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At the recent Florida Citrus Mutual conference, Southern Gardens Citrus President Rick Kress provided an update on research by his company and Texas A&M into use of a spinach gene to create HLB tolerance in trees, and hopefully resistance. “We have tolerance,” he said. “We would certainly like to see immunity down the road, but we’ll work with tolerance and …
The Florida Citrus Commission completed several months of heavy budget-cutting on June 14 by approving a preliminary 2016-17 budget for the Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC). Several large growers had requested heavy cuts earlier this year, and the Citrus Commission responded. The department’s budget will drop almost 32 percent from the current season, and the staff will be reduced by …
Laurie Hurner, Highlands County Extension director and citrus agent, summarizes grower discussions about bactericides for HLB at a roundtable event on June 8 in Sebring. She says most growers seem to be using the products. “Some of them are having to make decisions to cut out or change other production practices, other inputs, to make room in their budgets for …
Citrus grower John Gose with Lykes Brothers joined 30 others discussing the use of bactericides for HLB at a Sebring roundtable event on Wednesday. Gose says his company has made one application of bactericides and is in the process of making a second. “So far we haven’t seen a lot,” he says. “It’ll be probably fall before we start recognizing …
Wauchula citrus grower Kenny Sanders discussed on Wednesday the use of bactericides with HLB, production and pricing with more than 40 others at a grower roundtable in Wauchula. Like several other growers, he says his early-mid orange production was down this season (by 30 percent) while his Valencia crop was up 7 to 8 percent. “Pound solids were down everywhere,” …
Postbloom fruit drop (PFD), along with the use of bactericides to control HLB, were the big issues for more than 40 participants in a grower roundtable Wednesday in Wauchula. LeAnna Himrod, one of the roundtable hosts, summarizes the issues addressed. Regarding bactericides, she reports: “There were a lot of questions about the bactericides regarding timing: What’s the best time of …
