Topics in Subtropics

University of Florida research Jude Grosser has been working with a new breeding technique that creates tetraploid rootstocks that are showing significantly improved resistance to Huanglongbing. This is done with conventional breeding and is not based on genetic engineering.

The California Small Farm Conference is the state's premier gathering of small farmers, agricultural students, farmers market managers and others involved in the small farm industry.

Gary Bender has made his manual on avocado production available on his website. And it's free. Take a look at it to see if you might be missing something in your orchard: http://ucanr.

In coastal lemons, there has been a major increase of broad mite and the damage it causes on fruit and leaves this year. Broad mites are often found in depressions on fruit where the females lay their eggs, which are dimpled, translucent, and covered in white speckles.

The polyphagous shothole borers (Euwallacea sp.) that spreads fungal diseases (Fusarium sp. and possibly Graphium sp.) to susceptible trees in Los Angeles County have now been found in mid and northern Orange County and western San Bernardino County.