Today, the Florida citrus industry faces many challenges, including not only hurricanes and freezes, but pests and diseases. These challenges have had a cumulative and debilitating effect on our industry�s ability to survive. With increased traffic and trade have come multiple introductions of crippling pests and diseases that have spread to Florida from Asia and South America. One of these is Asian Citrus Canker (commonly known as canker). Sunrise Groves lost thousands of trees in 2004 and 2005 to the state-mandated eradication efforts, which was originally imposed on citrus tree owners to attempt to prevent the spread of this disease. That process has since been abandoned.
Much worse than canker, however, is the latest and deadliest disease to attack Florida citrus. Huang Long Bing (HLB) in Chinese means �The Yellow Dragon� and is commonly referred to as citrus �greening� because the infected fruit is lopsided, bad-tasting, and stays green instead of turning orange. It is caused by a bacterium carried by an insect, the Asian Citrus Psyllid. Depending on tree size, citrus trees are killed by HLB within 6 months to 3 years after infection. In China and India, vast agricultural regions that have grown citrus for many centuries are now nearly devoid of citrus because of HLB.
Click here for more information on citrus greening from the Florida Department of Agriculture.
At present, there is no cure for greening. Most researchers and grove managers agree that once a grove becomes 15 percent infected, the entire grove will ultimately be lost. At this point, 100% of Sunrise Groves has been impacted by citrus greening. Because of this, we will be harvesting our last crop of oranges this year and will not replant new ones due to the risks and uncertainty associated with this aggressive disease.