Hubby just told me that all the orange juice factories in Florida have closed.
This video gave me good idea of how this happened - and makes me think we need to permify not just the Citrus Industry, but the State of Florida also!
Some points I noticed:
1. This disease arose in China - carried by an insect - and has hopped around the world. Florida producers had warning of the risk, but our human attraction to monocultures - or near monocultures - rather that Permie Polycultures - is strongly embedded in modern agriculture.
2. They did determine that spraying clay on the leaves was more effective than insecticides, but that was the closest solution to a permie approach.
Another thing they did to 'help', was covering the young plants with a plastic mesh, or using a plastic ground cover, both of which will produce huge amounts of non recyclable plastic waste.
Another, was to feed the trees fertilizer more often in smaller quantities. The soil looks dead. (Yes, I do understand that Florida's soil is not the best to begin with.)
So I would love to hear if anyone is growing citrus in a permie way. With other plants, with live soil, with a polyculture, particularly of flowers that might confuse the insect that's spreading this disease. Hubby *loves* oranges and their relatives. He even has special ones he thinks are better than others (Lokan tangerines in particular.) Can Permies help solve this problem?
