THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - The discovery of a dozen diseased fruit trees in Corona has fanned fears that citrus greening disease may soon ravage commercial orchards in Riverside County.
Thus far, said Georgios Vidalakis, a UC Riverside professor and director of the university’s citrus clonal protection program, the historic navel orange tree has escaped infection and the bacteria has been kept away from commercial orchards. “We’ve been successful in California — if you want to call it a success,” Vidalakis said. However, since the first discovery of an infected tree in California in 2012 in the front yard of a Hacienda Heights home, Lyle said the disease has spread to 1,741 trees statewide — all in Southern California. Sooner or later, Vidalakis said, the disease will reach a citrus farm. “It only takes one accident of transfer, one error,” he said. But if residents do their part, he said, they can help prevent the disease from reaching commercial orchards for longer than would otherwise be the case. “Please follow the rules,” Vidalakis said. “Don’t move fruit. Don’t move plants.”