Citrograph_JanFeb2013 - Citrus Research Board

Transcription

CITRUS RESEARCH BOARD, P.O. Box 230, Visalia, CA 93279
Address Service Requested
PRSRT STD
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PONTIAC, IL 61764
PERMIT 125
Citrograph
Leavens Ranches
family values
Grower Profile:
Citrograph
January/February 2013
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Citrograph
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 • Volume 4 • Number 1
An Official Publication of the Citrus Research Board
Cover photo by Steve Osman, Stephen Osman
Photography, Ventura
IN THIS ISSUE
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Phone: 559-738-0246
FAX: 559-738-0607
Web Site:
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Louise Fisher, Managing Editor
Dr. MaryLou Polek, Chief Science Editor
EDITORIAL BOARD
Dr. Mary Lu Arpaia
Ted Batkin
Richard Bennett
Franco Bernardi
Dan Dreyer
Dr. Ben Faber
Jim Gorden
Julia Inestroza
Dennis Laux
SCIENCE REVIEW PANEL
Dr. Mary Lu Arpaia
James A. Bethke
Dr. Abhaya Dandekar
Dr. Akif Eskalen
Dr. Stephen Garnsey
Dr. Joseph Smilanick
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Warring Enterprises, Visalia, CA 93277
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4 Editorial
6 Industry Views
8 CDFA’s response to Tulare County
Asian citrus psyllid finds
10 Monitoring methods for
Asian citrus psyllid
18 The development of an ACP biological control program for California
22 Profile: Counting their blessings
and giving back
32 Development of a pathogen dispenser to control Asian citrus psyllid in residential and organic citrus
38 Founder lines for improved citrus biotechnology
40 Metabolites may reveal attack strategy
of the microbe causing HLB
44Citrus Roots: California Citrus Spurred
Colonization
50 Celebrating Citrus
Citrograph is published bimonthly by the Citrus Research Board, 217 N. Encina, Visalia, CA 93291. Citrograph is sent to all
California citrus producers courtesy of the Citrus Research Board. If you are currently receiving multiple copies, or would like
to make a change in your Citrograph subscription, please contact the publication office (above, left).
Every effort is made to ensure accuracy in articles published by Citrograph; however, the publishers assume no responsibility
for losses sustained, allegedly resulting from following recommendations in this magazine. Consult your local authorities.
The Citrus Research Board has not tested any of the products advertised in this publication, nor has it verified any of the
statements made in any of the advertisements. The Board does not warrant, expressly or implicitly, the fitness of any product
advertised or the suitability of any advice or statements contained herein.
January/February 2013 Citrograph 3
EDITORIAL
BY TED A. BATKIN, President, Citrus Research Board It is time to “keep our eyes on the prize”
The common goal
of all our industry
programs is to keep
California citrus free
from the invasion of
HLB disease.
4 Citrograph January/February 2013
M
y good friend Jim Gorden is always reminding us to keep
our eyes on the prize, or as many of us translate, keep our
focus on the “goal”. Now, more than ever, we must remember that the common goal of all of our industry programs
is to keep the California citrus industry free from the invasion of huanglongbing (HLB) disease. We already know that the threat is real and that
there are reservoirs of HLB in California. The challenge now is to keep
the populations of Asian citrus psyllid contained to their current locations
and to find and remove the trees that are carrying the bacteria.
The reason that I bring this up again is that the industry has been
faced with new challenges in ACP population control in a wider range
of locations throughout the state. Each time a new find or a new area is
added to the list, there is some level of activity that causes a great deal of
concern. It also causes growers, regulators, and any other groups in the
chain to react to the new developments in different ways.
“Why am I having to do ____?” is usually the question asked. The answer lies in the worldwide history of the insect and the spread of the disease. We are constantly pointing to Florida and Brazil as examples of how
ACP and HLB have taken hold, expanded, and caused devastating damage. The lessons learned the hard way by producers in those other areas
have impressed upon us how vital it is to react swiftly to keep populations
of ACP as low as possible and not let ACP or HLB become established in
a grove setting. Sometimes the reactions required may seem harsh and restrictive, but they truly are necessary if we are going to survive the overall
threat from this problem.
Eventually, we will have more tools available to us to fight this valid
fight. The CRB has been investing your dollars in programs that will
help with issues such as early detection of HLB in trees that do not
yet show the symptoms. Also, the Board has invested in projects to
improve the Asian citrus psyllid trapping system with attractants and
lures. New tools developed through this research are working through
the regulatory approval process, and some are now close to deployment. Please watch future issues of Citrograph for articles describing
how these various programs will work together to improve your ability as growers to keep your investments safe for many years to come.
One of the tools coming soon will be the use of biological control agents in conjunction with IPM programs. The article in this
issue points out some of the preliminary work underway to be able
to release large numbers of Tamarixia radiata in urban areas and commercial groves. This will add another tool to the box for ACP population
reductions.
Well, the race is on!! Everyone is working as rapidly as possible to
reach the goal. And now more than ever is the time for cooperation within
the industry while all of us “Keep Our Eyes on the Prize” l
The Mission of the Citrus Research Board:
Develop knowledge and build systems for grower vitality.
Focus on quality assurance, clonal protection, production research,
variety development, and grower/public education.
CITRUS RESEARCH BOARD MEMBER LIST BY DISTRICT 2012-2013
District 1 – Northern California
District 3 – California Desert
Member
Allan Lombardi, Exeter Donald Roark, Lindsay Jim Gorden, Exeter Joe Stewart, Bakersfield
Etienne Rabe, Bakersfield
John Richardson, Porterville
Kevin Olsen, Pinedale Richard Bennett, Visalia
Member
Mark McBroom, Calipatria
Public Member
Member
Ed Civerolo, Kingsburg
Alternate
Justin Brown, Orange Cove
Dan Dreyer, Exeter
Dan Galbraith, Porterville
Franco Bernardi, Visalia
John Konda, Terra Bella
Jeff Steen, Strathmore
Tommy Elliott, Visalia
Dennis Laux, Porterville
District 2 – Southern California – Coastal
Member
Earl Rutz, Pauma Valley
Joe Barcinas, Riverside Alternate
Alan Washburn, Riverside
John C. Gless, Riverside
Alternate
Craig Armstrong, Thermal
Alternate
Steve Garnsey, Fallbrook
Citrus Research Board
217 N Encina, Visalia, CA 93291
PO Box 230, Visalia, CA 93279
(559) 738-0246
FAX (559) 738-0607
E-Mail [email protected]
CALENDAR
March 7
2013 Citrus Showcase, Visalia Convention Center, Visalia, CA. For Information, contact California Citrus Mutual at (559) 592-3790.
March 26-28
CRB Research - Review of Projects and CRB Board Meeting, Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, CA. For information, contact the Citrus Research Board at (559) 738-0246.
April 4
Citrus and Date Palm Research and Information Seminar, Yuma Agriculture Center, Yuma, AZ. For information, contact the Center at (928) 782-5876.
April 25
CRB-UCCE Citrus Postharvest Seminar, Exeter Memorial Building, Exeter, CA. For information, contact the Citrus Research Board at
(559) 738-0246.
June 27
CRB Board Meeting, Four Points by Sheraton Ventura Harbor, Ventura, CA. For information, contact the Citrus Research Board at
(559) 738-0246.
DO YOU KNOW...?
Why would someone want to put oranges on
display as part of their home décor? (Go to page 20 for the answer.)
INDUSTRY VIEWS
Citrograph asks: How are you dealing with the actions imposed as
a result of the Asian citrus psyllid finds?
C
ooperatively. We had our first psyllid find a little over three years ago here in the Desert,
and each year since we have been dealing with and adapting to many different protocol
and quarantine boundary changes. We have mechanically “de-leafed” our fruit, at a cost of
$6 - $8 per bin; we have lost 10% to 15% grade doing this, costing growers over $700/acre.
We have signed hundreds of compliance agreements, had thousands of load inspections, and
spent millions of dollars doing so. We are still, unfortunately, faced with many new commercial grove finds and thousands of residential finds in our nearby cities and Mexico. I think
Southern California growers that have lived this the last three years are quickly moving ahead,
understanding that what we are really dealing with is a very prolific mobile pest that we are
currently unable to successfully trap or treat with 100% cooperation from our neighbors.
We are dealing with large psyllid populations ¼ to ½ mile away from our groves, knowing
we must try to maintain the lowest numbers possible. We are optimistic for biocontrol, but
currently we are adding additional nutritional sprays and incorporating suppressive psyllid
materials with them in both our conventional and organic groves, hoping that preemptive
efforts within our control will yield more positive solutions than what have been imposed so
far. – Craig Armstrong, Owner, Thermiculture Management LLC
B
ooth Ranches, LLC owns citrus groves located in the Strathmore and Terra Bella ACP
restricted areas. As such, our company has sought to adhere to the new CDFA and USDA
regulations through various means and methods, including completing required documentation
and logistics to participate in field cleaning or pretreatment to insure fruit marketability, as
well as cooperating on a volunteer basis with areawide winter treatments for ACP. The grower
meetings in late 2012 clarified the restrictions that growers with affected groves now strive
to conform with. Our company acted quickly, first by registering through the Tulare County
Agricultural Commissioner to move field-cleaned fruit and later by registering for the preharvest field treatment program as a means of ensuring the ability to move and market fruit
from groves in the ACP restricted areas. In addition, we recently have utilized the option of
outsourcing fruit within a restricted area to a packinghouse within that area, as a means of
compliance with regulations. Booth Ranches, LLC has also opted to cooperate with the areawide treatments for ACP, although we have no groves within the current mandatory treatment
zone. Through discussions with areawide treatment coordinators, our company decided that
involvement in the preventative treatments to assure the eradication of any undetected overwintering ACP in the area would be the plan of action most benefitting the industry at large.
– Melissa O’Neal, Agricultural Entomologist/Pest Control Advisor, Booth Ranches LLC
U
ntil recently, ACP finds in Ventura County have been found (with a few exceptions)
mostly in residential settings in the eastern portions of the county, away from commercial
groves. As of December 2012, we have seen more finds, again in residential settings but much
closer to commercial groves. These new finds have commercial groves within the 800-meter
treatment zone requiring treatments. In one recent find, 17 different commercial operations
were identified and required to treat. Locally, Ventura County citrus growers have been very
proactive preparing for this threat. With the formation of the Ventura County ACP-HLB Task
Force over two years ago, Ventura County growers readied themselves for ACP treatments.
The Task Force organized growers, packers and PCAs to assure treatments were done timely
and all growers complied. To that end, the Ventura Task Force was the first in the state to
hire a treatment coordinator to assure timely and accurate treatments in commercial groves.
Ventura County growers remain confident that with the ongoing efforts of the Citrus Pest and
Disease Prevention Committee, Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner, Ventura Task
Force and local PCAs, we will remain profitable for many years to come. – Gus Gunderson,
Director of Farming – Southern Ranches, Limoneira Company
The Climate Stress Solution
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Apply to new plantings and young trees too!
Request Anti-Stress 550®
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800.678.7377 • www.polymerag.com • [email protected]
Helping Growers for Over 20 Years
CDFA’s response to Tulare County
Asian citrus psyllid finds
treatments to residential properties with citrus trees. Prior
to these treatments, CDFA held outreach meetings so conn November, two Asian citrus psyllids were identified on cerned residents could have their questions answered. These
traps deployed in commercial citrus in Tulare County, informational meetings were sparsely attended, which I atone in an orchard northeast of Strathmore and the other tribute to folks understanding the importance of the citrus
in a grove south of Terra Bella. There had been an earlier industry to the local economy.
discovery of a single specimen on a trap in the Lindsay area
Additionally, grower treatments within the Eradication
in December of 2011.
Areas were facilitated by a trained Grower Liaison to enIn response, the California Department of Food and sure that treatments were properly timed and in accordance
Agriculture (CDFA) took a new approach, as opposed to a with University of California Integrated Pest Management
typical quarantine. They believe that these ACP finds were recommendations.
isolated hitchhikers, and so instead of quarantining a typical
The 5-mile Restricted Areas still act much like a quar20-mile radius area around the trap finds, CDFA used their antine to assure that ACP will not move out of the area. To
statutory authority to create smaller 5-square-mile Restrict- move fruit to locations outside of the Restricted Area, growed Areas.
ers have two options. For fruit to leave a Restricted Area
For assurance that these ACP finds were an isolated inci- without limitations, it must be commercially cleaned so it is
dent, CDFA will deploy and inspect hundreds of additional free of stem and leaf trash prior to departure. To ship fruit
traps and perform visual surveys through May to confirm from inside the Restricted Area to a packing facility outside
there is not a breeding population of psyllids here.
the Restricted Area requires a compliance agreement and an
Something else unique to the Tulare County project is approved pre-harvest treatment of the grove with fruit harthe establishment of Eradication Areas within 800 meters of vested and shipped within 7 days of treatment.
each ACP detection which instituted mandatory treatments
In a collective sigh of relief for the industry, our commerof all ACP host plants in both commercial and residential cial citrus nurserymen learned that this type of regulatory
properties.
action did not affect their ability to sell nursery stock since
CDFA emergency project crews applied mandatory there were no nurseries in the Restricted Areas. Also, the
smaller 5-mile Restricted
Areas meant that we had
Asian Citrus Psyllid Cooperative Program
Restricted Area & Eradication Zone, Tulare County, California
fewer growers who faced
the expense of removing
63
V
U
leaf trash from harvested
Tulare
citrus bins or treating
Lindsay
with an insecticide.
65
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Our staff continues
137
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to support efforts made
by CDFA to educate affected growers and othCorcoran
Lake
ers involved in citrus
Success
processing while using
precautions that will help
Porterville
190
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U
protect their livelihood.
For further information, see the CDFA information page at www.cdfa.
ca.gov/plant/PE/InteriorLegend
43
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U
Exclusion/acp_restrictEradication Zone for ACP, Tulare, CA (800 m buffer)
edareas.html.
Restricted Area for ACP, Tulare Co, CA (12/6/2012) 115 sq miles
Marilyn Kinoshita is
99
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Commercial Citrus in CA_2012
the Agricultural Commissioner of Tulare County.l
Marilyn Kinoshita
I
(
!
(
!
(
!
Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service
United States
Department of Agriculture
(
!
(
!
KINGS CO
(
!
(
!
TULARE CO
o
0
2
USDA, APHIS, PPQ
GIS Specialist
650 Capitol Mall, Suite 6-400
Sacramento, CA 95814
4
6
Coordinate-System:
CA Teale Albers, NAD83
Date Printed: 1/22/2013
Time Printed: 08:06 hrs PT
8
10 Miles
Data Source:
CA Dept of Food & Agriculture
USDA, APHIS, PPQ
USDA, APHIS, IS
TeleAtlas Dynamap
These data, and all the information contained therein, have been collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS),
or by its cooperators on APHIS’ behalf, for restricted government purposes only and is the sole property of APHIS. Data may be disseminated on a need-to-know basis
only and must be used for their intended government purpose(s). All information contained within these data are subject to required Federal safeguards and shall only
be shared and/or used consistent with the Trade Secrets Act [18 U.S.C. 1905], the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended [5 U.S.C. 552a], the Freedom of Information Act
[5 U.S.C. 552], the confidentiality provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985 [7 U.S.C. 2276], Section 1619 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008
[7 U.S.C. 8791], and other applicable Federal laws and implementing regulations, as well as with the confidentiality or non-disclosure provisions of any other
agreement entered into between APHIS and a cooperator.
The Yara Complete
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Early
Vegetative
YaraMila
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15 - 15 - 15
Growth/
Flush
Flowering
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YaraLiva
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20% of
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CN-9® / Tropicote®
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Correction of nutrient deficiencies based on tissue analysis
For more information, please contact:
Ron Naven, Northern California: 916 632 3120
Jon Collison, South Central Coast: 661 589 8796
Leonard Hammer, Central California: 559 834 4616
Andy Hancock, Southern California: 928 345 2276
Scan for citrus
crop advice
Monitoring methods for
Asian citrus psyllid
Beth Grafton-Cardwell
I
n areas of commercial citrus in
California where Asian citrus psyllid has not become established, it is
critical for citrus industry personnel to
keep a watchful eye out for it so that it
can be aggressively treated and locally
eradicated.
In areas where the psyllid has become firmly established, monitoring
psyllid numbers will help determine if
treatments are effective.
There are several methods for
monitoring Asian citrus psyllid including yellow sticky cards, visual sampling
of new flush, and tap sampling. Knowledge of these methods and an understanding of the biology of the insect
can aid your search for this pest.
Asian citrus psyllid is a very small
insect, about the size of an aphid.
The adults are attracted to both color
cues and volatile organic compounds
(odors) that plants emit. This is how
they find the young shoots of citrus and
closely related plants where they lay
their eggs.
The young nymphs that hatch from
those eggs are very tiny and delicate
and need newly developing stems and
leaves in order to survive. The adults
can feed on both new flush and mature
leaves and stems.
Yellow sticky cards
Like many insects, adult Asian citrus psyllids are attracted to yellow. As
funded by the Citrus Pest and Disease
Prevention Program (CPDPP), California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) field personnel place
yellow sticky traps in citrus orchards in
a density of one per 1/2 mile of perimeter (one trap every 40 acres) to monitor Asian citrus psyllid (Figure 1).
When psyllids are found, the trap
density is increased (delimitation
trapping). The traps are hung in trees
on the outside rows of the orchard to
take advantage of the tendency of the
psyllid to move between edges of orchards. Yellow sticky traps are changed
and examined using a magnifying lens
every two weeks. Personnel checking
the traps look for a small insect, with a
brown pattern on the wings that has a
clear area (Figure 2).
These traps can help determine
if the psyllid is found in a new region
or monitor densities before and after
treatments in areas where they are established. However, yellow sticky traps
are only moderately effective in detecting psyllids. If a psyllid is given a choice
between a yellow sticky trap with a color cue and a leaf that has both a color
cue and volatiles, the psyllid will tend
to choose the leaf. Thus, when there is
no new flush on the trees, the sticky
cards are more attractive to psyllids
than when there is new flush present.
When the psyllid population is very
low, the likelihood of the yellow sticky
cards attracting the few psyllids that
are in the orchard is very low. Research
is underway to find chemicals that are
attractive to psyllids to add to the yellow sticky cards and improve the functionality of the trap.
I am often asked if the grower
should add additional yellow sticky
traps to the orchard, above and beyond
what the CPDPC/CDFA/County are
doing, to improve the level of detection
of psyllids. My answer is no, because
Fig. 1. (left) Yellow sticky card used
by the CPDPP to monitor Asian citrus
psyllid adults in a citrus orchard.
Photo by Brian Taylor.
Fig. 2. (above) Asian citrus psyllid adult
stuck to a yellow sticky card showing
the brown pattern on the edge of the
wings with a clear break in it.
Photo by E. Grafton-Cardwell.
there are additional methods growers
and Pest Control Advisors (PCAs) can
use to monitor for Asian citrus psyllid
that at times are more effective than
yellow sticky cards.
as feather flush, growing flush or fully
expanded leaves should be noted. This
provides a record of whether the flush
is in a suitable state for immature stages of the psyllid.
If you find
ACP
Additional monitoring
techniques
• Prepare alcohol vials with 70%
alcohol to have on hand in your
vehicle.
• Use a fine point artist brush to
move the nymphs or adult psyllids into the vial.
• If an artist brush is not available,
moisten your finger and gently
touch the insect to stick it to your
finger and then touch the liquid
to wash it into the vial.
• Label the vial with the date, location of the find (block, row, tree,
city, county) and your name.
•
Field staff should use flagging
tape to identify the tree where
psyllids were detected and immediately notify their County
Agricultural Commissioner.
Because yellow sticky cards are not
highly attractive to psyllids, it is important for growers and PCAs to conduct
visual and tap sampling of psyllids, especially during periods of flushing, in
all of their orchards. The current protocol is to sample 10 trees each on the
north, east, south, and west borders
(rows/trees) of the orchard and in the
center of the orchard for a total of 50
trees (Figure 3).
The psyllid prefers borders and
so monitoring is concentrated on the
outside edges of orchards. Edges are
defined as breaks in citrus plantings,
generally the width of a road.
In filling out the sampling sheet,
the stage of the leaf growth on the tree
Asian Citrus Psyllid Sampling plan
Monitored by: ___________________
Orchard name: __________________
Block name or number: _______________
Visual sampling
Visual sampling is especially important for detecting the nymphal
stages of the psyllid but can also be effective in finding adults since they are
attracted to flush for egg laying.
The first step in visual sampling is to
know what to look for. Eggs are deposited only on tiny new flush leaves and
stems (Figure 4). The eggs are yellow to
orange in color, tear drop shaped, and
they are very difficult to see because
they are very small and tucked between
the newly developing leaves. The first instar nymphs that hatch from
these eggs are equally small in size.
When monitoring, pick off a new
flush stem with a group of leaves and
use a hand lens to look for the eggs and
nymphs. As they grow, the nymphs will
Date: ___________
Leaf status (circle one): feather flush/growing flush/fully expanded
Variety: ___________
GPS: ___________
Nxxxxxxxxxx
C
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
W
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Instructions:
1. Sample 10 trees on the north, east, south, west borders
rows/trees of the orchard and in the center of the orchard.
2. Hold clipboard with white paper under a branch and strike
the branch 3 times, counting the total number of winged
adult psyllids per 3 taps.
3. Examine one young flush per sample tree. Count and
record the number of eggs, nymphs and adults found on
each flush examined (E/N/A).
E
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Sxxxxxxxxxx
North
trees
#ACP/
tap
#ACP/
flush
E/N/A
East
trees
#ACP/
tap
#ACP/
flush
E/N/A
South
trees
#ACP/
tap
#ACP/
flush
E/N/A
West
trees
#ACP/
tap
#ACP/
flush
E/N/A
Center
trees
N1
E1
S1
W1
C1
N2
E2
S2
W2
C2
N3
E3
S3
W3
C3
N4
E4
S4
W4
C4
N5
E5
S5
W5
C5
N6
E6
S6
W6
C6
N7
E7
S7
W7
C7
N8
E8
S8
W8
C8
N9
E9
S9
W9
C9
N10
E10
S10
W10
C10
#ACP/
tap
#ACP/
flush
E/N/A
Fig. 3. Sampling sheet showing the trees that are to be monitored for Asian citrus psyllid and the information that is to be gathered.
Fig. 4. Yellow to orange eggs deposited on new flush. In this photo, you can see
both eggs and newly hatched nymphs. Photo by M. Rogers, University of Florida.
Fig. 5. Asian citrus psyllid nymphs with
red eyes and yellow, flattened bodies
producing white waxy tubules. Photo
by M. Rogers.
Fig. 6. When the nymphs first develop,
they are tucked inside leaves and
difficult to see without detaching the
flush and examining it with a hand
lens. Photo by E. Grafton-Cardwell.
Fig. 7. As the populations grow and develop, the leaves of the citrus expand
revealing the nymphs and the long curly waxy tubules they produce. Note that
other pests like new flush, including citrus leafminer and aphids and ants like to
farm the honeydew produced by the psyllids and aphids. Photo by M. Rogers.
produce waxy tubules that help them
to keep the honeydew off of their bodies (Figure 5). Asian citrus psyllid is the
only insect in citrus that produces these
waxy tubules – so this is a clear sign you
have the psyllid if you see them.
The nymphs will have red eyes and
yellow to orange colored bodies. They
will grow larger as they molt four times.
When the new flush leaves are very
young and closed, the waxy tubules will
be hard to see (Figure 6), and so it is
important to pick the flush and open
the leaves and look with a hand lens.
As the leaves expand and the
nymphs produce longer and longer
curly strings of waxy tubules, the populations will become more obvious (Figure 7). Note in this picture that nymphs
and adults can be seen on both stems
and leaves. Also, ants can be seen farming the honeydew that the psyllids are
producing. Citrus leafminer and aphids
like these new leaves and can be found
mixed in with psyllid colonies.
Feeding by the nymphs causes the
same kind of curling of the leaves that
aphids cause. The Asian citrus psyllid
injects a toxin when it feeds and so it
can sometimes kill the new leaves, leaving burned tips.
Adult psyllids like to feed on stems
(Figure 8) or leaves (Figure 9). When
found on leaves, they prefer to line up
on the edge of the leaf or on leaf veins.
The adults have a very characteristic
posture, in that they tilt their rear ends
into the air at about a 45o angle (Figure 10). This is the only insect found in
California citrus that has this posture.
With a hand lens, you should also
be able to see the brown band in the
edge of the wing with the clear break
in it that is diagnostic for this psyllid.
Remember that the psyllid is extremely small (2-4 mm) (Figure 11) and best
seen with a hand lens.
To conduct the visual sampling
method for Asian citrus psyllid, simply remove a leaf flush if present, from
each of the 50 trees and examine the
stem and leaves with a hand lens for
any psyllid stages, including eggs,
nymphs, and adults. Write the numbers
of psyllids found on the sample sheet
by stage. Example; 1/0/3 denotes 1 egg,
0 nymphs and 3 adults were found.
Tap sampling
The tap sampling method is only
useful for detecting adults. It has the
Fig. 8. Adult psyllids like to feed on leaves and stems of new flush or old, but they
are attracted to new flush when it is available for egg laying. Photo by M. Rogers.
advantage that it can be done any time
of the year, even when new flush is not
present. Remember that adult psyllids
can feed on either young or mature
leaves or stems and so they can be present year-round.
For tap sampling, you will need
a hard plastic surface such as a white
plastic clipboard, or white paper attached to the bottom of a translucent
plastic clipboard, or laminate a white
sheet of paper and lay it on top of a
clipboard.
Spray the plastic surface of the
clipboard or laminated paper with a
squirt of Dawn detergent mixed in a ½
liter of water. Psyllids that are knocked
onto the clipboard will stick in the solution, giving you time to see, identify,
and count them.
Hold the clipboard under a branch
and strike the branch 3 times with a 12”
section of PVC pipe (or other device).
Then count the number of winged
adult psyllids collected on the clipboard. If you draw a grid on the clipboard or paper, it will help you count
the psyllids more quickly. Remove the
psyllids from the clipboard after each
count and re-apply the liquid as needed. To see a video demonstration of this
procedure, go to http://ucanr.edu/sites/
KACCItrusEntomology/Home/Asian_
Citrus_Psyllid/Monitoring.
Frequency of sampling and
response to a psyllid find
Fig. 9. Adult psyllids prefer to line up on leaf veins for feeding. Photo by M. Rogers.
In areas where psyllids are not
established
Sticky cards, visual sampling and
tap sampling should be conducted
monthly. If psyllids are found in a new
region, it is very important to contact
the local County Agriculture Commissioner (CAC) as quickly as possible. If
adult psyllids are found, collect them
into a vial of 70% alcohol and report
them. If you find immature stages, it
is better to flag the tree the population was found on and alert the CAC
to come make a collection so that they
can officially document the location of
the population.
In areas where psyllids are
established
Fig. 10. The adult psyllids tilt their rear end up in the air, and with a hand lens you
can see the brown band in the wing with the clear break in the pattern. Photo by
M. Rogers.
If psyllids are found in an area
where they are known to be established, it is still important to collect
psyllids into vials of 70% alcohol by
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block and submit them to the CAC so
that they can be tested for the HLB
bacterium.
Conventional orchards: It is recommended that visual and tap sampling
be conducted monthly throughout the
year. Monitoring after insecticides are
applied will help to document the efficacy of the treatments. Conventional
insecticides may last from one to many
months, especially if more than one
chemical is applied.
Organic orchards: In organic situations, the insecticides are weakly effective and so must be applied every
10-14 days. It is recommended that tap
and visual samples be conducted every
2 weeks throughout the year in organic
orchards.
Summary
Three methods of Asian citrus
psyllid monitoring should be employed
in commercial citrus orchards: yellow
sticky cards, visual monitoring of flush,
and tap sampling.
In areas where the psyllid is not
established, early detection and quick
Fig. 11. Remember that the psyllid
is extremely tiny and best seen with
a hand lens. Photo by L. Duka, UC
Riverside.
response with insecticides by the growers could result in local eradication of
the pest.
In areas were the psyllid is established, monitoring populations will
provide important information about
the relative efficacy of insecticide treat-
ments and aid in the development of
better treatment guidelines for citrus
growers. This will become especially
important when huanglongbing begins
to spread in California.
No one method should be relied upon as each method has its own
strengths and weaknesses. Yellow sticky
cards only attract adults, and they are
weakly attractive when flush is present.
Visual sampling of flush is dependent
on flush being present but is useful for
detecting any stage of psyllid and can
provide psyllids to test for HLB. Tap
sampling only monitors adults, but it
can be conducted at all times of year
and so is a good tool for both detecting
psyllids and monitoring the effects of
insecticides.
Citrus growers and PCAs are encouraged to add these methods to their
regular citrus pest monitoring program.
Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell is a University of California IPM Specialist and
Research Entomologist with the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside.
She also serves as Director of the Lindcove Research and Extension Center. l
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The development of an
ACP biological control program
for California
Ted Batkin
T
he Citrus Research Board has
been supporting the development of biological control tools
for use in California against the Asian cit
rus psyllid for the past five years.
The results thus far have been reported in several issues of Citrograph
with information on the work of Dr.
Mark Hoddle and his team in bringing in promising strains of parasitoids
for release in California climates. This
explorative activity led to additional
studies and developmental efforts by
Dr. Richard Stouthamer and others at
the University of California Riverside
to rear the parasites and release them
for evaluation.
The success of this early work has
now led the industry to draw up a for-
mal action plan for the development of
the process to raise and release large
volumes of parasites in parts of California where ACP populations have
continued to spread.
This is the first of a series of reports
to the industry on the plan and the procedures that will take place over the
next two years to establish both public
and private rearing programs for widescale releases of biocontrol agents.
Background
ACP populations in certain urban
areas of Southern California currently
exceed the levels for chemical control.
The California Department of Food
and Agriculture, with funding support from the citrus industry through
the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Committee (CPDPC), carried out
a valiant effort to chemically treat
the find sites and a 400-meter radius
around the sites. But the populations
have overrun the treatment areas and
threaten to find and distribute the causal agent for huanglongbing (HLB).
This HLB-associated bacteria has
been detected in Hacienda Heights, a
community in Los Angeles County. It is
suspected that other areas of the county also have the bacteria, and most likely the ACP populations will soon find
these other sites and begin to spread
HLB throughout L.A. county and adjacent counties with citrus producing
areas. This has been the typical pattern
of dispersal in other parts of the world
including Florida and now Texas.
The California Citrus Research
Board, CDFA, and the CPDPC have
funded various stages of research
through the University of California
to search for parasites in parts of the
world with climates similar to California. Currently UCR is rearing 17
strains of Tamarixia radiata for release
in the Los Angeles Basin.
So far, over 25,000 wasps have been
released at 120 sites, and now the team
is beginning to recover populations
from the initial efforts, sometimes as
far as 8 miles from the release sites.
DNA tests indicate that the recoveries
are from the original releases and not
from natural populations. The test colonies are now being increased to provide base populations for mass rearing
facilities.
The basic plan
Prototype of field insectary for the mass rearing of Tamarixia radiata. Photo by
Anna Soper. Used courtesy of Center for Invasive Species Research, UC Riverside.
Field insectary rearing of Tamarixia radiata will be one of the first efforts
of the plan. Currently the University
of California members of the team lead
by Dr. Stouthamer have placed field
Tamarixia radiata stalking ACP. Photo
by Mark Hoddle, courtesy of the Center
for Invasive Species Research, UC
Riverside.
cages in a location in Southern California to start the testing of cage types
and methods of rearing and collection.
This program will then feed additional
information to the APHIS-funded program being started now.
The APHIS program will provide staffing and resources to conduct
“Methods Development” activities for
large-scale field insectary programs
that will be expanded throughout the
Southern California area over the next
2 years. As the ACP expands and moves
to new areas of the state, the field rearing can be increased in any geographic
area as appropriate. The beauty of field
cages is their rapid deployment capabilities and their efficiency during certain times of the year.
Insectary rearing of Tamarixia radiata will commence as soon as possible with the construction of a facility
on the Cal Poly Pomona campus. This
will include the construction of greenhouses and mobile lab facilities that
This photo taken at one of the release sites in the L.A. Basin shows ACP mummies
from which Tamarixia has emerged. Photo by Mark Hoddle used courtesy of the
Center for Invasive Species Research, UC Riverside.
can be used for insectary cage rearing
on a year-round basis.
The Cal Poly facility will also be
used as a “Methods Development”
location for the study and development of rearing systems that can be
duplicated in other areas as necessary
and feasible. Several sites have been
identified as possible rearing locations
throughout the Southern California
area. Also, the systems developed will
be available for use by private insectaries as the ACP populations expand
into other geographical areas of the
state. Cal Poly will also use the facility
as a teaching unit for students interJanuary/February 2013 Citrograph 19
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ested in biological control programs as
part of their studies at the University.
The goal for the first phase of the
Biocontrol Program is to produce
4,800,000 wasps for release in the
Southern California urban areas to
reduce the populations of ACP. The
use of chemical control in urban areas
has been discontinued as strategy by
the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program in order to concentrate
their efforts on protecting commercial groves where ACP populations
have started to increase. For the urban
areas,biological control now becomes
the best and the only strategy that will
reduce the populations of ACP and
lower the threat of the movement of
HLB, which is the primary focus of the
whole CPDPC program.
This report is the first of several
reports that we will bring to you over
the next year. This is an evolving program that will add more elements as
the technology moves forward. The
research efforts of the University of
California Riverside along with the
collaborations with Cal Poly Pomona
and the two government agencies will
provide the citrus industry with many
new options for ACP management and
control. As we are seeing the ACP populations continually increase in wider
areas of the state, new techniques will
be required to keep the industry free
from the bacterial agent that causes
HLB disease.
Ted Batkin is President of the California Citrus Research Board. l
THE ANSWER
Why would someone want to put oranges on display as part of their home décor? (Do You Know, page 5.)
Toronto-based interior designer Laura
Miller, who gives clients advice on color
theory and placement for Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway), promotes the idea
of placing a bowl of oranges or a dwarf
orange tree in living areas of the home to
increase “yang”. She says Feng Shui practitioners use oranges, peel, and orange oil
in a variety of ways to boost vitality and
positive energy.
Citrograph issues back to January/February 2010 are on the Citrus Research
Board website at www.citrusresearch.org.
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Profile
Counting their blessings
and giving back
Anne Warring
A
ll across agriculture, there are
producers willing to work very
hard for the common good.
They serve on committees, sit on boards,
and volunteer for special projects. They
do all that needs doing in their own
operations and then find the time to do
the other on the side.
We are fortunate in California
citrus to have many growers who are
actively involved in industry service including some who are very active, like
Link Leavens and his sister Leslie and
their cousin Dave Schwabauer.
It’s obvious from looking at their
resumes that these three don’t hesitate
to shoulder some heavy responsibility.
Link is serving on the Citrus
Pest and Disease Prevention Committee (CPDPC), Leslie chairs the Ventura County ACP-HLB Task Force,
and Dave just came off an eight-year
stretch as the District 4 representative
on the board of the California Farm
Bureau Federation. And that doesn’t
begin to tell the story.
Leavens Ranches managing partners
Link, Leslie and Dave are the managing partners in their family’s busi-
ness, Leavens Ranches, growing lemons and avocados in Ventura County
and in Monterey County where they
also have some wine grapes.
In all, Leavens Ranches farms
1,200 acres spread over a dozen ranches. In Ventura County, their orchards
are in the Santa Clara River Valley – in
the Santa Paula/Saticoy/Ventura area
– and over the hill in Moorpark. In
Monterey County, their acreage is near
Gonzales on a bench above the Salinas
River.
Link is the general manager, Dave
is the manager of their Moorpark oper-
The managing partners of Leavens Ranches, Link Leavens, left, his cousin Dave Schwabauer, and Link’s sister Leslie. Photo
by Steve Osman.
Leavens Fairview Ranch in Moorpark. Photo by Anne Warring.
The headquarters office for Leavens
Ranches is this beautifully restored
Victorian-era house just west of Santa
Paula. There are desks in the front room
close to the spot where Anne and Paul J.
Leavens, Sr. always put their Christmas
tree. Photo by Steve Osman.
ations, and Leslie is the office manager.
The business has a very complex
ownership structure – too complex to
go into here in any detail, but the basics are that ownership is currently
shared by 26 members of the family,
with each member holding a certain
number of “units” and with each of the
four branches of the family bestowing
their units differently. All blood relatives who are 18 years and older are
part owners but with different stakes.
They govern it all with a board that
has several outside directors, people
they can count on for their objectivity
and a broader perspective.
They also rely heavily on several
outside advisors, consultants in the field
of strategic thinking and strategic planning, who have specialized expertise in
working with family-owned businesses.
Their headquarters is a restored
Victorian house that was once their
grandparents’ home – which is very fitting because family is the foundation
for everything that gets done in that
office.
And that’s because their purpose
for being in agriculture is a little different than what you might expect it to
be. While they obviously have financial
goals for their farming operations, their
reason for farming is the family itself.
call themselves, there are nine members in all but only Link, Leslie and
Dave are hands-on in Leavens Ranches. The others are in non-ag careers and
are scattered across the country.
And that’s where the need for the
“glue” comes in. It’s a far-flung family,
and farming is how they maintain their
ties.
They bring the entire group together twice a year at company expense for
family retreats that include lengthy and
in-depth discussions about everything
going on in the business and the challenges they’re facing. For one of those
gatherings, they converge on their family’s Ventura beach house and rent the
two houses next door so they can all
stay together.
Their objective with these retreats
is to always come away with a shared
vision.
They do a lot of other things to
make sure the “glue” is holding. They
even go to the extent of producing a
monthly newsletter for family and a
few close associates.
For the youngest generation, they
organize “Camp Mary” (after Dave’s
mother, a retired teacher) so while
they’re in grade school and junior high
the kids learn about the business by doing things like picking lemons and visit-
Leslie likes to explain it by saying, “We are committed to remaining a family in farming, and the ranch
provides a means for us to continue to
gather together as family.”
Shared vision for a far-flung family
They can trace their Leavens ancestry all the way back to 1581 to a
John Leavens born in Essex County,
England, who immigrated to Massachusetts.
But for their history in ag, they
start with Joseph G. Leavens (born in
1870) and his wife, Mary Louise Phelps
Leavens, who arrived in California from
New England in 1900. To Link, Leslie
and Dave, they’re “great-grandpa” and
“great-grandma,” and on the family tree
they’re referred to as “generation 0.”
Joseph G. and Mary Louise had
son Paul Joseph Leavens, Sr., who married Anne Oberhelman, and Paul Sr.
and Anne (“generation 1”) had four
children: Mary, Dorothy, Paul Jr., and
Sarah (“generation 2”).
In “generation 3,” Link and Leslie
and their sisters Tina and Heather are
the children of Paul Jr. and Carolyn
(Douglass) Leavens, and Dave (C. David) is the only child of Mary (Leavens)
and Charles Schwabauer.
In that “cousin generation” as they
ing Brokaw Nursery and watching the
color sorter at Saticoy Lemon.
“That way, when they’re participating in family conferences, they know
what a rootstock is, they know what a
scion is, they’ve seen the irrigation systems,” Dave says.
As Leslie points out, “When the 1216 year-olds reach 18, we’ll have 30 in
the ownership group. The eldest of the
five G5s is only 18 months behind the
youngest G4, so another crop will be
coming along shortly thereafter.” The Leavens Ranches backstory
Back row, left to right: Paul J. Leavens, Sr., Dorothy Leavens (Carlson), and Paul J.
Leavens, Jr. Front row: Anne Oberhelman Leavens, Sarah Leavens (Gilmour), Mary
Leavens (Schwabauer), and Joseph G. Leavens. Leavens family album.
The “G3s” at a “cousins dinner”. Back row, left to right: Dave Schwabauer, Heather
Leavens August, Paul Carlson, Andy Gilmour. Front row: Maureen Gilmour Cook,
Tina Leavens Cullenberg, Leslie Leavens, Helen Carlson, and Link Leavens.
Courtesy of Leavens Ranches.
The “G4s” stair-stepping down, left to right: Jimmy Cook, James August, Katie
August, Carl Cook, Jonathan Gilmour, Elizabeth August, Alex Nicholson, Will
Carlson, Erin Cook, Emily Carlson, Timothy Gilmour, Brianne Schwabauer, and Elly
Nicholson. Courtesy of Leavens Ranches.
Their backstory isn’t quite the
same as it is with many of the other citrus families in California because they
haven’t been farming in earnest for
three or four generations. It wasn’t until Paul Jr. came home from the Navy
that they really got going.
The history is that Joseph G. (“generation 0”) was a chef by trade who,
once he’d settled in Santa Paula made
his living mainly in the insurance business, although he also worked for a
time in a dry goods store and as an
apricot buyer for Del Monte.
Over the years, he acquired some
property, but a lot of it was dry land in
Moorpark that he ended up with after
a friend for whom he’d co-signed a note
was struck and killed by a car. He had a
few acres of oranges but was “more of a
gentleman farmer,” Dave says.
Paul Sr. wasn’t really interested
in agriculture because his path was as
a Presbyterian minister. But his wife,
Anne, believed that farming would be
the key to success for their only son,
Paul Jr., and she did everything she
could to encourage him.
When he was a boy, she sent him to
Kansas every summer to visit relatives
who lived on a farm and raised corn,
wheat and livestock. As he says today,
“I guess it kind of grew on me, seeing
what it’s like to live on the land and appreciate what it produces.”
By the time he went to high school,
he’d made his decision. He got a B.A.
degree in business management at
Whitworth College in Spokane but also
took a year of citriculture at Cal Poly
Pomona (in those days, the Voorhees
unit of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo).
He was an officer on a U.S. Navy
destroyer escort from 1952 to 1954, and
then he came home to Santa Paula.
“We had only 10 acres of citrus
then,” Paul says, “but the family had
other land. I could hardly wait to get
out of the service because I knew I had
all that opportunity in farming.”
With his mother’s encouragement
and the full support of his sisters – including their financial support, as they
allowed their interests to be put up as
security – he set out to develop ranches.
Paul was a risk-taker, and he had a
vision.
“Dad recognized,” Link says, “that
for this family farming operation to
work, everybody was going to have to
benefit, and so the operation would
have to grow to the point where it had
critical mass.”
Paul’s sisters were totally committed to what he wanted to do, and
they’ve stayed committed -- even Dot
and Sarah who left California when
they married and have never been directly involved in operations.
His sister Mary, on the other hand,
has always been close to operations because husband Charles is a local boy,
and almost immediately after they got
married he came on-board with the
family business.
Dave describes his dad as a behind-
Leavens Family Mission Statement
We have received a rich legacy from our parents and theirs. We are grateful
to God for the blessings of life, good health, and loving family. With perseverance and flexibility, we will pass on these values:
• Integrity
• Respect for others and service to the community and the world at large
• Good stewardship of our heritage
• Willingness to work hard and learn throughout all our lives
• Support and love each member of our family
Gratefully remembering our past, we dedicate ourselves to growing the
good fruit of family.
the-scenes person who played a critical
role. He was an incredibly skilled mechanic who “held everything together
with chewing gum and baling wire.”
Charlie was Paul’s right-hand man, and,
Paul says, “In those early days, building
ranches, we were able to make do with
a lot of used equipment.”
Early missteps, then smart moves
What mistakes have they made
along the way? Paul smiles when he
mentions early tries with oranges and
grapefruit and even limes before sticking with lemons and avocados.
He also says with the benefit of
hindsight that while he wouldn’t have
done it any differently at the time, he
probably expanded a little too much
and a little too fast.
Paul explains that for a time they
had a substantial amount of nonbearing acreage, representing a major portion of their total plantings, and that
happened to be the case at a particular
point when problems in ag in the Midwest prompted the Farm Credit System
to make policy changes.
“They refused to allow us to convert some of our shorter term borrow-
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ings to Land Bank loans, which we
really needed to do.” They had to sell
off a few blocks, most of which they’ve
since repurchased.
Today’s three managing partners
say one of the smartest moves – if not
the smartest move – Paul ever made
was adding Monterey County. “There
are years when Monterey represents a
significant portion of our total lemon
income,” Link says.
“The lemons thrive up there. They
come off four to six weeks later, at a
peak time of consumption. The characteristics of that fruit (are that) the
quality gets better as the year progresses. They start out really crappy,
but they get really good in June, July,
August.”
“We have been blessed so many
times by the fact that we were geographically diversified,” he says.
Dave adds, “In our lifetimes we’ve
seen it. In the 1990 freeze, the whole
Santa Clara Valley got froze out, but we
survived because of Moorpark.”
Link is especially proud of the fact
that through the years they’ve done
some things that were unconventional,
incredibly more productive.” They also
went to 11 x 22 spacing for a lot of their
blocks.
‘I got to be right there with Dad’
Link says he knew from the time
he was a little kid that farming would
be his life.
He can actually remember walking
the furrows behind his dad on their Saticoy ranch when he was five years old,
and when he was nine and ten he had
“summer projects” at Brokaw Nursery.
“I got to plant trees when I was 12, 13.”
When it was time for college, he
went to Cal Poly Pomona, earning a
bachelor of science degree in plant and
At the Leavens Fairview Ranch in
1962. Back row, left to right: Charlie
soil science in 1973.
Schwabauer, Mary Leavens Schwabauer,
He has been with Leavens Ranches
Paul Leavens, Jr., and Carolyn Douglass
ever since – which means it’s now 40
Leavens. Front: Tina, Heather, Link, and
years, and that’s if you don’t count the
Leslie Leavens. Leavens family album.
summers and the spring vacations and
that prompted coffee shop talk: “What the weekends as a teen. At Cal Poly,
“I was the only one on my water polo
is Leavens doing this time?”
For example, “We were some of the team who wasn’t an ocean lifeguard evfirst to go to the ‘Prior’ lemon, and we ery summer because I was busy driving
made some good money doing it be- tractors and developing ranches.”
His time and attention are split faircause it was 10-15% higher in quality.
We also found a ‘Limco 8-A’ that was ly evenly between citrus and avocados.
He has served on the board of Calavo Growers since 1985 and has been
Calavo’s vice chair since 1994.
In citrus, he was a board member and president of an association of
Sunkist-affiliated packinghouses in the
area known as the Ventura County Citrus Growers Committee.
When he isn’t focusing on citrus
and avocado issues, he’s working on
land use and water. In 1976, just three
years out of college, he became board
president of Hardscrabble Water Company – a post he held for nearly 20
(Both he and Link have since added MBAs from Cal Lutheran University.)
His first job with Leavens Ranches
was as the on-site assistant manager in
Moorpark, and in 1998 he became the
manager of that 760-acre Moorpark
operation.
Most of Schwabauer’s work in
industry service has been with Farm
Bureau. At the county level, he was
in Young Farmers and Ranchers and
chaired the Citrus and Avocado Com-
mittee before becoming a director-atlarge and then moving up the ranks
from treasurer. He was president from
2003 to 2005.
At the state level, as the director from District 4, he represented
more than 2,700 members in Ventura
and Santa Barbara counties. He was
the liaison to the Citrus and Avocado
Committee for eight years, served on
the CFBF finance committee for four
years, and chaired the strategic planning committee from 2006 to 2008.
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At the beach house between Ventura
and Santa Barbara, Paul J. Leavens Sr.
and Anne with their four children, Mary
and Dot in the back and Sarah and Paul
at front. Leavens family album.
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years – and after 35 years he’s still serving on that board.
He was a founding board member
of the Ventura County Agricultural
Trust Conservancy, something he did
for nearly a decade, and was on the
Ventura County Open Space Advisory
Committee. He also served for 20 years
as a director of the Ventura County Resource Conservation District.
Link has been a Ventura County
Farm Bureau member for 40 years and
sat on the board for a dozen years from
1975-1987 including a term as president
in 1986-87. He was also a founding director of the University of California
Thelma Hansen Trust.
Farm Bureau and water
Like his cousin Link, Dave also
went to Cal Poly Pomona where in
1986 he got his bachelor’s degree in
fruit industries with a minor in ag business management.
Snail damage to orange
Outlasts and outperforms.
The Power is in the Pellet!
A legacy of leadership…
A
re leaders made or are they born? Is leadership primarily a matter of
individual choice or parental example-setting?
There are various theories about what prompts a person to become
a leader, but with Link, Leslie and Dave and their service to California agriculture, in addition to their own very personal and deeply felt commitments, there
has been some serious role-modeling at work in their lives.
Dave’s dad, Charlie Schwabauer, was on the board of Ventura County Farm
Bureau, serving two years as president in the mid-1970s and chairing the building committee when they needed a new headquarters. He was also instrumental
in getting the Soil Conservation Service established in the area.
Link and Leslie’s dad, Paul, has been a fixture in Ventura County agriculture
for decades. He’s held numerous top-level leadership positions in both the citrus
and avocado industries.
He served 16 years on
the boards of both Sunkist
Growers and Fruit Growers
Supply Company (including nine as a vice-chairman),
and for 15 years he was
chairman of the board of
Ventura County Citrus Exchange. He was also on the
board of the Ojai-Tapo Citrus Association for 18 years,
including 15 years as chair,
and served for 22 years as a
Paul and Carolyn Leavens, in Costa Rica in 2002, director of Saticoy Lemon
Association.
celebrating their 50th anniversary and 70th
birthdays. Carolyn passed away in April 2011.
Paul is also a past chair
of Calavo Growers, serving
on the board from 1960 to 1978. He was a member of the board of the Ventura
Production Credit Association for 15 years including seven years as president,
and he is also a past president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.
And then you have Link and Leslie’s late mother, Carolyn Leavens, who
was an absolute powerhouse. As anyone who ever worked with her will attest,
she had tremendous drive and sense of purpose, she was a gifted and persuasive
communicator, and she was a dynamo when it came to advocating for ag.
For starters, she was founding president of the Ventura County chapter of
California Woman for Agriculture and served as CWA’s state president in 1981.
She was also a long-time member of CWA’s affiliated organization, American
Agri-Women, serving in the early 80s as their national media spokesperson, then
as president for two years, and then finally as their international outreach chair
from 1991 to 1997.
She was a member of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture
from 1978 to 1982. Then for 16 years, she was active in USDA’s Agricultural
Women’s Leadership Network, serving on its board for a year and participating
in its European Economic Community (EEC) Tour as an ambassador of American agriculture. She also co-chaired USDA’s Farm Women’s Forum.
Carolyn also served on the board of Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative
Assistance, which chose her to be a delegate to the first International Women in
Agriculture Convention. For five years in the mid-1990s, she served on the board
of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an independent agency of the
U.S. government that mobilizes private-sector investment in new and emerging
markets overseas.
In addition to all of that, she kept a full calendar of community, civic and political activity. She received numerous awards for her civic work, including being
named the California legislature’s Woman of the Year in 1988.
As proud as they are of her service to agriculture, her family says it was
her “tireless involvement in the decades-long campaign that culminated in the
establishment of California State University Channel Islands that may be her
most lasting local legacy.”
Dave’s service has included the
Citrus Research Board. For six seasons,
from 1997 to 2003, he was an alternate
member representing District 2. But
along with Farm Bureau, his other real
passion has been water.
He represents Ventura County
Farm Bureau on the board of the
County Association of Water Agencies, and for over 20 years he has represented ag on the advisory committee of
Ventura County Waterworks District 1.
He has been active with the Fox
Canyon Groundwater Management
Agency, serving as either a member or
an alternate since 1997, and since 2001
he’s been very involved with the Las
Posas Uses Group.
With Las Posas, “there are overdraft issues and salinity issues, and
multiple entities – municipalities and
water districts and individual ranches
–all pulling from the same aquifer, with
increasing demands coming from an
urban population. You’ve got effluent
that’s coming down from waste water
treatment plants, changing the chemistry of the water.” The group meets every two weeks in a roundtable format.
He describes the Las Posas work
as “very demanding but also one of
the most satisfying things, too, because
coming up with answers is so critical to
the preservation of ag.”
‘I got involved gradually’
In contrast to her brother’s experience of practically living in the orchard,
Leslie says that while she was growing up, the idea that one day she’d be
working at Leavens Ranches “never
occurred to me.”
She loves the performing arts, and
through her high school and college
years she’d found herself following
a path toward theatre as a career, in
stage management or lighting design.
She studied at Whitworth College
as her parents had done, then transferred to UCLA for a fine arts degree
with an emphasis in theatre, “but by
the time I graduated from UCLA, I
was living on Maalox and realized that
theatre was really not what I should be
doing with my life, it was so stressful.”
For several years, she was an assistant sales manager at Brokaw Nursery,
and she also worked for a time in administration and customer service at
Twyford Plant Laboratories in Santa
Paula.
“Dad asked me if I wanted to work
for the ranch on a part-time basis, to
replace an employee who was leaving,”
she recalls, “and for a number of years
it was three days a week doing bookkeeping and administrative assistant
sorts of things, and then it was four
days a week, and the amount of work
got bigger, and I gradually got involved
in industry affairs.”
Leslie’s industry service includes
being a director of Saticoy Lemon Association, which she has done since
2003, and for the past two years she
has been the board secretary. In 2010
and 2011, she sat on the boards of Fruit
Growers Supply Company and Sunkist.
In 2009, she became the fifth member of the family to serve as president
of Ventura County Farm Bureau, just
recently stepping away from that board
after 12 years because she needed to
free up some time for her highest priority, the ACP-HLB Task Force.
But she hasn’t totally stepped away
from Farm Bureau – far from it – because in place of the local activity, she
has taken on the chairmanship of the
Citrus and Avocado Commodity Advisory Committee of the California Farm
Bureau Federation, and at the national
level she chairs the citrus committee of
the American Farm Bureau Federation.
And, like both Dave and Link, she
works on water issues, sitting on the
boards of Farmers Irrigation Company, Alta Mutual Water Company, and
the Santa Paula Basin Pumpers Association.
Half agriculture, half urban
Asked about the challenges that
they’re having to deal with these days,
Link quickly rattles off a list of the
problems that all growers in Ventura
County are facing, then says about
their own situation, “Our expenses
tend to be higher than average because
so much of our operation is in Moorpark.”
“We have to pump from deep aquifers, the fertilizers are less effective. It’s
tougher over there, which means we
have to be really good at what we do.”
Leslie adds, “One of the things about
Ventura County that’s unique among
coastal counties is that other than the
parts that are Los Padres National Forest, the land is half in ag production and
half in urban uses. There are places all
over the county where agriculture is immediately adjacent to houses.”
Link mentions that among the
special skills Dave brings to the mix is
his ability to build relationships. This
knack Dave has for forging friendships is something Link believes has
been the key to maintaining such positive interactions with their neighbors
in Moorpark. There are horse ranches
and hobby farms and non-ag people
in close proximity. “We are very careful with everything we do in our pest
control.”
“He knows every one of those people individually, and when I make the
determination to run helicopters, he
goes through that community and talks
with them all.”
And speaking of community, it
seems that service to community and
philanthropy come as naturally to this
family as industry service.
Dave thinks “it’s just ingrained in
our family” because of the examples
set by their great-grandparents, grandparents and parents.
Link quotes from scripture, paraphrasing “to whom much is given, much
will be required”, and Dave adds the
Rotary motto, “Service Above Self.”
Both Dave and his father Charlie
are past presidents of the Moorpark
Rotary Club, and Link and his grandfather Paul Sr. were both members of
Santa Paula Rotary.
Dave’s mother Mary is truly invested in giving back to her community.
She has long been a strong supporter of
the Ventura County Museum, and since
her retirement from teaching she has
also been very active with the Ventura
County Community Foundation.
She is the immediate past chair of
the Foundation board and serves on
six committees, including one she finds
especially fulfilling -- the scholarship
advisory committee.
Acknowledgements and gratitude
Link specifically asked that this article mention how important they think
it’s been to their lemon success to be
members of Sunkist and a co-op packinghouse.
“Dad has always felt very, very
strongly about the cooperative con-
cept, about collaborating and working
together, the importance of having a
voice in setting policy. Sunkist has been
front and center in all our 50 to 60 years
of growing lemons.”
Something else they wanted emphasized was how their staff has their
backs. Dave says about his Farm Bureau work that he could make all
those trips to Sacramento and D.C.
because he knew that things would be
taken care of at home. “The foreman
in Moorpark is someone my Grandpa
hired in 1970.”
“The loyalty factor is huge,” Link
says. “We have a very low turnover
rate, and there’s been only one person we’ve had to fire in 45 years.” It’s
a tight-knit group, and “there’s selfpolicing that goes on. When somebody
notices something is off, they’ll get it
corrected.”
The company provides their workers with housing and pays the utilities.
Their benefits package includes a retirement plan, and they see to it, Link
says, that “when we have a good year,
they have a good year.”
They also talk about how fortunate
they are to be doing what they’re doing, and how grateful they are to each
other and to their family for the leeway
they have to do the industry work on
the side.
Leslie comments, “We are so fortunate to work for a family and a business
that allows it and even encourages it,
because there are so many who don’t.”
Heeding the call to action
So how has it happened, that all
three are involved in so many organizations?
For Link and Leslie, having gone
through the Ag Leadership program is
a part of it, they say, because “opportunities just flow from that experience.”
(Link was in Class 11, 1980-1982,
and Leslie in Class 34, 2003-2005. Leslie
has been on the CALF Alumni Council
since 2006 and is still active.)
Generally, says Link, “People who
know us just ask if we’d be willing to
do something because they think we’d
be a good fit, and we end up saying yes
because it’s something we’re already
interested in. It isn’t like we’re standing
around with our arms in the air saying
‘I’m here’.”
Sometimes they get drafted for
jobs, like the time, Leslie laughs, “Chris
Taylor called me and said ‘We’re putting you on the ballot at Farm Bureau’
and there wasn’t a question mark at
the end.”
Other times it’s been their own call
to action, like Leslie’s experience with
the Ventura County ACP-HLB Task
Force.
As she tell it, “In the early months
of my Farm Bureau presidency at the
end of 2009, the psyllid was 40 miles
from Ventura County, the infestation
in L.A. was exploding, and HLB was in
Mexico 750 miles south of the border.
Industry experts expected ACP to show
up in our county sometime in 2010.
“We knew treatments with pesticides were inevitable and that residents
needed to understand why treatments
would be imperative to save their backyard trees, our county landscape and
the local citrus industry.
“Armed with Farm Bureau CEO
John Krist’s prodigious communication
skills, we pulled together a coalition of
industry and community members and
formed the Ventura County ACP-HLB
Task Force to educate the public about
the threat posed by Asian citrus psyllid
and huanglongbing disease, and to mobilize support for efforts to exclude, detect and ultimately eradicate the pest.
“ACP was detected in the county
in December of 2010, but it didn’t start
popping up with any frequency until
the fall of last year. By that time, we
had expanded the mission of the Task
Force to include coordination of treatments for ACP in commercial orchards,
and we had had a grower treatment
and communication coordinator in
place for more than a year.
“I believe the work that we did
early-on laid the foundation for the relatively few treatment refusals CDFA
has encountered in residential areas.”
And, she states, “While those first
detections of ACP last fall felt like
a physical blow to the gut, having a
grower coordinator in place with established lines of communication locally and statewide prevented a feeling
of utter panic and hopelessness. We
were prepared.
“I believe it’s made a difference,
and with ACP detections increasing in
the county, the work of the Task Force
continues because the real battle – the
one against HLB – is yet to come.”
Anne Warring is a freelance writer
and editor based in Visalia. l
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CRB Funded Research Reports
Research Project Progress Report
Development of a pathogen dispenser to control
Asian citrus psyllid in residential and organic citrus
Andrew Chow, Christopher Dunlap, Daniel Flores, Mark Jackson, William Meikle, Mamoudou Sétamou and Joseph M. Patt
Background
The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri, transmits Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, the bacterium that
is associated with citrus greening disease or huanglongbing
(HLB) worldwide. Presently, there is no cure for HLB, and
infected citrus trees gradually decline, become non-productive, and eventually die. ACP and HLB are serious threats to
the citrus industries of Florida, Texas, and California.
The detection of HLB in Texas and California has made
prevention of its spread by ACP a high-priority issue. Validation tests of areawide management programs designed
for Texas and Florida have shown that ACP can be effectively controlled on commercial citrus. These programs rely
on insecticide sprays that target adult psyllid populations
during the dormant winter season and prior to major flush
cycles during the active growing season.
Unfortunately, control measures for ACP in noncommercial citrus and organic groves lag behind insecticidebased strategies available to commercial groves.
The citrus industries of Texas and California share a
pressing problem with ACP spreading in urban neighborhoods near commercial citrus groves. In Florida, the industry is more concerned about ACP spreading in abandoned
groves because much of their commercial citrus is relatively
distant from residential areas.
Many citrus varieties that are hosts to both ACP and
HLB are planted as fruit trees in the yards of Texans and
Californians. Because ACP also feeds and reproduces on a
broad range of ornamental citrus relatives, such as ‘orange
jasmine’ Murraya paniculata, this pest can rapidly spread
into residential areas, parks, and commercial properties.
ACP adults are highly mobile, and they could easily disperse from residential areas to commercial groves. In fact,
Texas studies found a greater tendency for adults to move
from dooryard citrus to commercial groves than the converse.
If left uncontrolled, ACP populations in residential citrus will
stymie the effectiveness of areawide management programs
aimed at containing the spread of HLB in commercial citrus.
Outreach programs in both California and Texas are educating the public on HLB and ACP. Public awareness has
greatly facilitated both survey and chemical treatment programs for ACP in residential areas. Unfortunately, implementation of chemical treatment programs is currently challenged
by the lack of state or federal funds. As ACP becomes more
widespread, it may become impossible to chemically treat every infested plant in every yard near a commercial grove.
It is generally accepted that control of ACP and HLB in
urban settings will need to rely heavily on biological control
by native or introduced predators, parasitoids, and pathogens. Biological control is the use of natural enemies to suppress pest populations. ACP, like people, can be infected by
pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Under the
right conditions, these disease-causing organisms may multiply to cause disease outbreaks or “epizootics” that can decimate psyllid populations.
The goal of this project is to develop a novel and sustainable system for inoculating ACP with a native pathogenic
fungus and use these infected psyllids to instigate epizoot-
Key Terms
Biological control – the use of living natural enemies
to suppress pest populations. Natural enemies of insect pests, also known as biological control agents,
include predators, parasitoids, and pathogens.
Epizootic – an ecological event involving a pathogen
that causes widespread disease among susceptible
individuals and cumulates in a population crash.
Mycosis – visible signs of infection by a pathogenic
fungus.
Sporulation – the formation of spores.
Fig. 1. Dispenser for Isaria fumosorosea spores.
Fig.2. Array of Isaria fumosorosea dispensers, orange jasmine plants, and ACP release cage used for greenhouse trials.
ics and rapidly reduce ACP populations in residential citrus,
thus significantly lowering the risk of immigrating adults
spreading HLB to commercial groves.
Research focus
More than 750 species of naturally occurring fungi are
known to infect insects. These fungi are very specific to insects, frequently to particular species, and do not attack
plants.
Fungi infect susceptible insects by means of spores that
attach to and penetrate the cuticle or “skin” of the insect.
Once inside the insect, the fungus multiples and quickly spreads throughout
the body. Death results from nutrient depletion, tissue destruction, and,
sometimes, by toxins produced by the
fungus. When conditions are favorable, the fungus emerges from the
insect’s body to produce more spores
that spread by wind, rain, and contact
with other insects.
The use of pathogenic fungi for
control of insect pests is attractive because they usually have less adverse
effects than conventional insecticides
on human health or the environment.
ACP is susceptible to a number of
pathogenic fungus species that are native to the U.S., some
of which show potential as control agents for ACP and can
be mass-produced. The fungus we are evaluating is a strain
of Isaria fumosorosea (Ifr) originally isolated from sweet potato whitefly in southern Texas. The southern Texas strain of
Ifr is a particularly virulent pathogen of ACP, and lab studies
have shown that 94% of adults or nymphs are killed within
four days of infection.
For the first part of our project, we were interested in
developing an “autodispenser” as a means of spreading Ifr
spores into ACP populations. The idea was to develop a device to attract ACP adults and efficiently infect them with Ifr
spores so that the psyllids would subsequently infect other
ACP after they returned to the foliage of host trees. These
pathogen dispensers were designed to be hung in dooryard
citrus trees.
Dr. Joseph Patt of the USDA Agricultural Research
Service Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida developed our
prototype dispenser (Figure 1), which has several features to
enhance ACP attraction, retention, and spore transfer.
First, it is colored bright yellow
and has pleated ridges running lengthwise across its surface. ACP adults are
attracted to the yellow color and prefer to crawl along edges. The ridges
increase ACP retention on the device
and their likelihood of picking up
spores.
Second, the inner portion of each
pleat is coated with a thin line of
SPLAT™ (ISCA Technologies, Inc.),
a waxy substance used to dispense
scent that is attractive to ACP adults.
The SPLAT contains a mixture of
synthetic aromatic compounds that
replicate the odors emitted by flushing foliage of host plants favored by ACP in southern Texas,
namely Mexican lime, orange jasmine, sour orange, and kaffir lime.
Third, the dispenser is coated with fungal spores mixed
into a carrier powder made from pulverized cotton burrs.
This material does not irritate psyllids and has the advantage of supporting two types of spores: blastospores, which
are highly infective, and conidiospores or conidia, which are
resistant to UV light and desiccation.
The southern Texas strain
of Ifr is a particularly
virulent pathogen of ACP,
and lab studies have shown
that 94% of adults or
nymphs are killed within
four days of infection.
The Ifr spore formulation was developed by Drs. Mark
Jackson and Christopher Dunlap, with the USDA Agricultural Research Laboratory in Peoria, Illinois, who are producing and supplying the fungus for this project.
Greenhouse trials of pathogen dispenser
During the summer of 2011, we conducted four trials
to evaluate our dispenser under greenhouse conditions. We
used a setup consisting of eight dispensers, 12 pots of orange
jasmine infested with ACP nymphs, and a centrally located
ACP release cage (Figure 2). For each trial, 1,200 ACP adults
were released from the cage and permitted to fly to the dispensers and plants.
Fig.3. “Sentinel” clusters of ACP nymphs on orange jasmine
sprigs were flagged after visitation by ACP adults infected
with Isaria fumosorosea spores. A “cluster” was a group of
nymphs occurring closely together on a sprig.
Fig.4. Insect cage used to contain orange jasmine plants
infested by ACP nymphs.
For our first and second trials, we were interested in
whether immature ACP (nymphs) could be infected by ACP
adults inoculated with Ifr spores from dispensers. Over three
days, we marked all the orange jasmine sprigs infested by
nymphs and visited by at least one adult (sentinel clusters)
(Figure 3). For these trials, a “cluster” was a group of nymphs
occurring closely together on a sprig.
After three days, all ACP adults were recovered from
the plants, and a subsample of these adults was killed and
then inspected over several weeks for infection by Ifr (mycosis and sporulation). Over ten days, we inspected each sentinel cluster and recorded the total numbers of healthy psyllids and infected psyllids. In the first trial, 44% of the adults
Fig.5. Production of ACP adults from “control” nymphs
and nymphs on orange jasmine plants exposed to adults
inoculated with Isaria fumosorosea spores.
Fig.6. A platform of parafilm wax supporting a cadaver of an
ACP adult infected by Isaria fumosorosea.
and 34% of the nymphs became infected with Ifr. Similarly,
in the second trial 35% of the adults and 27% of the nymphs
became infected.
For our third and fourth trials, we were interested in
whether Ifr dispensers could reduce ACP populations. We
repeated the experiment but also kept another group of
infested plants (controls) in a greenhouse without dispensers or released ACP adults. Instead of monitoring sentinel
clusters, we caged each plant (Figure 4) and collected all the
adult psyllids that developed in each cage. After two weeks,
we found that plants exposed to dispensers produced up to
34% fewer adults than control plants (Figure 5).
Infection of ACP nymphs by Ifr-dusted adults in
residential citrus trees
The effectiveness of Ifr for biological control of ACP
depends not just on its capacity to directly infect and kill
psyllids but also the fungus’ capacity to produce infectious
spores on the psyllid cadavers (sporulation) and thereby
compound its killing action.
During the fall of 2011, we conducted a greenhouse trial to determine whether sporulating cadavers could infect
nymphs. To obtain sporulating cadavers, we transferred ACP
adults to small plastic tubes filled with Ifr spore formulation,
rotated each tube to coat the psyllids with spores, and held
the insects in humid petri dishes until their bodies were covered with conidiospores.
For our trial, we used orange jasmine plants that were
each infested with approximately 200 nymphs. The nymphs
on each plant were evenly distributed among three different clusters. (Again, for this trial, we defined a “cluster” as a
group of nymphs occurring closely together on a sprig.)
We caged each plant and pinned either one or two sporulating cadavers next to each cluster (Figures 6 & 7). Five
plants were treated with one cadaver per cluster, and five other plants were treated with two cadavers per cluster. After 19
days of exposure to the sporulating cadavers, we found that
50-83% of the psyllids in the clusters became infected (Figure
8). Doubling the number of cadavers did not increase infection levels. This trial demonstrated that Ifr conidiospores are
highly contagious and can decimate nymph clusters.
The recent detection of HLB in Texas and California
has underscored the need for rapid deployment of biological
agents into residential areas. For the second part of our project, we are also evaluating the use of ACP adults “dusted”
with Ifr spores.
While the “dispenser” remains a good idea, it has to
compete with real citrus trees for the psyllids’ attention. Use
of “dusted” psyllids solves this problem because they will fly
directly to ACP infestations in dooryard citrus or other host
plants such as orange jasmine. In this scenario, ACP adults
will be obtained from HLB-free colonies, mass-inoculated,
and released in residential areas. Studies have shown that inoculated individuals don’t feed, reducing the possibility that
these psyllids would further spread the disease.
During April and May of 2012, we conducted a field trial
in Mexican lime trees at the Victoria Palms Resort, a trailer
park community in Donna, Texas. Ten ACP adults were dusted with Ifr spore formulation and released into nylon mesh
bags placed around shoots with nymph clusters (Figures 9,
10, 11). A total of 15 clusters on 10 trees were exposed to
dusted psyllids. Fifteen nymph clusters were not exposed to
dusted psyllids (controls) and used to measure background
levels of Ifr infection. The trial was conducted during a period of high daily temperatures (98ºF daily high) and low
relative humidity (23% daytime low).
In the control clusters, we found few dead individuals
and no Ifr-infected individuals. In clusters exposed to dusted
adults, a mean of 39% of the psyllids were infected.
For a follow-up field trial at the Victoria Palms Resort
during July and August of 2012, 100 ACP adults were dusted and then released into a single bag on the northwest and
southeast canopies of four Mexican lime trees and eight
grapefruit trees. The bags were taken off the following morning to permit dispersal of the dusted adults among nymph
clusters infesting the trees. Identical numbers of “control”
trees were used to measure background levels of Ifr infection.
After three weeks, we inspected two nymph clusters
from both sides of each tree and found no Ifr-infected indi-
Fig.7. Sporulating cadaver pinned near a cluster of ACP
nymphs in an orange jasmine plant. A “cluster” was a group
of nymphs occurring closely together on a sprig.
Fig.8. Infection levels of ACP nymph clusters infesting
orange jasmine plants after exposure to either one or two
sporulating cadavers per cluster. Ifr = infected, clean =
uninfected. A “cluster” was a group of nymphs occurring
closely together on a sprig.
Infection of ACP by sporulating cadavers
viduals on control trees, no effect of canopy side on infection,
a mean of 16% infected individuals on lime trees and 6% on
grapefruit trees (Figure 12). This second trial was conducted
during a period of even higher daily temperatures (110ºF)
and lower relative humidity (22% daytime minimum). These
two trials demonstrated that dusted ACP adults could infect
nymphs on residential citrus trees even during extreme Texas summers.
Project’s benefits to citrus industry
Large acreages of commercial citrus in both Texas and
California are currently interspersed with neighborhoods
containing a wide variety of “dooryard” citrus that may
become infested by ACP and infected with HLB. If left unmanaged, ACP from these
neighborhoods pose a direct
threat to the effectiveness of
areawide management programs aimed at containing
the spread of HLB in commercial citrus.
In Texas and California,
it is widely believed that
biological control will be
the most practical and acceptable method for ACP Fig.12. Infection levels of ACP
control in noncommercial nymphs in dooryard lime
citrus. In addition, this strat- trees and grapefruit trees
egy may be useful in organic following release of ACP
adults dusted with Isaria
farming operations.
fumosorosea spores.
Results from this ongoing project will enable us to develop and implement a system
for inoculating ACP with Ifr and use these psyllids to “autodisseminate” the pathogen to ACP populations in dooryard citrus. Ifr-dispensers and Ifr-dusted psyllids could be
used either separately or together as a system for instigating
epidemics of the pathogen that would rapidly reduce ACP
populations. Our system could also be used to manage ACP
in organic citrus or even abandoned groves.
The system will benefit the U.S. citrus industry because it
will be designed to be effective, safe, and acceptable to regulatory agencies, homeowners, and organic growers.
Presently, we are conducting trials to determine whether Ifr-inoculated ACP can be used synergistically with Tamarixia radiata, a parasitoid wasp that is being mass-reared
and field-tested in Texas and California as a biological control agent for ACP on dooryard citrus. There are plans to
also mass-rear and field-test different strains of this wasp
in California.
Ifr is distributed worldwide and is currently being used
to control mites in grapes in California. In the near future,
biological control strategies using both T. radiata and Ifr
could become important components of management programs in California for ACP in noncommercial citrus and
organic production.
Fig.9, Fig.10, Fig.11. Field trials of ACP adults dusted with
Isaria fumosorosea spores were conducted on dooryard
citrus trees in the Victoria Palms Resort, Donna, TX.
Inoculated adults were released into mesh bags placed
around shoots infested by ACP nymphs.
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to the California Citrus
Research Board and the Texas Citrus Producers Board for
their funding and support of this research. We also thank Ms.
Karen Pike and the Victoria Palms Resort for providing cit-
rus trees and trailer lots for our field trials. The SPLAT for
this project was provided by ISCA Technologies.
References
Avery, P.B., W.B. Hunter, D.G. Hall, M.A. Jackson, C.A.
Powell, and Rogers, M.E. 2009. Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera:
Psyllidae) Infection and dissemination of the entomopathogenic fungus Isaria fumosorosea (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae)
under laboratory conditions. Florida Entomologist 92: 608-618.
Avery, P.B., V.W. Wekesa, W.B. Hunter, D.G. Hall, C.L. McKenzie, L.S. Osborne, C.A. Powell, and Rogers, M.E. 2011. Effects
of the fungus Isaria fumosorosea (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae) on reduced feeding and mortality of the Asian citrus psyllid,
Diaphorina citri (Hemiptara: Psyllidae). Biocontrol Science and
Technology 21: 1065-1078.
Halbert, S.E. and Manjunath, K.L. 2004. Asian citrus psyllids (Sternorrhyncha: Psyllidae) and greening disease of citrus:
A literature review and assessment of risk in Florida. Florida
Entomologist 87:330-353.
Jackson, M.A., Clinquet, S., and Iten, L.B. 2003. Media and
fermentation processes for the rapid production of high concentrations of stable blastospores of the bioinsecticidal fungus
Paecilomyces fumosorosea. Biocontrol Science and Technology
13: 23-33.
Patt, J.M., and Sétamou, M. 2010. Responses of the Asian
citrus psyllid to volatiles emitted by the flushing shoots of its
rutaceous host plants. Environmental Entomology 39: 618-624.
Patt, J.M., Meikle, W.G., Mafra-Neto, A., Sétamou, M., Mangan, R., Yang, C., Malik, N. and Adamczyk, J.J. 2011. Multimodal
Cues Drive Host-Plant Assessment in Asian Citrus Psyllid (Diaphorina citri). Environmental Entomology 40: 1495-1502.
Sétamou, M., Flores, D., French, J.V., and Hall, D.G. 2008.
Dispersion Patterns and Sampling Plans for Diaphorina citri
(Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in Citrus. Journal of Economic Entomology101: 1478-1487.
Sétamou, M., da Graça, J., and Prewett, R. 2012. HLB in Texas: Steps and challenges to curb this threat. Citrograph 3: 32-38.
Tiwari, S., Lewis-Rosenblum, Hl, Pelz-Stelinski, K., and Stelinski, L.L. 2010. Incidence of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus
infection in abandoned citrus occurring in proximity to commercially managed groves. Journal of Economic Entomology
103: 1972-1978.
Wenninger, E.J., Stelinski, L.L., and Hall, D.G. 2009. Roles
of olfactory cues, visual cues, and mating status in orientation of
Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) to four different host plants. Environmental Entomology 38: 225-34.
Zimmermann, G. 2008. The entomopathogenic fungi Isaria
farinosa (formerly Paecilomyces farinosus) and the Isaria fumosorosea species complex (formerly Paecilomyces fumosoroseus): biology, ecology, and use in biological control. Biocontrol
Science and Technology 18: 865-901.
Dr. Andrew Chow is a project director and Dr. Mamoudou
Sétamou is an associate professor of entomology at the Texas
A&M University-Kingsville Citrus Center in Weslaco, Texas. Dr.
Christopher Dunlap is a chemist and Dr. Mark Jackson is a microbiologist at the USDA-ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois. Dr. Daniel Flores is
an entomologist with the USDA-APHIS PPQ Center for Plant
Health Science and Technology, Mission Laboratory in Edinburg,
Texas. Dr. William Meikle is an insect pathologist at the USDAARS Subtropical Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, Texas.
Dr. Joseph M. Patt is a research entomologist at the USDA-ARS
Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida.
CRB research project reference number 5500-188.l
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Founder lines for improved citrus biotechnology
James G. Thomson
O
n October 1, 2011, the CRB
chose to fund a unique research
project: the development of
citrus cultivars specifically for genetic
modification (GM). The objective of this
research is to develop GE citrus “Founder Lines” containing a gene sequence
that will allow the precise insertion of
desired traits using biotechnology.
This precise insertion has several
major benefits. The carefully selected
Founder Lines will insure that any inserted transgene is in a region of the
citrus genome that provides high and
consistent transgene activity, with a
single gene copy, and that does not interrupt desirable genes.
In addition to allowing the targeted
integration of transgenes, the proposed
system also enables the removal of unneeded sequences such as antibiotic
resistance marker genes, allowing the
generation of “clean” (marker-free)
GE citrus plants and fruit. These features will reduce the cost and time
required to insert transgenes for new
traits and may also facilitate the approval of new transgenic cultivars after initial federal approval of Founder
Line cultivars.
The initial Founder Line will contain a recombinase recognition site
target platform or “TAG” inserted into
the Carrizo genome. ‘Carrizo’ was cho-
sen due to its importance as a rootstock
and its ease of transformation.
The TAG platform consists of two
recombinase enzyme recognition sites,
one for DNA integration upstream
of a selectable marker and one down
stream of the selection system for
DNA excision.
Precise mode of action
Recombinases are enzymes that
can facilitate the insertion or removal
of DNA flanked by their own specific
recognition sites, such as in the platform we are using. These enzymes are
very precise in their mode of action, so
specific that not a single unintentional
nucleotide is lost during the integration
or excision process.
The antibiotic kanamycin, which
generally suppresses plant growth, is
used in the tissue culture medium for
selection of transgenic citrus shoots
containing the TAG platform which
carries the kanamycin resistance gene.
A second selectable marker gene is
also present in the TAG platform allowing the plant to grow on a special
media.
Following (1st Step - Figure 1) targeted integration of an incoming exchange “EXCH” construct, (2nd Step
- Figure 1) recombinase-mediated excision removes both the selection genes,
enabling the plants to grow on the special plant media.
Taken together, this whole process
is termed “Recombinase Mediated
Cassette Exchange” (RMCE, Figure
1). This process allows the delivery of
A transgene is any gene brought into the
genome that isn’t possible through typical breeding programs.
Fig. 1. Generalized schematic of Recombinase Mediated Cassette Exchange.
AttP/attB and Res are the recombinase recognition sites. AttP/attB are used to
integrate the EXCH vector and the Res pair are used to excise the marker genes.
Recombinase genes not shown.
Recombinases are enzymes that can facilitate the insertion or removal of DNA
flanked by their own specific recognition
sites.
For example if a disease
desired transgenes on the
resistance gene for HLB was
EXCH cassette into a preadded to the citrus genome
determined region of the gein a random way (current
nome. Completion of RMCE
technology), analysis of the
removes all unwanted DNA
resistance must include a
at the end of the process such
fudge factor due to “where”
as the recombinase genes
in the genome the gene ends
and selectable markers.
up. This will determine if it is
Finally, the strategy ala super active site or a dud.
lows for repeating the proUnfortunately, this requires
cess in a technique termed
dozens of trees to determine
gene stacking. This means
– and the time, effort and
that a highly desirable transmoney to produce.
genic ‘Carrizo’ with a trait
This technology greatlike resistance to huanglongly increases the efficiency
bing (HLB) could be effiof improving citrus trees
ciently re-engineered to also
through genetic engineering,
have another trait such as resaving time and money! An
sistance to Phytophthora.
already proven transgenic
The initial constructs for
cultivar can be further improduction of the Founder
proved quickly. This system
Lines have been sent to the
also has the potential of reUSDA/ARS Stover lab in
ducing the time and effort
Fort Pierce, Florida. ‘Car- Fig. 2. Maria Luiza Oliveira transforming ‘Carrizo’ in Stover
required for APHIS deregurizo’ has been transformed, lab, USDA, Fort Pierce, FL.
lation due to continuous tarand to date more than 1,000
explants have been treated. Seven po- Biosciences Laboratory, was on the job geting of a single genomic position. The
tential lines have been micrografted as of April 23, 2012, and the project is production of marker-free transgenic
citrus may improve public acceptance,
onto plants maintained in the green- well on its way.
which can benefit producers in the
house, and many potentially transmarketplace.
formed shoots are in development. Tools for a targeted approach
Project leader Dr. James G. ThomEfforts are now underway to comThese will provide a large population
for the selection of an ideal Founder plete the construction of the EXCH vec- son has been a molecular geneticist
tor, which will be used to deliver both with the USDA’s Agricultural Research
Line individual.
As soon as CRB funding was ap- recombinases (for RMCE) and genes of Service since 2004. Dr. Thomson is
based at the ARS Western Regional Reproved, the search began and an ex- interest (for genomic insertion).
Completion of this research will pro- search Center in Albany, California, in
perienced and energetic postdoc was
identified to conduct the transgenic vide tools for researchers involved with the Crop Improvement and Utilization
research at Fort Pierce. Dr. Maria the CRB to generate modified citrus ge- Research Unit. His current work is foLuiza Oliveira (Figure 2), who has nomes in a targeted manner. Why is this cused on the development of novel siteworked extensively with citrus trans- important? Simply put, this technology specific recombinase systems for precise
formation in the Federal University offers the advantage of producing fewer modification of crop plant genomics.
CRB research project reference
of Viçosa of Brazil, the University of plants for the purpose of studying the efnumber 5200-140A. l
Florida and the Brazilian National fect of a specific gene in a living tree.
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Metabolites may reveal attack strategy
of the microbe causing HLB
Carolyn M. Slupsky, Andrew P. Breksa III, and Mark Hilf
Background
to sugars that directly provide
energy, citrus contains a variThe microbe known as
ety of organic acids including
Candidatus Liberibacter asiascorbic acid (or vitamin C),
aticus (CLas) is the cause of
choline (required for optimal
huanglongbing (also known
health), as well as essential
as “HLB” or Citrus Greening
and non-essential amino acDisease [CGD]) and is a maids. Citrus also contains moljor threat to citrus worldwide.
ecules such as synephrine, a
In commercial citrus,
naturally occurring molecule
CLas is spread primarily
that can help relieve the
through an insect called the
symptoms of colds and allerAsian citrus psyllid (ACP),
gies and increase overall mewhich acquires CLas from an
tabolism (which is why it is ofinfected tree and injects the
ten used in weight loss prodbacterium into the phloem of
ucts). Citrus is one of the most
the plant while it feeds on the
consumed fruits in the United
tree. The bacteria can also be
States, and its loss could well
spread through grafting with
be catastrophic to our health.
infected budwood.
Since there is no cure, inMeasurement of
fection ultimately results in
biomolecules
death of a tree, though it can
Whether studying a single
take several years before the
Ph.D. student Elizabeth Chin, top, and staff research
leaf, or juice from the fruit,
tree finally succumbs. During associate Darya Mishchuk with the NMR spectrometer.
each contains hundreds of
the course of the disease, fruit
produced by the tree steadily shifts from asymptomatic fruit chemical compounds. Historically, researchers have only
to symptomatic fruit. Symptomatic fruit are characteristi- looked at a handful of these molecules, and their measurecally small, misshapen, and green, and not suitable for con- ment in citrus has traditionally been accomplished through
sumption due to their terrible bitter, and sometimes metallic methods that either approximate their concentrations (such
as total titratable acid, or total sugar content (%Brix)), or
flavors.
Symptomatic fruits are easily identified and can be re- more time-consuming and demanding techniques such as
moved from packaging or processing lines, whereas asymp- high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or gas
tomatic fruits from infected trees are not easily distinguished chromatography (GC), when greater precision and accuracy
was required. These methods cannot simultaneously measure
from fruit from healthy trees.
Although these asymptomatic fruit are generally as all the compounds present in a citrus sample.
Major advances in computing technology over the past
appealing in appearance as fruit from healthy trees, some
asymptomatic fruits suffer from the same off flavors found decade are allowing researchers to turn to analytical methin symptomatic fruits, and the unintentional introduction of ods such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscothese fruits into the fresh fruit market has the potential of py to find unique molecular fingerprints that are characteristic of a specific type of sample.
negatively impacting consumer desirability of fresh citrus.
NMR is based upon a property called spin that the nuclei
Fortunately, we have found major differences in the
chemical fingerprint between healthy, asymptomatic, and of certain atoms possess. By placing a sample into a magnetic
symptomatic fruits. The discovery of key compounds such field and subjecting it to radiofrequency pulses, a molecule’s
as amino acids and sugars will help development of a new identity and concentration can be determined (since each
strategy to prevent the spread of HLB and investigate new molecule has a unique magnetic signature, and the strength
of the measured signal is proportional to the concentration
treatments for infected trees.
Citrus is an important part of a healthy diet due to a of the compound). Thus, NMR is able to very quickly identify
large number of biomolecules within the fruit. In addition and quantify many molecules simultaneously within a sample
without the need for separation techniques such as HPLC.
Current advances in NMR automation allow screening
of multiple samples quickly and easily, and with new methods that we have developed, we are able to quickly identify
and quantify more than 90% of an NMR spectrum of juice
or leaf sample. This makes NMR a powerful tool for accurate, rapid, and relatively inexpensive measurement of compounds in a sample (Figure 1).
We have comprehensively characterized the profiles of
citrus fruit and its relationship to factors such as rootstock,
grove elevation, or fertilization and pesticide use. This analysis has revealed key markers for nutrient content and flavor.
The combination of these molecules gives rise to the specific taste profile that is unique to each variety of citrus, and
can be altered depending on growth conditions of the tree.
Changes related to growth conditions are likely important
for plant defense, survival, growth, and development.
Successful attack strategy of CLas
One might ask, does the pathogen responsible for HLB
cause havoc with a tree’s ability to use these molecules for its
defense against the pathogen?
Indeed, we have observed such a phenomenon. Juice
from oranges grown on trees infected with the HLB pathogen contained significantly less of the amino acid proline and
significantly more of the amino acid phenylalanine when
compared to juice from oranges grown on healthy trees.
It is known that when a plant is under stress from the
environment or from infection, proline accumulates in
plant tissues. However, in the presence of the pathogen that
Trees
causes HLB, proline levels are actually lower than normal.
On the other hand, phenylalanine concentrations are expected to decrease when a plant is under stress as phenylalanine is converted into cinnamic acid, a precursor to many biomolecules important to a plant’s defense system. The inability
of the tree to convert phenylalanine to cinnamic acid suggests
that this pathway may be blocked directly by the pathogen.
These changes to specific plant-defense pathways -- effectively turning them off -- may allow the pathogen to remain in the tree for years, living quietly and undetected.
By the time a grower notices that the tree is infected, it
can be too late, and the pathogen could have been systematically spread from tree to tree, affecting not only the grower’s
grove, but adjacent groves as well.
Early detection and counterattack
With further research, we are studying not only the fruit
response to infection but also pathogen-induced changes in
the plant as a whole. This research may lead to the development of a rapid and reliable method that provides an early
indicator of the presence of the HLB pathogen whether in
the orchard or in an urban setting.
Early indicators from our research funded by the Citrus Research Board have suggested that specific changes in
plant metabolism are observable months prior to detection
of CLas by nucleic-acid (i.e. PCR) based methods, providing
hope that this rapid method may fulfill the need for early
(pre-PCR) detection of infection.
Moreover, these results have provided clues to the mechanism underlying the microbe’s mode of attack, which may
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be valuable for starting a tightly focused counterattack strategy. This ongoing research has been accomplished through
collaboration between UC Davis scientists and USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists in California and Florida.
Suggested reading
Slisz, A.M., A.P. Breksa, 3rd, et al. (2012). “Metabolomic
analysis of citrus infection by ‘candidatus liberibacter’ reveals
insight into pathogenicity.” J. Proteome Res 11 (8): 4223-4230.
Zhang, X., A.P. Breksa, et al. (2011). “Elevation, Rootstock,
and Soil Depth Affect the Nutritional Quality of Mandarin Oranges.:” J. Agric. Food Chem.
Zhang, X., A.P. Breksa III, et al. (2012). “Fertilisation and
pesticides affect mandarin orange nutrient composition.” Food
Chemistry 134(2): 1020-1024.
Dr. Carolyn M. Slupsky is an Assistant Professor with
a joint appointment in the Department of Nutrition and the
Department of Food Science & Technology, University of
California Davis. Dr. Andrew Breksa is a research scientist
at the USDA-ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California, and Dr. Mark Hilf is a research scientist
with the ARS Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort
Pierce, Florida.
CRB research project reference number 5300-150. l
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Please support the Harry Scott Smith
Biocontrol Scholarship Fund
at UC Riverside
A special message from
invasive species researcher Mark Hoddle
I
nvasive species are an ever-increasing problem in California agriculture, and
obviously citrus is no exception. One tool that can be used to combat invasive
species is biological control. The science of biological control – the use of a
pest’s natural enemies to suppress its populations to less damaging densities – was
pioneered in Southern California. This new discipline in entomology was in large
part driven by the citrus industry’s need to control invasive species, especially the
cottony cushion scale which was devastating citrus in the late 1880s.
The phrase “biological control” was first used by Harry Scott Smith in 1919 at
the meeting of Pacific Slope Branch of the American Association of Economic Professor Harry Scott Smith
Entomologists at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. In 1923, Smith, who
had been working on the biological control of gypsy moth with USDA, moved to
the University of California Riverside to form the Division of Beneficial Insect
Investigations, a unit separate and distinct from the Department of Entomology.
Prof. Smith, affectionately known as “Prof. Harry”, went on to create and
chair the Department of Biological Control at UCR, which offered the only
graduate degrees in biological control in the world. He is considered the “father”
of modern day biological control. Prof. Harry brought recognized entomological
training in biocontrol to California for the first time, encouraging work on the
applied and practical aspects. Under Prof. Harry’s supervision, the science of
biological control was developed in Southern California, and, naturally, a major
research focus was the biological control of citrus pests.
The Harry Scott Smith Biological Control Scholarship Fund in the Entomology
Department at UCR was started with a small gift from Prof. Harry, and regular
fundraising is necessary to maintain and grow the fund. The sole purpose of the
fund is to attract the brightest students to UCR to study biological control. To
do this, awards are made annually to provide assistance to students studying
biocontrol so they can attend conferences to present the results of their research
or to participate in training workshops.
With an ever-increasing number of production challenges facing the citrus
industry, biological control is still one of the best tools available for reducing
economic damage from invasive pests, and projects on Asian citrus psyllid and
Diaprepes root weevil are attempting to do this.
If you are interested in supporting the Harry Scott Smith Biological Control
Scholarship Fund at UCR, tax deductible donations made payable to the “UC
Foundation” can be mailed to Mark Hoddle, Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521. More information on the Scholarship,
past awardees, and a list of donors can be reviewed at http://biocontrol.ucr.edu/
hoddle/harrysmithfund.html.
Any level of financial support you can provide for the Harry Scott Smith Mark Hoddle collecting Asian citrus psyllid
Biological Control Scholarship Fund at UCR will be greatly appreciated.
natural enemies in the Punjab of Pakistan.
Thank you,
Dr. Mark S. Hoddle
Director, Center for Invasive Species Research
UC Riverside
Citrus Roots
Preserving Citrus Heritage Foundation
If you have found our articles of value
and engaging, Please Support Your
Foundation. Let’s face the reality that
for the entire year
of 2012, growers
gave to the Citrus Roots Foundation a total of
$250 in cash donations. We receive no financial
support from any organization, relying
entirely on contributions from individuals.
Even though we are a volunteer organization, we cannot continue to exist on that
thrifty amount. We look forward to working with you!
Buy our books, crate labels, make a cash contribution ...Or give to Citrus Roots Foundation your
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We are proud of our accomplishments as a volunteer
organization, which means each donated dollar works
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The views of the writer may not be the same as this foundation.
44 Citrograph January/February
January/February2013
2013
California
Citrus Spurred
Colonization
The first direct saturated
marketing campaign in
selling consumer goods,
adding greater wealth…
Richard H. Barker
B
efore we start, let us look back to where we commenced
telling this story. In the Citrograph issue of Jan/Feb
2011 under the “Citrus Roots” column, we introduced
William Wolfskill through Judy Gauntt Lieback. This was in
a two-part series. Then, in the issue of Sept/Oct 2011, we corrected history regarding the donation of land, a donation that
was made so as to assure that Los Angeles was on the “main
line” of the Southern Pacific.
In the Nov/Dec 2011 and Jan/Feb 2012 issues, Citrograph
featured the work of Chester N. Roistacher who covered the
parent Washington navel orange, and in this latter issue under
the “Citrus Roots” column we published the “Building Boom
of 1887.”
We have covered the transition from men and women
powering the sizing machines to the use of electric energy
modernizing the citrus industry. Now we will focus on how
the titan Southern Pacific Company, in a paternal way, urged
the California Fruit Growers Exchange to modernize the way
in which this young unsophisticated company conducted its
marketing.
As the region’s largest corporation with an annual revenue far in excess of the tax revenue of the individual states
within its territory, the railroad took seriously its responsibility for the overall good of the area. Further, it promoted
colonization of California. It also carried the obligation to
provide a sustainable income for its colonist residents.
It was for this reason the company stepped into the
corporate forum regarding the inexperienced board of the
California Fruit Growers Exchange to provide some outside
leadership regarding the powerful potentials of advertising.
Further, the rail company viewed the emerging California
1873 Original
Booklet
citrus industry as an answer to its need for nearly yeararound, long-haul business.
But before we go on with our story, let’s look at Southern
Pacific Company’s advertising program regarding attracting
additional immigrants to California.
In 1872, Collis P. Huntington commissioned Charles
Nordhoff to write a book on California, since it was the slowest growing state in the West. This writer was popular on the
East Coast. The title of Nordhoff’s book was “California for
Health, Pleasure and Residence”. It was well received, and
as you can observe it was reprinted, condensed to a booklet,
and summarized again to a pamphlet, which was printed in
the multiplex of thousands. This was the source of the paraphrased slogan used abundantly as “Oranges For Health –
California For Wealth”.
With the source of the slogan understood, let us move to
our emerging California citrus industry. Excerpting from the
book I co-authored with Thomas M. Pulley, “Citrus Powered
the Economy of Orange County for over a half century – Induced by ‘a Romance’” pp. 8,9:
“In 1905 a sum of not to exceed $250 was authorized by
the board of directors of California Fruit Growers Exchange
for the advertising of oranges sent to England and Europe.
This was their sole and only advertising expenditure for the
year. ‘Did not the Exchange market only about one half of the
California orange crop and would not such advertising benefit
the outside shippers nearly as much as Exchange members?’
The directors thought ad programs would benefit California
rather than the California Fruit Growers Exchange oranges
and especially the aggressive California Citrus Union.
“On the supply side, citrus was planted during and after
the ‘Boom of the Eighties’ at such a speculative velocity that
production was far ahead of the marketing potential. Previously, the oversupply undercut prices, and each year more
fruit would be spilling into the undeveloped market as the
trees continued to develop.
Southern Pacific Company recognized the problem of this
emerging industry and recognized urgent help was needed to
stimulate this overly conservative yet distinguished coopera-
Pamphlet
tive. For if they did not take immediate overt action, the rail
company thought there was a very good chance that this present organization could fail as prior attempts had in the past.
“In 1907 Southern Pacific vice president E. O. McCormick called on his friend Francis Q. Story, President of the
‘Exchange’. McCormick had a plan and he was strongly convinced that a massive, organized sales program would expand
sales and stabilize the price relative to this unpredictable supply issue. He proposed that for every dollar the Exchange
expended in advertising, the railroad would spend an equal
amount not to exceed $10,000.
“Armed with this generous offer, Story broached the subject to the directors. It passed, though some thought this to be
dreadfully extravagant (see “Selling the Gold” p.30 [compiled
and edited by R. H. Barker]). The test experiment was for five
months. Iowa was selected as the experimental area with Des
Moines as the center. Fruit went forward in special bannered
trains, accompanied by a messenger who telegraphed the arrival of the train at various stations en route. This was blazed
through the state with newspaper ads. “Ask for California Oranges in This Style Box.”
“(The trademark ‘Sunkist’ was used the following year
earmarking the best in appearance and in quality.) Displays,
posters and ‘California Fruit Special trains’ all promoted the
virtues of eating a California orange. The slogan ‘Oranges for
Health -- California for Wealth’ was advertised on billboards
throughout the state by the railroad. Anticipation was developed to a very high level! Prizes were offered for articles that
could be used in advertising California oranges and lemons.
A prominent lecturer toured the larger cities illustrating the
advantages California had to offer with particular reference
to the citrus industry.
“The Los Angeles Times reported on April 3, 1908, ‘One
of the biggest single excursions ever sent out of Southern California will leave Los Angeles tomorrow for Iowa [via S.P.].
It is to be a solid train of oranges - nearly 10,000 boxes ...
and should reach its destination within a week. Each of the
twenty-five cars will be decorated on either side with a banner
sixteen feet long and six feet high, words in green and orange
telling of the origin and destination of the cargo [shipment of
the choicest fruit grown valued at $25,000]. For six months
the California Fruit Growers Exchange had been advertising
oranges extensively throughout the East including the rich agricultural region of Iowa ... and this train goes forward to meet
the demand ...’
“By 1908 the ‘Oranges for Health -- California for Wealth’
campaign had raised orange sales in the U.S. by 17.7 percent;
the state of Iowa alone showed a gain of 50 percent. Such results demonstrated expanding this program to include those
states adjoining Iowa for 1908-09, and for 1909-10 the entire
country north of Oklahoma, Arkansas and the Ohio River.
Pioneering consumer products advertising
In Richard J. Orsi’s book “The Sunset Limited - The
Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the
American West 1850-1930”, he wrote that some historians
and marketing experts consider the aforementioned work
of the “Exchange” and Southern Pacific to be the first example of saturating, consumer-products marketing, paving
the way for others to establish brand names through massive ad campaigns.
The Southern Pacific and the railroad industry reaped
rich rewards from its decades-long support of citrus marketing which explains why the Southern Pacific Company was
eager to enter into promotional partnership with others.
“Further, at the conclusion of this joint advertising campaign during the 1910-1911 season, the Southern Pacific
Company and the Exchange were each expending $100,000
per year,” Orsi wrote.
Relative to the aforementioned, the real test of a suc-
cessful undertaking would be that each party, although working together, must have a common desire so that reciprocally
both feel mutually benefited. This was the situation between
the Exchange and the rail company; they continued to work
together, but there was another interesting circuit to their
route.
In the very beginning, the Exchange naturally did not
have an advertising agency, and the railroad was very pleased
with the firm they were using. The growers elected to use the
same, Foote, Cone, and Belding Worldwide (today’s name).
This agency created ideas that benefited clients -- ideas that
effected sales and built overall brand value.
At the inception, they recommended selling under a
brand name and not under the name of the cooperative. The
brand name “Sunkist” evolved from this discussion, and in
April of 1908 the board approved “Sunkist” as its trademark.
Also rooted to the very beginning of the cooperative was
the concern of the vendors co-mingling their competitors’
lower quality fruit with that of the Exchange’s higher graded
fruit. The agency heard and came back with a solution: sell
the fruit with the tissue wrapper enveloping each orange.
The tissue wrapper of each Sunkist (premium) and Red Ball
(next best) stayed on the fruit, and this shut out any attempt
to mix brands or grades.
‘Sunkist blossom’ flatware
Now, here is the brilliant, “best of the best”! They proposed a promotional gift of “Sunkist Blossom” patterned silverware in exchange for the trade tissue wrappers.
Between 1910 and 1917, the California Fruit Growers
Exchange became the single largest purchaser of flat silver-
The ad “Ask for California Oranges in This Style Box” appeared in many sections of each newspaper of the spherically focused area. This was arranged well before the target
date of March 2, 1908. It was a “heads up” or “look for”
momentum-building promotional piece. Remember, this
was a first in saturated direct marketing. The “blockbuster”
ad (facing page) ascended off the press in three colors into
the hands of the reader. Think of the impact this ad had on
the provincial Des Moines, Iowa area. It was overwhelmingly impressive, and the consumer responded accordingly. (In
the early 2000s, the newspapers were very proud of themselves for publishing in color; history does repeat itself!)
ware in the world! The campaign was a stunning
success, and made the “Sunkist” trademark a
household name not only for the quality of the
fruit. The table setting of the “Sunkist Blossom”
was a constant reminder or reinforcement to the
“Sunkist” brand when in use or view. Further, the
flatware became popular for wedding gifts, etc., to
which we will return. These accomplishments all
explain why the market for California citrus east
of the Rockies climbed sevenfold. The price and
earnings to the grower dramatically increased.
This high trademark awareness was allowed
to slip even before the 1930 Depression years.
The generation waves erased most of the awareness and identity of the flatware.
Here are two recent positive experiences regarding the utensils. When we (the Citrus Roots
-- Preserving Citrus Heritage Foundation) installed a large exhibit on citrus heritage at Cal
Poly Pomona, Special Collections, we kept increasing the collection over the eleven months
on display. Due to the hour we arrived on one
occasion, we were escorted in by the building
manager. He spotted the display and was so surprised, for all during his youth, he had used the
silverware and didn’t know its identity or story.
When the head librarian of the Special Collections observed the display, she was elated to
learn about the pattern because she had inherited from her grandmother a set of many place
settings, and she had no idea of the background
or the pattern. She brought in a spoon to illus- Postcard
trate the beauty. The writer is a generation older
than the two people mentioned, and he had no idea of the
significance of the flatware.
All of this brings to mind and strengthens the conclusion. The heritage behind the trademark is the “bedrock”
supporting the value of the trade name. To phrase it differently, the historical worth is really the “store of value” of the
trademark. Without the heritage awareness, the value erodes.
That is why Gerber uses a vintage image and Ford Motor
Co. keeps in the spotlight the “Model T” and the “Model A”.
The aforementioned stories strongly support this observation. History is the root or foundation of each trade name.
Without historical depth, it is superficial.
Richard H. Barker is the founder and president of the
Citrus Roots-Preserving Citrus Heritage Foundation. For a
number of years, he has been leading a drive to bring about a
higher awareness of the role citrus played in developing California. Dick is a retired investment banker and was a third
generation Sunkist grower. He has published four volumes on
citrus heritage.
The author wishes to credit the following: The Huntington
Library, San Marino; Los Angeles Times; Sherman Library,
Corona del Mar; Sunkist Growers, Inc. l
Citrus Roots Series...
Selling the
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History of
Sunkist® and Pure Gold®
GIFT IDEAS!!
Citrus Roots...Our Legacy - Volume IV
Citrus Powered the Economy of Orange County
for over a half century Induced by a “Romance”
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Citrus Roots
For ordering information
visit our website
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Preserving Citrus Heritage Foundation
CITRUS ROOTS . . . OUR LEGACY
Volume I of III
By: Rahno Mabel MacCurdy, V.A. Lockabey and others...
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Selling the Gold - History of Sunkist®
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CITRUS ROOTS ... OUR LEGACY
Volume III of III
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Keeping citrus heritage alive in the minds of those living in California through publications, educational exhibits and artistic works
1500
Baldy View
Celebrating Citrus
Time-honored, wonderful, world-class desserts
W
hen Saveur magazine was
launched in 1994, its stated
mission was to “capture the
world for those who see it ‘food first’”.
Now nine years and many awards
later, their goal is the same as it was at
the start: to inspire cooks everywhere
– and home chefs especially – not just
by writing about and photographing delicious food but also by “celebrating the
cultures in which dishes are created and
the people who create them.”
This past October, Saveur marked
the milestone of its 150th issue with a
special collection of 150 classics, presenting 101 recipes in the print edition
and posting the others on its website.
What constitutes a “classic” in
Saveur’s view? Editor-in-chief James
Oseland, appearing on NBC’s “Today”
show, said, “A real classic just absolutely
stands the test of time. It’s a perfect dish
that doesn’t need any tricking out; it’s
just fantastic food.”
Among the “supremely delicious”
renditions in the desserts category were
Crêpes Suzettes (with the recipe calling
for three oranges), and a Lemon Soufflé
recipe touted on the cover as “foolproof”.
By the way, when editor Oseland
made that “Today” appearance, out of
the 101 recipes he had to pick from for
his on-air demo, he chose the Crêpes.
The magazine’s publisher, Bonnier
Corporation, graciously agreed to allow
Citrograph to reprint the recipes complete with their introductory notes and
original photography. l
Anne Warring
Crêpes Suzette
For the crêpes:
•6
tbsp. flour
•6
eggs
•6
tbsp. milk
•3
tbsp. heavy cream
•U
nsalted butter, as needed
For the sauce:
•3
oranges
•1
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
•1
0 tbsp. sugar
•7
tbsp. Cointreau
•1
tbsp. kirsch
•1
tsp. orange flower water
•5
tbsp. cognac
Landon Nordeman/Saveur magazine
Credit for inventing crêpes Suzette is
claimed by French restaurateur Henri
Charpentier, who in 1894, at age 14,
while an assistant waiter, accidentally
set a sauce aflame when serving dessert to the Prince of Wales. Once the
fire subsided, the sauce was so delicious that the prince asked that the
dish be named for a young girl in his
entourage, Suzette. – Mindy Fox, from
“Blazin’ Pancakes” (Saveur, January/
February 2000).
For the crêpes: Whisk together flour
and eggs in a medium bowl. Add milk
and cream, and whisk until smooth. Pour
through a fine strainer into a bowl, cover,
and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
For the sauce: Use a vegetable peeler to
remove rind from 2 of the oranges, avoiding
pith; mince rind and set aside. Juice all the
oranges and set juice aside. In a medium
bowl, beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar on high
speed of a hand mixer until light and fluffy,
about 2 minutes. Add rind to butter and
beat for 1 minute. Gradually drizzle in juice,
2 tbsp. of the Cointreau, kirsch, and orange
flower water, beating constantly until very
light and fluffy, about 2 minutes more.
Heat a seasoned crêpe pan or small
nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until
hot. Grease pan with a little butter, then
pour in 1/4 cup batter. Working quickly,
swirl batter to just coat pan, and cook until
edges brown, about 1 minute. Turn with
a spatula and brown other side for about
30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and repeat
with remaining batter, greasing pan only
as needed.
Melt orange butter sauce in a 12” skillet
over medium heat until bubbling. Dip both
sides of one crêpe in sauce, then, with
best side facing down, fold in half, then in
half again. Repeat process with remaining
crêpes, arranging and overlapping them
around the perimeter of the pan. Sprinkle
with remaining sugar. Remove pan from
heat, pour remaining Cointreau and the
cognac over crêpes, and carefully ignite
with a match. Spoon sauce over crêpes until
flame dies out, and then serve immediately.
Serves 6.
Recipe, introduction and photograph
reprinted from the October 2012 issue of
Saveur magazine, ©2012 Bonnier Corporation, used by permission.
Lemon Soufflé
Todd Coleman/Saveur magazine
There is something unforgettable
about a soufflé. I remember my first,
at the magnificent Le Perroquet restaurant in Chicago in 1978. It was in
that hushed dining room that I actually
swooned, not only for the soufflé – a
magical blending of eggs, air, and acid
– but for my profession, too. Under
duress (amounting to a lot of begging),
Le Perroquet’s owner, Jovan Trboyevic,
hired me, putting me to work on the
pastry station, where I made dozens
of soufflés every night, never tiring of
their delightful ascent in the oven and
their faint wobble as waiters whisked
them out to the dining room at just the
right moment. – Mary Sue Milliken,
co-chef-owner of Los Angeles’ Border
Grills and Truck.
•2
tbsp. unsalted butter, plus more
for greasing molds
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus more for molds
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. lemon zest
• 8 eggs, separated, plus 1 egg white
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• Confectioners’ sugar, to garnish
Heat oven to 375˚. Grease eight 6-oz.
ramekins and then coat with sugar, tapping out excess; set aside on a baking
sheet. Whisk together 1/4 cup sugar,
flour, zest, and egg yolks in a 2-qt. saucepan; add milk and stir until smooth.
Place pan over medium heat; cook,
stirring often, until thickened, about 12
minutes. Pour through a fine strainer
into a large bowl; stir in butter and juice.
Place egg whites in a bowl; whisk until
soft peaks form. Add remaining sugar;
beat until firm peaks form. Add 1/3 of
the whites to lemon mixture; stir until
smooth. Add remaining whites; fold
until combined. Divide batter among
ramekins; bake until risen and golden
brown, about 18 minutes. Immediately
transfer to serving plates, and dust with
confectioners’ sugar. Serves 8.
Recipe, introduction and photograph
reprinted from the October 2012 issue
of Saveur magazine, ©2012 Bonnier
Corporation, used by permission.
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Glossary of Ag Acronyms
ACP
Asian Citrus Psyllid – An insect that can carry and spread huanglongbing (HLB) disease.
http://www.californiacitrusthreat.org
http://www.saveourcitrus.org
AECAAgricultural Energy Consumers Association (California) – Non-profit agricultural consumer advocacy association which
represents the energy interest of CA growers, the state’s
leading agricultural associations and over 45 agricultural
water districts.
http://www.aecaonline.com
AFFAlliance for Food and Farming (National) – Non-profit
organization made up of farmers and farm groups to provide
a voice for farmers to communicate their commitment to food
safety and care for the land.
http://www.foodandfarming.info
ALRBAgriculture Labor Relations Board (California) – Created in
1975 to ensure peace in the fields of CA by guaranteeing
justice for all agricultural workers and stability in agricultural
labor relations.
http://www.alrb.ca.gov
APHISAnimal Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA) – Multifaceted
Agency with a broad mission area that includes protecting
and promoting U.S. Agricultural health, regulating genetically
engineered organisms, administering the Animal Welfare Act
and carrying out wildlife damage management activities.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov
AQISAustralian Quarantine and Inspections Service – Provides
quarantine inspection services for the arrival of international
passengers, cargo, mail, animals and plants or their products
into Australia. It also provides export certification for a range
of agricultural, fisheries and forestry produce exported from
Australia
http://daff.gov.au/aqis
ARSAgricultural Research Service (USDA) – Purpose is to find
solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every
day, from field to table.
http://www.ars.usda.gov
BMPsBest Management Practices – Generic: Methods or
techniques that have consistently shown results superior
to those achieved with other means. Best practices are
used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory
legislated standards and can be based on self-assessment or
benchmarking.
CAAClean Air Act (Federal) – Defines EPA’s responsibilities for
protecting and improving the nation’s air quality and the
stratospheric ozone layer.
http://www.epa.gov/air/caa
CALFCalifornia Agricultural Leadership Foundation – Non-profit
public benefit corporation committed to leadership training
and transformational learning experiences in partnership with
four CA universities.
http://www.agleaders.org
CARBCalifornia Air Resources Board (aka ARB) – Part of the CA
EPA; Mission is to promote and protect public health, welfare
and ecological resources through the effective and efficient
reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and considering
the effects on the economy of the state.
http://www.arb.ca.gov
CASSCalifornia Agricultural Statistics Service – Prepares and
distributes statistics on CA agriculture.
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/
index.asp
CASSCooperative Agricultural Support Services – A local public
agency that partners with state and county agencies and
the agricultural industry to provide flexible and cost effective
services for agricultural project needs throughout California.
http://www.agsupport.org
CBPCustoms and Border Protection (Department of Homeland
Security) – Secures the homeland by preventing the illegal
entry of people and goods while facilitating legitimate trade
and travel.
http://cbp.gov
CBSCitrus Black Spot – A disease caused by the fungus Guignardia
citricarpa.
http://www.citrusresearch.org/citrus-black-spot
CCACCalifornia Citrus Advisory Committee – Advisory committee to
CDFA.
CCMCalifornia Citrus Mutual – Non-profit grower-based trade
association formed to work on issues and programs that will
improve their members’ bottom line.
http://www.cacitrusmutual.com
CCNBCalifornia Citrus Nursery Board – Marketing order authorized
to carry on or support a program of variety improvement
to assure the continued freedom of citrus nursery stock
from pathologically harmful viruses and other economically
undesirable citrus diseases and mutations.
http://ccnb.info
CCNSCalifornia Citrus Nursery Society – A voluntary-membership
organization working for the betterment of the citrus nursery
industry in CA by facilitating the exchange of information
on relevant issues, and by licensing and importing patented
proprietary varieties.
CCOGC
Central California Orange Growers Cooperative.
CCPDPCCalifornia Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Committee (aka
CPDPC) – Legislated committee created to advise Secretary
and the agricultural industry about efforts to combat serious
pests and diseases that threaten the state’s citrus crop.
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/citruscommittee
CPDPPCitrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program – Supporting
programs created to implement strategies as directed by
CPDPC.
CCPNCitrus Clean Plant Network (NCPN) – Committee created to
provide expertise, advice and recommendations, including
prioritization of funding, to the Governing Board of the National
Clean Plant Network relative to the development, maintenance,
and distribution of pathogen-tested citrus propagative
materials.
http://nationalcleanplantnetwork.org/Citrus_CPN
CCPPCitrus Clonal Protection Program – Provides safe mechanism
for the introduction into CA of citrus varieties from any citrusgrowing area of the world for research, variety improvement,
or for use by the commercial industry of the state.
http://ccpp.ucr.edu
CCQCCalifornia Citrus Quality Council – Objective is to ensure
that CA citrus production meets domestic and international
regulatory standards.
http://www.calcitrusquality.org
CCTEACentral California Tristeza Eradication Agency – Charged with
the survey, detection and eradication of citrus tristeza virus
(CTV) within participating Pest Control Districts.
CDFACalifornia Department of Food and Agriculture – Regulatory
agency whose mission is to serve the citizens of CA by
promoting and protecting a safe, healthy food supply, and
enhancing local and global agricultural trade, through
efficient management, innovation and sound science, with a
commitment to environmental stewardship.
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov
CEQACalifornia Environmental Quality Act (CNRA) – A statute that
requires state and local agencies to identify the significant
environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate
those impacts, if feasible.
http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa
CLMCitrus Leafminer – An insect whose larvae mine beneath the
surface of new flush leaves.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r107303211.html
CHRPCitrus Health Response Program (USDA-APHIS) – Goal is to
sustain the United States’ citrus industry, to maintain growers’
continued access to export markets, and to safeguard the
other citrus growing states against a variety of citrus diseases
and pests.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/
citrus/index.shtml
CNRACalifornia Natural Resources Agency – Purpose is to restore,
protect and manage the state’s natural, historical and cultural
resources for current and future generations using creative
approaches and solutions based on science, collaboration and
respect for all the communities and interests involved.
http://resources.ca.gov
CPMCitrus Peelminer – An insect whose larvae feed beneath the
surface of fruit or young stems causing cosmetic damage that
devalues fruit grade.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r107303111.html
CRBCalifornia Citrus Research Board (aka CRB) – Grower-funded
and grower-directed program established under the CA
Marketing Act as the mechanism enabling the state’s citrus
producers to sponsor and support needed research.
http://www.citrusresearch.org
CRS
California Red Scale – An armored scale.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r583300811.htm
CTVCitrus Tristeza Virus – a viral species of the Closterovirus
genus that can cause decline, stem-pitting, and seedling
yellows.
http://www.apsnet.org/apsstore/shopapspress/Pages/43788.
aspx
through the regulation and supervision of food safety, tobacco
products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-thecounter pharmaceutical drugs (medications), vaccines,
biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices,
electromagnetic radiation emitting devices (ERED), and
veterinary products.
http://www.fda.gov/default.htm
CVRWBCentral Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Cal-EPA) –
One of nine regional water boards in CA.
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralvalley
FSAFarm Service Agency (UDSA) – Administers farm commodity,
crop insurance, credit, environmental, conservation, and
emergency assistance programs for farmers and ranchers.
http://www.fsa.usda.gov
CWACalifornia Women for Agriculture – Non-profit organization to
promote agriculture and support interest in agriculture through
education and scholarship programs for women.
GAPGood Agricultural Practices – Specific methods which, when
applied to agriculture, produce results that are in harmony
with the values of the proponents of those practices.
CWAClean Water Act (US-EPA) – Establishes the basic structure for
regulating discharges of pollutants into the water of the United
States and regulating quality standards for surface waters.
http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/lcwa.html
GHGsGreenhouse Gases – Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere
are called greenhouse gases. Primary gases include water
vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases.html
DPRDepartment of Pesticide Regulation (California) – Mission is
to protect human health and the environment by regulating
pesticide sales and use and by fostering reduced-risk pest
management.
http://www.cdpr.ca.gov
EIREnvironmental Impact Report – A study of all the factors which
a land development or construction project would have on the
environment in the area, including population, traffic, schools,
fire protection, endangered species, archeological artifacts,
and community beauty.
EISEnvironmental Impact Statement – Under United States
environmental law, a document required by the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions significantly
affecting the quality of the human environment.
http://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/projdev/docueis.asp
GWSSGlassy-Winged Sharpshooter – An insect that can carry and
spread the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of
several plant diseases including Pierce’s disease of grape and
Citrus Variegated Chlorosis.
http://cisr.ucr.edu/glassy_winged_sharpshooter.html
HLBHuanglongbing – Also known as citrus greening, a devastating
citrus plant disease spread by the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP).
http://www.californiacitrusthreat.org
http://www.saveourcitrus.org
ILRPIrrigated Lands Regulatory Program – Regulates discharges
from irrigated agricultural lands with the purpose to prevent
discharges from impairing the waters that receive the
discharges.
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/agriculture/
EQIPEnvironmental Quality Incentives Program (USDA) – A
voluntary program that provides financial and technical
assistance to agricultural producers to help plan and
implement conservation practices that address natural
resource concerns and for opportunities to improve soil, water,
plant, animal, air and related resources on agricultural land
and non-industrial private forestland.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/
programs/financial/eqip/
LBAMLight Brown Apple Moth – An insect known to damage a wide
range of crops.
http://cisr.ucr.edu/light_brown_apple_moth.html
ESAEndangered Species Act (US Fish & Wildlife Service) – Was
designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction
as a consequence of economic growth and development
untempered by adequate concern and conservation.
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/index.html
MRLMaximum Residue Level (US-EPA/US-FAS) – Limit of how
much pesticide residue can remain on food and feed products
or commodities.
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/food/viewtols.htm
http://www.fas.usda.gov/htp/mrl.asp
NAPPO North American Plant Protection Organization –The
phytosanitary standard setting organization recognized by the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
http://www.nappo.org/en/
EWGEnvironmental Working Group – The mission is to use the
power of public information to protect public health and the
environment.
http://www.ewg.org/
FASForeign Agricultural Service ((USDA) – It serves to link U.S.
agriculture to the world to enhance export opportunities and
global food security.
http://www.fas.usda.gov/
FDAFood and Drug Administration (US) – The agency is
responsible for protecting and promoting public health
MFFMelon Fruit Fly – An insect whose larvae tunnel into fruit or
plant parts providing a wound where decay organisms can
enter leaving the fruit a rotten mass unfit for consumption.
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pdep/target_pest_disease_
profiles/melon_ff_profile.html
NASSNational Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA) – Conducts
hundreds of surveys every year and prepares reports on
ag productions, prices paid and received, farm labor and
wages, farm finances, chemical use, and changes in the
demographics of U.S. producers.
http://www.nass.usda.gov/index.asp
NEPANational Environmental Policy Act (US-EPA) – The Act
establishes national environmental policy and goals for the
protection, maintenance, and enhancement of the environment
and provides a process for implementing these goals within
the federal agencies.
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/nepa/index.html
NRLBNational Labor Relations Board – An independent federal
agency that protects the rights of private sector employees to
join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages
and working conditions.
http://www.nlrb.gov/
NOxNitrogen Oxides – Group of highly reactive gasses composed
of nitrogen and oxygen.
http://www.epa.gov/air/nitrogenoxides/
http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=19
NRCSNatural Resources Conservation Service (USDA) – Works with
landowners through conservation planning and assistance
designed to benefit the soil, water, air, plants, and animals that
result in productive lands and healthy ecosystems.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/
NRDCNational Resources Defense Council – Mission Statement is to
safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the
natural systems on which all life depends.
http://www.nrdc.org/
OEHHAOffice of the Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (CAEPA) – Mission is to protect and enhance public health by
scientific evaluation of risks posed by hazardous substances.
http://oehha.ca.gov/
OSHAOccupational Safety & Health Administration (US-Dept of
Labor) – Mission is to assure safe and healthful working
conditions for working men and women by setting and
enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach,
education and assistance.
http://www.osha.gov/
PACAPerishable Agricultural Commodities Act (USDA)– Regulates
the buying and selling of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables
to prevent unfair trading practices and to assure that sellers
will be paid promptly.
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/overviews/
perishablecommodities.html
PANNAPesticide Action Network North America – Group works to
replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically
sound and socially just alternatives.
http://www.panna.org
PEIRProgrammantic Environmental Impact Report – An EIR
prepared on a series of actions that can be characterized as
one large project.
http://www.ucop.edu/ceqa-handbook/chapter_02/2.3.html
PHPPSPlant Health & Pest Prevention Service (CDFA) – Purpose is
to protect California’s food supply from the impact of exotic
pests, its environment and natural resources from direct pest
impact and increased pesticide use, the public from pests
that pose threat to human health, and its position in the global
economy.
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/acp
PMParticulate Matter – Tiny pieces of solid or liquid matter
associated with the Earth’s atmosphere.
http://www.epa.gov/pm/
PMAProduce Marketing Association – Mission is to connect,
to inform, and to deliver business solutions that enhance
members’ prosperity.
http://www.pma.com/
PPAPlant Protection Act (USDA) – Statute relating to plant pests
and noxious weeds which consolidated related responsibilities
that were previously spread over various legislative statutes.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/pdf/PlantProtAct2000.pdf
PTIProduce Traceability Initiative – Designed to protect public
health by making it possible to track produce from its point of
origin to a retail location where it is purchased by consumers.
RMARisk Management Agency (USDA) – Mission is to promote,
support, and regulate sound risk management solutions to
preserve and strengthen the economic stability of America’s
Ag producers.
http://www.rma.usda.gov/
SCFBASpecialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance – A national coalition of
more than 140 specialty crop organizations representing 350
specialty crops.
http://www.unitedfresh.org/assets/files/GR/SCFBA_
Recommendations__Executive%20Summary_.pdf
SENASICA Mexico’s equivalent of Department of Food and Agriculture
http://www.senasica.gob.mx/
SITCSmuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance (USDA-APHIS)
– Mission is to detect and prevent the unlawful entry and
distribution of prohibited and/or non-compliant products that
may harbor exotic plant and animal pests, disease or invasive
species.
SJVAPCDSan Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District – Air district
committed to improving the health and quality of life for all
Valley residents through effective and cooperative air quality
programs.
http://www.valleyair.org/Home.htm
SKSunkist – A citrus cooperative that supplies citrus
internationally.
http://www.sunkist.com
SOSSweet Orange Scab – A disease caused by the fungus Elisinoe
australis. The disease results in scab-like lesions that develop
primarily on the fruit rind.
http://www.saveourcitrus.org/index.php/sweet-orange-scab
SWRCBState Water Resources Control Board – Addresses water
quality and rights regulation.
http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/
UFPAUnited Fresh Produce Association – Trade association
committed to driving the growth and success of produce
companies and their partners.
http://www.unitedfresh.org
VOCVolatile Organic Compounds – Gases emitted from certain
solids or liquids.
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/voc.html
WGAWestern Growers Association – Association representing local
and regional family farmers growing produce with philosophy
that there is strength in numbers.
http://www.wga.com/
CL EA N CIT R US
Clonal
Containerized
Certified
You have new options:
• Containerized citrus is cleaner, more flexible and secure
• Clonally propagated rootstocks increase uniformity
and expand your options.
• Professional field service from experienced horticulturists:
(559)977-7282
Ed Needham
Steve Scheuber (209)531-5065
(559)804-6949
John Arellano
1 - 800 - GRAFTED
www.duartenursery.com • Hughson, Ca.
Clonal Avocados Coming Soon

Citrograph_JanFeb2013 - Citrus Research Board

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