The Tropical Fruit Forum

So_Cal_Mike, you would certainly think so. - Millet

brian what you are seeing is known as guttation, and is no problem (in fact it could well mean that your trees have a very good developed root system).  Look up guttation on the internet for a full explanation. - Millet

The Valencian Growers Association has demanded the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, and the country's regional governments, to urgently introduce exceptional control measures after the insect called African psyllid, which acts as vector for citrus greening disease, was detected in numerous municipalities of Galicia, and for the first time in the Iberian peninsula, as the disease could have devastating effects for the crop.

"This is extremely serious news," laments the President of
AVA-ASAJA, Cristóbal Aguado, "and it is absolutely essential for the Ministry of Agriculture, in coordination with the autonomous regions, to launch a plan for monitoring, control and prevention; firstly, to try eradicating the insect from Galicia, and secondly, to prevent it from spreading to other areas, as if this was to happen, the future of Spain's citrus industry could be in serious jeopardy. We consequently expect an immediate and forceful response from the authorities. - Millet

A researcher at UC Riverside is getting $1.7 million from the US Department of Agriculture to battle citrus greening, the grant, announced earlier this week. Ramadugu has been working on the citrus greening problem at UCR for 10 years. Prior to that, she was doing similar research for a company in Florida. She still does most of her field work in that state, since that's where the disease is most prevalent. Ramadugu and her team of scientists have developed the prototype of a trap that attracts only the citrus psyllid. She plans to use the trap, along with a newly developed testing device, to keep track of infected psyllids that may potentially infect trees in actively producing groves. The growers themselves will be trained to do the testing. Ramadugu said she plans to find five growers each in California and Texas, as well as some in Florida, and provide them with three traps each. A single psyllid is all that is needed for an effective test, but she's hoping many more will be captured. That way, researchers can get a better picture of what's happening in the psyllid population.The field test involves taking the captured psyllids and placing them in a holding medium for a few hours. After that they will be placed in the testing unit -- developed by a Hawaiian company -- which heats the insects to 80 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. They then will be placed in a test tube with some chemical reagents and allowed to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. If the bugs test positive for the disease, it will show up on a graph on the testing unit. If it’s positive, they go to a specialist lab to make sure that it’s correct. - Millet

http://www.capitalpress.com/Orchards/20150210/company-plays-key-role-in-shaping-timber-citrus-industries
Millet

LEOOEL. do your Valencias turn a nice orange color in your zone 10 location? - Millet

Dekopon trees (Sumo) are not grown like the common orange tree.  To get the large /sweet fruit the tree gets a special pruning.  For those interest you can find how this pruning is done on the internet.- Millet

If your trees are flushing, it is a common period for leaf drop also. - Millet

A labor dispute involving longshoremen that resulted in no ships being loaded and unloaded at 29 West Coast ports this past weekend is having serious consequences for the California citrus industry. Fruit is rotting on the docks, sales are being canceled by the customer, so the California Citrus industry has slowed its harvesting so as not to place matured fruit into such a marketplace. These problems stem from a work slowdown over the past three months by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. - Millet

The name "seedless citrus" is a bit of a misnomer. The United States Department of Agriculture is the governmental organization that officially stipulates that a seedless fruit can contain from 0 to 6 seeds. This means that most citrus fruits listed as seedless actually contain a small number of seeds. Still, this small amount is far fewer than the number of seeds in a seeded variety of fruit. - Millet

The Cocktail "Grapefruit" is actually a hybrid of Siamese Sweet pummelo and Frua mandarin.  What is surprising, at least to me, is that the cross that made this fruit was almost 60 years ago. For some reason Cocktail seemed a rather new fruit. - Millet

Follow up article.
http://www.freshfruitportal.com/2015/02/05/u-s-researchers-develop-fast-easy-and-accurate-citrus-greening-detector/?country=others

Jeff, some growers will replace with more oranges, other with various fruits, and many with houses . - Millet