- Author: Ben Faber
A single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening in Florida in the future is unlikely, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The committee that wrote the report called for a systems approach to prioritize research on the disease and strategically distribute resources for research to effectively manage the disease, which is the most serious threat for citrus growers worldwide.
The disease Huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening — associated with bacteria that are spread by a sucking insect, the Asian citrus psyllid — was initially observed more than 100 years ago in Asia and was first detected in Florida in 2005. The infection results in blotchy mottling of leaves, stunting of shoots, gradual death of branches, and small, deformed fruits with bitter juice. Although infected trees do not die right away, they can remain in a steady state of decline for several years. Between 2010 and 2014, acreage of citrus trees in the state declined from roughly 750,000 to 476,000 acres, and production volume has declined by 58 percent since 2005. In Florida, citrus greening has caused a cumulative loss of $2.9 billion in grower revenues from 2007 to 2014, an average of $374 million a year.
The Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), a $124 million state citrus-industry initiative, has invested nearly 90 percent of its funds in HLB research. CRDF asked the Academies to review its research portfolio and determine if its efforts have followed recommendations outlined in the Academies' 2010 report, which originally called for the organization's creation. The committee found that CRDF was responsive to several recommendations from the previous report, and along with other funders, has advanced our knowledge about the disease. However, HLB remains a serious danger to Florida's citrus industry, having progressed from an acute to a chronic disease throughout the state.
The report notes that significant barriers to progress toward an HLB solution still exist, among them the inability to culture the bacteria in the laboratory, the lack of advanced diagnostics for early disease detection, and the absence of standardized research methodology that would improve the comparability of results across studies. Resolution of any one of these issues would constitute a significant step, according to the report.
The committee recommended continuing support for both basic and applied research for short- and long-term research efforts. In the long run, HLB solutions would likely utilize new technology, such as gene modification and gene editing, focusing on targets that mediate molecular interactions among plant, bacteria, and the vector, the committee said. As interest in using genetic modification in research grows, CRDF should also consider funding research to assess stakeholder acceptance of the technology and expand efforts to educate growers, processors, and consumers to facilitate the eventual deployment of genetically modified citrus lines.
In the meantime, growers in the state will need short-term solutions for the industry to remain viable. The report recommends finding the best suite of strategies to control the disease in different environmental and growing conditions, vector and pathogen pressures, tree varieties, and stages of tree health, which would help growers in Florida and other states where HLB also occurs.
The report also highlights the need to better understand the economic and sociological factors that impact decision-making and behaviors of growers, which influence the adoption of HLB management strategies. CRDF should create accessible databases to support sociological and economic modeling of citrus greening-related research outcomes and application projections.
The report recommends researchers communicate about the outcomes and evaluation of their efforts in a timely and systematic way. Additionally, current approaches to research prioritization and funding based within individual federal and state funding agencies have not led to development of a master plan for HLB research and subsequent management solutions. CRDF should work with other funding agencies to create an overarching advisory panel to develop a master plan for HLB research, communication, and management.
The study was sponsored by CRDF. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. The National Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org.
Get the Report:
/span>- Author: Ben Faber
This note from Cressida Silvers, either go to Temecula or maybe do a more local version of the training:
Good afternoon,
The upcoming CAPCA meeting (see below for details) in Temecula is a 2-day event (12 CEUs), including a workshop and field visit focused on detecting live ACP in citrus trees, and using monitoring strategies to evaluate ACP presence in orchards.
If there is enough interest locally (SLO, Santa Barbara, Ventura), we could put on a similar workshop/field training for ACP monitoring for anyone interested. Let me know if that would be helpful, and how far you would be willing to travel for that.
Thanks,
Cressida
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Cressida Silvers
ACP/HLB Grower Liaison
Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties
805 284-3310
CAPCA Spring Summit Focuses on
Asian Citrus Psyllid:
April 24 – 25
The California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA) will host its 2018 Spring Summit on April 24 – 25 in Temecula. Summit attendees will tour UC Riverside's citrus grove and experiment station, and will learn about Asian citrus psyllid mitigation standards for bulk citrus movement, scouting techniques, identification and management strategies.
With more than 500 HLB-positive trees confirmed in Southern California, it is critical that pest control advisers involved with citrus stay up to date with ACP detection and management strategies. The Spring Summit will include the following topics and speakers:
- Strategies for management of Asian citrus psyllid in California – Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell, University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
- Mitigation standards for the new Asian citrus psyllid regional quarantine – Victoria Hornbaker, California Department of Food and Agriculture
- Scouting techniques and identification of Asian citrus psyllid in the field – Alan Washburn, Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program
- Update on Asian citrus psyllid and HLB management – Bob Atkins, Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program
The event is accredited for 12 hours (2.50 Laws and 9.50 Other) of continuing education units by the Department of Pesticide Regulation, as well as 11.50 California Crop Advisers hours. To view the full program schedule, click here.
To register for the CAPCA Spring Summit, click here.
- Author: Ben Faber
This is the summary of a recent article by Allen Morris, a retired University of Florida Extension Economist
Even when a cure for HLB is implemented, unless something is done to stop the decline in orange juice consumption, the citrus-growing part of the industry will become too small to support the infrastructure of input suppliers, harvesters, grove caretakers, etc. necessary for it to function competitively. For example, assume that the lower prices from lower cost production get into the orange juice market evenly over the 2023–24 to 2031–32 nine-year period, reflecting the time required for fruit produced from new plantings of HLB-resistant trees to increasingly impact prices. Ten years after the first plantings, by 2031–32, only 58 million boxes of Florida oranges and no orange juice imports will be needed. In spite of an 11 percent increase in the orange juice market stimulated by the lower prices, the underlying rate of decline in orange juice consumption eliminated its benefit.
The three major orange juice brands will probably continue mainly as juice storing, blending and packaging operations, using orange juice imported primarily from Brazil and Mexico, but also using juice from the small declining volumes of Florida fruit still available to process. However, because of the high costs of processing small volumes of fruit in the large processing plants owned by the brands and the companies processing oranges for the Coca-Cola Company's Minute Maid and Simply brands, it is likely that one of the bulk processors may have an opportunity to process fruit for all three of the brands. This would reduce costs by processing all of the industry's remaining volumes of oranges in one plant, and thus allow that processor to continue to operate. The bulk processors, other than the ones storing and blending juice for the Coca-Cola Company's Minute Maid and Simply brands and the one which processes the remaining volumes of oranges, will soon have no economic reason to exist in Florida. Private labels' orange juice needs will be supplied by imports, primarily from Brazil and Mexico.
Because of the declining U.S. orange juice market, the brands will probably increase their focus on the European orange juice market, which, as was pointed out, is being positioned to grow. There will also probably be a proliferation of exotic juice blends like blueberry mango, pomegranate limeade, strawberry banana, watermelon, berry greens, etc. being introduced by the brands as they begin to position themselves away from citrus.
This conclusion doesn't have to happen. But it is likely to happen if something isn't done to restore the U.S. orange juice market to growth. One way to fund that is to partner with Citrus BR the way AIJN and the European orange buyers/packagers are doing. The U.S. orange juice market is second only to Europe in importance to Brazil as an export market for its orange juice. If approached, the Brazilians would probably be interested in working with the Florida Citrus Commission the way they are working with AIJN to restore growth to the U.S. orange juice market.
For the complete article, go to:
http://citrusindustry.net/2017/09/11/what-is-happening-to-the-orange-juice-market/
- Author: Roger Baldwin, Ryan Meinerz, Gary Witmer and Scott Werner
Baldwin and Meinerz are UC Davis and Witmer and Werner are USDA/APHIA/Wildlife Services-National Wildlife Research Center
Voles are short, stocky rodents that often cause extensive girdling damage to a variety of tree and vine crops throughout California. Vole management is often quite challenging given how numerous they can be in a given area. In more recent years, effective management has often relied on some combination of vegetation removal, exclusion using trunk protectors, and rodenticide application. Vegetation removal is a great tool for reducing numbers in a field, but doesn't always eliminate all problems in an area. Plus, vole population size tends to ebb and flow from low to high densities; when densities are high, vegetation removal is often insufficient to reduce girdling damage.
Exclusion through the use of trunk protectors can be a good way to reduce girdling damage as well. However, trunk protectors should be buried at least 6 inches below ground to keep voles from tunneling underneath the protectors. This substantially increases the amount of labor required to protect trees and vines. Ultimately, this approach is only cost effective if high levels of damage are anticipated.
Rodenticide applications are also frequently used to knock down vole populations. However, rodenticide applications are generally not allowable within an orchard or vineyard during the growing season, thereby eliminating the use of one of the most effective vole management tools when it is most needed. Clearly there is room for a new tool to be added to the proverbial IPM toolbox when it comes to managing voles in orchard and vine crops.
Chemical repellents are one such tool that could be considered. Historically, repellents have not proven overly effective for field application against voles. However, recent laboratory testing of anthraquinone indicated that even low concentrations of this chemical were effective at reducing grain consumption by voles. Furthermore, anthraquinone has proven effective as a bird repellent. Anthraquinone is a post-ingestive product that causes animals that consume the product to become ill, thereby making it less likely that the animal will consume the product again during a subsequent feeding event. This kind of repellent is ideally suited for trunk application given that the repellent can easily be applied to the portion likely to be consumed by the vole. If effective, minimal girdling damage should be observed. A repellent application also has the added advantage in that it can easily be paired with vegetation management to hopefully further reduce girdling damage when compared to using either one of these approaches alone. Therefore, we set up a study to test the potential impact that a combination of vegetation management and anthraquinone applications would have on girdling damage by voles to young citrus trees. We also tested the longevity of anthraquinone to determine if long-term repellency following field application was likely. We tested this impact during both spring (characterized by a cool-wet weather pattern) and summer (characterized by a hot-dry weather pattern) seasons to determine if weather impacted potential girdling damage.
We found that anthraquinone was in fact highly repellent following trunk application, with a >90% reduction in girdling damage observed following application regardless of the season when it was applied. Anthraquinone exhibited substantial longevity, with no increase in girdling damage observed for the entire summer (5 weeks) and spring (6 weeks) sampling periods. This clearly indicates substantial repellency for anthraquinone applications, with repellency to last for at least two months, and likely for much longer given that we observed no upward trend at all in girdling damage at the end of our study period.
When combined with anthraquinone treatments, the removal of vegetation completely eliminated all girdling damage during summer. However, we did not observe this same collective impact during spring. That said, the inclusion of vegetation management with anthraquinone applications is likely warranted given our understanding of the need for multiple management strategies to maintain the long-term effectiveness of rodent management programs.
These results clearly indicate effective repellency of voles following anthraquinone applications, but at this time, anthraquinone is not registered for use against any mammalian species. We are hoping to gauge the interest of growers for the registration of this repellent against voles in orchard and vine crops. This is where we need your help. We have developed a very short survey (will take less than 3 minutes to complete) to gauge this interest. Please take this very quick survey to assist in this effort:
- Author: Ben Faber
So, I got the question of what a carton of ‘Meyer' lemons weighs
Because different types of fruit are different sized, but usually the container in which it is sold stays the same, the product is going to have a different weight for the same volume. Big fruited pummelos fit fewer fruit and weigh less in a given volume than little kumquats will. However, some varieties are also sold by the weight. California ‘Valencia' oranges for some reason used to weigh 37.5 pounds per carton until 2010 when it was restandardized to 40 pounds. That kind of makes sense.
A local tangerine packer/grower says that they have always packed into half-bushel “cartons” which are 38-pound cartons. More and more the “Cuties” and “Halos” go into 5-pound equivalent cartons.
A California carton is different from a Florida carton which is 4/5 of a bushel box or a ½ field box. There a field box is 1 3/5 bushel or a 2-compartment open-top wooden container equivalent to 90 pounds of oranges or 85 pounds grapefruit or 95 pounds tangerines.
From Google:
A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of weight based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel was equal to 2 kennings , 4 pecks or 8 gallons.
The name comes from the Old French boissiel and buissiel, meaning "little box". It may further derive from Old French boise, meaning "little butt".[
The butt was a measure of liquid volume equaling two hogsheads. This equated to 108 imperial gallons (490 l) for ale or 126 imperial gallons (570 l) for wine (also known as a pipe), although the Oxford English Dictionary notes that "these standards were not always precisely adhered to".[1][2]
The butt is one in a series of English wine cask units, being half of a tun.
The tun (Old English: tunne, Latin: tunellus, Middle Latin: tunna) is an English unit of liquid volume (not weight), used for measuring wine,[1] oil or honey. Typically, a large vat or vessel, most often holding 252 wine gallons, but occasionally other sizes (e.g. 256, 240 and 208 gallons), was also used.
So that's what a carton of ‘Meyer' lemons weighs.
Avocados are usually packed into lugs which weigh 25 pounds and can hold a variety of different sized fruit, but they all fit into the same sized carton.