Category: Horticulture

COVID-19 and UF/IFAS Extension

by Nick Place

March 15, 2020

Updated 03/15/20 As we continue to monitor COVID-19 in Florida, I wanted to take a moment to update our UF/IFAS Extension community about our current status, best practices and next steps. The personal health and safety of everyone in the ... READ MORE

Category: 4-H & Youth, Agribusiness, Agriculture, Camp, Clubs & Volunteers, Coasts & Marine, Community Volunteers, Conservation, Crops, Curriculum, Disaster Preparation, Events, Farm Management, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Food Safety, Forests, Fruits & Vegetables, Health & Nutrition, Home Landscapes, Home Management, Horticulture, Invasive Species, Lawn, Livestock, Money Matters, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, Professional Development, Recreation, Relationships & Family, SFYL Hot Topic, Turf, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, UF/IFAS Research, UF/IFAS Teaching, , Water, Wildlife, Work & Life
Tags: Covid-19, Featured Hot Topic, Hot Topic

Florida Ag Expo Promotes Alternative Crops for Florida Growers

by ccooley

November 15, 2016

Blackberries, hops, pomegranates and more were highlighted at our recent Florida Ag Expo with a focus on providing alternative crops for central Florida growers. With the citrus greening issues nearly devastating Florida's top crop in recent ... READ MORE

Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Events, Farm Management, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, Research, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension

It’s Strawberry Planting Time at GCREC

by ccooley

September 19, 2016

Now that fall has arrived, the farm crew, faculty and staff of our strawberry program are hard at work preparing for another strawberry season in central Florida. It's one of the highlights of the year for our center when we get those bare ... READ MORE

Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, , Crops, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, Research, UF/IFAS

Creating Kid Locavores

by ccooley

June 24, 2016

One of the best part of my job at GCREC is hosting tour groups from local schools. We recently had the opportunity to entertain a group of 45 STEM students from a local school, R. Bruce Wagner, and we introduced them to something new called ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, Crops, Events, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, UF/IFAS
Tags: Blueberries, Elementary School Kids, Farmers Markets, Fruits And Vegeables, Gulf Coast Research Center, Locavores, Produce, Strawberries, Student, UF/IFAS

Birdwatching on the Farm

by ccooley

April 26, 2016

We had a recent employee, Bill Dermott, who upon his departure gave me a list of all the birds he had observed at our research center over the last 6 months or so. We're talking about 80 different kinds of birds. This list consisted of the ... READ MORE

Category: Academics, Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Farm Management, Horticulture, Natural Resources, Research, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, Wildlife
Tags: Alligators, Bird Watching, Florida Wild Life, Gulf Coast Research, Hawks, IFAS, Sandhill Cranes, Southern Hillsborough County, University Of Florida

Florida Grown Hops – Alternative Crop for the Future? Well, Maybe.

by ccooley

April 6, 2016

There has been a lot of media attention regarding the possibility of a new alternative crop for Florida growers - hops. Hops are the buds or flowers of the hop plant. Used as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, hops can give this popular ... READ MORE

Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Horticulture, Research, UF/IFAS
Tags: Agriculture, Alternative Crops, Craft Beer, Farm To Table, Florida Crops, Hops

2016 Strawberry Field Day

by ccooley

January 25, 2016

Although Gulf Coast Research Center is located in southern Hillsborough County, we found from past experience that strawberry growers tend to feel the center is a little removed from the action, which is located in Plant City. Therefore, in ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, , Crops, Events, Horticulture, Pests & Disease, Research, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
Tags: Disease Control, Dover, Florida Strawberries, Florida Strawberry Growers Association, Gulf Coast Research, Labor Issues, Molecular Breeding, Nematode Control, Pest Control, Plant City Strawberries, Strawberry Breeding, Strawberry Growers, Strawberry Varieties, Weed Control

GCREC Says Goodbye to the Colorado Summer Nursery

by ccooley

November 5, 2015

Because Florida summers make it nearly impossible to grow strawberry plants outdoors, we send thousands of seedlings from our breeding program west to cooler more temperate climates for the summer. Our strawberry breeding team works year round ... READ MORE

Category: Agriculture, Crops, Farm Management, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, Research, UF/IFAS
Tags: Breeding Stock, Colorado State University, GCREC Strawberry Breeding, Strawberry, Summer Nursery

Strawberry Time at Gulf Coast REC

by ccooley

October 15, 2015

If you lived in a northern state at one time or another, maybe you have a little strawberry patch in your backyard. After your last harvest and before the first frost, you would take some straw or a load of grass clippings and cover your berry ... READ MORE

Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Farm Management, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, Research, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension

2015 Caladium Field Day at GCREC

by ccooley

October 8, 2015

Each fall part of our research fields are full of beautiful caladiums. Caladium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. These plants are ideal for all sorts of landscape. They thrive in shady areas and are very low maintenance. ... READ MORE

Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Research, UF/IFAS
Tags: Caladiums, Environmental Horticulture, Field Day, Floriculture, GCREC, Gulf Coast Research, Lake Placid, Landscaping

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