The Highlands County Citrus Growers Association hosted its annual banquet on March 6 in Sebring. The event drew a good crowd to catch up on the association’s activities.
Two of the featured speakers during the event discussed alternative trunk-injection therapies to the current standard of oxytetracycline (OTC). Tanishka Aglave, a sophomore at Strawberry Crest High School, received the H. Robert Horvitz Prize for Fundamental Research last year for her investigation into a natural alternative treatment against HLB. In her research, Tanishka injected the trunks of HLB-infected trees with an extract from the curry leaf tree. She said the Asian citrus psyllid is attracted to the tree but is not a carrier of HLB.
Aglave reported that the high rate of curry extract performed closely to OTC in her trials. Her research also sought to develop a new injection device that could be used safely on smaller trunk sizes.
Michelle Heck, an associate professor from Cornell University and a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gave an update on the Grove-First project, which seeks to identify alternatives to OTC.
“We screened these compounds in the grove by direct injection into the tree and looked for big effects,” Heck said. “If you think your solution is going to have a meaningful impact on citrus greening, you need to have a big effect.
Currently, there are 289 molecules in phase one screening. There are seven molecules that have moved on to phase two for grower field trials. One molecule (known as the M10 material) has showed the promising big effect and has advanced to the Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) program.
Heck also discussed Grove-First 2.0, which will be a 20-acre grove in Vero Beach where even more materials can be directly injected into trees to look for big effects against HLB.
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