Dyed kaolin to repel Asian citrus psyllid in field conditions

Dyed kaolin to repel Asian citrus psyllid in field conditions

Report Date: 03/20/2019
Project: 16-020C   Year: 2018
Category: ACP Vector
Author: Christopher Vincent
Sponsor: Citrus Research and Development Foundation

The long term field trial continues with weekly psyllid counts and quarterly CLas infection testing. Treatments continue to have similar effects on ACP counts, however, the differences between red and white kaolin in CLas infection no longer persist. The two kaolin treatments, however, now have approximately 50% infection, while the control and the foliar insecticide treatment, now have nearly 100% infection. Plants in both of the kaolin treatments continue to show higher growth rates than the other two treatments. The red treatment has the highest growth rate, trunk cross-sectional area, and canopy volume. Kaolin treated trees that are infected grow more than untreated-infected trees, but less than treated uninfected trees. The Master’s student funded by this project completed his thesis and defended it successfully. For this work he completed 3 experiments, and is now assisting in implementation of 2 more repetitions of these to ensure that results are consistent. We now have substantial evidence that both kaolin treatments improve growth, while the red improves water use efficiency. In potted studies whole-plant water loss was dramatically reduced through application of the red particle film. Despite this, we know that growth is increased in the field. We submitted an additional IP disclosure to include the possibility of manipulating whole plant water use through the color of the particle film. We are still exploring options for commercialization. The current experimental repetitions use the earlier designs, but they use adjusted rates so that all the particle films allow the same quantity of light, so that only light quality is different.


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