No More Orange Juice With Breakfast?

If you opened the Weather Channel's web this morning, you may have seen this alarming headline.  "No More Orange Juice With Breakfast."   Hold on, it could get worse.  Not just orange juice, but any citrus juice supply may be constrained this year - and for years to come.

The video cites a disease, which it calls "yellow dragon".  That is another name for citrus greening disease, or huanglongbing (HLB).  If you live in central or south Florida, you HAVE heard of it.  But northern citrus is not immune.  The disease is spread from tree to tree by the Asian citrus psyllid, which both feeds and lays eggs on budding citrus leaves. The saliva of the insect (both the hatching young and the adults) is thought to infect the tree.  If enough psyllid feeding occurs, the tree's vascular system begins to be affected.  Fruit never fully ripens before it drops from the tree, and the taste of the fruit is sour and medicinal. The tree's leaves yellow and curl, leaving the tree unsightly.  The  HLB disease eventually destroys the tree's root system and kills the tree.  There is no known cure.  The only resource available to citrus growers is to attempt to kill the psyllid.  Killing this insect will reduces the number of trees it can infect.  However, the animal has become well-established since its discovery in south Florida in 2005, so it is unlikely that it can be completely eradicated.

See our Citrus Greening Resources post for more information and for advice from the University of Florida on how to increase your trees' chances of staying healthy and what to do if you think you have a problem.