USHRL laboratory aerial view
Picos farm aerial view
U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory--Fort Pierce, Florida
Insectary and Plant Pathology Quarantine Laboratories
Welcome to the U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the first citrus experiment station in Eustis, Florida in 1892. Scientists Dr Walter T. Swingle and Herbert J. Webber, began a plant improvement program that introduced new citrus hybrids such as the Tangelo. The freezes of 1895 and 1896 shut down the citrus industry and the scientists were recalled to Washington, DC. They returned in 1898 to continue their work.
The newly named US Horticultural Research Laboratory (USHRL) moved from Eustis to Orlando in 1931 and then again to north Orlando in 1952. It remained there until a new facility was built in 1999 in Ft Pierce, Florida.
Employees at the USHRL conduct research important to farmers across the US. This location is organized into four teams: Subtropical Insects and Horticulture, Subtropical Plant Pathology, Citrus and Other Subtropical Products and a new Aquaculture research unit.
