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Home , Rangpur (fruit)

Brazil tours increase Floridians’ knowledge

By Stephen H. Futch Floridians in Brazil he University of Florida Extension diseases and pests. In the 1930s and Once infected, trees produce small TService conducted a citrus grower 1940s, (CTV) dev- which are hard, decreasing the tour to Brazil in August 2012. This is astated the industry, resulting in a shift ability to process them. Fundecitrus the seventh trip with more than 100 away from sour rootstock to reported that from 2000 to 2009, ap- growers, production managers or relat- Rangpur . Rangpur lime is tolerant proximately 26.4 million trees were ed industry representatives participat- to CTV and well adapted to Brazilian eradicated due to CVC in Brazil. To ing in one or more of the citrus tours. growing conditions. slow the progression of the disease, Each trip departs from Miami for an In the 1970s, threat- Brazilian growers control the vector eight-hour direct flight into São Paulo, ened the industry in the state of São and remove the symptomatic limbs on SP, Brazil. The city of São Paulo is the Paulo while the adjacent state of Parana trees that are 3 to 8 years of age. In largest city in Brazil, the largest city in chose to “live” with citrus canker. later years (after year 10), they do not South America and the world’s seventh São Paulo embarked on an extensive aggressively remove infected limbs largest city by population. eradication campaign that limited the because entire blocks are generally Brazil is a country with large, di- spread of canker. However, within the removed due to declining production verse agricultural operations. Its farms last year, citrus canker has been spread- at 15 to 20 years of age. are generally very large with excel- ing as the government has backed away In the 2000s, sudden death began lent quality land. The land is capable from inspections and forced eradica- to threaten in the of producing a wide range of crops tion efforts. While not widespread, the northern parts of São Paulo where including sugarcane, citrus, coffee, incidence of citrus canker is increasing. the climate is hotter and has longer soybeans, row crops, cattle, timber, From 2000 to 2009, approximately drought periods. The disease has re- rubber from rubber trees and more. 2.2 million trees were removed due to mained confined to this northern In the state of São Paulo, the pro- citrus canker eradication programs, as region and has not continued spreading duction of biofuel from sugarcane is reported by Fundecitrus. throughout their industry. The actual an enormous agricultural enterprise In the 1990s, , cause of sudden death has not been with more than 11 million acres grow- citrus verigated chlorosis (CVC), determined, but growers have used ing sugarcane in 2008; the acreage has postbloom fruit drop (PFD) and lep- inarching with rootstocks other than continued to increase rapidly since rosis began to significantly impact the Rangpur lime to minimize the impact that date. More than 100 mills process industry. CVC is a bacterial pathogen of the disease on existing plantings. sugarcane into either ethanol or sugar. that is vectored by sharpshooters. In 2004, citrus greening or huan- The production of biofuel from sugar- cane and petroleum oil helps Brazil be one of the few countries in the world that is energy self-sufficient. Several of the citrus operations we visited in previous trips have been converted from to sugarcane operations due to economic considerations and various diseases impacting citrus. Land rental rates to sugarcane can easily exceed U.S. $400 per acre per year, and vary de- pending on proximity to refining mills. DISEASES AND PESTS Over the years, Brazil’s citrus indus- try has been confronted with numerous CVC symptoms in two fruit at right 8 CITRUS INDUSTRY • January 2013 Fruit being placed on a trailer age consisting of Natal, Folha Murcha, Growers in Brazil have also noted that Tahiti lime, Valencia Americana and they must match the rootstocks to the other varieties. In Brazil, the Hamlin scion growth habits because vigorous Rubellosis symptoms orange produces good yields, but has rootstocks like Rangpur are too vigor- glongbing (HLB) was first diagnosed in lower internal quality than Valencia. ous to be grown under higher densities. The Pera will produce less total fruit the state of São Paulo. As we all know, ROOTSTOCKS the disease causes tree decline and than Valencia, but has excellent inter- nal juice quality, will produce multiple Rangpur lime is the predominant reduced yields. Greening is vectored used in Brazil and by the Asian citrus psyllid in both blooms per year and can be marketed as both fresh and processed. Natal or- represents approximately 80 percent Brazil and Florida. In Brazil, the vector of the total rootstock use. Rangpur for HLB was reported as early as the anges tend to have less acid and lower internal juice color than Valencia, and lime produces a vigorous tree and 1950s, but HLB was not introduced is well adapted to Brazil’s drought until the late 1990s or early 2000s. mature as late as December, which is Brazil’s summer season. conditions, which occur in the late Rubellosis has been in Brazil for winter and early spring. A drawback many years and is caused by the PLANTING SPACING to the use of Rangpur lime is that it is Corticium salmonicolor fungus . Older groves in Brazil were planted highly susceptible to and When limbs are infected, the bark is at a spacing that resulted in 120 trees to sudden death in the more northern destroyed, the branches are girdled per acre (25’ x 15’). In newer plant- part of the state of São Paulo. The use and subsequently die. The disease is ings, densities are being increased to of Swingle has increased in suppressed with copper sprays. upward of 200 trees per acre with some recent years, especially where wa- Other significant citrus pests in plantings reaching 350 trees per acre. ter for irrigation is available. Other Brazil include citrus black spot, post- bloom fruit drop (PFD), leprosis (vec- tored by the Brevipalpus mite), scales, mites and scab, to name a few. “UPDIKE CITRUS SERVICES LLC INDUSTRY FOCUS and sister company, SUNNY Approximately 80 percent of the FLORIDA PEACH COMPANY. Brazilian citrus industry’s acreage is Providing Florida growers devoted to the production of citrus for the processing industry with the re- with a variety of services maining 20 percent going to the fresh to give that extra compe- markets, mainly within Brazil. titive edge in today’s ever Approximately one-third of the S D RA OW TU industry is controlled by three large NTOWN AL changing market.” groups with an additional 10 to 20 growers making up an additional 15 • CUSTOM CITRUS/PEACH CARE percent of the industry. When you • CONSULTING • MARKETING • HARVESTING combine these two groups, you have almost 50 percent of the acreage D. Clinton Updike, II controlled by less than 20 growers or LICENSED & BONDED FRUIT BUYER/DEALER grower groups. 863-537-5121 The major citrus varieties produced include Valencia (30 percent), Pera (30 [email protected] P.O. Box 9 •Alturas, FL 33820 percent) and Hamlin (20 percent), with the remaining 20 percent of the acre- Citrus and Peach Production

CITRUS INDUSTRY • January 2013 9 frequently used rootstocks include conditions, resulting in large quanti- Cleopatra mandarin, Sunki mandarin ties of Hamlin oranges not being and Volkamer . harvested. Estimates of the number of boxes of Hamlin oranges not harvest- IRRIGATION ed in 2011-12 season exceeded 20 to More citrus growers are begin- 40 million boxes of fruit. Small farm- ning to adopt the use of irrigation to ers are particularly struggling with enhance yields. Where sufficient water the low prices, lack of long-term fruit is available from surface sources (riv- contracts and the inability to market ers and lakes), growers have tradition- Hamlin oranges in the current season. ally used overhead irrigation systems These low prices will also impact the consisting of mainly volume guns. ability for growers to provide proper Where groundwater is available, they production inputs to maintain healthy are drilling deep wells to provide suf- citrus groves. ficient water for irrigation. These deep Harvested fruit wells are regulated by the government MANAGEMENT OF HLB and are more expensive to install than It was estimated that total produc- the large citrus acreage is an important in Florida. Many of the newer plantings tion cost has increased by as much as issue within the state of São Paulo. are using drip or microsprinkler ir- 30 percent due to the management of Much of the local labor has transi- rigation systems instead of the volume HLB. Increases in pest management tioned into non-agricultural occupa- gun systems. Because growers are not costs are greatly impacted by surveying tions as the Brazilian economy has concerned about using irrigation for for infected trees, infected tree removal strengthened. To attract sufficient labor, cold protection, and the soils are less and additional pesticide applications to harvesting costs have had to increase sandy with higher clay content, the use control HLB-spreading psyllids. significantly in recent years with much of drip irrigation is greater in Brazil’s Many growers indicated that they of the harvesting labor coming from production systems than in Florida. are removing HLB-infected trees and the northeast part of Brazil. Estimates Even where irrigation water is spraying mature blocks up to 12 or of total harvesting costs ranged from available, growers will withhold more times per year to reduce the vec- a low of U.S. $1.25 to $1.75 per box, irrigation during the late winter to tor of HLB. Blocks are targeted for a and are impacted by the distance to the induce stress to aid in regulating floral pesticide application when psyllids are processing plant. production. By withholding water, found in weekly surveys. Additionally, Governmental regulations require the trees are stressed and when the ir- some locations apply sprays around the that harvesters be supplied with rigation is resumed or rains occur, the border of blocks or groves to target ar- eye protection (glasses), gloves, leg citrus trees begin to flush and bloom. eas where psyllids are frequently found. protection for snakes, uniforms and Growers state that the control of shoes during harvesting operations. PRICING OF FRUIT HLB is greatly impacted by their neigh- These and other regulations are In the 2010-11 season, the industry bors’ management practices (tree re- greatly increasing the cost to harvest had record crops which created a large moval and psyllid management) or the citrus in Brazil. carry forward of juice into the 2011-12 lack thereof. The “edge” effect of the season. Part of the excess supply was disease is well documented with higher ENHANCED FOLIAR caused by large crops. Oversupply was incidences of the disease located along NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMS also due to economic issues in Europe the border of the grove and along the The use of enhanced foliar nutrition that reduced demand for citrus juice edges of the blocks within the grove. programs is being adopted in some and to fears caused by traces of carben- Systemic materials like imidaclo- areas as an alternative to removing dazim in some Brazilian juice imports prid are applied until the tree is about infected trees. This is especially true to the United States. The combined 3 years old and applied only during in areas of high HLB infection or in effect caused record juice inventories the rainy season. Where only imida- areas where the grove size is small and further depressed prices growers cloprid was applied, it was found to be with numerous groves located adjacent received for their fruit. Growers with- insufficient to completely control all to one another. out multi-year contracts for Hamlin psyllids, and additional foliar sprays oranges were faced with poor market are now incorporated into the produc- CITRUS TOURS tion system. This and other tours conducted to In areas where growers are not view citrus in Brazil have been very removing HLB infected trees, the inci- effective in educating Florida citrus RESULTS. dences of HLB are increasing. growers and increasing their under- standing of production practices and MANAGEMENT OF PESTICIDES pests that are found in other citrus MMAGNUMAGNUM The processing industry is actively producing areas. 22-40-16-40-16 involved in developing a list of pesti- One Brazilian citrus grower Get results you can see in the cides that are allowed to be used for summed up Brazilians’ attitudes of the grove,grove, in the lab and on the fruit ticket:ticket: More flowers,flowers, more fruit,fruit, more sugar.sugar. Make Nutri-Phite fruit they purchase. This list is intended future by stating that, “Citrus growers part of your citrus nutritional programprogram.. Order today.today. to aid in management of pesticide resi- are optimists – always look forward Nutri-Phite Magnum is available dues to ensure that products exported to and not backward.” from CPS Florida locations: foreign markets will meet all tolerance Belle Glade; BoyntonBoynton Beach; FFortort Pierce; Hastings; requirements of receiving countries. Steven H. Futch is a multi-county Exten- Homestead; Immokalee; Lehigh Acres; Mulberry;Mulberry; sion agent at the University of Florida’s Parrish;Parrish; WauchulaWauchula and WaverlyWaverly HARVESTING Citrus Research and Education Center in wwwww.McLeanAg.comw.McLeanAg.com Lake Alfred. Nutri-Phite® is a Registered TrademarkTrademark of Biagro WesternWestern Sales,Sales, Inc.Inc. Finding sufficient labor to harvest 10 CITRUS INDUSTRY • January 2013