans were also turning to gardening as a way to be more frugal.

Floridians face challenges as gardeners, he said, most notably from the wilting heat, sandy soil and ever-present bugs.

Park Brown, based at UF’s Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, said that’s where IFAS extension can offer help. County extension agents are well-armed with tips for even the most inexperienced gardener.

Among them: online presentations from the Feb. 28 vegetable gardening videoconference have been posted on the Solutions for Your Life Web site: http://webdev.ifas.ufl.edu/sfyl/hot_topics/lawn_and_garden/spring_veggie_gardening.html#.

The recently updated Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide, with a comprehensive list of vegetable varieties best suited for growing in Florida, can also be found at the site. Another online IFAS resource for Florida vegetable gardening: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_Vegetable_Gardening.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Today’s economically spurred resurgence of the home vegetable grower can’t entirely be dubbed a “return to the earth.” Many burgeoning farmers aren’t breaking soil, they’re using hydroponics.

“There are a lot of new people interested in growing, and many of them are realizing that hydroponics just makes a lot more sense,” said Bob Hochmuth, a multicounty agent with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “It’s one of the most reliable ways to grow crops. And, for people that don’t have a lot of land, which I think is a lot of these new growers, it’s a more cost-effective investment.”

In fact, interest has been so high that IFAS’ first multiple-day course on hydroponic techniques this week, offered at the North Florida Research and Education Center in Live Oak, Fla., became overbooked to the extent that a second course was added at the last minute.

In total, the courses have drawn more than 70 attendees — not just from Florida, but also from Alabama, Ohio, New York and Georgia.

“Across the country, there’s been more and more interest in locally grown products. Now, these economic conditions are coming in into the mix and making people think long and hard about the best way to do it,” said Tim Carpenter, owner of Verti-Gro Inc. in Summerfield, Fla.

Carpenter is one of the suppliers of hydroponic equipment who says that demand has nearly doubled over the past year.

“Hydroponics involves mechanics and plumbing, and it’s not going to be right for everyone,” he said. “But for a good percentage, it’s just going to be a very practical choice.”
Simply put, hydroponic techniques are used to grow plants in structures that supply water and nutrients without soil.

These structures allow plants to be grown in greater density and with better control of variables such as pests, the overuse of fertilizer and exposure to foodborne pathogens like salmonella.

Additionally, hydroponic techniques usually involve growing the crops inside greenhouses or in tight clusters. These methods mean protection against bad weather and a year-round growing season — big boons to growers interested in using their crops for supplemental income.

“Hydroponics isn’t easy, and it’s not something that just comes to you,” said Belinda Cheney, who uses hydroponics to grow vegetables and ornamental flowers on her small farm in O’Brien, Fla., as a way of supplementing her family’s income while remaining home with her children.

“I think this would be pretty inaccessible to a lot of people if it weren’t for help and information from UF extension agents,” she said.

For more information on hydroponics, please visit: http://smallfarms.ifas.ufl.edu/crops/hydroponics/index.html.

Computer-assisted genetic analysis could change that, say University of Florida scientists who have completed a demonstration study of a new method. It was published online this month in the journal Molecular Ecology Resources.

The method, known as massively parallel sequencing, reveals small parts of the DNA code for multiple nematodes simultaneously, said Dorota Porazinska, a courtesy assistant professor with UF’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center. It can do the same for other invertebrates that live alongside nematodes, including bacteria, fungi and mites.

There may be more than 1 million nematode species, but only about 20,000 have been formally described. Nematodes live in almost every environment on Earth. Some species are parasites that prey on plants, animals or people.

By providing “who’s who” information on micro-organisms in crop fields, lawns and golf courses, the method may help explain why harmful nematodes attack plants in some sites but not others. It could also provide clues on how to keep sites healthy.

“We often look at agricultural systems only in terms of the organisms we think are bad,” said Porazinska, the study’s lead author. “But we skip over what’s being done by other organisms that don’t bother us. And they may be doing things to assist in the system.”

Once scientists know which micro-organisms live in a plot of land, they can begin manipulating variables and developing agricultural practices that discourage pest species, said Robin Giblin-Davis, a professor at the Fort Lauderdale center and another author.

In the study, UF researchers took a new approach to an instrument called a genome sequencer, commonly used to sequence the DNA structure of a single organism. Here, they sequenced small bits of DNA from samples taken from an artificially assembled community of known nematodes. Then they checked the results against DNA databases used to identify nematodes.

The study showed massively parallel sequencing identified nematode species with a high degree of accuracy. But it didn’t perform as well at determining how many individual nematodes the samples contained. So the researchers are working to refine their approach.

When massively parallel sequencing is used in the field, any nematodes that don’t match known species can be isolated for further study, Giblin-Davis said.

Previously, researchers identified nematodes one at a time — an approach that worked but was painfully slow, because genetic and morphological analysis was often required to confirm the species.

“With the traditional method, in two years we identified 360 nematodes from a tropical rainforest and now we can get thousands,” Giblin-Davis said. “This will give us a good chance, hopefully, of not only recovering what’s there commonly, but the rare things.”

The UF approach is an exciting development for scientists studying nematode populations, said Paul De Ley, an assistant professor with the University of California, Riverside.

“This is an approach that is likely to be adopted in the U.S., Western Europe and some Asian countries,” said De Ley, who researches nematode genetics. “The major limiting factor is that these kinds of sequencers are not widely available yet.”

Because the technology is costly, it may be difficult to employ in tropical regions where crop plants are often attacked by nematodes, he said. However, if government officials streamline current import policies, researchers may be able to easily transport soil samples from tropical regions to laboratories in industrialized nations, solving the problem.

A new study forecasts when climate factors such as temperature, humidity and rainfall will match at geographically distant airline departure and destination points, which could help to shuffle invasive species, and the diseases they may carry, across the globe along existing flight routes. The findings provide a framework that could help people who monitor airline flights — and the people, baggage and cargo aboard — to plan more efficiently and accurately for detecting and intercepting invasives.

Andy Tatem, who holds a joint position at the Emerging Pathogens Institute and the University of Florida’s geography department, said his model uses the latest forecast data for climate change and air traffic volumes.

“The problem is that as the global transport networks expand, we’re getting more and more invasive species and pathogens coming from different parts of the world that have survived isolated for thousands of years,” said Tatem, who joined UF in January. “But now they have this high-speed link going between different regions of the world.”

The study was published online Jan. 22 in the journal Ecography, and the work was performed in his previous position at the University of Oxford.

Tatem predicts a peak risk will be reached in June 2010, when multiple factors converge to create a month when the climate factors at many flight origin and destination airports would be most similar.

“The model shows us that climatic shifts are not greatly significant over the next few years,” Tatem said. “But the great increase in traffic volumes from expanding economies in India and China are likely to have a significant effect on moving species. This gives us much more of a detailed idea on the importance of key risk factors and how these change over time, compared to previous work we did in 2007.”

Tatem reached his conclusions by comparing fine-scale global climate models for 2009 and 2010 prepared by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research with models forecasting traffic volumes on existing airline networks, prepared by OAG Worldwide. The airline models include more than 35 million scheduled flights between 3,570 airports on more than 44,000 different routes.

But exactly how native species wind up aboard an outbound passenger or freight aircraft is still being studied. Tatem said it can be a combination of goods, transport and people bringing things aboard either accidentally or knowingly.

“Some studies have shown that mosquitoes can fly on randomly, or they may get into baggage,” he said. “But some things, like plant pathogens, happen when people purposely bring fruit aboard, or they may bring in a plant that makes it through inspections, or they may just have seeds stuck in the soles of their shoes.”

These activities compound over the entire global system, threatening local economies, public health and native ecosystems. In 2007, a biological invasion was documented from a single invasive insect in a study conducted by York University biologists Amro Zayed and Laurence Packer. A different 2007 study by Andrew Liebhold, published in American Entomologist, examined records of U.S. Department of Agricultural inspectors encountering invasive species in airline baggage. Liebhold, a research entomologist with the Northeastern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service, reported that infested fruit, mainly from the tropics, was the most commonly intercepted commodity, and that flies, cicadas, planthoppers, aphids and scale insects were the most commonly intercepted invasive insects.

Liebhold said Tatem’s study provided fascinating predictions about expected trends in the accidental transport of invasive species among continents.

“Unfortunately, unwitting air passengers have too frequently provided transport of plant pests and human diseases and this trend has increased with elevated intercontinental passenger traffic,” Liebhold said. “Hopefully, government agencies will pay attention to these results and utilize them to strengthen inspection activities at airports in order to protect the world from the devastating impacts of alien species on natural ecosystems as well as on human health.”

The field day has been around….well, pretty much forever. At a typical field day, farmers or other interested people have a chance to visit a farm and learn hands-on from extension agents what the latest scientific research has to say about a particular topic, such as how to prevent diseases in peanuts or grow new varieties of sweet corn.

“It capitalizes on the notion that what they see and touch and do in real life is a lot more likely to stick with them than reading about it or hearing somebody lecture about it,” said Bob Hochmuth, a multicounty extension agent with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

But along with benefits, there are drawbacks. A field day might not be particularly convenient to a farmer who needed it, geographically or because it took time away from actual farming operations.

So University of Florida extension officials have created and revamped their virtual field days Web site http://vfd.ifas.ufl.edu, and the new version was unveiled late last month. That site’s unveiling dovetails with the recent national launch of another new electronic hub for information aimed at anyone who wants to know about organic agriculture.

For the new field day site, Hochmuth, an expert in hydroponics based at the North Florida Research and Education Center in Live Oak, said he and other extension agents boiled down what had been 30- to 40-minute field day presentations into easier to watch 5- to 8-minute versions.

The original site was organized by geographic region; the new version is organized by topic.

UF extension agents with expertise in a particular subject are often swamped with questions from people from all over the state — and beyond.

“A lot of the times these are very basic, repetitive questions. So for me now, if someone calls from Miami or Tampa, I can send them to the virtual field day site and they can take a look at it and get the basics,” said Hochmuth. “So the time efficiency for me has been phenomenal.”

IFAS officials hope to continue to expand the site with new, timely topics every year, said Joan Dusky, associate dean for extension. But that doesn’t mean an end to hands-on field days, she said, because both help to reach people with timely information.

Al Magrum of Lambertville, Mich., used Hochmuth’s online instruction several months ago to guide him as he started a hydroponic growing operation in his home. Using three 10-gallon aquariums, an aerator and lights, he said via e-mail that he now has basil, chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary, green onions and parsley started.

He said he used the video as a guide and later e-mailed follow-up questions to Hochmuth.

“I will be using his setup this spring. It’s very easy and cheap to build and he explained how to do everything,” Magrum wrote. “It’s been two weeks, but everything’s taking off great.”

If Magrum ever wants to try his hand at organic gardening, a vast amount of information can be found on the topic at http://www.extension.org. Launched at organic farming and production conferences last month and this month, it includes frequently asked questions, experts who can respond to individual questions within a 24-hour period, video clips and more than 150 articles about organic agriculture. It also includes organic agriculture videos from IFAS’ virtual field days site. The effort is part of eXtension, a national initiative of the U.S. Cooperative Extension System.

Laurel wilt disease, caused by a fungus transmitted by the invasive redbay ambrosia beetle, kills avocado and several native trees including redbay, said Jonathan Crane, a professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and co-author of a paper estimating the disease’s financial impact. The paper is expected to be published later this year.

“The scenario is not looking good, if we are right,” said Crane, at UF’s Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead.

The state’s avocado crop earns about $30 million wholesale each year, said Edward “Gilly” Evans, an agricultural economist at the Homestead center and another co-author. Commercial avocados grow on 7,500 acres, almost exclusively in Miami-Dade County, and account for more than 60 percent of Florida’s tropical fruit production.

Avocado is also an important fruit tree for Florida homeowners — about 60,000 residents have at least one in their yards, he said.

If the disease cuts Florida’s commercial avocado crop in half — something experts say could happen — it could cost the state $27 million in total economic impact and enough lost worker hours to equal 275 full-time jobs, Evans said.

So UF researchers are scrambling to develop damage estimates and management strategies.

They’ve evaluated about 30 percent of the 28 avocado varieties grown in Florida; all have been susceptible to the disease, though not all have died, said Jorge Peña, an entomology professor at the Homestead center.

There is no standard method for controlling the fungus or the beetle, but researchers are testing pesticides and repellents, Peña said.

Some redbay trees may be resistant to the disease, said forest pathologist Jason Smith, an assistant professor with UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation in Gainesville. Researchers will investigate factors associated with resistance, in the hope that tolerant varieties can be identified and developed.

The disease was unknown to science until 2004. The beetle, first found in the United States in 2002, is native to Asia and may have arrived in wood products, packing materials or pallets.

Laurel wilt is in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where it’s reached as far south as Okeechobee County and as far west as Columbia County.

“The disease is moving fairly rapidly, so it’s clear it will arrive (in Miami-Dade County) sooner or later,” said Randy Ploetz, a plant pathologist at the Homestead center.

In Florida, laurel wilt apparently spreads at least two ways, Crane said.

One is via the beetle’s natural reproduction and migration, which expands its range 20 or 30 miles per year. Also, redbay is used as firewood and for outdoor grilling. Because the disease has leapfrogged around the state, researchers believe beetle-infested wood has been sold, he said.

Crane urges Floridians to report laurel wilt symptoms on avocado or redbay trees to the state Division of Plant Industry at 1-888-397-1517. Symptoms include wilted stems and leaves, black streaking in the wood, and strings of compacted sawdust protruding from tree trunks.

DPI and U.S. Department of Agriculture experts are monitoring several counties for redbay ambrosia beetles with traps and inspections, said DPI spokeswoman Denise Feiber.

There’s more at stake for Florida than the avocado industry. Laurel wilt has killed 99 percent of infected redbay trees in many areas, said Smith. Also at risk: sassafras, camphor, silkbay, swampbay, pondspice and an endangered species, pondberry.

Smith developed a test that identifies diseased trees in less than an hour, even if the fungus is present in small amounts. The test will be available to diagnostic labs around the Southeast.

For more information, see “Redbay Ambrosia Beetle-Laurel Wilt Pathogen: A Potential Major Problem for the Florida Avocado Industry,” http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS379.