The University of Florida Indian River Research and Education Center is in the middle of the state's largest grapefruit experiment. It aims to create grapefruit plants that can withstand citrus greening.
Indian River County is the world’s largest grapefruit exporter. It’s known for producing the sweetest grapefruits. But researchers at the University of Florida say citrus greening has cut grapefruit production by 90 percent over the last 15 years.
Johnny Ferrarezi is leading the team tasked with finding with root stock/citrus scion can best withstand the disease. “We are quite frankly not thinking a lot about the risk but the potential outcomes,” Ferrarezi said. About 5,440 grapefruit trees will be planted across 30 acres.
For growers, stopping citrus greening is imperative. Crop data from the USDA shows in the last ten years, U.S. orange production has plummeted from about 8 million tons in the 2007 season to 2 million tons in 2018. Florida’s citrus greening is a big reason why.
But as explained on cbs12.com, fighting back has hit a major hurdle. Researchers first need to be able to better study the bacteria that cause it.
