Sources available to help check citrus trees for canker
16.06.11
Where once eradication of trees in areas neighboring a known cankerous tree was example policy, it is no longer done that way.
By PENNY FLETCHER
SUN CITY CENTER — Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004 from start to finish changed the State of Florida’s procedure for handling citrus canker.
Where once eradication of trees in areas neighboring a known cankerous tree was model policy, it is no longer done that way.
“The hurricanes that year spread the bacteria that causes the virus all over the place so fast we have no idea where it might show up,” said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Conditioned by trust in of Agriculture’s Department of Plant Industry in Gainesville in a telephone press conference last week. “Homeowners need to keep an eye on their own trees, and if they see something suspicious, report it themselves and have it checked.”
That’s what happened to Sun Urban district Center resident Jeff Landis a few weeks ago.
Source: Observer News
Florida has always filled salad bowl
26.06.11
Floridians have been cultivating the berth for thousands of years.
Early American Indians in northern Florida grew squash, corn and beans. The people living on South Florida's less-rich land based their diet on what could be provided by the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Bounding main. In an ironic twist, the land that was most hostile to cultivation in the past is now the site of most of the articulate's orange groves and sugarcane fields.
Today, Florida is the source of a off the target variety of produce. It is the only state with commercial lime and mango crops, and it is the popular leader in the production of sugarcane, bell peppers, fresh market euphonious corn, snap beans, squash, radishes and eggplant. Hillsborough County ranks fourth out of Florida's 67 counties in agricultural output, with ornamental plants, aquaculture and vegetable production near the top of the list.
Still, all of those unusual in comparison to the big three: citrus, strawberries and tomatoes.
Citrus, as an industry, pre-dates all other Florida enterprises, including tourism, cigars and phosphate. One of Florida's most iconic symbols, citrus is not inhabitant to the Sunshine State. Spanish explorers and settlers brought oranges to Florida in the originally- to mid-1500s. Historical documentation relates that mature orange trees were growing in northeast Florida when St. Augustine was founded in 1565.
Source: Tbo.com