Arizona’s only citrus screen house in Yuma
In this week’s Home Grown segment we get an exclusive look inside Arizona’s only citrus screen house in Yuma, Arizona.
Dr. Glenn Wright, an extension specialist in tree fruits at the Yuma Ag Center is the director of this citrus screen house program.
He told 13 On your Side that there are about 50 different varieties of citrus and about 70 different trees in this screen house.
It’s called a screen house because the entire house is surrounded by a special screen to keep insects and disease out. The goal is to grow citrus trees with no disease for their budwood.
“The main insect this particular screen house is trying to keep out is the Asian Citrus Psyllid. The insect carries Citrus Greening Disease which is a devastating disease affecting the Florida citrus industry and is also found in Los Angeles and we don’t want it here,” Wright said.
The screen house is in Yuma because most of Arizona’s citrus industry is in Yuma.
What are all of these tress being used for? Wright explains. ” For example, if we have a nursery person that wants some budwood from this particular tree so that he or she could make more trees then they will call me and I will clip budwood from this tree. We are assured that budwood from this tree is free of disease,” he said.
Most people don’t realize that when you buy a citrus tree it’s two different trees. The bottom part is called the root stock and it provides the tree with certain disease resistances. You can then graft a seed into the root stock and from there the rest of the tree grows. This helps the tree to start growing fruit in about three years.
Two interesting fruits being grown in the citrus screen house are the Nagomi Cucuiat Kumquat and the Australian Finger Lime. Watch the video above to see what they look like.
To help keep this screen house free from disease, once a week, government inspectors come to check a yellow sticky sheet inside the house. They are looking for the Asian Citrus Psyllid. Luckily, they have never found one in the house so the screen must be doing its job.
For more information please contact Dr. Glenn Wright. His contact information is here.
