‘Citrus Under Protective Screen,’ known as ‘C.U.P.S.’ was a concept developed by the University of Florida.
Screen structures stretch for as far as the eye can see across a swath of land in Polk County.
It’s the newest and largest site where ‘Citrus Under Protective Screen’ or ‘C.U.P.S.’ is being grown by the Dundee Citrus Growers Association.
“Not only are you getting something that looks great, that tastes great… There’s a great story behind it,” CEO Steven Callaham said.
The story began in 2017 when the association first used this production system commercially.
The University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center created the concept to overcome citrus greening; a disease Callaham said has devastated the Florida industry.
“It’s taken the volume or the production in the state from about 300 million boxes of citrus down to less than 15 million boxes,” Callaham said.
Citrus greening disease is spread by an Asian Citrus Psyllid.
“It’s a very, very small insect that feeds on the citrus tree, spreads the disease from one tree to the other and it eventually ends up killing the tree,” Callaham said.
That’s where the screen structures come in to keep the insects out.
“You just have to get a screen that will let as much wind, as much rain, as much sunlight pass through without letting a psyllid, the insect, make it through there,” Callaham said.
The method, Callaham said, is working with Dundee Citrus starting with 110 acres of C.U.P.S. and by this Spring, there is expected to be right under a thousand acres.
“It is a solution, an alternative to traditional growing methods but I don’t think it’s going to be adopted by everybody,” he said.
Callaham called the method “capital intensive.” He said with change comes resistance, but it’s a method the association is embracing… growing more, with less.
“It takes less land, less volume to grow your fruit, it takes less water, it takes less fertilizer to produce each piece of fruit,” he explained.