Hope Grows for Florida Citrus in Special Millennium Block Project

A much-anticipated research project on citrus greening is coming to fruition, marked by the start of another harvest of a key citrus grove in Fort Pierce, FL. Harvest on the Millennium Block project, a seven-year University of Florida research endeavor is underway, and researchers will use the data collected from fruit harvested from 2022 to 2026 to analyze how much these potential solutions offer farmers hope against citrus greening, with results expected later this year.

The Millennium Block was envisioned as a place where bold risks could be taken in the fight against citrus greening. The Millennium Block, which was planted at the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC), in 2019, is now a 5,000-tree research project with trees that were bred to be tolerant to citrus greening, says Flavia Zambon, Assistant Professor of citrus production.

Citrus greening, or Huanglongbing (HLB), remains one of the most destructive challenges facing Florida’s citrus industry.

The Millennium Block includes various citrus varieties in four research trials, one including 18 grapefruits and three commercial rootstocks, and the other three with 32 rootstocks grafted with ‘Ray Ruby’ grapefruit, ‘Glenn Navel’ sweet orange and ‘UF-950’ mandarin.

Harvest will continue through early February, and citrus will be pulled and juiced to be tested for physical marketable qualities, such as size, and juice quality attributes, such as sugar concentration and acidity, which affect the price that growers can expect to receive for their fruit.

“There are all these attributes that need to be in balance for both growers and consumers,” Zambon adds.

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