UF/IFAS’s Indian River Research and Education Center is hosting the Millennium Block Variety Trial Field Day October 19th.
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC) has been conducting research with the Millennium Block since 2019 to see which “scion and rootstock combinations can better adapt to the Indian River’s flatwoods soils and tolerate citrus canker and citrus greening while producing profitable crops,” according to a Florida Grower article. See the details of the Millennium Block Variety Trial Field Day and the research below.
Millennium Block Variety Trial Field Day Details
The Millennium Block Variety Trial Field Day is set for October 19th, from 9 a.m. to noon, at 7850 Pruitt Research Road, Fort Pierce. The 20-acre Millennium block consists of 154 new citrus scion-rootstock combinations. Each plot consists of five scion and rootstock combinations for a total of over 5,500 2- and 3-year-old trees.
Attendees will be able to tour the plots, which include Ray Ruby grapefruit, Glenn 56-11 navel orange, and UF 950 mandarin as scions. There will also be information booths and researchers, graduate students, IRREC team members, and Extension agents to answer questions.
In the article, IRREC Center Director, Ronald Cave, said, “Citrus growers from all of the state’s important regions can benefit from the findings that are now visible in the rootstock variety trials in IRREC’s Millennium Block. The harvest this fall and winter will be the first for the four trials, and by late January, we should have the first data to share with growers.”
Those wishing to attend should register here.
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