Mary Sutton, citrus Extension specialist and assistant professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ horticulture department, shared fertilizer recommendations with AgNet Specialty Crop Grower.
Specifically, Sutton is focused on benefiting Georgia growers, whose needs differ from those of growers in Florida.
“A lot of Florida’s recommendations were developed with their super sandy, sugar sand in mind, whereas Georgia has a lot loamier soil. Those are very different soil chemistries,” Sutton said. “The amounts of fertilizer that we’re putting down, a lot of it sticks in the soil instead of running off, like it would in Florida. That is enough right there to say we need our own recommendations.”
Some Georgia producers have already begun to move away from recommendations by the University of Florida, due to adverse effects on trees.
“Nitrogen is a big one, I’ve heard. People are reigning it in because they were having issues with fruit staying too green. There was way too much vegetative growth for the size trees that they were wanting,” Sutton said. “People are recognizing that they’re going to have to change things up. But each grower is different on what they’re doing.”