A Florida citrus grower shared his company’s plans for dealing with citrus greening, also called HLB.
The Citrus Mutual annual conference in June saw a Florida citrus grower share his company’s strategies for staying profitable in the face of citrus greening, also called HLB. Daniel Scott, the vice president of Scott Citrus Management, an Indian River-area grapefruit company, shared what the company is doing to increase production, maintain profits, and keep inputs affordable, according to a Citrus Industry article. Explore the details, below.
Florida Citrus Grower’s Strategies
According to the article, Scott Citrus Management is taking the following actions:
- Diversifying citrus plantings. “The varieties to be planted include lemon, Valencia and OLL oranges, and Sugar Belle and Bingo specialty fruit. Rootstocks for new plantings include US-942 and rough lemon.”
- Increasing citrus planting density. The company used to plant “98 trees per acre in the past,” and they have “plans to increase the density of future plantings to 268 and 272 trees per acre.”
- Increasing nutrients. The company plans to start “using controlled-release fertilizer at planting.”
- Control Asian citrus psyllids. The company is going to try “applying kaolin clay to repel HLB-spreading psyllids.”
- Be proactive in finding what works. “The company will conduct its own grower trials of varieties, rootstocks and production practices.”
- Collaborating with other Florida citrus growers. Scott Citrus Management will be looking “to collaborate, sharing with fellow growers what does and doesn’t work in the grove.”
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