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Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “HLB Management”
Yield and fruit size are not good measurements of the nutrition needs of HLB-affected trees, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researchers have discovered. “So we decided to go with something that’s fruit independent for the study,” says UF/IFAS scientist Arnold Schumann of the Citrus Research and Education Center at Lake Alfred. Schumann says he and …
Moments after being chosen on July 24 as the next chief operations officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), Rick Dantzler declared the industry will “whip” HLB. He chose Aug. 15 as his first day of work so he can meet many growers at Citrus Expo. “I wanted my first day on the job to be with citrus …
Harold Browning with Premier Citrus ApZ updates his company’s efforts to make bactericides more effective against HLB. He says Premier is “trying to move to commercialization as quickly as possible a technology to improve the absorption of materials that would kill HLB bacteria in infected trees.” “One of the challenges we face in trying to get materials into the phloem …
The House and the Senate have passed their versions of the farm bill. Now it is time for appointed legislators to hammer out the details for the final version of the bill. Ted Yoho, U.S. Congressman and member of the House Committee on Agriculture, believes that including funding for citrus greening is vital for the Florida citrus industry. Yoho recently …
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher Lukasz Stelinski talks about the insecticide resistance that HLB-spreading psyllids develop and how to manage it. “There is insecticide resistance in Florida for Asian citrus psyllids,” Stelinski says. “It’s a phenomenon that occurs statewide, but in isolated areas.” “We actually have the tools and the knowledge to practice insecticide resistance …
Jim Snively, vice president of grove operations for Southern Gardens Citrus, discusses planting density and technology that may hold promise for coping with HLB. Tree density trials were planted in 2012 at Southern Gardens. After six years, the best results have come from trees planted at about 363 trees per acre, Snively reports. “Everything we’re doing today, we try to …
Everyone in the citrus business knows HLB has wreaked havoc on Florida citrus growers. But it has also caused severe problems for processors, said Bob Behr, CEO of Florida’s Natural Growers (FNG). FNG is one of the nation’s largest processors and marketers of orange juice. Behr told the audience at the recent Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference that low citrus …
Denise Manker with Bayer CropScience provides an update on Bayer’s collaborative effort with the Citrus Research and Development Foundation to seek solutions for HLB. Her presentation came during the recent Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference in Bonita Springs. Manker told the audience there will not likely be a “silver bullet” that will provide a solution to the disease. “I think …
By Brian German The Spring Citrus Meeting held last week in Tulare County touched on several major issues growers are concerned with, and included presentations on best practices for managing citrus trees. The day began with important information related to Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and the disease it causes, huanglongbing (HLB), which has been growing at an alarming rate in …
An Indian River-area grapefruit grower told the crowd at Florida Citrus Mutual’s recent annual conference about his company’s plans for coping with HLB. The plans include replanting with some diverse citrus varieties at higher densities, said Daniel Scott, vice president of Scott Citrus Management. Grapefruit has for the most part proven extremely difficult to grow profitably in the face of …
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher Jude Grosser discusses small experiments that indicated manganese and boron can help citrus trees cope with HLB. In a greenhouse experiment from a few years ago, HLB-infected sweet orange trees were overdosed with micronutrients and secondary nutrients. “It looked like … manganese had the biggest effect on growth of the …
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher Evan Johnson reports that the product Zinkicide appears promising as a management tool for HLB. “Zinkicide is a zinc-based nanoparticle that is designed to become systemic inside the tree and has high bactericidal activity so that hopefully it can target Liberibacter,” Johnson says. Liberibacter is the causal agent of HLB. …
Phil Rucks of Phillip Rucks Citrus Nursery weighs in on the increasing demand for late versus early orange varieties, the impact of Hurricane Irma and HLB. Rucks notes that over the past 30 years, the demand for early-season oranges versus late-season oranges has essentially reversed. In the past, he says, early varieties accounted for about 60 percent of plantings. Now, …
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher Christopher Vincent says kaolin clay outperforms foliar insecticides for management of HLB-spreading psyllids at times when kaolin’s use is practical. His presentation on the topic followed the Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) meeting on May 22 at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred. The presentation, part …
Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) Vice President and Governance Committee Chairman Rick Kress comments on a recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report regarding HLB and CRDF. He says NAS reported that CRDF has pursued all angles on HLB, also known as citrus greening, and declared there won’t be a single solution or cure. When NAS worked with CRDF …
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) claim they have made an important step in understanding the molecular mechanism of huanglongbing (HLB). They believe they have found the mechanism by which the disease evades detection and destruction by the natural immune system of citrus trees. HLB, or citrus greening disease, has devastated groves in Asia, South America and the …
The use of highly HLB-tolerant genotypes as interstocks on a tree with a Swingle rootstock and a Valencia scion infected with HLB is offering hope for help against HLB, Jude Grosser reports. Grosser is a plant breeder with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred. “Virtually every …
The Citrus Research and Development Foundation’s (CRDF) board of directors, which is focused on HLB, discussed ways to improve communications with growers and others during a meeting in Immokalee on Tuesday. The directors asked numerous growers attending the meeting at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center for their input regarding improved communication. One grower said he needs more detail …
Jim Snively, vice president of grove operations at Southern Gardens Citrus, discusses his company’s management of HLB and the psyllids that spread it. He summarizes a presentation he made at the International Citrus Business Conference in March. “By reducing stress, the trees can deal with disease much better,” Snively says. “We’re doing this through continuous-type feeding or frequent feeding with …
Phil Stansly, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences entomologist, discusses alternatives to imidacloprid for helping to control HLB-spreading Asian citrus psyllids (ACP). “Imidacloprid of course is typical of the neonicotinoids that we’ve been using as soil applications to protect young trees,” Stansly says. “We’ve seen and the growers have seen, too, that soil applications of systemic insecticides …
