The best time to plant a fruit tree is always when you have your tree in front of you and your pick and shovel are at hand. Waiting to plant will only make you have to water your plant in its container, and that is harder to do than if it is ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, , Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
There are 16 nutrients plants need to thrive and they are divided into macro and micronutrients. Macronutrients are needed in larger quantities than micronutrients, but all 16 elements are needed for proper plant growth. The macronutrients are ... READ MORE
Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Farm Management, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, UF/IFAS Teaching
There are many types of tropical fruit that can be grown with ease in south Florida, but even the heartiest types of trees sometimes have issues that can affect their growth. The following problems are quite common and usually fairly easy to ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, , Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
In early 2002, somewhere near the meandering Savannah River, Georgia, a tiny female ambrosia beetle emerged from a wooden packing crate and flew inland towards a small stand of native redbay trees and began to drill. Two decades later and that ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Forests, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Invasive Species, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course it does, and I’m sure it’s quite loud. That philosophical question has never held my interest. Now, if you start talking about what happens ... READ MORE
Category: Agribusiness, Agriculture, Crops, Farm Management, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
We want our plants to do their best: to grow, to be healthy, to flourish, to bloom, and in the case of fruit trees, to produce. As the Commercial Tropical Fruit Extension Agent for Miami-Dade County, I am often presented with what the grower ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, , Crops, Farm Management, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes, Horticulture, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
Death by water intake is a real thing. There are documented cases where people have died from drinking too much water, which is called water intoxication, either because of coercion or drug-induced excess thirst. Mama always said that too much ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Crops, Farm Management, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, Water
Anyone that has ever put shovel to earth in South Florida knows that our “soil” is actually rock. The rock is a type of limestone known as Miami Limestone, or oolitic limestone, and is not coral as many people think. Limestone Gables didn’t ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, , Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
When it comes to dealing with insect pests of tropical fruit, try not to think “What do I spray?” Instead, use a balanced approach to pest control that will use pesticides only when completely necessary. The most common pests for tropical ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Crops, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Fruits & Vegetables, Horticulture, Pests & Disease, SFYL Hot Topic
There are a number of controllable factors that combine to create a tree healthy enough to fruit. A healthy tree must have a strong root system, adequate light, proper pruning, proper nutrition, the right age, proper pollination, no mechanical ... READ MORE
Category: Crops, Fruits & Vegetables, SFYL Hot Topic, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension