The Tropical Fruit Forum

As the longest, southernmost country in the world, Chile boasts unique geographical conditions that allow for very long citrus harvesting periods.  Chile starts harvesting clementines in the countries northern regions in April, and then the harvest continues moving south, with late-season mandarins (W. Murcotts) harvested into September and October. Chile’s total clementine volume has grown by 50% between 2010 and 2014, with more than fifty percent of the crop being exported to the U.S. from May and October . The United States is Chile's largest customer.  - Millet

President Barack Obama's recent initiative to normalize relations and re-establish trade with Cuba has opened old wounds beyond those connected to anti-communism and the Bay of Pigs .Already battling exotic pests and diseases imported from outside Florida, growers fear more of the same from trade with Cuba. Conventional wisdom among Florida citrus growers is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's border checkpoints failed to prevent the importation of the bacterial disease citrus greening, which arose here in 2005 and continues to threaten commercial citrus production in the state. Add to that list citrus canker, another bacterial disease that re-entered Florida in the 1990s, and citrus black spot, a fungal disease that arrived in 2010. Other recently imported pests include laurel wilt, a fungal disease threatening Florida avocado production, and the giant African land snail, which attacks more than 500 plants and can carry organisms harmful to humans. With that record, a lot of Florida growers have no faith in the USDA's ability to screen out any pests riding along in Cuban agricultural imports. "If you look at the kind of plant pest and diseases we're fighting in the state, it may leave some people to believe (the USDA) is not doing a very good job," said Mike Stuart, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Millet

http://www.theledger.com/article/20150501/NEWS/150509936/0/search

The amount of heat an orange tree gets during the summer, determines how quickly the fruit becomes sweet enough to begin picking. It is hot summers that produces the sugars that make oranges sweet.  Orange trees grown in cool summer areas generally produce fruit with low sugar content, and also extents the length of time until the fruit is ready to harvest.  In mild climates,  Valencia and Navel oranges may take 12 to 16  months before they become mature enough to harvest, and could still e hanging on the tree when it begins to flower again.  Tasting a fruit ever now and then is a good method to determine when to harvest.  If your oranges are not ready, leave them on the tree to continue to sweeten. - Millet

Watch video

http://abc30.com/news/pulled-out-citrus-trees-destined-for-chipper/688268/

Millet

Cara Cara is pinkish fleshed orange that originated as limb sport from a Washington Navel orange tree that was growing in Venezuela. All Cara Cara Navel trees are derived from that tree.   I have a large 10+ year old Cara Cara tree that produces a lot of fruit.  I noticed this year that one branch on my Cara Cara tree is once again producing orange flesh fruit that looks and taste exactly like a Washington Navel.  I am believing that that branch has once again sported out and returned to its parentage.  All the rest of the tree produces regular Cara Cara type fruit. - Millet.

HLB control is difficult because current bactericidal sprays, such as copper, simply leave a protective film on the outside of a plant. The insect-transmitted bacteria bypasses that barrier and lives inside a tree's fruit, stems and roots, in the vascular tissue known as the phloem. There, it deprives the tree of carbohydrate and nutrients, causing root loss and ultimately death. For a bactericide to be effective against HLB, it must be able to move within the plant, too. Zinkicide is an extremely small nanoparticle smaller than a single microscopic cell, and researchers are cautiously optimistic it will be able to move systemically from cell to cell to kill the bacteria that cause HLB. "The bacteria hide inside the plant in the phloem region," Santra said. "If you spray and your compound doesn't travel to the phloem region, then you cannot treat HLB."Zinkicide is derived from ingredients which are found in plants, and is designed to break down and be metabolized after its job is done. It's the first step in a years-long process to bring a treatment to market. UF will lead five years of greenhouse and field trials on grapefruit and sweet orange to determine the effectiveness of Zinkicide and the best method and timing of application. The project also includes research to study where the nanoparticles travel within the plant, understand how they interact with plant tissue and how long they remain before breaking down. If effective, the bactericide could have a substantial role in combatting HLB in Florida, and in other citrus-producing states and countries. It would also likely be useful for control of other bacterial pathogens infecting other crops.
The Zinkicide project builds as a spin-off from previous collaborations between Santra and UF's Jim Graham, at the Citrus Research and Education Center to develop alternatives to copper for citrus canker control. Is It The Long Awated Cure For Citrus Greening? The University is hopeful.

Millet

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-tiny-particle-stem-plague-citrus.html

Citrus growers in Southwest Florida are on the spot as USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has added 12 sections in Collier County, 19 sections in Hendry County, and six sections in Lee County to the citrus black spot (CBS) regulated area.


According to the North American Plant Protection Organization, this action responds to the confirmation of CBS, These new sections are near areas that have previously been found positive for CBS. Although no positive CBS detections were made in Lee County, portions of Lee County are included in the quarantine because the areas are located in the buffer zone around positives detected in the other counties. The fungal disease’s first confirmed finding was in Collier County during late March 2010.

Groves where CBS is present are subject to stringent guidelines that increase production and harvesting costs, including requirements such as covering infected fruit with a tarp during transport outside of the infected grove. In addition, CBS renders fruit unfit for fresh market sale because of the symptomatic black lesions caused by the disease.

Millet

Sicily, Italy, is generating energy from citrus fruit waste, namely from oranges, limes and lemons. Catania, a city in Sicily in the shadow of Mt. Etna has been running the first citrus energy converter unit, which converts the citrus waste into biogas for use in a local mini power plant.  Sicily, has started a program named "The Energy of citrus", using citrus which is abundantly grown on the island. The waste generated by the processing of citrus mainly for the production of juice, in the past constituted a serious problem. Disposing of the waste was really expensive, costing 30 Euro per tonne. By producing 500 cubic metres of biogas, it is sufficient to run a generator producing one megawatt of electricity, which is the consumption of an average of 333 households. According to calculations by experts, twenty such stations across the island could make Sicily the first "citrus powered" place.

Millet
http://www.freshplaza.com/article/138259/Citrus-waste-used-for-energy-production

Gless Ranch owner John Gless, and his PCA, Raul Garcia, say California is on right track in addressing Huanglongbing after recent trip to Florida. Gless grows about 4,500 acres of citrus, including these Washington Navels in Kern County.
Will Florida collapse? Though he had heard the stories of how bad things are in Florida, Finch said he was still amazed to see first-hand just how much loss the state’s citrus industry has incurred.

Finch said he heard concerns by some that Florida’s entire citrus industry could collapse under the weight of tree replacements, 12 insecticide sprays per year, and nutrition efforts  - all eating into the bottom line. Grower costs have increased from about $600 per acre in 2008 to about $2,000 per acre today, largely due to treatment and replacement costs. Both said they heard examples of growers simply throwing in the towel and giving up on farming citrus altogether.

For Gless, the trip illuminated how important industry cooperation and the cooperation between growers can be in slowing the spread of the Asian citrus psyllid, the tiny flying pest responsible for spreading the bacteria that causes HLB. “It’s pretty tough when you’re doing everything right and your neighbor isn’t,” Gless said. Many citrus groves in Florida have already been abandoned, Finch says, leaving growers who continue to farm with a steep battle to control the psyllid. This remains a large concern for California’s industry as groves in the Golden State are also being abandoned, creating safe havens for psyllids to reproduce. Controlling the psyllid has been the focus of California’s fresh-fruit industry under the guise that keeping the insect at low enough numbers can possibly buy the industry time while it seeks a cure for the disease, or rootstock better able to combat the nutrient-sapping disease. - Millet

http://westernfarmpress.com/orchard-crops/california-citrus-leaders-learn-lessons-florida?page=2

Australian fingerlimes are becoming increasingly popular with restaurateurs according to grower Ian Douglas, who grows fingerlimes full of ‘lime caviar’ pearls around Queensland’s Scenic Rim. “Demand has probably doubled in the past year, and has been keeping pace with increased production,” he says. There are around 20 different commercial varieties, and of those a handful stand out to chefs, according to Mr Douglas, who took up growing fingerlimes when he retired from his 50 year career as a barrister six years ago. “Rainforest Pearl is a good early variety, which finishes picking in about mid-March. We have two main varieties though, Emerald and Byron Sunrise, which should finish in about the first week of June.” Champagne, named for its pearly pink champagne colour, is another variety that ‘freezes well’ and attracts interest. “This season has been fairly poor because heat and rain have affected production though. The only Rainforest Pearl variety available is from Pemberton in Western Australia, where they grow about 200 trees,” says Mr Douglas.

Millet

Gold Nugget mandarin variety  a sweet, juicy easy-peel mandarin was named for its beautiful bright, bumpy rind. - Millet

Tastier California navel orange will hit the market this season, thanks to seven years of consumer research that has resulted in the all‐new California StandardTM. The California StandardTM is the new standard by which all California navels will be measured, in an effort to ensure a better navel orange eating experience. Previously, California navels were required by law to meet a ratio measurement. A ratio between brix (the orange's natural sugar) and acid, which has now been shown to be an ineffective predictor of eating quality. The new California StandardTM instead now measures the balance between brix and acidity, which is a superior indicator of sweetness and taste.  The taste studies concluded that Brix minus Acid is a better predictor of flavor than the previous sugar‐to‐acid ratios. The new Standard was recommended by the California Citrus Mutual, supported by the citrus industry and ultimately adopted into a new legal regulation by the California Department of Food and Agriculture,

Millet (we'll see if we can taste the difference this fall)