Can cover crops save Florida’s citrus?
Citrus greening has devastated the Sunshine State’s orange industry. Researchers and pioneering farmers see cover crops as a road to recovery.
For the last couple of decades, a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid has fed on the stems and leaves of the orange trees in Florida, infecting them with bacteria that cause a lethal disease called citrus greening. The bacterial disease, huanglongbing (HLB), originated in China and has destroyed 90 percent of the state’s groves, devastating its $9 billion citrus industry.
