Scientists throughout the South are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help growers save labor costs and time, spray with precision, detect diseases, control food quality, maintain animal health and help grow wheat. University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences invention assesses plant stress…
Read More Southern Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence To Reduce Costs, Labor On Farms
People with a green thumb for growing tomatoes are giving University of Florida scientists good data to help them find tastier tomatoes. Through a citizen science program, Denise Tieman, a UF/IFAS research associate professor of horticultural sciences and her lab are getting viable data from…
Read More Citizen Scientists Help University Of Florida Researchers Find Best-Tasting Tomatoes
Want to make cheesecake from home and sell it? You’re hardly alone, but that’s a tricky prospect. “People love cheesecake. But it doesn’t meet Florida’s Cottage Food Law. You can’t make it from your home. If you have to refrigerate the product, you can’t make…
Read More Aspiring Food Entrepreneurs Can Call UF/IFAS Specialist For More Info On Food Safety
Florida’s oyster population has declined during the past 15 years because of overharvest, hurricanes, changing environmental conditions and more. In particular, Apalachicola Bay has seen a pronounced reduction. “Oyster farming has been seen as a way to continue the supply of oysters because the wild…
Read More New Technologies May Help Oyster Farmers Increase Their Harvests, Reduce Labor
You may have seen small trees in white shrouds on hills along the highways. They protect citrus trees from the Asian citrus psyllid and therefore, citrus greening disease. New University of Florida research shows the trees grown under the individual protective covers (IPCs) also grow…
Read More Mesh Bags Protect Citrus Against Greening, May Improve Tree Health And Fruit Quality Later
Florida’s strawberry season doesn’t return until December. But University of Florida scientists work year-round to support an industry with a $500 million-a-year farm-gate value in Florida. Among their research endeavors, UF/IFAS scientists search for ways to help growers control diseases that can damage strawberries. Most…
Read More University Of Florida Scientists Use AI Algorithm To Improve Strawberry Disease Detection
Instead of taking what the broker or retailer feels like paying, small- and medium-sized farmers who sell directly to consumers should track costs, determine what they want to earn and set their own produce prices, University of Florida experts say. Growers should base their prices…
Read More When Pricing Produce To Sell Directly To Consumers, Farmers Urged To Know Their Costs
Trees can provide much-needed shade in cities, thereby reducing the “heat island” effect. Such benefits underpin the growth of urban tree planting campaigns across the globe. But they can also topple in storms, generating headaches and possibly heartache — a salient point as we enter…
Read More UF Study Sheds Light On Challenges, Recommendations Of Managing Urban Trees And Storms
Summer brings daily storms in the Sunshine State, and with the rain, you need to control flooding in some neighborhoods. Florida is swimming in 76,000 stormwater ponds. Designed to control flooding, stormwater ponds are not as effective as natural ponds at removing nitrogen, a pollutant…
Read More Natural Ponds In Florida Remove Nitrogen More Effectively Than Stormwater Ponds
Crave that cup of coffee in the morning? Globally, consumers drink more than 2.2 billion cups daily. Someone grows all that joe: More than 100 million farmers worldwide produce coffee. Coffee beans consumed across the globe come from two species: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora,…
Read More University Of Florida Scientists Study How To Bring You ‘Climate-Smart Coffee’