Author Topic: Citrus Breeding Center Opens  (Read 2560 times)

Millet

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4798
    • Colorado
    • View Profile
Citrus Breeding Center Opens
« on: June 24, 2014, 03:02:49 PM »
The opening of a new citrus breeding center should help the Sunshine State’s efforts to breed varieties of citrus resistant to disease.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam hosted an open house June 16 for the new Florida Citrus Repository in LaCrosse, Fla.
The 20,000 square-foot facility is significantly larger than an the older 4,000 square-foot operation in Gainesville, Fla. More than 20 NEW varieties of citrus are expected to be released every year, representing an 85% increase in production capacity. - Millet

Tropheus76

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 923
    • East Orlando 9B
    • View Profile
Re: Citrus Breeding Center Opens
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2014, 07:39:06 AM »
Kind of an out of the way place to put it, I would have thought they would have built a citrus center somewhere relatively close to the actual citrus belt and not in a town of 143 people way up in Northern Florida.

Scott_6B

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 35
    • North Shore, Massachusetts
    • View Profile
Re: Citrus Breeding Center Opens
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2014, 03:26:12 PM »
Cool, I look forward to seeing what they come up with over the next several years.

I would assume the selection of a site that is somewhat removed from commercial citrus growing areas was intentional.  They likely do not want to be near large populations of trees that may/may not be infected with HLB etc...  This is also one of the reasons that Four Winds main nursery is located well outside of the commercial citrus regions in CA.

Blake Branch

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 25
    • Manor, GA, USA USDA zone 8
    • View Profile
Re: Citrus Breeding Center Opens
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2014, 08:58:22 AM »
This facility is not technically a breeding facility, but will be used to clean up new releases that will go out to nurseries.  They will accomplish this by testing the material for insects and diseases, clean up the plants with heat indexing, increase the clean shoot tips with micropropagation (tissue culture), and release the increased material to the nurseries.

As a size comparison, this facility consists of a 5,000 sq ft lab and office space connected to 20,000 sq ft of greenhouses (0.57 acre), where Phillip Rucks Nursery has a 19,200 sq ft lab and office space connected to 210,125 sq ft of greenhouses (5.26 acres).


brian

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3357
    • Pennsylvania (zone 6) w/ heated greenhouse
    • View Profile
Re: Citrus Breeding Center Opens
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2014, 12:30:00 PM »
Is anybody breeding kumquats?  I don't see many varieties and most seem to exist as cold-tolerant inferior versions of more desired citrus. 

Millet

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4798
    • Colorado
    • View Profile
Re: Citrus Breeding Center Opens
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2014, 12:38:11 PM »
Blake, thank you so much for informing us of the Philip Rucks Nursery operation.   After visiting the Philip Rucks web site, I was impressed.  For our  forum membership click on the link below, and be sure to take the Tour of the Philip Rucks operation. You will find the tour link on their web site.  The tour expertly shows how a citrus nursery supplies new citrus tree for the commercial  citrus  industry. There is also a lot of other good information concerning citrus. - Millet

http://www.ruckscitrusnursery.com/