The primary purpose of this agreement is to enhance the BIO indexing processes utilized to exclude pathogens from the production of germplasm source trees used by citrus nurseries

This Cooperative Agreement award, totaling $112,533.00, is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care Federal Grant Program (CFDA 10.025). The primary purpose of this agreement is to enhance the bio-indexing processes used to exclude pathogens from the production of germplasm source trees utilized by citrus nurseries. The project focuses on optimizing the growth conditions of indicator plants to improve the efficiency of disease testing, with the objectives of establishing appropriate fertilization levels for high-density growth of different citrus indicator species in hydroponics and automating the fertigation process. This research aims to improve the CCPP's quarantine bio-indexing processes, increase its annual variety introduction indexing capacity, and provide critical propagative materials of valuable citrus varieties to the industry across the U.S.

The project focuses on optimizing the growth conditions of indicator plants to improve the efficiency of disease testing. The objectives of the project are to establish the appropriate fertilization levels for the high-density growth of different species of citrus indicators in hydroponics using currently available renewable plant growth substrates and to automate the fertigation process. This project will address the pressing need to improve the ccpp's quarantine bioindexing processes, which are utilized to exclude pathogens from the production of nursery-used citrus germplasm source trees and to safeguard and promote the competitiveness of the citrus industry while making the testing process more economical, space-efficient, and more environmentally sustainable. In addition, increasing its annual variety introduction indexing capacity, thus providing critical propagative materials of commercial and research valuable citrus varieties to the industry throughout the US, as ccpp provides arizona, texas, hawaii, and puerto rico with germplasm source materials for their nursery production.