University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences – Florida citrus growers who face the most severe citrus disease in history notice how citrus trees under oak tree hammocks appear to tolerate the disease. Lukas Hallman believes oak trees may hold a compound that boosts the citrus trees’ ability to tolerate the disease. Hallman is a graduate student at …

Chew on this the next time you eat a blueberry: Every single blueberry is the result of a flower that was pollinated by a bee.  In other words: No buzz, no berry. With that in mind, it’s no wonder blueberry growers bring in hives of honey bees or bumble bees when their blueberry bushes are in flower. “We are big believers …

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Imagine using a robotic arm to grip and puncture the trunk of a citrus tree to deliver chemicals into the vascular parts of the plant, reducing its susceptibility to the citrus greening disease. Ozgur Batuman, an assistant professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, leads a team of researchers …