jprice

  • Katydid Damage to Citrus Fruit

    I previously talked about fruit damage caused by birds scratching and puncturing green fruit. There is another type of damage to citrus fruit caused by an insect that looks like a grasshopper called a katydid.  These insects are green and well camouflaged. They develop flat wings as adults that make them look like a leaf…

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  • Bird Damage to Citrus Fruit

    August 20, 2025 As we are getting later in the season fruit are getting larger and people are noticing more blemishes on fruit.  One type of unusual damage is caused by birds. If you see green fruit that appears scratched or scraped with tiny holes that haven’t quite pierced the skin that could be bird…

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  • Last fall the Owari satsuma trees at J.L. Lomax produced a tremendous amount of soft fruit that became puffy very quickly. Category 2 hurricane Helene may have contributed to the fruit quality being so bad last year. With all the fruit soft and of low quality we only harvested fruit from 12 of the 60…

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  • Citrus Rust Mites

    There are two types of rust mites. The citrus rust mites (CRM) and the pink citrus rust mites (PCRM). The CRM are one of the biggest pests of citrus in our area on fresh fruit. I don’t know that I have seen the PCRM in Georgia but they are probably here. Every year CRM are…

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  • Satsumas and Alternate Bearing

    By: Jake Price and Mary Sutton Satsumas tend to alternate bear which can be a problem in commercial production. The freeze at the end of 2022 contributed to the majority of satsuma trees in our area having a light crop in 2023.  This helped set up trees for big crops in 2024. With such a…

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