POLK CITRUS HAS BEEN LUCKY...BUT NO MORE

During the past several years as news of the various strains of citrus canker have been reported throughout Florida, Polk County's remaining citrus industry has been extremely fortunate not to have been hit. That ended this week as 1,200 acres of trees will be destroyed after the more dangerous Asiatic strain of canker was found two weeks ago at Ben Hill Griffin Inc.'s citrus nursery in Frostproof.

In addition to the BHG nursery being hit, a heavy infestation was found in a 255 acre grove next to the Griffin nursery owned by the LaBelle-based agribusiness Alico, Inc. Apparantly the Alico infestation is over 1 1/2 years old, and last year's hurricanes blew the bacteria from there into the Griffin nursery.

Sounds like someone at Alico wasn't doing their job, if it took over a year and a half to notice it.

It's the first time the A-strain has appeared in Polk County since a statewide outbreak in 1916.