See the updated recommendations from a UF/IFAS professor on psyllid control concerning trunk injections and foliar sprays.
UF/IFAS professor Lukasz Stelinski shared updated recommendations concerning psyllid control based on research at an April virtual seminar, according to a Citrus Industry article. According to the article, Stelinski advised only spraying to control psyllids when they reached a certain threshold, and to “use the money saved from unneeded spraying for trunk injection of oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC-HCl).” See the details of the recommendations below.
Updated Psyllid Control Recommendations
The article maintained that Stelinski’s advise on psyllid control included suggesting growers stop spraying once a month, which would cost “$758.70 per acre” with eight sprays. Instead, Stelinski recommended growers spray “for ACP at budbreak and before there is new flush on which adult ACP can lay eggs” and then use the threshold method and only spray when “a survey shows ACP levels are between 0.2 and one ACP per tap of the canopy.” Spraying using such a method would only cost “$403.09 per year for three sprays,” per the article.
Stelinski advised growers to put savings towards trunk injections. He added that, “In tests, when tree trunks were injected with OTC-HCl, virtually none of the ACP found on the trees acquired HLB. This was in stark contrast to the results of foliar sprays with OTC-HCI. He ended with the idea that “maintaining tree health is the goal, not stopping HLB spread.”
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