The Citrus Growers Educational Seminar Series presented by the Citrus Research Board (CRB) and University of California Cooperative Extension concluded in Exeter on June 28, with over 200 growers, pest control advisors, crop advisors and other industry personnel in attendance. The other seminars held in Palm Desert on June 26 and Santa Paula on June 27 also had a large number of attendees.
IPM Specialist and Research Entomologist with the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, Beth Grafton-Cardwell spoke at all three of the seminars, providing information on the current tactics for managing Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and Huanglongbing (HLB). Grafton-Cardwell also talked about the details related to the Section 18 of Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act allowing for the use of the bactericides FireWall 50WP and Fireline 17WP.
“You can use each of the bactericides at most three times a year, you need to rotate them to prevent resistance developing. There’s a 21-day interval between treatments and there are 60 days until harvest,” said Graton-Cardwell, who also serves as Director of the Lindcove Research and Extension Center in Exeter.
Chairman of the Early Detection Technology Task Force Bob Atkins went over several HLB early detection methods currently being evaluated. Research is being conducted on several direct and indirect methods of early detection and while more study is needed, Atkins noted that they are making progress in narrowing down the focus of potential early detection technologies. “We are finding some that don’t seem to be functioning very well. Over several tests that we’ve done, they have not performed particularly well. We still have a smaller group that looks very promising. We’re going to have more information in October,” said Atkins.
Some of the other information presented at the Citrus Growers Educational Seminar included a presentation from President of California Citrus Quality Council Jim Cranney, who discussed some of the organizations work with export partners in establishing acceptable maximum residue levels in citrus. CRB Chief Research Scientist Melinda Klein also provided details about the latest CRB research and priorities for the future.
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