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CITRUS GREENING:
GUIDELINES TO HELP MAKE YOUR GROVE PROSPER
by PHILLIP RUCKS
If citrus green- ing has got you down, and you just want to hide
onto an acre. The more trees you have, the more fruit you will produce. Every tree is like a factory.
Greening is wreaking havoc, but it’s not the only disease attacking your trees. Additional losses from these could amount from two to five percent a year.
The best way to ride out greening is by planting new rootstocks and fruiting va- rieties from the University of Florida and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pay careful attention to nutrition. Alkaline water may be making it harder for your plant to utilize the fertilizer you apply, and the nutrients in the soil. Injecting acid into the water while it’s being applied can help your trees make better use of these nutrients. Add to that the anti-microbial sprays to be made available; they can put the disease in remission.
This is what will buy you time— hopefully until we find that truly resistant variety, or antibiotic spray that truly kills the disease or controls the Asian psyllid that spreads it.
Sure, you may lose some trees in the meantime. But with denser plantings, your losses won’t be as traumatic. Your grove likely will fill in more quickly— keeping you in business.
until it’s all over, think again. Doing noth- ing can cost you. There are several rea- sons. Let me explain.
First of all, you have fixed costs, like caretaking. They’ll be the same no matter how many trees you succeed in packing
CITRUS
NEW GREENINGTOLERANT
ROOTSTOCKS NOW AVAILABLE
Phillip Rucks Citrus Nursery has been granted the license to propagate a number of new greening-tol- erant citrus rootstock varieties. Our facility includes a high tech tissue culture lab and protected culture facility that enable us to mass-propagate large num- bers of DNA tested starter plants. Call us today to learn more about these new rootstock varieties. Now contracting for 2015-2016
“It’s great working with Phillip Rucks Citrus Nursery... they have a professional staff that really understands the business of growing citrus”
– Jerry Newlin, Orange-Co
PEACHES
LOW CHILL PEACHES
Phillip Rucks Citrus Nursery is the leading grower of low chill peach varieties developed by the University of Florida. Available on both Florda- guard and MP-29 peach rootstocks. Tell us about your planting environ- ment and we’ll provide you with some planting recommendations. Call us to- day. Now contracting for 2015-2016
EUCALYPTUS WINDBREAKS
Fast growing trees designed to mitigate crops from damaging weather, disease, pests and chemical drift. Now contracting for 2015-2016
PONGAMIA
Alternative crop developed to meet needs of bio- mass and bio-energy markets. Now contracting for 2015-2016
PHILLIP RUCKS CITRUS NURSERY, INC. Phillip Rucks, Owner
8636351948 • info@rucksnursery.com P.O. Box 1318 Frostproof, FL 33843 • www.ruckscitrusnursery.com
www.floridagrownspecialties.com