EDIS (Nov 2019)
Orange Opportunities
Abstract
Florida orange juice has always been the gold standard among the growing portfolio of fruit juices and blends available to consumers. However, the now endemic citrus greening disease or huanglongbing (HLB) threatens this status by causing reduced fruit production, lower juice quality and higher prices. The University of Florida’s Citrus Improvement Team at the Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) in Lake Alfred has been working for decades to develop new processing sweet orange cultivars. These cultivars have potential to improve the Florida citrus industry’s portfolio of oranges used to make the best not from concentrate (NFC) juice possible. This research has resulted in the commercial release of several new promising cultivars, with early-, mid- and late-season maturity dates.
