The Tropical Fruit Forum

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3210999/Fruit-Juice-Australia-defended-fruit-juice-against-anti-sugar-activists-saying-good-moderation.html

Millet

Personally I like sugar in my citrus.  I like sugar in my fruit. I definitely would not eat, nor would I ever purchase oranges and other fruit that were not sweet.  I think that sugar is getting to much blame.  Living a sedentary existence in front of the TV, and no exercise ever, has a really big part with being over weight (and feeling poorly). People scream sugar sugar, but never scream exercise exercise,  I like sugar and I heartily enjoy a good exercise program, its a daily part of my life.- Millet   

Thanks for everyone's input,  but let not get going to deep into climate change. After all this is a citrus forum. Thank you. - Millet

Because of the drought California Citrus growers have lost out on a lot of business.  South Africa exported into the US market an estimated 2.5 million cartons of navels and 2.5 million cartons of seedless midnight valencias as well as approximately 3 million boxes of clementines and 3 million boxes of various mandarins into the US from S. Africa just through October.That's a LOT of dollars. - Millet

It can be stated that foliar nutrition is the fastest method of introducing mineral nutrients into the aerial parts of crop plants when compared to any other technique of soil fertilization, including fertigation. If a deficiency of a nutrient occurs in plants, its supplementation through foliar application will be more rapid than through soil fertilization.  Foliar absorption of mineral nutrients is from 8 to 20 times more efficient than soil application. Leaves maintained at full turgor (during morning and evening hours) present the highest ability to absorb and metabolize mineral nutrients applied foliarly.  - Millet

Many of the citrus trees in the greenhouse are now producing their second flush of new leaves.  Therefore, this week I have been spraying the new leaves using a one percent horticultural oil solution (ultra pure paraffin oil ).  Aphids, thrip, mealy bug, etc. really target new growth.  If these insects are not controlled they feed on  the new leaves which causes them to become all gnarled and twisted, and they will stay that way through their life span..  The trees are sprayed at dusk every three days or so until the new growth becomes somewhat mature.   The product used is called Ultra Pure Horticultural Oil. All good horticultural oils are safe to plants, pets, and humans, due to their being completely non-toxic.  Horticultural oils are even approved for use by organic growers.  The oil  coats the insect causing it to suffocate, because the insects breathe through their skin.  Actually, horticulture oils is all I use year around for any insect outbreak. They work well.   - Millet.  . 

Tom this year's Citrus Expo is going to be held in Charleston, SC in latter part of November .  I think I will attend this one, do you think you might attend? - Millet

I have a large supermarket near me.  I'll look to see if they have Key Limes in stock.  If so I'll send you a bag. - Millet

Tom I found the answer to the question you asked in this post.  Citrus growth occurs in several flushes during each year.  The 1st growth occurs as straight vertical shoots.  No side branches or flowering occur on these new shoots during this initial growth period .  The growth  will eventually stop and the tree will enter a rest period.  Side branching and flowering develops on these vertical shoots during the next growth flush.  These side branches fill out to produce a round canopy, and produce the blooms for the next crop. During the next flush following the blooming flush only straight vertical shoots are once again produced which push through the preceding canopy to reach upward and outward. These shoots once again following another rest period eventually produce side branches and flowers to form a new canopy which is above and beyond the preceding canopy layer. Of course the first to reach the branching and flowering phase are the first branches that the tree produced,(on grafted trees) which of course are the lower branches.  Each year the flowering (thus the crop) will move up the tree as those branches enter the branching and flowering phase. Therefore, on young growing trees the lower portion of the tree will always have more fruit than the upper parts.  The crop location on the tree gradually equals outs as the tree  gets older and older and becomes fully mature. Thanks for the post, it helped us all out encluding myself. - Millet

Monsanto to the rescue?  The Colorado potato beetle is a voracious eater. The insect can chew through 10 square centimeters of leaf a day, and left unchecked it will strip a plant bare. But the beetles I was looking at were doomed. The plant they were feeding on—bright green and carefully netted in Monsanto’s labs outside St. Louis—had been doused with a spray of RNA. The experiment took advantage of a mechanism called RNA interference. It’s a way to temporarily turn off the activity of any gene. In this case, the gene being shut down was one vital to the insect’s survival. “I am pretty sure 99 percent of them will be dead soon,” said Jodi Beattie, a Monsanto scientist who showed me her experimentOne project I did learn about is led by Nitzan Paldi, an Israeli entrepreneur who’d been a cofounder of Beeologics. His current startup, called Forrest Innovations, is investigating a solution to citrus greening disease, a blight that’s destroying Florida’s citrus industry and is also present in Brazil. Caused by bacteria spread by an invasive insect called the Asian citrus psyllid, it leaves oranges hard and discolored, with juice the flavor of jet fuel. Last year, 22 percent of oranges in Florida suddenly fell off the trees. Paldi isn’t willing to disclose exactly how he’s applying the RNA, but he did say he’s hoping to block genes involved in the trees’ reaction to the bacteria. It’s their immune response to the infection that causes the greening symptoms. If the treatment works, Paldi believes, an RNA intervention could sail past regulators. With growers desperate, and the prospect of no more Florida orange juice, the public may be open-minded too. “We are potentially riding in on the horse and saving the day,” he says.

Millet

Earth’s natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible and carbon dioxide plays a significant role in providing for the relatively warm temperature that the planet enjoys. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary atmosphere warms the planet's surface beyond what it would be in the absence of its atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is believed to have played an important effect in regulating Earth's temperature throughout its 4.7 billion year history.  Anyway, if the world heats up, then I might be able to plant a palm tree in my yard, and grow my citrus trees outside year around which would be nice. - Millet.

Foliar nutrition cannot replace or eliminate the natural way of nutrient uptake by plant roots.  In general, foliar application of mineral elements is not so effective as to cover the complete nutritional requirements  needed by plants.  It mainly results from restrictions in applying increased doses of mineral nutrients or it insufficient translocation from leaves to roots.  Nevertheless, depending on plant species, a significant portion of plant requirements for mineral nutrients (mainly microelements) can be covered by foliar nutrition. Because of the polar characteristics of the leaf cuticle and pectin layers (negative charge), these layers contribute to a much higher efficient translocation of apolar and cation molecules rather than anions.  For that reason, a low efficiency is observed for foliar nutrition with mineral nutrients in anion forms (NO3, P, S, B, Mo),  and a high translocation (leaf absorption) for cations (NH4, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn), - Millet