How Will Irma Affect Citrus Canker Management?

Abstract

              The citrus canker season is quickly approaching again, so it is time to start planning your canker management plan to avoid fruit drop and fresh market quality loss.  It is easy to forget the importance of controlling citrus canker with the current state of HLB in Florida.  However citrus canker can cause almost complete crop loss if environmental conditions are favorable for disease early in the season.  This crop loss is not just a fresh fruit problem.  If fruit are infected in the early stages of fruit expansion, the large lesions produced can induce midsummer fruit drop.  With properly timed and applied management, this midsummer canker fruit drop can be greatly reduced protecting your yields and, in the case of fresh fruit, fruit quality.  The effects of hurricane Irma will complicate canker management for the coming years, especially in young groves.   In this article, the effects of hurricane Irma on citrus canker management in the coming year will be discussed.