Chance for citrus - Anti-greening fertiliser available in Jamaica

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

As the citrus industry braces for the devastating impact of the bacterial infection known as greening, a United States-based company is offering its help in controlling the disease which has the potential to destroy the local $13.7-billion industry.

It affects mainly young plants, the leaves of which become blotchy and mottled and the trees cease production.

Citrus greening was identified in the eastern United States some 15 years ago and is believed to have been present in Jamaica for about five years.

Alex Kaminsky, managing director for the Caribbean for Diamond R Fertiliser, told The Gleaner that his company owns the patented nutritional and fertiliser technology for Sure-Trx and R-Trx, vital components in fighting the citrus-greening disease.

The company, which supplies about 250,000 tones of fertiliser per year for the Florida and export markets - caters mainly to the citrus and sugar cane industries, with some of its fertiliser blends geared for vegetable farmers.

According to Steve Glover, chief agronomist at Diamond R, the company has been successfully treating the greening disease in Florida for the last five years.

"You don't get rid of it but you can suppress the disease where it doesn't affect the citrus tree anymore. Our products to combat the greening disease, if used properly and in time, can have a 99 per cent success rate in controlling the disease. And not only are we putting the disease at remission, with our products we are also increasing fruit yield".

Rapid spread of disease

The disease spreads rapidly, and digging out trees, which is a known practice to those unfamiliar with the disease, is not the right approach. The disease starts with one or two trees, grows to 10, then grows to hundreds before spreading to thousands and, at that point, it may be too late.

For every 10 citrus trees diseased, there are 10 more that you do not see that are already diseased, but they are just not showing the symptoms.

Diamond R said it has come up with a programme to fight the disease in Florida and the recommendations would not be that much different here for Jamaica.

"There is a specific set of recommendations and certain application rates of fertiliser and other material per acre of trees, and it has been effective to the point where our farmers are no longer bothered by greening. They just do the programme, they just apply it and this is a disease that is well past us but, for Jamaica, it is here and of course it is a big problem," Glover noted.

He said the success rate depends on the severity of the disease but, on average in Florida, the trees return to healthy production within a year to 18 months of starting the programme, farmers can expect significant improvement and tremendous turnaround in their trees, which will continue to produce good fruit.