The Tropical Fruit Forum

The team from UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said that it has discovered a chemical that kills the citrus greening
The chemical — benzbromarone — has been used to treat gout in humans but has never been approved for use in the United States because of concerns over reports of acute liver injury. Researchers sprayed greenhouse tree shoots infected with greening with three different chemicals, and the benzbromarone halted the bacteria in 80 percent of the infected trees' shoots.
But researchers caution that this good news is only the first step in a years long process "We are getting closer and closer," said researcher Claudio Gonzalez. - Millet

Chas, all of your trees look very healthy, with good color, and fruit. Your doing a great job with your collection.  Thanks for sharing your pictures.  An Inspiration for sure. - Millet

Do you know the variety of the mandarin, and also, how old was the tree when it got froze to the ground? I take it that the tree was not prot4ected in any manner against the winter cold. - Millet

With all the foundation dust, the pH must be quite high. Citrus like a pH of 6.5- Millet

This is interesting.  USA is importing South African citrus, and the EU bans citrus from South Africa due to disease problems.....

The European Union  (EU) on Thursday banned most imports of South African citrus for the rest of the current year. The move came amid fears that a fungal disease that were found in dozens of shipments from South Africa which could spread to the 28-nation bloc. Thirty-six citrus consignments had been intercepted earlier this year from the EU's chief summer supplier. Fruit contaminated with the black spot disease is currently not found in Europe at all. The introduction of citrus black spot into the EU territory would pose a serious threat to the EU's citrus-producing areas," Brussels said in a statement. "For that reason, it's necessary to further restrict the import. The EU executive said the ban would apply to all South African citrus shipments from regions where the disease was present, meaning the bulk of the country's production would be affected. - Millet

The Gloucester Marine Ship Terminal, 30 miles north of Boston, is the ship terminal where South Africa's 2014 citrus imports are entering the USA.  This orange season South Africa is scheduled to import between 30,000 to 40,000 pallets of oranges into the USA.  The first shipment of 3,400 pallets of oranges arrived June 10th on board the the freighter Green Italia. - Millet

Today's technology of putting a gene from one plant into another plant is becoming rather common.  I wonder what a Minneola tangelo would taste like with a gene from Allspice spliced into its DNA? - Millet.

The Gold Nugget Mandarin which is a sweet tasting UCR variety, is in my opinion a mandarin worth considering.  I ordered a Gold Nugget tree from 4-Wind Growers, and immediately liked it so much, I called Bay Floral and purchased a second one. They are turning out to be a good variety to grow. Being a mandarin they do well  either in the ground or in containers.  Both of my trees are container grown. They are a vigorous, fast growing tree, are seedless, even when grown in mixed company, and thankfully a late season maturing variety. Grown well you can expect 3 to 5 flushes of new growth per year.  What is different about this particular tree, is that its fruit does exceptionally well when left hanging on the tree even into late summer while still keeping its good  quality. Its late season maturing fits well with the early satsuma  Xie Shan, and the mid season mandarin Tango.  Xie Shan is ready from September to Christmas, followed by Tango January to March, and then Gold Nugget from March through August (due to its fruit's long keeping ability).  With just these three trees your family can have fresh fruit year around. - Millet

Yes I know he has.  I read them..  Anyway, I do not think that Hickson is grown in this country. - Millet

The battle to save the California's Central Valley's citrus industry from the Greening's disease-carrying Asian citrus psyllids is now coming to the central valley's home owner. Starting early next month, the fight will be taken to the yards of homes across Tulare County, along with parts of Fresno counties. That's when the California Department of Food and Agriculture will begin sending a group of 15 technicians to knock on doors of homes to ask if citrus is grown on their property. Technicians will go into yards with orange, lemon and other kinds of citrus trees to see if any have psyllids swarming around them, or if the trees are showing signs of huanglongbing (HLB) — a bacteria the insects can carry and spread from one citrus tree to another. The high-risk surveys, that the state agency has been doing in Southern California since 2012, after the first and so far only HLB infected citrus tree was found in a Rancho Cucamonga neighborhood, will now also be carried out in the Central Valley of California.  - Millet

The trial is the next step in a lawsuit that was first filed in 2003.  Last year, Judge Keith Kyle ruled the Florida Department of Agriculture and its head, Adam Putnam, were liable for the almost 34,000 trees it destroyed in Lee County from 2000 to 2006 as part of the Citrus Canker Eradication Program. The trees were destroyed because they were located within a 1,900-foot circle from an infected tree. At the start of the trial, Kyle told jurors to remember its focus  “The issue of whether the department was permitted to destroy these trees and whether these trees should or should not have been destroyed is not a matter to be decided by you,” he said. “I have already determined that the department’s destruction of the’ trees constituted a governmental taking. The plaintiffs said the state should pay up to $19 million in compensation. The state offered residents $100 Walmart garden center gift cards for the first tree removed and $55 dollar checks for every other tree removed. State officials said it has already paid a total of $1.7 million.
The trial is expected to last until July 10. - Millet

The keys are timing, spacing, improved root systems, proper nutrition, shifting plants into larger containers at the proper time and leaving the side branches on as long as practical.  These six factors are critical or you get to sake and stake and tie and tie and wonder why your trees have poor stem diameter/caliper and roots.  You must pay attention to timing relative to the tree's growth.  Once trees in containers, any containers, reach the sidewalls and space for further root development becomes limiting, the tree's  growth pattern becomes like squeezing tooth paste out of the tube, the growth is weak and straight up, and there is no way to get it back into the tube.  ALWAYS leave the lower limbs on the young tree trunks as long as practical.  Research has shown that leaves on the lower trunk contribute most to the development of trunk diameter and strength and good root growth. Air Root Pruning containers are the very best containers for developing a strong trunk and a good root system. It is a matter of root tips and their function.  One root tip can absorb "X" amount of water and nutrients in a day, week or month.  If, by container design and simply using air to dehydrate the root tips, thereby stimulating one root tip to branch  and become 5 and 5 to become 25 and so on, the absorptive capacity of the root system increases dramatically and in turn the leaves are supplied more efficiently with water and nutrients and manufacture more sugars to run the system and positive results occur. As soon the seeds have germinated and are in the propagation containers, they are placed outside in full sun and with full wind.   You want the trunks to bend in the wind as the more the trunks flex the larger in diameter they become (assuming you do not have some other limiting factor) this has been confirmed by some excellent research. It is the resistance against the wind that builds strong straight trunks.  Full sunlight, movement of the young trunks by wind, and proper nutrition are essential, then add  an air root pruning container to build a superior root system and you are off to a great start. - Millet

Sour Orange rates good for freezes, but susceptible to both burrowing nematodes and citrus nematodes, other then that, it either rates good or tolerant to just about everything else except tristerza virus. - Millet