Life expectancy of a citrus tree went from 50 years to about 15. My wife deals with this in her industry and basically says by the time your orange tree is a good size you have about 5 years of productivity expected. They are obviously working vigorously on it, UF leading the charge.
There were several and each time less groves were replanted. The one I was thinking of was Jan. 28th 1986 when the cold weather caused the Challenger to explode.
UF/IFAS Invasive Assessment Status: invasive and not recommended except for "specified and limited" use approved by the UF/IFAS Invasive Plant Working Group (North, Central, South)
Yeah Tropicana actually started that back in the 60s after a freeze there were not enough oranges available in Florida and you couldn't bring fruit into the US so Tropicana tried to build a plant in Mexico but the Mexican government was too hard to deal with so they built a small processing plant on barges and shipped the OJ to the US for final processing. They were able to process juice and keep supply lines open when Minute Maid and the others couldn't get oranges.
I lived in an orange grove in Lake Wales for about a year as a kid. The smell of the blossoms is something I still remember. Most of those groves appear to be long gone according to Google earth. Old Florida is on life support in some places it seems.
There was a big one in 77 I think but 89 was also a big one here in the Daytona area it didn’t get above freezing all day and and we got about a 1/2” of snow that night. Side note the outside pressure gauge on the O2 tanks froze in one position and until internal the low pressure alarms went off we had no idea. Hospital had to go to emergency backup H cylinders to run our ventilators. Lucky for me I was of the next day when the crap hit the fan.
I seem to remember 1985(ish) and 1989 (Christmas) as the two coldest times i ever remember growing up. Flurries all the way into Port Charlotte for the 89 IIRC.
Supposedly the studies done indicate that the propagules are not translocated by birds or wildlife. Hope that remains the case. Per the PDF Assessment, unpalatable to grazing animals remains a question. Goats, cattle, horses? Tropical Soda Apple is supposedly unpalatable, yet spreads like wildfire around grazing areas....
they said the lionfish had no predators. now there are multiple species that have figured out how to eat lionfish, not enough, but they are learning
You indicate that this will push out citrus. From the article it indicates citrus is already on the way out due to various factors, nothing to do with nutritional value.
In Central Florida. the hard freezes were 83, 85, 89, down to 18F and below freezing for 30 hours. Owning a plant nursery the crop losses were difficult to shoulder. Citrus were grown even in jacksonville until the 1894 and 1895 hard freezes. Chipley, FL is the home of Kudzu, brought to the South for erosion control and cattle grazing. We know how that story played out. If the Indian tree seeds are moved by birds and animals into natual lands it should be put on the FDOACS Invasive Pest Plant list and culture in Florida prohibited.
the claim is the seeds are too rancid for animals to move, winds blow, water flows, animals adapt, chit happens, seeds move. hopefully I'm wrong
