Have you heard about the Greening disease on citrus crops

This could actually go into a couple different forums but I chose this one due to the potential catastrophic side effects of losing citrus trees.

Incurable Disease threatens citrus crops

Florida's $9 billion orange crop, the largest in the world after Brazil's, may not survive an incurable disease that threatens to wipe out citrus groves throughout the United States.The disease, known as "citrus greening" or huanglongbing, is caused by a bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus. The bacteria are spread from tree to tree by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid, The New York Times reports.

A tree affected by citrus greening may not show symptoms for years. Eventually, however, the leaves turn yellow and fall, while the tree's fruit fails to mature, falling to the ground prematurely before the tree slowly dies.

I was honestly not even aware of how bad this is, I grew up in Pasco county Florida my small town was bracketed by citrus groves, hundreds of acres that had to be bulldozed and things are so bad major citrus growers are giving up on large tracks of land and selling them off to be developed.

My dads land has been covered in fruit trees my entire life, they are almost all dead from this disease.

University of Florida has been working round the clock on this for years and they have nothing right now, Coke poured 2 billion into the research and they got nothing after 4 years of this.

Every citrus producing state in the Union has the disease, its in central and south America, and over seas, at this point losing fresh citrus is a very real possibility, supplements are fine to a point.

So has anyone else heard of anyone actually making headway against this, I haven't and the loss of fresh citrus could be a serious problem in the future.

a reply to: Irishhaf

The psyllid that carries the bacterium loves warmth and, given the warming trend in Florida, is proliferating. The citrus growers near me say that there will be no Florida citrus of any kind in 10 years.

We went through something like this already.

Citrus Kanker (Xanthomonas axonopodis).

They methodically came to all the houses here in south florida and eradicated all the citrus trees.

It sucked. And now we have to go through this again. It sucks.

Not yet detected here in Spain, I have several citrus trees giving delicious fruits so let's hope it stays that way.

My first thought on a cause for the bacteria to widespread is the use of monoculture. There is a reason why a natural forest has multiple species growing, nature always seeks balance.
By the use of polyculture you eliminate or at least reduce the spread of a disease. That's also why companion planting works, not just below the soil to exchange nutrients but above too, masking scents for example.

They have been searching for a solution for years, a chemical solution that is. They spray more and more insecticide to slow down the bacteria but it is not helping. So more chemicals in your fruits, but hey one more won't be so bad for our health right.

They are probably looking in the wrong section of solutions, maybe it's time to look at how nature does it. That's just my two cents

a reply to: intergalactic fire

That is the first thing I thought of too. I read about apples a hundred years ago, there were countless varieties, now just a handful mass produced. We need to do a reversal when it comes to farming and food. Bring back small farms, home gardens, community gardens and start growing a wider range of foods.

a reply to: JAGStorm

That's also a reason they brought in GMO's. They knew this could happen with mass production. But I believe eventually GMO's will fail too, if you mess with Mother Nature she will mess with you and she's a lot more powerful than you think.
Nature is crossbreeding the whole time and the strongest will eventually survive.

Our current believe system on agriculture is imo wrong in so many ways. Tilling the soil and the use of one crop are probably the worst mistakes we've made.
We aren't growing in soil anymore but it's some sort of man made chemical substance to keep the plants alive in a coma throughout it's live.
And as you say, grow a wider variety in smaller spaces so the soil won't get depleted and you can stop using chemical fertilizers.
If you have a lawn, plant some trees there or perennial fruits and veggies, you will do yourself, the environment, your neighborhood and your wallet good.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Spot on about monoculture. They plant entire forests with nothing but pines then are dumbfounded when pine beetles destroy the trees. As you said it's all about land usage patterns and how we have transitioned from small family farms growing a variety of crops using rotation so as not to destroy the soil to the big corporate model of mass plantings with no concern for anything but the next quarters profit margins. The corporate mentality might be great for making fast buck but not for land or humans in the end result.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Everybody wants to be rich in their lifetime and it doesn't matter who suffers from it.
I think it's not just something of this age though. Food production on mass scale isn't new and destroying the soil for it neither.
Desertification, in some cases, is a result of this I believe.
I have this strange idea that the big deserts across the globe are started by "soil abuse" by our ancestors a long time ago. Who knows right.

They plant entire forests with nothing but pines then are dumbfounded when pine beetles destroy the trees.

Yes indeed, you have insects that love eating the roots, bark,... of certain plants. By planting one crop you create a paradise for that insect. Put yourself in their place, where would you rather live?

We also have another problem here caused by monoculture, wildfires. It's not just here in Spain.
Found this article from Portugal.
Monoculture Eucalyptus Plantations Caused Deadly Wildfires

There was an interesting video from the region where a guy was walking and filming inside a burned eucalyptus forest. Suddenly in the middle of the forest stumbled upon an unburned patch, surprise all the trees were there were autochthonous.
I don't know if there are cases like this in America but it wouldn't surprise me.