A devastating citrus disease has reached the Florida Panhandle, and UF researchers are working to fight it.
Carrie Harmon, the director of UF’s Plant Diagnostic Center, said citrus greening, a deadly disease caused by bacteria spread by the Asian citrus psyllid insect, reached the Panhandle in December, which was the only area in Florida without the disease. UF researchers are looking for a cure, but none is currently available.
In Alachua County, the disease hasn’t been a major issue because farmers typically grow small amounts of cold-tolerant citrus.
But farmers in the Panhandle, where the disease has been observed in Franklin County, also grow cold-tolerant citrus.
The disease is the main factor in Florida’s declining orange production, which has decreased by 60 percent in the last six years, said Dean Gabriel, a professor in the UF Department of Plant Pathology.
Harmon said the disease in the Panhandle shows that citrus greening has spread farther than experts were aware of.
“The real kicker with this disease is that the plants can be affected for a year or two or more before we see symptoms,” she said.
Harmon said her lab at the diagnostic center is one of the few in Florida which tests for citrus greening. Her program is focusing on early detection of the disease, she said.
UF researchers are working to create a spray or injection to terminate the disease in infected and uninfected trees, she said.
“Experimentally, there are some things that show promise but nothing that is labeled, registered and able to be used right now for the citrus in Florida,” she said.
Citrus greening can also be found in California, Arizona and Texas, Gabriel said.
If the disease continues, Florida farmers can expect another 50-percent drop in production every five years, he said.
Although few farmers in North Central Florida grow citrus, Warren Henderson has spent 20 years growing the plants in Hawthorne, Florida. He said his own farm hasn’t seen any effects of the disease, but it could show up in the future.
“It’s a matter of time that we begin to have the same problems,” he said.
