Rick Dantzler, Citrus Research and Development Foundation chief operating officer, provided hope for citrus growers during the recent Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo. He believes citrus greening disease could soon be a thing of the past.
But to get growers to that “tree of the future,” they need short-term solutions to overcome the devastating disease. Dantzler continues to tout trunk injection of oxytetracycline (OTC) as a viable management solution in the short term.
“This third year of oxytetracycline therapy is going to make a huge difference,” said Dantzler. “Root mass is increasing. Leaf canopy is almost completely recovered. Those are precursors to more and better fruit. It’s just simple plant physiology. That’s how a plant works. It is absolutely going to make a huge difference this next year.”
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) research indicates that OTC injections can suppress the HLB-associated bacterium, leading to increases in both the quality and quantity of the fruit.
Dantzler stresses, though, that OTC’s effectiveness should only be viewed as a stopgap while a permanent solution continues to be developed. According to UF/IFAS, OTC trunk injection is expected to increase a citrus grower’s cost of production by 7 percent.
“We know it’s not a permanent solution. We have always thought if we could get five to seven years’ worth of therapy out of this, that’s what we were going to need, and then hopefully the tree of the future is going to be with us,” Dantzler said. “This next year is going to make a big difference. I hesitate to speculate about what the increase in production is going to be, but I think it’s going to be huge.”
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