A two-day workshop, Meeting the Challenge of the Asian Citrus Psyllid in California Nurseries will be held June 11-12, in Riverside, Calif., at the Sunkist Center in the California Citrus State Historic Park.

The workshop is designed to inform California nurserymen on the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), the vector of Huanglongbing disease (HLB) or citrus greening. The psyllid has been found in California’s San Diego and Imperial counties. California citrus leaders believe citrus greening, once found in California, will spread throughout the state.

It is extremely important that nursery operations be protected under greenhouses and/or screenhouses, yet few nurserymen in California have experience with operating their entire nursery operation under protected conditions.

It is important for the future of California citrus that at the early stage of the ACP infestation to assume that any nursery plant that has been fed upon by a psyllid should be considered to be latently infected with HLB, and the movement of the plant to another location can spread HLB in the state.

The workshop organizing committee includes: Tom Delfino, California Citrus Nursery Society; Akif Eskalen and Georgios Vidalakis, University of California, Riverside; and Richard Lee, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The workshop draft agenda includes:

• June 11

9:00 - Welcome and Introduction

9:15 - Living with HLB and ACP in Brazil - Juliano Ayres, FundeCitrus

9:45 - AVASA-Spain, Decades of Budwood Production under Protective Screen - Paco Llatser, AVASA

10:15 - Impact of the ACP, HLB, and Citrus Canker on the Florida Citrus Industry - Tim Gast, Southern Gardens

10:45 - Break

11:00 - Panel Discussion

11:45 - Lunch

12:45 - Evolution of the Florida Certification Program "Canker & HLB" - Nate Jameson BriteLeaf Nursery

1:15 - Chemical control of ACP - Beth Grafton-Cardwell, Lindcove Research and Extension Center

1:45 - Break

2:00 - Insect Exclusion Structures - James Bethke, University of California Cooperative Extension, San Diego

2:30 - Screenhouses - Dan Howard, AgraTech

3:00 - Financing for Installation - Fred Dixon, Wells Fargo

3:30 - Break

3:45 - Citrus Health Response Program (CHRP) - Patrick Gomez, USDA-ARS

4:15 – Screenhouses - Gary Baze, Golden Pacific Structures

4:45 - Financing for Installation - Dan Elder, American Ag Credit

5:15 - Social

5:45 - Dinner

• June 12

8:45 - Seed Transmission of HLB, CTV Detection under Screen - Geogios Vidalakis, Citrus Clonal Protection Program

9:15 - Tomatoes - The Indoor Advantage - Casey Houweling, Houweling's Hot House

9:45 - Break

10:00 - Making the Decision, Tom Delfino, California Citrus Nursery Society

10:30 - Prospective Screenhouse Standards - Susan McCarthy, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)

11:00 - Discussion and Wrap Up

11:45 - Lunch

12:45 - CDFA Pest Cleanliness Regulations - Results of the Scoping Meetings - Susan McCarthy, CDFA

Workshop registration is available online at: http://eskalenlab.ucr.edu/citrusnurseryworkshop.html.