General info
The state of Florida is pre-eminently a horticultural state, with almost three-fourths of its agricultural income produced by horticultural crops. No other state has so high a proportion of horticulture to total agriculture, and only California has a higher value of horticultural crops. Vegetables and citrus dominate horticultural commodities, accounting for 70-75% of the net value. Ornamental production contributes about 25% of the net value of horticultural crops. Florida's climate ranges from warm subtropical in the southern areas to cool subtropical in the northern ones. Thus North Florida is too warm in winter for most deciduous fruits to get adequate chilling, while South Florida has freezing temperatures too often for tropical fruits to be secure. Since oranges and grapefruit are subtropical in their requirements, they have proved better adapted to Florida than any other fruits. Florida is the primary producer of citrus, fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, sweet corn, cucumbers, snap beans, squash, and watermelon in the U.S. Overall, the entire Florida vegetable industry ranks second to California in production. Florida also leads the U.S. in production of cut ferns, house plants and foliage plants. Horticultural research is conducted by the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) in Gainesville, as well as at 11 UF/IFAS Research and Education Centers located state-wide. The Florida Department of Citrus, in cooperation with the Citrus Research and Education Center, supports scientific, economic, and marketing research on citrus. The United States Department of Agriculture has a large group at Orlando investigating citrus problems and a small one near Miami working on tropical fruits and ornamentals. Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami, a private institution, also conducts research on ornamental plant culture, especially palms. Organisations / Institutes:
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Last updated: Tue Dec 16 20:09:41 NFT 2003