Poinsettia Field Day at UF Gainesville

Growers have the opportunity to visit UF/IFAS Poinsettia Trial Field Day in Gainesville.  Here is your opportunity to see what grows best for us in Florida.  Please see the specifics below.

Title: Industry Poinsettia Trial Field Day
Host: UF/IFAS Extension
When: Tuesday, December 9, 9.15am to 2 pm
Where: University of Florida Environmental Horticulture Greenhouses, Gainesville FL.
Web page and registration: http://ufpoinsettia.eventbrite.com
Contact: Paul Fisher, pfisher@ufl.edu
Registration cost: free
Lunch provided, sponsored by Syngenta.

Includes tour of national poinsettia trials by Dr. Jim Barrett, discussion of alternatives to neonicitinoid pesticides by Dr. Lance Osborne, and new greenhouse production research by Dr. Paul Fisher.

New Cultivar of Tung Tree 'Anna Bella'

                     Tung tree 'Anna Bella' picture with permission from Timothy Rinehart USDA-ARS

I came across this new sterile variety of tung tree (Vernicia fordii) while reading through a USDA-ARS report.  The flowers are stunning and thought it might make a great candidate for local niche production.  The tung tree is from China and was produced in the Southeast US for the production of tung oil.  An oil that has a great property of drying when applied.  Non-sterile tung trees are considered a Category II invasive which means they are slow to get started in changing the landscape (as opposed to a Cat I invasive which takes over).  Tung trees can grow to 40 foot and have a smooth bark.  They are deciduous and poisonous and can cause allergic reactions.  The flowers appear first before they set leaves.  Specimens have been located in Central and North Florida according to UF's Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/31

The cultivar 'Anna Bella' was collected and housed in the germplasm collection at the Thad Cochran Southern Horticulture Research Laboratory in Poplarville, MS.  If you were on the International Plant Propagation Society Southern Region Meeting a few years back this was one of the tour stops.  There were no records of the cultivar in production so with the efforts of Timothy Rinehart they trialed the plant and released it to the industry.  The nice thing about this cultivar (other than the amazing flowers) is that it is sterile and produces no viable fruit.  So no need to worry about invasiveness and fruits in the yards.

If you would like more information about 'Anna Bella' here is a link to the article from where this information was derived  http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr14/tree0414.htm and here is a link to the Thad Cochran Sothern Horticulture Research Laboratory   http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=64-04-05-00     

New Gerbera and Caladium Varieties

Here are a few new cultivars and factsheets on the latest ornamental plant cultivar releases from Dr. Zhanao Deng at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm. 

                                       Caladium 'Red Hot' photo credit Zhanao Deng UF/IFAS
First are his caladiums are called 'Fairytale Princess' and 'Red Hot.'  These two new varieties are vibrant red, lanced leaved cultivars that show excellent tuber yield, pot quality, and landscape performance.  If you would like to read more here is a link to the EDIS factsheet. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/EP/EP48100.pdf
If you would like to find out about availability please send Shawn Steed and email ststeed@ufl.edu.

                                                 Photo Credits: Gail Bowman UF/IFAS

Secondly, are his gerbera daisy releases in the Funtastic TM, line called, 'Tangerine Eye' and 'Golden Eye.'  These gerberas have been breed and tested for use in large containers.  They are powdery mildew resistant and produce large flowers in colors complimenting the Funtastic TM line and are orange-red and yellow-orange.  If you would like to read more about these cultivars here is a link to the factsheet  http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/EP/EP48200.pdf

New Coleus Cultivars

Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) is a great plant for the landscape in Florida.  It is hardy in the summer and extremely visually attractive.  In fact, at my stint at the FNGLA Floriculture Field Trial, many visitors to the garden picked coleus as one of their favorites.    

The University of Florida Environmental Horticulture Department (Dr. David Clark) is releasing six new coleus cultivars (pictures above) through the Florida Foundation Seed Producers (FFSP) company.  FFSP is now taking Intrest to Negotiate proposals to license these cultivars to get them into production.  If your company is interested in submitting a proposal please click here for more information.  http://ffsp.net/resources/ITN13-05-10.pdf  

Just Released Sterile Ruellia

Here is another opportunity to license UF plant developments.  These plants are sterile cultivars of  Ruellia in violet and white.  For more information about the Invitation to Negotiate please click on this link. http://ffsp.net/resources/ITN12-08-09.pdf

Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. (FFSP) is announcing this Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for the exclusive licensing opportunity of the 'R10-102' and 'R10-108' ruellia simplex cultivars. These cultivars were developed by the ruellia breeding program at the University of Florida's Department of Environmental Horticulture.

'R10-102' (U.S. Patent Pending) and 'R10-108' (U.S. Patent Pending) are new sterile Ruellia simplex cultivars which are characterized by excellent performance in both full sun and partial shade environments, prolific flowering habits throughout the flowering season, large violet flowers ('R10-102') or large white flowers ('R10-108'), and lack of fruit production when grown in northwestern, north central, and southeastern Florida. These Ruellia cultivars are expected to have excellent landscape performance.

IFAS Releases New Red Pummelo

Here is an opportunity for a citrus propagator...
Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. (FFSP) is announcing this Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for the exclusive licensing opportunity of the '5-1-99-5' red pummelo cultivar. This cultivar was developed by the citrus breeding program at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Citrus Research and Education Center.

This new cultivar is a medium-large sized pummelo with attractive, uniformly-sized, dark-red fleshed segments and a thinner rind than other favored pummelo cultivars. Fruit of '5-1-99-5' is juicy, and has a slight grapefruit-like bitterness to it. Fruit of '5-1-99-5' is high in furanocoumarin content and is seedy, however, the seeds are located near the core of the fruit, and do not interfere with eating. Fruit size is quite uniform, ranging between 160mm to 180mm in diameter and 140mm to 160mm tall on average. Fruit tends to grow in clusters, and the rind can exhibit a pink blushing where fruit touch. Trees of '5-1-99-5' are obloid in structure with upright branches which exhibit drooping after fruiting has commenced. Trees are large, growing to heights of 3.35m when left un-pruned. Tree spread can reach around 3.4m. Trunk diameter reaches 13cm at 30cm above the ground.

For more information about this cultivar, please go to the following link  http%3a%2f%2fr20.rs6.net%2ftn.jsp%3fe%3d001UDkahJNgOGQZyoPyr4B1TwvvWpX1PTp3DUMeNEteAav4cgMExW6s05_cKKIfs7kczMPK3tUqY7s0wtcIK_I2hZTDRkUa6y67QgWyduLUI7mLRFUDyDbOy5LrBYiH8zfiJJSRbfV6Pi8%3d

Poinsettia Field Day

This in from the Environmental Horticulture Department at UF.

Calling all industry professionals: join us for our annual poinsettia open house!

The 2011 Poinsettia Field Day will be held Tuesday, December 6, 9am–3pm, in the UF Environmental Horticulture Greenhouse Complex in Gainesville.

On the industry day, a tour will be given. Last year, over 100 different varieties were on display from Dummen, Ecke, Selecta/Ball, and Syngenta.

There's no registration required. For questions or additional information contact Dr. Jim Barrett at jbarrett@ufl.edu.

Florida Hardy Rose Production Seminar

Wouldn't it be nice if you could just plant roses and never have to care for them.  The University of Florida has been doing some important work on this dream for you. Three locations across Florida north, central, and south, trialed old garden roses to see how well they hold up under minimal input landscape care.  The central location was located here in Plant City under the watchful eye of Dr. Sydney Park-Brown.  The idea for this project came from the Texas A&M Earth-kind roses program http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkind/roses/.  
The roses were subjected to every day climate at their various locations. And they were treated with a "set it and forget it" landscape approach. These roses had minimal fertilizer, minimal irrigation, no pruning, and no pesticides for either disease or insect control. The results of this experiment were given at a seminar in conjunction with the University of Florida Research and Extension at the Plant City Campus.  At our seminar we also provided participants with roses to take home and trial from the best performing varieties.  I provided rooted cuttings and Dr. Gary Knox from the North Florida Research and Education Center provided one gallon plants.  It was my intention that someone in our local industry would start to grow them commercially.  Some of the best performing varieties they found from the old garden roses were Mutabalis, Knock Outs, Spice, and Mrs. B.R. Kant.  These might be excellent varieties to provide for your landscape customers for landscape and home enjoyment.  Here are the presentations in case you missed them on my website.  Just scroll down to the Florida Hardy Rose Production Seminar and click on a title of the presentations you would like to see.  http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu/Ag/AgOrnProd/AgPresentations2009.html

New Caladium from GCREC 'Tapestry'

Zhanao Deng a researcher/breeder at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm has released a new caladium cultivar to the industry.  Here is the description.

'Tapestry' is a fancy-leaved variety with large, attractive pink blotches and red petioles (Figures 1; Deng et al. 2011). It has demonstrated high tuber yield potential and performed well in forced containers and landscape use. Its performance as a pot or landscape plant was significantly better than 'Carolyn Whorton', 'Fannie Munson', or 'White Queen'. 'Tapestry' also sprouts earlier than these existing commercial varieties. These characteristics should benefit consumers and landscapers as well as growers producing tubers and marketing potted or bedding plants.

For more information on this new caladium cultivar please read the following publication http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep444

UF Releases New Coleus Cultivars for Exclusive Liscensing

UF has just released 4 new coleus cultivars for growers interested in exclusive liscensing agreement from the Florida Foundation Seed Producers (FFSP).  For more information you can go to the FFSP website.   http://ffsp.net/resources/ITN11-01-4+-+Coleus+Cultivars.pdf

Florida Foundation Seed Producers, Inc. (FFSP) is announcing these Invitations to Negotiate (ITN) for the exclusive licensing opportunities of the 'UF08-4-3', 'UF08-17-4', 'UF09-6-1' and 'UF09-27-1' coleus cultivars. These cultivars were developed in the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences' coleus breeding program under the direction of Dr. David Clark.

FFSP encourages technology transfer to be an open process among all interested external parties. Because these cultivars may be exclusively licensed, the award of these exclusive licenses will be handled through our ITN process. If you or your company are unfamiliar with the ITN process, please click here for more information. http://ffsp.net/4.html
There are three (3) principles used to guide the entire FFSP ITN process. In order of importance, these principles are:
For the good of the State of Florida and its people;
For the good of the University of Florida and IFAS; and
For the good of the breeding program and the breeders.
These three (3) principles are to be addressed at all levels of discussion in the ITN process.

Cultivar descriptions


'UF08-4-3' is a vigorous, upright growing plant with velvety textured leaves. Foliage color is mainly yellow-green in the center of the leaf, transitioning to darker yellow-green margins with yellow-green leaf veins on the adaxial surface. Leaf shape is reticulate at the base and caudate at the tip with lacerate margins.

'UF08-17-4' is a vigorous, large-leafed plant with a loosely mounded habit. Foliage on the adaxial leaf surface is primarily red-purple with yellow-greeninterveinal areas and margins. Leaf shape is attenuate at the base and caudate at the tip with undulated lobed margins.

'UF09-6-1' is a plant with upright growth habit, uniform branching and standard vigor similar to most commercial varieties. The adaxial leaf surface is mottled with yellow and yellow-green. Young leaves feature a red-purple center, while older leaves display less of this pink color. Leaf shape is auriculate at the base and whorled/acuminate at the tip with lobed margins.

'UF09-27-1' is a plant with upright growth habit, uniform branching, and vigor similar to that of most other commercial coleus varieties. Foliage features a mixture of red-purple, brown, and yellow-green on the adaxial leaf surface. Leaf shape is attenuate at the base and acute at the tip with lobed margins.
Performance and selection

'UF08-4-3' was selected mainly for its novel leaf shape and bold, lemon-lime foliage color. It has superior color stability in both sun and shade. This plant has not been observed to set flowers in any trial to date. Thus, it is desirable for long-season performance in the landscape.

'UF08-17-4' was chosen for its mounded plant habit, lack of flowering, and proliferation of vegetative propagules. The maroon leaf color of this cultivar, which is mottled with lime-green colored edges, is very stable in both sun and shade. The mounded growth habit of this cultivar would also accent front borders of landscape.

'UF09-6-1' has a novel foliage color patterning and leaf shape and is distinguished by its color compatibility with other plants in the landscape. Leaves are mainly bright yellow-green, but pink leaf centers and a distinct leaf shape give leaves a swirled pattern and appearance.

'UF09-27-1' was selected mainly for its unique combination of leaf colors and its stable color patterning in both sun and shade conditions. 'UF09-27-1' is well branched and should produce ample cuttings for propagators. It does not flower until very late in the season, which ensures that this plant will have a long season to show all of its different colors.

All interested parties are encouraged to submit comments and/or proposals for these exclusive licensing opportunities. In order to submit comments and/or proposals, you must first complete and submit the ITN Acknowledgment Form(s) to Mr. John Beuttenmuller, FFSP Executive Director via fax or mail (Fax - (877) 839-9162, Mail - 1059 McCarty Hall D, PO Box 110200, Gainesville, FL 32611-0200). The ITN Acknowledgment Forms can be found at the end of the Coleus ITN Announcement Packet. After FFSP has received your signed Acknowledgment Form(s), your company will be sent a questionnaire, which may be used as a template for your proposal.

All proposals and comments must be received by FFSP before 12PM EST on Friday, June 17, 2011. Proposals and comments received after this time will not be accepted or considered.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact FFSP John Beuttenmuller,  Phone:  352-392-9446.

New Grape Varieties From UF/IFAS

Here is a video of some of the latest releases from Dr. Dennis Gray's grape breeding program. I thought that I might inspire some of the growers of woody ornamentals to try a new edible crop in their production scheme. During my field tour with Dr. Gray I was really impressed by the large yields of these and other grapes they had in the field at Apopka Mid-Florida Research and Education Center. The vineyard rows looked like something you would see in California with beautiful ripe clusters hanging down from the wire trellises and lush green foliage above. These grapes are easily propagated from softwood to medium cuttings and grow rapidly to a salable plant in either a one or 3 gallon container.

Click on the following link to see the varieties and meet Dr. Gray
http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu/Ag/AgOrnProd/Video/GrapesVideo.html

If you would like more information on where to obtain the varieties shown in this video please call me at the extension office in 813-744-5519 ext.147

Knock Out Roses Illegally Propagated

Here is a story from Greenhouse Grower about an unnamed illegal propagator of knock out roses being caught and fined. The nursery was in Central Florida but will remain unnamed due to the clauses of the settlement.



Any plants that are patented are the property of the patent holder and the propagation of those plants will need to be allowed or permission given from the patent holder. This is an easy financial risk to eliminate from your business operation. I have seen people inspecting large nurseries for the potential of illegal propagation. Here is the link to the rest of the story.



http://www.greenhousegrower.com/news/?storyid=3439

Powdery Mildew on Oaks

I've noticed indications of powdery mildew on "Cathedral" live oaks pp #12015 recently at a field visit to a tree farm. If you are growing this variety of oaks you may want to do some scouting and check the leaves for the presence of this disease. It would also be good to set a threshold limit for economic damage.

A picture of affected "Cathedral" live oak leaves.

Determine how much damage is acceptable before treatment is necessary. I have seen defoliation of this cultivar later in the growing season that might be attributable to this pathogen growing unchecked. This potentially took the affected trees out of availability for sale until new leaves could be grown in the spring. Here is a link to a publication on treatment for powdery mildew.

Professional Disease Management Guide for Ornamentals http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp123

and here is a publication on powdery mildew on gerbera daisy with a list of fungicides that that can be used for ornamentals. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp257

Make sure that if you decide to spray you read the label for proper rates!

Adapt and Overcome

There is some interest as of late in the nursery industry to try new or different crops to help out with slumping sales. Some have been talking about blueberry or stone fruits as a possible new crop. The sales of edible nursery items such as citrus, blueberries, vegetable transplants have been doing well with local retailers and have been increasing. The University of Florida/IFAS has had a strong breeding program to help with Florida regionalized, low-chill stone fruits and blueberries. The breeding program works directly with the Florida Foundation Seed Producers to license growers to produce the patented plants. They also look for growers to work with them to produce plants and make them available to the general public. Here is a link to the FFSP: http://ffsp.net/. There are other plants that UF will license such as lisianthus, coleus, caladiums and grapes.

The blueberry cultivars are highbush varieties and they are named: Star, Emerald, Millennia, Jewel, Southern Belle, Blue Crisp, Sebring, Windsor, Sapphire, Santa Fe, Springhigh, Springwide, Abundance, Savory, Floridarose, Primadonna, Snowchaser, Sweetcrisp.

They can be found on the web brochure: http://ffsp.net/resources/$2706Blueberry.pdf

There are nine peaches: UFSun, UFBeauty, UFBlaze, UFSharp, UFO, Gulfking, Gulfcrest, Gulfprince GulfCrimson;

three plums: Gulfbeauty, Gulfblaze, Gulfrose;

three nectarines: Sunmist, Sunbest, UFQueen;

and one apple: 'TropicSweet' (Fla. 90-3)

The brochure for the stone fruits is: http://ffsp.net/resources/UFStonefruit060908.pdf.

If you would like more information about varieties or how to get licensed call me at IFAS extension (813) 744-5519 ext. 147, or FFSP, John Beuttenmuller (352) 392-9446.