Sorry for reviving this old threat, but there are some misconceptions expressed in some of these posts that I hope that I can help to clear up.
Hobbyists smuggling budwood is actually one of the main ways that citrus diseases spread around the world. Also citrus pests that spread diseases also tend to ride on citrus budwood, so moving those pests can be a major problem if someone else has already smuggled the disease.
I interviewed some people from the California Department of Food and Agriculture last year. You can watch that video here:
CDFA InterviewOne thing that I learned in that interview is that there are multiple strains of HLB in California that represent multiple smuggling incidents. HLB has not been found in citrus farms in California. This is a strong indication that the source of the disease is hobbyists who have smuggled budwood into the state. Here is an article on the first detection of HLB in California in a tree that was grafted by a hobbyist:
LA Times articleJapan has a major problem with citrus diseases and the country is unable to farm many types of citrus because of the disease issue. Among those diseases is severe stem pitting tristeza. Anyone considering smuggling budwood out of Japan would do well to understand this problem better and watch my recent video on citrus diseases:
14 Nasty Citrus DiseasesThere is also a lot of good information in my recent interview with Georgios Vidalakis of the CCPP:
Interview with Georgios Vidalakis of the CCPPI apologize that I have not been a regular on here lately. Everyone, please feel free to post my videos in threads like this. We all love to grow citrus but disease is such a major problem these days. It can be spread so easily by people who don't understand these issues.
Best regards,
Dan Willey