Citrus Research And Development Foundation Seeks Grower Cooperators

The Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) has issued a call for interested growers to participate in field trials to evaluate HLB-tolerant rootstocks. The foundation has arranged for sufficient numbers of five HLB-tolerant candidate rootstock trees to plant commercial-scale replicated field trials with cooperative growers, comparing to two standard rootstocks at each site. These trials will be located in three citrus regions of the state and will be hosted by commercial citrus growers to facilitate real-world evaluation under commercial production, harvesting, and marketing conditions.

CRDF encourages submission of a letter of interest by Dec. 1, 2014 from those who might be interested in hosting a regional trial. Candidate hosts from each region (Indian River, Ridge, and Southwest Flatwoods) must be willing and able to commit about 35 acres of suitable land by March 1, 2015 and to planting and maintaining 5,040  trees using uniformly good commercial practices.

Candidate hosts will be evaluated and recommendations will be provided to the CRDF Board for final decisions. Please address your letter of interest to Citrus Research and Development Foundation Inc., 700 Experiment Station Rd., Lake Alfred, FL  33850 or eMail to [email protected].