Citrus Greening

[GreeCguy]

A short video on Citrus Greening which has infected all of Florida Citrus. It has been found in all citrus producing states including California and threatens to ruin the industry nation wide. As a side note, Paul is my cousin. He manages a 1300 acre grove in south Florida.

http://youtu.be/pzlPeN-jywk

 

[Rick in PA]

That's a heartbreaker...

 

[Quattro Pete]

This video was posted over 4 years ago. Has anything been done since then to curtail the disease? I haven't seen any shortage of orange juice or oranges in stores since then. I guess the growers are just spraying the heck out of pesticide to stop the disease?

 

[Doog]

This disease is caused by the Asian citrus psyllid imported to the US from China. Thanks China!

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Doog
This disease is caused by the Asian citrus psyllid imported to the US from China. Thanks China!

Amen brother! Like the title to a documentary I watched recently: "Death by China."

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
This video was posted over 4 years ago. Has anything been done since then to curtail the disease? I haven't seen any shortage of orange juice or oranges in stores since then. I guess the growers are just spraying the heck out of pesticide to stop the disease?



Bingo. We're spraying every month but it's a loosing battle. What spraying does is lighten your wallet and buy you time. We've gone from spending around 500 dollars per acre to 2200 dollars an acre for grove care per year.

Currently, they're hanging their hat on two things. Genetically altering root stocks trying to create a rootstock that is resistant to this disease. Secondly. creating a sterile bug that will breed but be unable to produce and hopefully eradicate the critter in the U.S.

The reason there is no shortage of juice is because we import massive amounts from Mexico and Brazil. While they too have greening, the cost of land and labor is so cheap, they can get ten years from an infected grove, then push it out and replant.

Personally, I've been planting some sour orange seedlings over the past five years and have noticed that while the budded trees look terrible for the most part, the sour orange seedlings look great. The original planting is about five feet tall with a full canopy of dark green leaves. Some are even setting fruit this year.

Inspired by this, I've started planting sweet orange seedlings, (did that this week so this rain we're having is a blessing from heaven) and I'm working on seedling grapefruit for heavy soil.

I got the idea from a book on citrus I read recently that was published in 1914. They were dealing with "root rot" in those days which is a disease that destroys the root system and they solved this problem in those days by "bridge grafting" the tree to sour orange rootstocks. Basically, the way it's done is to plant three or four seedlings around an existing tree and then graft the tops of these seedlings into the existing tree trunk. You end up with a very funny looking tree but it does work for root rot. That got me to thinking if it would work for greening since greening effects the tree by destroying the root system and starving the tree of nutrients.

 

[tom slick]

California has had quarantines for the Asian Psyllid. During a quarantine the moving of fruit is unaffected but it cannot be moved outside of the quarantine zone if the containers/trucks contain leaves or other tree parts.

http://www.saveourcitrus.org/

 

[LazyPrizm]

I know some industries almost exclusively use grafting -- is that not how it works for oranges / grapefruit? Sounds like a cool experiment! Maybe you'll get your name on a cultivar. GreeCfruit?

 

[tom slick]

We now have a quarntine in the county I live in.

 

[Cujet]

Some people are having luck with a cocktail of pesticides and growth enhancing chemicals. Not exactly what I want on my oranges.

I have various citrus trees in my yard. So far, I've lost only the grapefruit trees. The orange trees do fairly well. My sole Key Lime tree struggles, the lemon trees do really well and seem unaffected.

 

[EA82]

We lost a nice grapefruit tree, and all navel orange trees, so far only a lemon tree is doing good.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Some people are having luck with a cocktail of pesticides and growth enhancing chemicals. Not exactly what I want on my oranges.

I have various citrus trees in my yard. So far, I've lost only the grapefruit trees. The orange trees do fairly well. My sole Key Lime tree struggles, the lemon trees do really well and seem unaffected.


Mostly what they are spraying are heavy amounts of liquid fertilizers which will not hurt you, (it's like heavy duty Miracle Grow). However, three times a year, they do add a pesticide. I believe it's called "Eagle." They also use "Malathion." You're not suppose to go in the grove for eight hours following a spraying. They sprayed my parents place Monday and unfortunately, as I was trying to get out of the way, I got a pretty good coating. I've noticed my hair is thicker today, but I think I might be sprouting a tail.

 

[GreeCguy]

Sadly, it's becoming so expensive to raise citrus fruits many growers are giving up. They just sold the property to the north of my parents place and are pushing up the trees and will build houses on the property. This makes my Dad's place the last citrus grove in the area. When I was a wee lad, it was citrus groves for miles around.

 

[GreeCguy]

If you want to learn more

http://www.citrusgreeningtraining.org/

 

[hatt]

I think this has gotten my lime tree.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Doog
This disease is caused by the Asian citrus psyllid imported to the US from China. Thanks China!

But it's probably cheaper and people don't care so long as it's cheap,right?

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Sadly, it's becoming so expensive to raise citrus fruits many growers are giving up. They just sold the property to the north of my parents place and are pushing up the trees and will build houses on the property. This makes my Dad's place the last citrus grove in the area. When I was a wee lad, it was citrus groves for miles around.


That really is sad. So many agricultural areas turning into (IMO) ugly developments, sure the homes are huge and $800k, still ugly, similar looking,close together, etc. I'm not a country boy, but give me my farmland where it is.

Sad that the citrus industry is going this way and effected by this. Hope it can turn around.

I personally haven't noticed a lack of supply of citrus or juice, but I have noticed that the quality of what I get doesn't seem to be as good anymore...

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I personally haven't noticed a lack of supply of citrus or juice, but I have noticed that the quality of what I get doesn't seem to be as good anymore...


And you'll notice it more and more as time goes by. The beauty of Florida citrus is that many Central and Northern Florida groves were right on the edge of the cold weather line, i.e. cold enough but not too cold. The cold weather makes the fruit and therefore the juice extremely sweet, (known as the "brix" count - the amount of natural sugar in the fruit). Now, with so much juice coming from Mexico and Brazil, the weather is too warm and the juice is watery. To sweeten it, they add sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Another reason juice isn't as good as it once was is because huge company groves plant one variety, whereas, years ago, the small grower had multiple varieties in one grove. These would be picked at different times and mixed, giving the juice a richer and better flavor, (Remember back in the '70's Bing Crosby talking about "blended juice"). In other words, a Hamlin is a small orange that is loaded with juice, but a very light watery almost yellow juice. A navel on the other hand produces an extremely sweet juice which is thick. Blend that together and you have a natural juice that is very tasty.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
That really is sad. So many agricultural areas turning into (IMO) ugly developments, sure the homes are huge and $800k, still ugly, similar looking,close together, etc. I'm not a country boy, but give me my farmland where it is.


I've never had a pet that defecated where it ate (except fish of course), but we are doing it.

All of our cities located themselves near the best soil for growing food, then have over-run the food producing area with concrete and bricks....forcing the food production to less and less viable locataions.

Economists call this "efficiency"