root recovery

Tree Age and Trunk-Injection Effectiveness

Daniel CooperHLB Management, OTC Expert

Sponsored Content In this special series, Tom Johnson, owner of TJ BioTech, tackles questions about optimizing trunk-injection applications to treat HLB. Question: It is known that ReMedium TI® is working to fight HLB in young trees. Are ReMedium TI® injections proving to be effective in older citrus trees? Answer: ReMedium TI® is indeed effective in older citrus trees. The caution …

orange

Brazil’s Orange Forecast Falls Further

Daniel CooperBrazil, Crop Forecast

Fundecitrus and its cooperators issued the first update to Brazil’s 2024–25 orange crop forecast on Sept. 10. The forecast of 215.78 million boxes for the São Paulo and West-Southwest Minas Gerais Citrus Belt is down 7.1% from the initial May forecast of 232.38 million boxes. With a total reduction of 16.6 million boxes, all varieties are expected to have lower …

registration

HLB Product Advancing in Registration Process

Daniel CooperHLB Management, Regulation

Silvec Biologics announced that an RNA vector delivery product to combat HLB has progressed to the Full Science Review Phase of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Pesticide Regulation Improvement Act registration process. The product was developed in collaboration with Southern Gardens Citrus (a subsidiary of U. S. Sugar), the University of Florida (UF) and Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Silvec is …

ideal grove

What Will the Ideal Grove of the Future Look Like?

Daniel CooperBrazil, HLB Management

Since no cure exists for citrus greening-diseased plants, Brazilian researchers are developing ways to modify orange trees and the environment around groves to make it harder for greening-spreading psyllids to thrive. LOCATION AND LAYOUT The ideal grove envisioned by Fundecitrus researchers, in collaboration with the Spanish National Research Council/Polytechnic University of Valencia and Durham University (England), starts with a careful …

Alico

Alico Increases Production and Names New Chairman

Daniel CooperProduction

Alico, Inc.’s Citrus Division harvested more fruit in the three months and nine months ended June 30 than during the same periods in the prior fiscal year. Harvests for the three-month and nine-month periods were approximately 0.8 million and 3.1 million boxes, respectively, compared to 0.4 million boxes and 2.7 million boxes, respectively, in the prior fiscal year. POUND SOLIDS AND …

Oriental fruit fly

California Quarantine Updates

Daniel CooperCalifornia Corner, Pests, Regulation

Federal and state officials have removed and reduced Oriental fruit fly (OFF) quarantines in two California counties and expanded the huanglongbing (HLB) quarantine in another county. The actions were taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). ORIENTAL FRUIT FLY On July 5, the …

foliar feed

Foliar Feed Your Trees

Daniel CooperNutrition

By Mongi Zekri Foliar fertilizer application is certainly not a new concept to the citrus industry. For over six decades, foliar fertilization has been recommended to correct zinc, manganese, boron, copper and magnesium deficiencies in citrus. It is now common knowledge in agriculture that properly nourished crops may tolerate insect pests and diseases. Traditionally, citrus growers try to achieve optimum …

root recovery

Label Change Is Great News for Growers

Daniel CooperHLB Management, OTC Expert

Sponsored Content In this special series, Tom Johnson, owner of TJ BioTech, tackles questions about optimizing trunk-injection applications to treat HLB. Q: What does the special local need label for ReMedium TI® mean for citrus growers heading into next season?  Tom Johnson: TJ BioTech recently requested a ReMedium TI® label change from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. …

ReMedium TI®

ReMedium TI Receives Exemption From Two-Year Restriction on Applications

Daniel CooperHLB Management

ReMedium TI® has received a special local need label from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumers Services (FDACS). The label will remove the requirement that applications to treat citrus greening (HLB) cannot be made beyond two years in a row. For Florida citrus growers, this means those who have applied ReMedium TI® over the past two seasons now will …

hlb

Researchers Discuss Rising HLB Incidence in Brazil

Daniel CooperBrazil, HLB Management

The incidence of citrus greening disease (HLB) in Brazil’s Citrus Belt of São Paulo and Triângulo/Southwest Mineiro rose from 24.42% in 2022 to 38.06% in 2023, according to Fundecitrus. The association’s annual survey indicates the disease increasingly demands more effective and collaborative measures. At a session of Brazil’s Expocitrus in June, Fundecitrus researcher Marcelo Miranda discussed the development of greening …

Residents’

Study Shows Florida Residents’ Attitudes on HLB

Daniel CooperHLB Management, Research

In the fall of 2022, five University of Florida researchers investigated Florida residents’ attitudes on HLB and Asian citrus psyllids (ACP) using online surveys over a 9-month period. The results of the study, Residents’ contribution to Asian citrus psyllid and citrus greening management in Florida residential habitats, was recently published in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management. Authors Romain Exilien, …

treatment

Teenager Awarded for Investigation of Alternative Trunk-Injection Treatment

Daniel CooperAwards, HLB Management, Research

Tanishka Balaji Aglave of Valrico, Florida, received the $10,000 H. Robert Horvitz Prize for Fundamental Research for her investigation into a natural alternative treatment against citrus greening disease (known as huanglongbing, or HLB). Aglave, a 15-year-old who attends Strawberry Crest High School and grew up on a citrus farm, injected the trunks of infected citrus trees with an extract from …

texas

Texas Researcher Honored for HLB Work

Daniel CooperAwards, Research, Texas

Texas A&M researcher Kranthi Mandadi has received the 2024 American Phytopathological Society (APS) Syngenta Award given to select scientists working in areas of crop protection and plant pathology. Mandadi is an associate professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco. He was selected for the award primarily for his breakthrough research on fastidious, …

Arizona

Pest Management in CUPS

Daniel CooperCitrus Greening, HLB Management, Tip of the Week

By Jawwad Qureshi The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP, Figure 1) continues to feed on citrus trees infected with citrus greening and spread the disease to newly planted young trees. Therefore, it is not possible to produce a healthy citrus tree in an environment where citrus greening is endemic. Only the citrus under protective screen (CUPS, Figure 2) system allows the …

antibiotics

Integrating Antibiotics Into a Broader Management Plan for HLB

Daniel CooperHLB Management

By Lukasz Stelinski, Eric Roldan and Kirsten Pelz-Stelinski Use of antibiotics in fruit production is not a new idea, but it has only recently been applied on a larger scale in Florida citrus. The initial labels for huanglongbing (HLB) treatment with antibiotics in Florida citrus were approved in March 2016 in response to significant economic losses caused by HLB. Antibiotics …

alico

Alico Disappointed and Frustrated With Production

Daniel CooperProduction

Alico, Inc. announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 and the six months ended March 31, 2024. Revenues of $32.1 million for the six-month period were relatively flat as compared to $31.9 million for the same period last year. BOXES AND POUND SOLIDS Alico harvested approximately 1.2 million boxes (second quarter) and 2.2 million boxes (six-month …

orange production

How Florida Orange Production Plummeted 92% in 20 Years

Daniel CooperFlorida, Production

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA ERS) recently recounted how natural disasters and diseases have reduced Florida’s orange production by 92% since the 2003–04 season.  USDA ERS noted that Florida’s citrus industry has long been susceptible to freezes, hurricanes and disease. It pointed out that a series of devastating freezes in the 1970s and 1980s caused production …

diaprepes

Where to Watch for Diaprepes Root Weevil

Daniel CooperPests, Tip of the Week

By Larry Duncan Prior to the introduction of citrus greening disease in Florida, certain conventions applied to the occurrence and impact of diaprepes root weevil in groves across the state. The abundance and damage potential of this major pest were greatest in some Flatwoods habitats, such as parts of the inland East Coast where newly planted trees sustained major damage. …

climate

Kaolin and Climate Impacts on HLB Addressed

Daniel CooperEvents, HLB Management

The impacts of kaolin and climate on HLB in Brazil were among topics addressed by researchers from Brazil’s Fundecitrus during the recent International Research Conference on HLB in Riverside, California. HLB is also known as citrus greening. Researcher Marcelo Miranda discussed results of a study on the use of processed kaolin in low doses to reduce the HLB-spreading psyllid population …

final

Final Orange Forecast for Brazil’s 2023–24 Season

Daniel CooperBrazil, Crop Forecast

Fundecitrus and its cooperators published the final orange production forecast on April 10 for the 2023–24 crop season in Brazil’s São Paulo and West-Southwest Minas Gerais citrus belt. The forecast calls for 307.22 million 90-pound boxes of oranges, unchanged from the February forecast. The final forecast by variety is: The season’s production was 2.2% lower than the prior year’s crop …