Original article:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2008/12/04/a6b_greening_1205.html

By SUSAN SALISBURY

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 04, 2008

CLEWISTON — Disease-resistant trees that could save the Florida citrus industry from its two biggest threats - greening and canker - are scheduled to be planted in Southern Gardens Citrus groves starting in early 2009, the company said Thursday.

Genetically altered red grapefruit trees already have been shown to resist the two bacterial diseases in lab tests by researchers at Texas A&M University's AgriLife complex.

"It is a good start," Southern Gardens President Ricke Kress said of the field experiment. Southern Gardens, a subsidiary of U.S. Sugar, owns 16,500 acres of active groves and produces and packages orange juice.

In fact, it's believed to be the first time such experimental citrus has been planted anywhere outside a laboratory.

Greening, considered one of the world's most serious citrus diseases, was first detected in the United States in Homestead in 2005. Infected trees produce bitter, misshapen fruit. It has since spread to 30 citrus-producing Florida counties, as well as Louisiana. Canker, a less severe bacterial disease that causes blemished fruit, was the target of an 11-year, $1.6 billion eradication program in Florida.

There is no cure for either.

Testing has been especially tricky because the bacteria that cause greening, also called Huanglongbing or yellow dragon disease, have been on the federal government's bioterrorism select agent list. They were removed from the list Nov. 17.

The red grapefruit trees from Texas A&M that will be planted on Southern Gardens' land represent a leap forward, but questions remain, Kress said: "Does it work in the field, and do we get the juice, the product we expect to get?"

Still, "For the grapefruit industry, it would be a huge step in the right direction," said Doug Bournique, executive vice president of the Vero Beach-based Indian River Citrus League, which stretches from Volusia County to Palm Beach County. Acres of grove land are not being farmed now because of concern over disease. If trees prove to be disease-resistant in the groves, the result will be massive replantings.

"The economic vitality of this region would change overnight," Bournique said.

Bournique said he wasn't aware the trees were slated to be planted in 2009. "U.S. Sugar got lucky and stumbled upon this, and they are ahead of the curve," he said.

U.S. Sugar has agreed to sell all of its land, including the groves, to the South Florida Water Management District for an Everglades restoration project. The district's board has not voted yet on the $1.34 billion deal.

And here's from another source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Southern-Gardens-Citrus-Finalizing-Plans/story.aspx?guid={7D97899E-B53E-4DFA-80F6-3EEE79492A9A}


PRESS RELEASE
Southern Gardens Citrus Finalizing Plans to Begin Field Testing of Citrus Trees Resistant to Canker and Greening

Last update: 2:35 p.m. EST Dec. 4, 2008
CLEWISTON, Fla., Dec 04, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- As part of its proactive program to deal with disease, Southern Gardens Citrus announced its plans to plant and field test canker and greening disease-resistant citrus trees in its groves starting in early 2009.
Huanglongbing or citrus greening disease (HLB) is considered to be the most serious disease of citrus anywhere it occurs in the world. HLB was first identified and confirmed in Florida in September 2005. Three years later, HLB now can be found in all Florida counties where citrus is grown commercially.
Southern Gardens Citrus (SGC), one of the largest citrus producers in the state, has three groves in southwest Florida, all of which are infected to some extent with HLB. As a result, SGC Citrus has been and continues to be very proactive in addressing and dealing with this very serious disease.
Rick Kress, president of Southern Gardens Citrus, stated that "since this disease was first detected in the company's groves in 2005, the immediate decision was to become as proactive as possible to learn about the disease and at the same time, develop methods and procedures to deal with the disease on a day to day basis."
Given the current lack of successful control programs for this world-wide disease and a general lack of basic knowledge of the pathogen and its insect vector, SGC has instigated and participated in a wide variety of research projects intended to develop environmentally and scientifically proven methods to manage and control the disease. Southern Gardens is currently working with several groups including UF/IFAS, USDA, FDACS, and other universities and independent researchers to achieve this goal.
As a part of this total research portfolio, SGC is participating in and sponsoring multiple projects to develop disease-resistant citrus trees. These ongoing projects were initiated in early 2007. Based on the initial positive results from projects with researchers from Texas A & M AgriLife and a private Florida based company, Integrated Plant Genetics where disease resistance has been achieved in the laboratory, the first generation of potentially disease-resistant citrus trees arising from these two projects have been produced and are ready to be field tested. Given initial successful results in the laboratory, SGC has applied for and received a permit from the United States Department of Agriculture Biotechnology Regulatory Services for one of the projects allowing the field testing of the plants generated by this research. It is expected that a second application will be made in the near future to field test the trees from the second project.
Kress said the first potentially disease-resistant trees will be planted in early 2009 in small plots to determine if the improved trees are indeed resistant to canker and greening. It is anticipated that this initial trial will be one of several that will be implemented in the immediate and near future by Southern Gardens Citrus.
"A final solution for eliminating this disease could take years but the upcoming field trial work and continuation of the research projects are a major step in the right direction," Kress said.

SOURCE Southern Gardens Citrus

More from Southern Gardens Citrus:

http://www.southerngardens.com/news/101607.html

Thanks for the article Millet!

I salute the winning, can-do attitude, the perseverance, creativity and sometimes the hard-headed-ness of the of the die-hard citrus growers mentioned in the article. That's the attitude that I like many of us to have, including me, a fighter to the end, to defend our citruses.

Very much unlike the "chicken little" attitude that gave up all hope because of canker and greening, and so, oh dear, the sky is falling, it's the end of citrus world as we know it.