“The bacteria is fatal to citrus trees and has decimated citrus groves in Florida and Texas. Now, California growers are holding the line to keep producing the vital crops. As temperatures rise, that gets more difficult.”
EDIT: the tail-end of Wikipedia’s entry points to a Citrus Grower article – seems that cover crops and healthy soil biology seem to help citrus trees weather the disease a lot better
The larger and denser the groves, easier is the transmission. You cannot have healthy cultures in huge monocultures, plants need different species around them as much as we do.
If there’s any correlation with humidity, CA may not get it as bad
so far (from the article) the main thing saving California is how aggressive California Agriculture is …
Tbh, I’m just surprised more agriculture-heavy states don’t have anything close to the agricultural safety measures CA does. The potential to spread crop blights and livestock diseases can and does cripple entire regions from time to time.
most of the Southeast seaboard isn’t going to have anything to do with “libuhrul restrictions” – they’re complaining no one’s picking crops after they banned “immigrants”
Is this disease a problem in the EU and northern Africa as well?
from Wikipedia, it’s already extant in Middle East, North Africa, and Portugal – but the African strain is heat sensitive (won’t tolerate temperatures over 25°C)
