The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) on Oct. 28 granted a 24(c) special local need registration for the injection of ReMedium TI for the control or suppression of HLB. The TJ BioTech product is oxytetracycline (OTC) hydrochloride, an antibiotic.
“EPA (the federal Environmental Protection Agency) has 90 days to object, but it is my understanding that growers may use the product during the period of review,” said Rick Dantzler, chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF). “TJ Biotech has been hard at work getting ready to meet the demand if the 24(c) was granted, so I expect product to be available very quickly, like within weeks.”
Dantzler said the OTC product “is quite likely the only thing that can help reset the industry in the short term. Time is not on our side, and if this had not been approved, I don’t know what many growers would have done.”
Just two days before FDACS registered the product, Josh Steinbronn of TJ BioTech made a presentation about ReMedium TI at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred. Read more about that presentation here.
Dantzler cautioned that growers need to follow the ReMedium TI label instructions “explicitly,” adding that residues will be below federal thresholds if they do.
CRDF did not fund the research on ReMedium TI. But Dantzler said CRDF “is currently funding work that will answer other questions about OTC and is considering a few more, but we’ve seen enough to believe this will work.”
The label for ReMedium TI states it cannot be used more than one time per year for bearing citrus or two times a year for non-bearing citrus. The label also notes that the product is designed for use with the TJ BioTech FlexInject injection device. Injection is made through a hole drilled into the trunk several inches above the soil surface.
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