Selected news articles that highlight the accomplishments of the faculty, staff, and students in our department.
University of Florida scientists advance citrus greening research efforts
Published: November 12, 2019 | Source: EureakAlert!
To facilitate the scientific community's ability to use L. crescens in citrus greening research, University of Florida Department of Plant Pathology scientists have published an article in Phytopathology that outlines, step-by-step, highly reproducible and detailed protocols that they have standardized for culturing L. crescens.
UF/IFAS Leads Multistate Research to Reduce Pepper Diseases; Boost Production
Published: October 31, 2019 | Source: IFAS News
Pamela Roberts, a UF/IFAS plant pathology professor, has been awarded a four-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, an arm of the USDA, to lead research into ways to reduce bacterial diseases in peppers. Scientists from UF/IFAS, North Carolina State University, the University of Georgia, the Ohio State University, Auburn University, and a USDA lab in South Carolina will participate in the pepper disease research.
Growers Should Manage Tomato Bacterial Spot While Seedlings are in Transplant Facilities
Published: October 17, 2019 | Source: Southeast AgNet
A UF/IFAS-led team of scientists took Xanthomonas strains recovered from batches of seedlings produced at commercial transplant facilities and compared them to strains recovered later in the field season from the same batch of plants. Scientists found the bacterial strains in fields mirrored those found in transplant facilities.
Tomato Brown Rugose Spreading Globally
Published: October 15, 2019 | Source: Vegetable and Specialty Crop News
Detected first in 2015 in Jordan, and with outbreaks as recent as 2018 in California, ToBRFV is easily transmitted through contact. Ozgur Batuman, citrus pathologist at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee, spoke about the virus at the recent Vegetable & Specialty Crop Expo. He said tomato growers need to start paying attention to the root of the cause.
New Website Simplifies Connection to UF Experts in Plant Health
Published: July 25, 2019 | Source: GrowingFlorida
“We want this site to be a one-stop shop,” said Carrie Harmon, director of the Plant Diagnostic Center that is among the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ larger network of plant health resources for growers and citizens statewide. “Our aim is to connect the internal and external audience to the plant problem solutions they need in just a few clicks.”
Dr. Karen Garrett: Florida Crop Surveillance Network Offers State-Level Example of Proposed Global System
Published: July 9, 2019 | Source: IFAS News
Growing agricultural production demands and new disease threats will necessitate a global surveillance system for crop diseases, according to a new article in the journal Science. But one of the co-authors from the University of Florida, Karen Garrett, a plant pathology professor in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, notes that the university has built a similar system on a smaller scale throughout the state of Florida.