A UF/IFAS pathologist shares when Florida citrus growers should be on the lookout for citrus canker.
A winter disease seminar in Immokalee saw Extension pathologist Megan Dewdney with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) sharing when to be alert for citrus canker. Her tips were shared in a Citrus Grower article. See the details below.
Tips on Looking Out for Citrus Canker
Dewdney shared that size matters when it comes to citrus canker. According to the article, Florida growers should be on the lookout for citrus canker before the fruit has reached three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and then rain is in the forecast. ““Once you get to that point and we get rain, then all bets are off as to whether you will keep canker out…So you do want to get those fruit protected as soon as they’re getting up to that size…” Dewdney shared.
She recommended a 21-day interval copper spraying regiment. “Those first few sprays are particularly critical because of the high susceptibility of the fruit. Those are the lesions that will knock most of the fruit off,” she explained.
She also shared that Hurricane Irma increased the likelihood of citrus canker in Florida groves, maintaining that growers should keep canker treatments in their treatment programs. “It (Irma) intensified what we had out there already…Young blocks that didn’t necessarily have much canker in them certainly became highly infected,” she shared.
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