{"id":75871,"date":"2026-08-07T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=75871"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T05:38:25","slug":"florida-southern-college-turns-citrus-groves-into-living-laboratories-to-help-rescue-the-states-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/08\/07\/florida-southern-college-turns-citrus-groves-into-living-laboratories-to-help-rescue-the-states-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Southern College turns citrus groves into ‘living laboratories’ to help rescue the state’s industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Florida Southern College (FSC) has rehabilitated two historic citrus groves on its Lakeland campus, converting them into “living laboratories” designed to test innovative production strategies and fight citrus greening.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details of the Initiative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  • Combating Citrus Greening (HLB):<\/strong> The central challenge facing Florida’s citrus growers is Huanglongbing<\/em> (HLB), a bacterial disease transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid that weakens and kills citrus trees. The new groves serve as practical evaluation sites for disease-resistant technology and protective growing methods.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Industry Partnerships:<\/strong>\n
      \n
    • Phillip Rucks Nursery<\/strong> provided the primary tree stock, utilizing rootstock varieties engineered for higher resistance to HLB.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Citrus Service, Inc.<\/strong> (Mike Hurst) supplied protective mesh tree tents (individual protective covers) that prevent psyllids from feeding on young, vulnerable saplings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Hands-On Experiential Learning:<\/strong> Students in FSC’s Horticulture, Land, and Resource Management programs work alongside faculty (including Dr. Shea Keene) to monitor rootstock performance, tree growth, and pest management in real-time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Historical Roots:<\/strong> Built on the site of a former citrus grove when the college moved to Lakeland in 1921, FSC has a long history with the industry, having established one of the nation’s first collegiate Citrus Institutes in 1947.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The project aims to provide scalable, research-backed tools that commercial growers across Florida can adopt to revitalize the state’s signature agricultural sector.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Florida Southern College (FSC) has rehabilitated two historic citrus groves on its Lakeland campus, converting them into “living laboratories” designed to test innovative production strategies and fight citrus greening. Key… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDhcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wOC0wN1QwMTM0MDEuNjIxLndlYnA_Zml0PTQzNSUyQzIxOCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZsb3JpZGEgU291dGhlcm4gQ29sbGVnZSB0dXJucyBjaXRydXMgZ3JvdmVzIGludG8gJiM4MjE2O2xpdmluZyBsYWJvcmF0b3JpZXMmIzgyMTc7IHRvIGhlbHAgcmVzY3VlIHRoZSBzdGF0ZSYjODIxNztzIGluZHVzdHJ5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.RjoFgdYtdLjnUz6QYAcsHRrvzschUMkKE9EkbB8I6TUMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA4XC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTIwMjYtMDgtMDdUMDEzNDAxLjYyMS53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBTb3V0aGVybiBDb2xsZWdlIHR1cm5zIGNpdHJ1cyBncm92ZXMgaW50byAnbGl2aW5nIGxhYm9yYXRvcmllcycgdG8gaGVscCByZXNjdWUgdGhlIHN0YXRlJ3MgaW5kdXN0cnkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.QLwwzZ93Muh2R7v_MQti8jVimYKGmKOSQTHL1BrjCiUMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[15789,247,15788],"class_list":["post-75871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fsc-news","tag-citrus","tag-florida-southern-college","tag-living-laboratories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75874,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75871\/revisions\/75874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}