Credits
Authors of the Florida Citrus Rootstock Selection Guide, 4th Edition
William S. Castle
Professor Emeritus, University of Florida
Dr. Castle, who retired in 2009, spent his 35-year career at the University of Florida’s, IFAS, Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC), in Lake Alfred, FL. He was most of his career a member of the plant improvement team with responsibilities for the development and field evaluation of citrus scions and rootstocks. That experience led to him being the primary author on the first three and this (4th) edition of the Florida Citrus Rootstock Selection Guide.
Kim D. Bowman
Geneticist, USDA
Research geneticist and lead scientist since 1992 at USDA-ARS. Dr. Bowman released 4 new hybrid rootstocks from 2001 to 2010 that were used for about 22 percent of 2014-15 propagations in Florida nurseries or more than 1,000,000 trees per year in Florida. In 2014, he released five new hybrid rootstocks with improved tolerance to HLB. Dr. Bowman has been the lead on research to examine tolerance to HLB in rootstocks and gene expression changes associated with disease development and the tolerance reaction
Jude W. Grosser
Professor, University of Florida
Professor of citrus breeding and genetics since 1985 at UF/IFAS, CREC. Dr. Grosser has been a member of the CREC plant improvement team for 30 years, specializing in adapting emerging biotechnologies, especially ploidy manipulation, to facilitate citrus breeding. Dr. Grosser works on the development of improved processing sweet oranges, seedless fresh fruit cultivars, rootstocks, and genetic engineering with emphasis on disease resistance.
Rhuanito S. Ferrarezi
Associate Professor, University of Florida
Assistant professor of citrus horticulture since 2016 at UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC) in Fort Pierce, FL. Dr. Ferrarezi’s focus is on enhancing irrigation, fertilization, and cultural practices in grapefruit groves at the Indian River citrus district. Dr. Ferrarezi leads the IRREC variety trials testing of new grapefruit scions and University of Florida rootstocks (UFR), and the IRREC citrus under protective screen (CUPS) project to exclude psyllids from grapefruit plantings.
Stephen H. Futch
Multi-County Extension Agent,
University of Florida
Extension agent emeritus whose citrus career spanned 40+ years in Florida. He was an extension agent for the past 30 years while located at UF’s CREC since 1990. He conducted educational programs and assisted growers in the 4-county area of DeSoto, Hardee, Manatee and Sarasota which comprises approximately 25% of Florida’s citrus acreage. In addition to educational programs, he conducted various production-related and weed control trials and published more than 500 articles in trade magazines and Proceedings.
Steve Rogers
CEO Ecostat/Researcher/Citrus Grower
At Ecostat LLC, Steve Rogers is a researcher, citrus grower and web services provider based in Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of California at Berkeley and did post-doctoral studies at the University of Florida. Dr. Rogers is co-editor of Florida Citrus: A Comprehensive Guide. He also served as Scientific Coordinator of the Florida Citrus Production Research Advisory Council from 2004 to 2008. His commercial and research interests include data acquisition, analytics and artificial intelligence using cloud- and web-based systems. In the mid-1990s, his company designed and developed one of the first handheld PDA applications used in large-scale commercial agriculture. Dr. Rogers is based in Polk County, where he also works in his family’s citrus operation.
Contributors of the Florida Citrus Rootstock Selection Guide, 4th Edition
Andres C. Gonzalez Neira
Bioinformatics, University of Florida
Research assistant with the UF / IFAS / IRREC, CEO/CSO of MyClade Inc., an open source genomic scientific web-portal.