The Florida Citrus Commission (FCC) held an emergency meeting on September 14 in response to a request for emergency rulemaking from the Florida Citrus Packers Association to approve rule 20ER17-2, addressing the Soluble Solids to Anhydrous Citrus Acid Maturity Standards for grapefruit and oranges for the 2017-18 season. The following emergency rule passed unanimously by the FCC: 20ER17-2 Grapefruit and Orange …
Governor Rick Scott Appoints Three to the Florida Citrus Commission
Governor Rick Scott announced two appointments and one reappointment to the Florida Citrus Commission. Lee Bouldin, 62, of Vero Beach, is a citrus shipper at DNE World Fruit. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wake Forest University. Bouldin succeeds Michael Garavaglia and is appointed for a term beginning August 9, 2017, and ending May 31, 2019. Carlos Martinez, …
Time to Get Serious About Trialing New Scion/Rootstock Combinations
By Jude W. Grosser and Frederick G. Gmitter It’s no secret that citrus greening disease, or HLB, continues to take a heavy toll on the beloved Florida citrus industry. It has been estimated that the industry will need to replant over 3 million trees per year for the next 10 years just to get back to normal. So the million-dollar …
In-Field Fruit Fogging for Psyllid Control
The California Citrus Research Board (CRB) hosted live Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) fogging demonstrations in April. The purpose was to show the viability of controlling the spread of ACP by fogging shipments of citrus on the truck, as close to the harvested field as possible. Spencer Walse, CRB research scientist specializing in chemical applications in agriculture, carried out the demonstrations. He is based at …
Fred Gmitter: Slow Road to Fast Genetics
By Ernie Neff Even Nostradamus would have struggled to predict a career path for a 25-year-old Fred Gmitter. Gmitter had quit college after three years at Rutgers University, where he studied English literature with plans to teach. He said he “became completely disillusioned” with that plan. He married, worked as a delivery truck driver and warehouse laborer, and traveled out …
Dual Treatment Tested for HLB Trees
Severe pruning combined with enhanced foliar nutrition did not prove cost-effective. By Monica Ozores-Hampton, Fritz Roka, Robert Rouse and Pamela Roberts Citrus trees affected by huanglongbing (HLB) become diminished, weak and develop dieback resulting in reduced production. Decline in fruit yield ultimately prevents economically acceptable commercial citrus production. Pruning and spraying foliar nutritionals are two practices being considered to restore …
CREC and FDOC: Decades of Working Together
As the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) celebrates its 100th anniversary, administrators are praising a decades-long relationship between researchers with CREC and the Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC). “Housing the FDOC and CREC scientists at the same location has brought together the expertise needed to address any issue facing the …
Citrus Canker Management for 2017
By Evan Johnson The citrus canker season is quickly approaching again, so it is time to start preparing your canker management plan. It is easy to forget the importance of controlling citrus canker with the current state of HLB in Florida. However, citrus canker can cause almost complete crop loss if environmental conditions are favorable for disease early in the …
Finger Lime Could Be New Crop for Citrus Growers
By Manjul Dutt, Ethan Nielsen and Jude Grosser The finger lime is a citrus relative, scientifically named Microcitrus australasica. Finger limes are native to Australia and are so named because the fruits are long and fingerlike in shape (see figures 1 and 2). Finger limes belong to a group of similar citrus relatives, all originating from Australia with common names …
Freeze Damage Symptoms and Recovery for Citrus
By Mongi Zekri, Chris Oswalt, Steve Futch and Laurie Hurner The extent of cold injury to citrus depends on a number of factors, and its expression may occur over an extended period of time. Factors responsible for freeze damage include minimum temperature, duration of freezing temperatures and stage of tree acclimation. Susceptibility of trees to freezing temperatures can also be …
Citrus Pest Concerns California Industry
California recently passed a state law designed to combat the spread of an Asian citrus pest. All citrus loads transported through California now must be covered, no matter where it’s coming from or where it’s headed. Sponsored ContentA Simpler, Safer and More Effective Way to Fight HLBOctober 25, 20245 Facts About Fire Ants and How to Control ThemApril 30, 2024BRAZILIAN …
UF Researcher Discusses HLB-Tolerant Scions
University of Florida researcher Jude Grosser told growers about new HLB-tolerant scions at this summer’s Citrus Expo. He summarizes his discussion in this report. “Without question, the most tolerant scion that we have is a fresh market tangelo that we call Sugar Belle,” Grosser says. “It’s very similar to Minneola, but matures a little bit earlier and so it can …
Sneak Peek: January Citrus Industry Magazine
A new year is just around the corner and so is the next issue of Citrus Industry magazine. The January issue features a cover story on Callie Walker, chief of the Bureau of Pest Eradication and Control for the Florida Department of Agriculture. Learn about Walker’s deep roots in citrus and what she is doing about the abandoned grove problem. …
Sensory and Consumer Studies for Improving Citrus Quality
By Laura Reuss, Fred Gmitter and Yu Wang In Florida, it is necessary to produce large quantities of high-quality citrus fruits in order to keep pace with the projected market growth, as well as to maintain viability of the citrus industry. Successful development of new varieties and pre- and post-harvest practices should be consumer-driven. However, consumer behavior is often affected …
Control of Stem-End Rot of Fresh Citrus
By Mark A. Ritenour, Jiuxu Zhang and Megan M. Dewdney Decay of fresh citrus fruit is most often caused by fungal pathogens that grow and develop in the hot and wet conditions typical in Florida. While green and blue molds (Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum) and sour rot (Galactomyces citri-aurantii) are the most common postharvest citrus diseases worldwide, the subtropical …
Texas Citrus: Fruit Flies and Other Pesky Problems
By: Ernie Neff Mexican fruit flies were a major nuisance to Dale Murden this spring. “As a fresh fruit grower in south Texas, I have to say Mexican fruit fly is our biggest worry,” the citrus grower and president of Texas Citrus Mutual said. The fruit flies infested Texas’ three-county (Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy) citrus industry in November 2015, prompting …
HLB and ‘Tolerance’ as a Practical Matter in Choosing Rootstocks
By Bill Castle (Editor’s note: Click on the graphs throughout the article to enlarge them.) By classic biological definition, a particular citrus rootstock-scion combination when infected with Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas) would be considered tolerant if infected trees had no more than slight reductions in performance, sometimes accompanied by a reduced level of the pathogen. That definition implies that the …
Research on HLB-Tolerant Varieties Conducted in Gainesville
Research on HLB-tolerant trees and better citrus varieties is being conducted in Gainesville, outside the Florida citrus belt. University of Florida scientist Jose Chaparro discusses the work. “In Gainesville we have essentially the youngest citrus breeding program in Florida,” Chaparro says. “In the future, we hope to be able to provide both HLB and canker resistance in our selections.” Such …
Moving Murcott from the Top of the Tree to the Bottom
By Bill Castle and Luiz A.B.C. Vasconcellos Maybe it’s time to try a scion as a rootstock! Murcott is widely known as a scion variety, but it might be an interesting rootstock based on grower experience in Brazil as well as rootstock trial results and some commercial use in Florida. Mandarin rootstocks and their hybrids have generally good horticultural traits, especially …
Citrus Growers Surveyed on Percent of Trees Infected
Florida citrus growers: 80 percent of trees infected by greening By: Brad Buck, 352-294-3303, bradbuck@ufl.edu Source: Ariel Singerman, 863-956- 8870, singerman@ufl.edu GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s citrus growers say as much as 90 percent of their acreage and 80 percent of their trees are infected by the deadly greening disease, which is making a huge dent in the state’s $10.7 billion …