Rio Grande Valley citrus leader wins Potts Award

Texas

Longtime citrus educator Dr. Julian W. Sauls received the prestigious Arthur T. Potts Award at the recent 60th annual meeting of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Horticultural Society.

Sauls has been a citrus specialist at the Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco since 1980. He said he was honored to receive an award named after its first recipient, Arthur T. Potts, who received the award in 1955.

"People may not know this," Sauls said, "but Potts did citrus research here back in the 1940s and for someone like me all these years later to come along and be selected to receive this award for my work in citrus, it just takes on a special meaning for me."

The Potts Award recognizes outstanding horticultural work in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Potts conducted work in citriculture long before the establishment of the commercial citrus industry in Texas. He established agricultural experiment stations throughout the state on behalf of the Texas A&M University System, including the Weslaco Center in 1923.

Sauls, a native of Mississippi, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in horticulture at Louisiana State University, and his doctorate in fruit crops at the University of Florida in 1972.

After spending a year each in Honduras and Mexico, where he developed an interest in tropical fruits, Sauls joined Texas Cooperative Extension in 1973 as an Extension horticulturist in Tarrant County.

After working two years in the Fort Worth area, he worked five years with the University of Florida before returning to Texas Cooperative Extension in 1980.

In presenting the award, Dr. Bob Wiedenfeld, a soils scientist at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and editor of the society's annual scientific journal, said, "During his tenure in Weslaco, Julian has been responsible for the development and coordination of the overall Extension citrus educational program in cooperation with county Extension personnel, citrus growers, industry representatives, and research personnel."

While including all facets of citrus production management, Sauls' programs have focused on citrus nutrition, orchard floor management and irrigation, Wiedenfeld said.

"Julian has been a prolific writer throughout his Extension career, having authored or co-authored over 100 Extension publications on citrus and other fruits. During the early 1990s, he headed a team of Extension specialists and researchers to develop the Texas Citrus Handbook," Wiedenfeld said.

In 1997, Sauls used proceeds from the handbook to fund the creation of the Texas Citrus and Subtropical Fruits Web site.

"The popularity of this Web site is well documented," Wiedenfeld said, "averaging over 90,000 'hits' monthly during 2004."

Sauls has published a monthly newsletter, Valley Citrus Notes, since 1987. He has also published monthly newsletters for the peach and pecan industries of South Texas and for the Rio Grande Valley nursery industry.

Sauls recalled that shortly after arriving at the Weslaco research facilities in 1980, he was asked to serve on a committee of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Horticultural Society.

"I asked what the heck that was," Sauls recalled, "but I've been a member ever since, with two terms as its president."

Sauls' website can be found at http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus.

Date:1/26/06