fruitmentor™

I recently visited the University of California, Davis in response to a reader's question about the rapid spread of huanglongbing disease (also know as citrus greening, HLB, or yellow dragon disease). Plant disease epidemiologist Dr. Neil McRoberts, a member of faculty at the plant pathology department at UC Davis, explains in the below video how the interaction between Asian citrus psyllids, liberibacter, and citrus trees causes this deadly citrus disease to spread so rapidly.

Please see below for resources related to huanglongbing and Asian citrus psyllids.

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In the following video, I visited the historic 1907 Citrus Experiment Station in Riverside, California to get answers to reader and viewer questions on citrus propagation and disease. The questions were answered by Dr. Georgios Vidalakis, professor and extension specialist from the Department of Microbiology at the University of California, Riverside. Georgios is the Director of the Citrus Clonal Protection Program, a historic program that has been providing disease free citrus budwood for more than 80 years.

Below you will find the resources mentioned in the video as well as a transcript.

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In this article on growing citrus from cuttings, I show how to root citrus rootstocks in stonewool. These rootstocks can then be used to graft citrus trees of many different varieties. For example, to propagate a lemon tree, rather than rooting lemon cuttings, citrus rootstock cuttings are rooted. A lemon cutting is then grafted to the rootstock. Grafting to a rootstock will produce a superior tree. Benefits include disease resistance and improved fruit flavor and texture.

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