A new treatment could give citrus growers another tool against citrus greening, a disease that can devastate groves, according to researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife in Weslaco.

Researchers at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Weslaco helped develop the treatment after 15 years of research.

For growers like Jose Silva from Donna, citrus greening is an ongoing battle.

"We need to learn and live with the greening disease; we know we have it," Silva said.

Citrus greening is a bacterial disease spread by an insect. An infected tree can cause discoloration on leaves and affect the fruit.

Silva has owned a 20-acre grapefruit grove for 18 years. He says fighting the disease comes at a cost, both for the association and for himself.

"If the tree is infected with greening disease, that fruit doesn't size up; it's a loss because it's not marketable," Silva said.

Protecting the rest of a grove also costs money. Growers say those efforts may not even fully stop the disease from spreading.

"You're talking anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 an acre for growth care, and that includes disease, fertilizers, irrigation, the whole works," Silva said.

Kranthi Mandadi is the director at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Weslaco. He led the work to develop a new way to help citrus trees fight the disease.

“Over the years, we were trying to evaluate many ways to control this disease, and the spinach defensin peptides is one of that product of this research,” Mandadi said. “We found spinach seems to have very good antimicrobial properties similar to antibiotics.”

As part of the treatment, a small piece from a specially developed citrus tree is attached to another citrus tree. This helps put the natural defense from spinach into the tree, helping it fight the bacteria that causes citrus greening disease.

The treatment does not change the tree's DNA.

"We need to control the disease, right? So it's important to prevent the yield loss that is associated with it," Mandadi said. "Infected trees, the fruits don't remain on the trees; they fall on the ground, and that's a loss for the growers. Growers cannot pick them up or sell anything."

The EPA just approved the treatment for commercial use, meaning it can now be sold and used by growers.

The product is expected to reach growers in Florida first later this year, but it is not yet available to Rio Grande Valley growers.

"The sooner that technology is available to us growers is that the better for us right now," Silva said.

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