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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nScreen structures stretch for as far as the eye can see across a swath of land in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Not only are you getting something that looks great, that tastes great… There’s a great story behind it,” CEO Steven Callaham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story began in 2017 when the association first used this production system commercially. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citrus greening disease is spread by an Asian Citrus Psyllid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s where the screen structures come in to keep the insects out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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