The Tropical Fruit Forum
Citrus => Citrus General Discussion => Topic started by: kumin on August 18, 2022, 03:30:32 PM
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https://citrusindustry.net/2022/08/05/whats-next-for-the-donaldson-citrus-variety/
There appears to be a lot of excitement with this find. The slow meticulous methodology of the past seems to be supplanted with a sense of urgency. Hopefully the orange groves can be salvaged before they disappear as construction building lots. It has always pained me to see prime agricultural land disappear under asphalt and concrete.
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The Donaldson tree has HLB, but shows an amazing tolerance to the disease.
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They already have the sugar bell and a few others that are pretty tolerant. They also have nets to put around small trees to keep them from getting infected. Florida is becoming like a giant New York city. Everything will get bulldozed to build more houses and tourist traps.
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This discovery also illustrates the importance of maintaining Arboretum collections of Citrus varieties.
It equally points out the problems faced by these collections due to changing research priorities and budget decisions.
Many trees in Collections are under threat because they don't seem to have any foreseeable use to commercial Citrus interests.
HLB will only make this worse, as trees are destroyed to fight HLB and protect commercial orchards.