The report discusses the harm this disease does to citrus trees, it’s origin and how it is spread.it also discusses possible cures for it.this report focuses on the diseases impact on Florida only. There is no known cure for this disease as of now. This is a large reason of my report,to raise questions and hopefully cause more research and maybe find a cure.
Sincerely
Kevin Bateman
Greening Disease: The Death of Citrus?
For
Brendan Pieters
ENC2210
Fall 2008
November 25, 2008
Introduction The Citrus industry is a major part of Florida’s economy. Though it is slowly being passes by south American counties that can import the Fruit for a lot less. Florida has been recently hurt by new diseases that have been introduced to the citrus industry. One being canker which has been recently deemed incurable and all effort to eradicate has been abandoned. The new disease that has been called “the end of the citrus industry” by many has many citrus growers looking elsewhere for income. Greening Disease is a very new disease thought to of come from Asia is taking the citrus industry by storm and has scientist scratching there head looking for a cure. An asian psyllid is the insect responsible for this epidemic. Effects
Unlike canker which would slowly kill the tree but would not hurt the production of the tree, Greening Disease will kill the tree but it will also hurt the production of the tree. The fruit will be really small and have hardly any meat in it, it is mostly rhine.
The leaves will turn a yellowish color and then eventually the tree will completely die. This not only effects the growers profit but it also costs him money. The infected tree then has to be replaced. Not only do you have to pull up the infected tree but also any tree within a thousand feet of the infected tree.. basically one