UF Southwest Florida Research and Education Center

Lipman Family Farms wanted to mitigate flood risk associated with heavy rain on their 2,000-acre farm in Naples.As general manager, Lucas Conran helps oversee seven farming operations for Lipman in Florida and other states along the East Coast. So, he asked for help from his longtime friend, Sanjay Shukla, a University of Florida hydrologist, who had just developed his “compact-bed geometry,” with state and federal funding, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Florida’s multi-million-dollar pet fish trade is skyrocketing.But in the Sunshine State, only 10% of that industry breeds salt-water fish. And yet, demand for real-life, ocean-dwelling Dorys and Nemos is greater than ever.

A new University of Florida study reveals insights into the secret social lives of the vibrant emerald green orchid bee known as Euglossa dilemma. Among those revelations is the bees’ ability to transition from living alone to cohabiting in small groups.In the world of pollinators, orchid bees stand out for their brilliant colors, size and physical appearance to the unsuspecting person who comes across them in a garden, park or wildlife area.

Ever since Florida farmers have been growing tomatoes, they’ve picked them by hand or hired laborers. It’s painstaking work that might be made easier soon with machine-harvestable tomatoes developed by University of Florida scientists. Now that the varieties are available, growers in Florida’s $400 million-a-year industry hope they can use mechanized harvesting, but doubts remain. Large-scale trials this spring – using the new varieties -- will tell growers and scientists a lot more. The new varieties were decades in the making, said Jessica Chitwood-Brown, the tomato breeder at the University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC).

University of Florida scientists have found ethyl vanillin -- an aroma compound in many artificial vanilla-flavored food products -- in a UF/IFAS-bred strawberry.This is a key finding for the food and beverage industry and for the UF/IFAS strawberry breeding program.

University of Florida scientists are breeding better-tasting, Florida-grown blueberries with the help of consumers through taste-testing in the University’s Sensory Lab.

Scientists at the University of Florida’s Southwest Florida Research and Education Center have taken tomato research to the skies. An agricultural…