We've been busy this last couple of weeks, with 24 samples to diagnose and experiments underway. On October 16, we had a group of students in a tropical cropping systems class from Gainesville come down to TREC for a visit, and we talked about the ornamental industry here in Florida, as well as the function of the diagnostic clinic. It is always astonishing to read the statistics about how large the nursery industry is--it has an economic impact of $2 billion dollars a year, and provides about 40,000 jobs!
Dr. Palmateer gave a plant pathology training at the Miami Dade County Extension for the Master Gardeners. He was impressed at how interested and engaged the audience was.
Our newest dieback of Eugenia project is underway, we are testing different fertility and irrigation rates to see how they influence disease development. We currently have seventy healthy plants in our greenhouse, which we plan to inoculate next week, and then monitor for disease development. Our hope is that this experiment will provide useful information for growers about how to manage the disease with cultural methods.
Have a look at the Clinic website if you haven't already. You can find helpful information about the proper way to submit a sample (including a video demonstration), as well as contact information for Clinic staff.
Vegetable season is starting, so we expect to see more vegetable samples coming in...
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