Citrus Disease Halts Backyard Fruit Collection
A fatal citrus disease has prompted the nonprofit Hidden Harvest to suspend its collection of excess backyard citrus in the Coachella Valley. The measure is intended to prevent the disease's spread. This development poses a broader risk to home growers and food-sharing organizations throughout California, advising caution for those with backyard citrus trees.
- The disease is Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening. It is spread by a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, which infects trees as it feeds on their leaves and stems. - There is no cure for HLB; once a tree is infected, it will die. The disease causes fruit to be small, misshapen, and bitter before killing the tree. Infected trees must be removed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to prevent further spread. - First detected in California in 2012, HLB has been found in thousands of residential trees across Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego. - To contain the disease, the CDFA establishes quarantine zones that prohibit the movement of citrus plants, leaves, or fruit out of the area. As of late 2025, over 3,000 square miles in Southern California were under quarantine. - While the disease has devastated Florida's citrus industry, causing over $7.8 billion in losses over a decade, it has not yet been detected in a commercial citrus grove in California. - California's commercial citrus industry, which contributes over $7 billion to the state's economy, is at significant risk if the disease spreads from backyard trees to commercial groves. - Hidden Harvest is a nonprofit organization that employs farm workers to collect unharvested produce from farms and packing houses in the Coachella Valley. - The organization provides hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh produce annually to approximately 50,000 people with low incomes in the Coachella Valley each month.
