The Tropical Fruit Forum

The cartons say "100% pure and natural." But juice-drinkers who believe that premium juice is minimally processed and freshly made may find that their glass is only half full.

A joint investigation by CBC Marketplace and Radio-Canada's L'épicerie reveals that much of the premium not-from-concentrate orange juice on the market, including juices from Tropicana, Simply Orange, Oasis and others, is highly processed and may be stored for several months before making its way to supermarket shelves.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/orange-juice-is-premium-juice-actually-more-natural-1.2902004

The Greening disease that is plaguing Florida citrus growers is only getting worse.  In fact, this year's crop is likely to be the worst production year on record.  In the past 10 years, $230 million of state, federal and grower money has gone toward research but the crisis continues. - Millet

http://www.wfla.com/story/27841588/florida-citrus-growers-predicting-worst-crop-on-record-hoping-for-more-funding

I have had a Ponkan Mandarin for four +- years.  Up until a year ago the tree has been in a container, and unfortunately in an area that did not receive much direct sunlight.  A year or so ago I transplanted it from a container into the ground, and this year it has produced a  decent crop.   Unlike many citrus varieties that improves the longer they hang on the tree, Ponkan does not do this.  If left hanging, the fruit's quality gradually become  more and more inferior, plus Ponkan is highly alternate bearing.   Fruit remaining on the tree, encourages alternate bearing thus a crop reduction  the following year.   Ponkan is among the largest sized mandarins,  very easy pealing, and of good flavor.  The only draw back, if it is even a drawback, is that the fruit has seeds.    Anyway, I picked all the fruit and will see what the tree does this spring about flowering and fruit set. - Millet

. Tangerine is a common name with no botanical standing. Tangerines are one of four major types of mandarins; the other three are the satsuma, the Mediterranean and the king. The name tangerine is rarely used outside of the United States. Portuguese mariners returning from Southeast Asia introduced mandarins through Tangiers, Morocco, which led to the name. - Millet

Understanding the citrus species’ past to unlock a more disease-tolerant future

Citrus was first domesticated in Southeast Asia, then spread to Europe and the Americas via trade routes, and has ancestral roots that can be traced back to over five million years ago. Interestingly, the orange you may be eating today is thought to have originated from two wild citrus species, citrus maxima and citrus reticulata. For the last ten years, Dr. Fred G. Gmitter at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred has been working collaboratively with citrus scientists from Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, and the United States to map the entire citrus genome.

Through traditional breeding methods like grafting, in which the scion (fruit-bearing part of the tree) is propagated onto the rootstock, the new tree will produce fruit quickly. However, the fruit will all be genetically identical, and unfortunately, that includes identical disease susceptibility.

“Citrus has incestuous genes— nothing is pure,” explains Dr. Gmitter. Since the modern cultivated citrus trees have such a “narrow genetic diversity,” Dr. Gmitter and his team of scientists hope to be able to use their new understanding of the citrus genome to identify sequences that will deploy genes for resistance to citrus greening, the devastating disease caused by bacterial infection via the Asian citrus psyllid. Dr. Gmitter’s genetic analysis of sweet and sour oranges was published recently online in the journal Nature Biotechnology. He is the chairman of the International Citrus Genome Consortium and has employed the efforts of US GENOSCOPE France and IGA Italy to sequence a full catalog of all genes in those varieties, as well as the DNA structure of the genome.

The wild species citrus maxima gave rise to the modern pummelo, the largest citrus fruit, which can weigh up to four pounds or even more. Today’s modern mandarins are genetic mixtures of Citrus reticulata and pummelo; sweet oranges are a complex hybrid, constituted by parts of the pummelo and mandarin genomes. Because sweet orange is the world’s most commonly grown citrus species, the benefits of researching its ancestral roots are endless. Dr. Gmitter explains, “Now that we understand the genetic structure of sweet orange, for example, we can imagine reproducing early citrus domestication using modern breeding techniques that could draw from a broader pool of natural variation and resistance.”

Dr. Gmitter’s tireless work to map the entire citrus genome has enabled him and his team to now use that information to work on finding the genetic sequence in sweet orange that can be manipulated to improve the tree’s disease resistance, response to environmental stress, fruit flavor, and even health-promoting benefits. Genetic modifications that could potentially eradicate citrus greening are now on the horizon!

Dr. Gmitter’s full publication can be viewed here: http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v32/n7/full/nbt.2906.html

Millet

http://www.theledger.com/article/20150105/NEWSCHIEF/150109635?p=1&tc=pg
Millet

http://southeastagnet.com/2014/12/19/big-florida-citrus-planting-marketing-addressed/

A second predicted night of freezing temperatures in the southern end of the Tulare County, California  didn't get quite low enough to damage much, if any, commercial citrus trees Wednesday night and this morning. Still, growers began initiating frost-protection measures about 10 p.m. Wednesday, activating wind machines, spraying water in their groves and lighting porcelain heaters in groves. These actions can raise the temperatures in a grove a few degrees in the event of below-freezing temperatures that could damage the trees, unpicked oranges and other citrus varieties. Low temperatures overnight into New Year's morning dipped below freezing, as low as 26 degrees in Tulare. In some areas of the Valley, the temperatures dipped lower, including 24 degrees in Pixley. Those are temperatures low enough to damage fruit, but usually those temperatures have to exist for hours or over multiple nights to threaten citrus crops.
Millet

In the year 1200 Saint Dominic planted a seed from a sour orange in the garden of Saint Sabina Convent in Rome, Italy.  Some year back Sister Mary sent me a seed taken from an orange of the Saint Dominic tree. My tree is now fruiting, and if anyone would like a seed to grow  a descendant of the famous tree, send me a private message with your address. - Millet

http://medmeanderings.com/travel/2014/08/legend-saint-dominics-orange-tree/

Recently, all of Tulare County, California was placed under quarantine by The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) because the Asian Citrus Psyllid has been found here. This quarantine applies to homeowners, too. In a news release on Sept. 26, 2014, CDFA wrote that “residents with backyard citrus trees are asked to not remove fruit from the quarantine area. So, when family and friends from out of Tulare County are here for the holidays, do not send them home with sacks of citrus fruit, including oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes — or any other kind of citrus. It also means that you cannot ship cartons of your own backyard citrus to relatives out of the County. This quarantine is required because the rapidly spreading psyllid is an invasive pest that can carry huanglongbing (HLB) disease, also known as greening disease. This disease has wiped out the citrus industry in Florida and many thousands of trees died. California regulators are working hard to prevent that from happening here.
Millet

If your growing a citrus tree inside a greenhouse, a mature citrus tree should begin flowering around the middle of January to the beginning of February.  Outdoor citrus trees begin to flower in March.  If you want to insure a good flowering now is the time to spray the tree with a foliar application of low biuret Urea, or potassium nitrate.  Urea is the better choice.  Doing so will increase the intensity of flowering and help with the retention of the developing fruit.   When  foliar spraying a tree use the purest water that you have available.  If your water supply is chlorinated let it set for 24 hours so the chlorine will evaporate out.  One teaspoon of a good surfactant per gallon of spray also helps coat the leaf.  Be sure to get both the upper and lower leaf surfaces. Do not spray during the heat of the day. - Millet

The problem is many Americans just don’t drink it anymore.
 
Annual consumption for a juice that became a U.S. breakfast staple after World War II is now the lowest in at least 18 years. While smaller orange crops in Florida and Brazil have sent futures surging in the past month, sales of the top two brands, PepsiCo Inc.’s Tropicana and Coca Cola Co.’s Minute Maid, have plunged in the past decade.
 
Demand has suffered as beverage choices increased, from diet sodas to sports drinks, and high sugar content has become a turnoff for calorie-conscious consumers, data from market researcher Euromonitor Plc shows. Sales of bottled water topped all juices for the first time in 2007. The waning appeal of orange juice has limited the impact of a 55 percent production decline since 2004 in Florida, the biggest U.S. citrus grower.

Millet