INTRODUCTION
INIA Salto Grande Experiment Station is fully dedicated to research in horticulture and citrus production.
Research comprises the following National Programs:
•the National Citrus Production Research Program, has its headquarters in this Station.
• the National Vegetable Crop Production Research Program, with its headquarters at INIA Las Brujas, conducts work here on vegetable crops grown both under cover and/or field conditions.
• the National Fruit Production Research Program, with its headquarters also at INIA Las Brujas, conducts work here on variety and rootstock evaluation for some species as with peaches and other fruits.
This Experiment Station has an area of 112 has., situated in Colonia Gestido within the zone of Salto Grande, away three kilometers from the hydroelectric dam equally named. Personnel working in the Station amounts to 11 scientists and 35 support staff, including secretary services, operations, administration, laboratories, etc.
It provides information about citrus production to the Northwestern Zone of Uruguay, comprising the departments of Artigas, Salto, Paysandu, Río Negro and also to the Southern part of the country.
It is rather difficult to estimate the area which is under direct influence of INIA Salto Grande, as it is possible to assign for Artigas and Salto a strip of approximately 30 or 40 km wide to the east of the Uruguay River, while for Paysandú and Río Negro, that width increases about 100 km.
Most of the soils are sandy, developed upon the Salto Cretaceous formation, and the Cretaceous-Basaltic Succession in the northern and middle parts of Uruguay, and from the Kiyu formation in the South.