Heartbreaking, I hope it can be contained, despite the odds...

Well, you can believe it, blaze. But, pruning or spraying will not control HLB, according to what we learned yesterday evening. We had the pleasure (or sadness) of having Dr. Allan Dodds, professor emeritus from UC Riverside speak at our local chapter of the CRFG last evening. I sat on an experts panel for my group with Dr. Dobbs. He presented the state of affairs with HLB here in California, as well as gave us an excellent presentation about HLB in Florida and the kinds of research around the world being conducted to thwart the disease. The statistics Dr. Dodds shared regarding the percentage of trees that are symptomatic in Florida were frightening - 46% of all citrus trees at this point are infected with HLB. Those are trees that are either symptomatic (which takes 2 years to become symptomatic) or have been tested and are positive. The rate has doubled every year for the last 3 years. It is growing by logarithmic proportions. The citrus experts in Florida believe all trees will be infected in less than 4 years.

Right now, in the state of California, there has only been one tree that has been confirmed to be infected with HLB, and that tree has been destroyed. All citrus trees within about a 5 mile radius have been sprayed. So, we don't know, yet what the future holds for us. If it turns out that more trees are found to be infected, then the USDA and the CDFA will no doubt resort to rather grim measures, according to Dr. Dodds. He believes that it very well may come down to banning all backyard citrus in the state of California in an attempt to save the commercial citrus industry. I have over 50 citrus trees in my yard. That would be devastating to me.

There are a small number of researchers around the world working on some very sophisticated solutions. Some very fascinating research going on right now. The citrus industry, universities and the government are funding some of the most promising research here in the United States. I am hopeful that one or a combination of several research programs will come up with a solutions in the next 4 years. It will probably take another 3 to 5 years to produce either resistant trees or adequate controls methods. But, between now and then, we may see HLB do the same thing in California as we are seeing in Florida.

Patty S.

Thats so scary. I cant believe it. Why is it doubling so fast? Did Florida begin treatment and containment too late? I mean, once they realized they had an infected tree or trees didnt they do what California did? In this article below they say Florida might have a %100 infected rate in the next 2-3 years? That is SCARY! I cherish Citrus trees. They remind me of my childhood and family. I live in Orange County for god sakes. I can never remember a time in my life where I couldnt see an Orange tree from a window or smell the blossoms during spring and summer.

I have hopes that this spinach thing will work out. But what does that help the trees that are growing now? Has china ever recovered from their HLB pandemic? I have heard that at least %50 of all trees sold in Vietnam are infected with HLB due to the mother tree being infected and growers not caring about testing.

What can we do? I know it is only a matter of time but I would like to think that we are more pro active than Florida has been or we have caught it in time?? Not saying Florida has not been doing all that they can but it seems California has been preparing for this you know? Seriously what can we do? All day I ride around my neighborhood looking for infected trees. There are SO MANY huge trees around here that people just NEGLECT! I feel like banging on peoples doors and yelling "Spray your tree and prune it or cut the damn thing down!" Im at that point because it seems people dont care to do anything until it smacks them in the face. My heart is in my throat with this one

Here is a link that might be useful: Spinach saves the day once again

One of the good things about this problem in California, if there could be good news, is that this incident is somewhat isolated as they suspect the disease was not spread from an insect but a infected "cutting" smuggled into the country from abroad. The owner of the infected tree was part of a group of people that share cuttings and this cutting was "suspected" of being from China. Of course it is. I wish they would just come right out and say it. This has been going on too long and the public needs to be made aware of how serious the problem of illegal plants and fruit can be.

Because this is the progression of the disease, blaze. Dr. Dodds said it's like "chasing a ghost", due to the 2 year lag time between infection and symptoms. And it is impossible to control what other countries do. We, the United States, can try to apply pressure in various ways - political, economic, etc - but that doesn't always mean countries will comply. Here's part of the problem happening in other countries who are ahead of us with HLB infections (and we are hoping this does not happen in the US, as it will escalate the issue in logarithmic proportions): HLB strikes and begins to create a reduction in commercial production. Commercial growers find they have to start replacing trees. The demand on commercial nurseries goes way up. Testing budwood for HLB becomes less than optimal and infected NEW trees start going out. Nothing is seen for 2 years because a tree doesn't become symptomatic for at least 2 years, more trees are infected due to new infected trees available for the ACP to visit and then spread the disease.

Yes, the branch of the tree (just a branch) that came up positive from HLB was a branch of a Chinese pommelo cultivar that is not available here in the USA. No one is stating how that budwood got here, but suspicions are that it was brought in illegally. But, it's too late now to do anything about it, or at least this tree. The inspectors are inspecting ALL the trees that this person may have grafted, or within this small Chinese community to make sure there isn't another infected grafted tree. The citrus industry is trying to increase public awareness. This does help, but there are still people out there who think the rules are not written for them and will continue to conduct themselves in ways that will increase our risk for spreading HLB.

And Dr. Mirkov (John, this is your guy at Texas A&M) who happens to be a past grad student of Dr. Dodds, is the one leading the research on using a couple of "protection" spinich genes, and inserting them into a number of citrus cultivars. He has had excellent success. This is one of the research projects I alluded to in my previous post. But no, this doesn't do anything to save current citrus trees from infection and ultimate death. And, you can only create so many immune cultivars. So far, he has created 2 grapefruits, I think 3 oranges and a mandarin. Maybe a lemon. There are thousands of citrus cultivars out there. And, this is clearly creating a genetically modified (GM) tree, which has its own issues with acceptability amongst a certain group of clients, both here and in other areas of the world. But, as Dr. Dodds also mentioned, with nearly complete certainty, he stated the "cure" will involve genetic modification in some manner.

There are some other extremely promising research projects going on, one of which I would love to be a part of. It is a project where the researchers are trying to use a modified version of the tristeza virus as a "silver bullet" to kill the HLB bacteria. The idea is to intentionally infect trees with this modified tristeza virus that will interrupt the HLB bacteria (Candidactus Liberibacter sp.) and prevent it from replicating, thus killing it. It is the most fascinating research out there, I think, and, if they can swing this, it is a "cure" for current infected citrus, as well as "vaccinating" healthy citrus. This is very, very cool, and very clever I think.

If anyone is interested in following the current research in the citrus industry, you'll want to bookmark the link, below. These are the "big guys" in citrus research. You can also subscribe to "Citrograph" and read up on all the work being done around all citrus pathogens, including HLB.

There are many projects going on, both on the plant pathology side of HLB as well as on the entomology side to try to control or eradicate the ACP. You have 3 approaches to take when trying to control or get rid of a disease: develop resistant/immune cultivars, kill or disable the disease itself, or go after the vector. There are research projects going on, on all levels, so I imagine there will be multiple successful options within the next 3 to 4 years.

Lastly, if you have an iPhone, there's a new app you can download for free from the Save Our Citrus website:
http://saveourcitrus.org/index.php/soc-iphone-app

They're working on an Android version, but for now, if you have an iPhone or iPad, this is a nice informational app you can put on your device.

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Research Program

Thanks for the link Patty. I will definitely keep an eye out.

I think that is very interesting stuff. I was reading how they used sterile male fruit flies to eradicate the fruit fly problem. They dumped the males by the millions and when they mated with the females, no more babies! They all eventually died off. I wonder if that would work with the ACP? I would also love to see some resistent trees out there. As long as I can get a Valencia, Washington, Blood, Meyer and a couple Mandarin Ill be content (for a little while)

The sad thing is is that the very first ACP that was found north of San Diego was found in Santa Ana only about 5 blocks from my house:-(

The entomologists involved in HLB research are indeed working on this as well as other entomological approaches.

Patty S.

I knew an entomologist who slept in a bed in his kitchen and kept a bunch of model trains in his bedrooms. Really strange fellow but was really cool. He would run and drop to his knees at the site of any little bug and scoop it up to go on a rant about the species. Hiking in Idyllwild with him was fun but a pain in the butt..hehe

He was a small portly fellow who loved oranges so maybe hes working on this as well;-)

This may provide some additional information for those interested.

Here is a link that might be useful: HLB Fact Sheet

I know many of you in California were wanting more info on HLB. We taped Dr. Dodds presentation to our N. San Diego CRFG Chapter, so here is a link to the video of his presentation on YouTube.

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: N. San Diego CRFG: Dr. Dodds Presents HLB Overview

Damn my stupid comp is on its last leg and I cant get sound!