![[PALM BEACH POST] Citrus resurgence: Florida residents must pay a lot more to bear fruit again after canker war](/images/stories/Screen_shot_2011-12-28_at_6.31.43_PM.png)
Kathy and Bob Powers of Boca Raton were heartbroken when their two healthy mature citrus trees, one a Ruby Red grapefruit tree, were cut down in 2003 during the canker fight. The government program required the destruction of trees within 1,900 feet of an infected tree.
The couple replanted citrus around 2006, but three years later, the trees were removed after contracting greening disease. They're considering planting once again.
"I hope everybody plants tons of them," Kathy Powers said. "It is a right of being a Floridian. Those trees were my babies."
Six years after the failed state and federal war on canker, backyard citrus is making a comeback, whether it's the wealthy planting a small grove or homeowners trying their luck with lone orange trees.
But the billion-dollar battles left their scars: People can no longer expect orange, grapefruit, lime and other citrus trees to grow like weeds and produce buckets of fruit. Canker-free citrus seedlings cost more than ever, and protecting them from disease requires time and effort.
Owning a citrus tree was once taken for granted as part of the Florida lifestyle. The trees that dotted backyards provided fragrant blossoms, fruit, shade, a nesting place for birds and more. But after the destruction starting in 1995 of more than 16.5 million citrus trees in a $1.6 billion effort to stop canker, thousands of homes were left without their beloved fruit trees.
The federal government declared the program aimed at stopping the fruit-blemishing disease a failure, determined canker was endemic in Florida and lifted the ban on planting trees in 2006. It's taken a while for supplies to bounce back and for people to realize they are once again permitted to plant citrus trees.
Florida nurseries propagated 3.1 million citrus trees in the year that ended June 30, said Michael Kesinger, chief of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Citrus Budwood Registration Division. That's far below production in 2002 of 5.8 million, but a rebound from the low of 1.4 million trees when the war on canker ended in 2006.
"I would estimate between 10 to 15 percent of those trees are for homeowners," Kesinger said.
Ann Bolin of Palm Beach Gardens recently purchased a single potted calamondin tree.
"It smells nice, and it fits on the patio," said Bolin, who moved here from Texas.
To help her tree thrive, Bolin turned to www.mycitrustree.com for
advice and purchased KeyPlex, a nutritional supplement used by growers and now available to homeowners.
Richard Johnston of Canal Point, who is a member of the Erickson Farm family, founded My Citrus Tree two years ago and formed a partnership with Record Buck, a commercial tree nursery in Howey-in-the-Hills, and Winter Park-based KeyPlex, which makes the nutritional product.
"For me it is about empowering others' success," Johnston said. "Citrus is a Florida staple, and I want to support an industry that our forefathers and pioneers have grown."
Canker prevention is driving the cost of citrus trees. In 2007, the state began requiring that the trees nurseries sell to commercial groves and homeowners be grown in secure greenhouses built to specific standards.
"Everything has gone up 60 to 70 percent," said Richard Wilson, owner of Excalibur Fruit Trees west of Lake Worth. He sells standard grafted trees in 5-gallon containers for $50. The largest he sells are the 95-gallon size at $900, which used to be priced at $550 to $600.
Once the tree is in the ground, there is more work to do.
If tree owners do not spray with copper, the trees will get canker, Wilson said. Treatment also is needed to combat psyllids, the tiny insects that spread greening disease, which kills trees.
"People are still buying citrus. They have to treat it like a grove and spray it," said Wilson, whose company planted the Key lime, lemon, tangerine, grapefruit and orange trees on the Palm Beach property, dubbed "The Grove."
"It will be difficult for the average homeowner to maintain a healthy citrus tree. It's amazing how many pests and diseases are attracted to a citrus tree," Kesinger said.
But many are willing to try.
Kathy and Bob Powers of Boca Raton were heartbroken when their two healthy mature citrus trees, one a Ruby Red grapefruit tree, were cut down in 2003 during the canker fight. The government program required the destruction of trees within 1,900 feet of an infected tree.
The couple replanted citrus around 2006, but three years later, the trees were removed after contracting greening disease. They're considering planting once again.
"I hope everybody plants tons of them," Kathy Powers said. "It is a right of being a Floridian. Those trees were my babies."
