Peruse the produce section of a grocery store and you’re able to get citrus , strawberries , blueberries , tomatoes , sugarcane , corn and lettuce developed by UF / IFAS investigator . Go to a business organization that sell plants , and you ’ll see lantanas , coleus , caladium and a litany of your other preferred ornamental – also cover by scientist at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences .
UF / IFAS Associate Professor Vance Whitaker has breed raw strawberry smorgasbord from the fields and labs at the UF / IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center ( GCREC ) in Balm ( Hillsborough County ) , Florida .
“ ‘ Florida Brilliance ’ and Sweet Sensation will make up 90 % percent of Florida ’s strawberry land area in the come season , ” Whitaker allege . “ These varieties work well to keep high - quality strawberries in the foodstuff store from Thanksgiving to Easter . ”
Now , a raw website gives you information about the UF / IFAS flora breeding program . In plus to produce and ornamental plants , UF / IFAS scientists breed trees , grasses , grains , earthnut and oxen forage .
“ The overall goal of the website is to provide a comprehensive information hub for works training at UF / IFAS , ” said Whitaker , chair of the UF / IFAS Plant Breeders Working Group . “ This includes information on our raw interdepartmental graduate point program , which will go online in Fall 2021 , plant - breeding research from mental faculty who genetically improve over 50 plant life mintage and the real - world impingement of the plant varieties we develop . ”
The UF / IFAS - bred Tasti - Lee love apple came out in 2006 and due to numerous factors , one of which was nip , it ascended to the No . 1 - trade tomato in America in 2015 . More of late , Sam Hutton , associate professor in tomato rearing and genetic science at the UF / IFAS GCREC , develop the new tomato hybrid , called ‘ Solar Dancer , ’ which was released in 2019 .
“ This cross has impedance to several authoritative disease , it has excellent home fruit colour and heat - tolerant fruit setting , wee-wee it an attractive choice for pin production in Florida and in the Southeast , ” Hutton tell .
Fred Gmitter , a UF / IFAS prof of breeding and genetic science , has issue several mandarin varieties , include most recently , the ‘ endurance contest ’ in 2018 . The fruit ’s ability to advert onto the tree for an extended menstruation led investigator to give it the ‘ Marathon ’ moniker . ‘ battle of Marathon ’ now is useable from accredited Florida citrus fruit baby’s room , and already tree order of magnitude have been placed for plant in the winter of 2020 - 21 , said Gmitter , a mental faculty appendage at the UF / IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred , Florida .
“ Citrus growers are conservative by nature and careful when convey on new mixed bag . But based on the promising performance learn in some trial planting , interest is commence to increase well , ” he say . “ The good yield trait — completely seedless , attractive and wanton to peel — with good tang , make them more attractive to consumers and agriculturalist . ”
‘ Marathon ’ has other lineament that are catching industry attention : long on - Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and post - harvest fruit depot ability , former - season maturity date and unspoilt yield . ‘ battle of Marathon ’ is also broad to HLB ( Huanglongbing or the “ citrus - greening disease ” ) in vigorously get tree .
On the residential front , home plate and property owners often enhance their landscape with the beautiful lantana . However , some of the plant ’s varieties may escape yards , spread to areas where they should n’t go and cross - pollinate Florida ’s native lantana .
That ’s why , in 2004 , the psyche of the Tampa Bay Wholesale Growers Association asked UF / IFAS plant scientist Zhanao Deng if he could breed uninventive , non - incursive lantana plants .
In response , Deng has developed three varieties that meet glasshouse handler , retail merchant and consumers . Bloomify Red , Bloomify Rose , and Luscious Red Zone Royale are beautiful – so they will continue to enhance landscapes . But they do n’t produce fruit and source , do n’t open and do n’t cross - pollinate Florida ’s aboriginal lantana , Lantana depressa , said Deng , a professor of environmental horticulture at the UF / IFAS GCREC .
“ agriculturist , landscapers and gardener like these aseptic lantana varieties , ” Deng said . “ They have become a suitable surrogate of the fertile , invasive eccentric . More sort with these characteristic are being developed . ”
