Recent rains offered relief to Florida, yet pose potential challenges for citrus production. Chris Oswalt from the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, highlighted the risk of citrus canker that may rise with increased humidity.
"With rainfall, you need to be concerned about those diseases associated with more humid conditions. You have situations where you might have citrus canker that's been lingering around or you're trying to suppress it," Oswalt stated. "When it's dry, canker is not as aggressive as when it rains. In blowing rains, the canker gets spread around. After you go through a dry time of the year where you don't see a lot of new canker, once it starts raining and the wind blows that rain around, you'll likely see an increase in the incidence of the disease. You want to make sure you stay on top of that."
Although the rains improved dry conditions, drought categories still span from abnormally dry in Indian River County to extreme drought in Lee County, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor issued on June 5.
Oswalt remarked, "It looks like we're starting to get in a pattern of some good rainfall. It had been so dry, and we're just now starting to get some of that rain where the trees are starting to respond a little bit."
He further noted that maintaining optimal soil moisture through rainfall or irrigation is important from bloom to fruit set and until summer rains begin, stating, "You want to maintain good soil moisture so you can hold the crop that's on the tree."
Source: Citrus Industry