With University of California funding, we replaced the refrigeration units in the walk-in cold storage rooms in the packline facility at Lindcove.  This will help us regulate the temperature better in these rooms and allow new and interesting experiments to be conducted at LREC. 

Volatile organic compounds react with NOx to produce ozone which is an air pollutant affecting human health and plant growth.  Silvano Fares, John Karlik and Allen Goldstein (shown left to right below), provided an imformative 'Featured research seminar' at Lindcove in May 11 to explain the results of their research, which suggests that citrus helps to reduce ozone.

The benches in the entomology greenhouse at LREC are being renovated in order to better support potted citrus.  Seedlings are grown in this house and used for experiments to test the effects of insecticides on citrus leafminer.  These plants are also used to determine if pheromone disruption can prevent mating, egg laying and plant damage by the leafminer larvae.

The Citrus Research Board is funding the purchase of a new packline grading system for the Lindcove research program.  Compaq Sorting Equipment will be building the line this summer and we hope to have it installed for the fall research season.  The new line will expand our research capabilities from fruit size, number and color to fruit weight, fruit shape, texture, blemish, brix, dry matter, internal defects, and other parameters because of the addition of advanced software, precision weighing, near infrared light, uv light, and additional cameras.