基因编辑的树能救佛罗里达的柑橘吗？

Before the disease came, Florida growers could sell 300 million boxes of fruit in one season.

Now, one season has only a little more than 15 million boxes.

This is not a small change.

A disease has caused Florida's citrus to drop sharply.

The disease is called citrus greening.

In 2005, the disease reached Florida for the first time.

A tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid carries the disease from tree to tree.

The insect is small, can fly, and is hard to see.

When the disease enters the tree, the tree's immune system breaks down.

The tree cannot fight the disease.

The tree is sick; the fruit is bitter and the color is wrong.

After a few years, the tree often dies.

To this day, there is still no medicine for the disease.

The growers have tried many things.

They have used tents and sprays.

But the trees still dwindle year after year.

In 2003 and 2004, Florida's citrus peaked at nearly 300 million boxes.

After that, the numbers fell year after year.

EPA says the latest crop was less than 5 percent of those two years.

EPA says that over the past 20 years, the disease has destroyed more than 90 percent of Florida's citrus.

Ron English's family grew citrus in Florida for many years.

In 2015, they closed their company.

He says the trees used to grow very well.

He watched the trees decline year after year.

Now he looks after trees for a company.

The company is called Soilcea and is in Tampa.

The company used CRISPR gene-editing technology to create a new rootstock.

The rootstock is called CarriCea T1.

The company says this rootstock keeps a tree's immune system working.

With less disease in the trees, growers can use less spray.

Soilcea CEO Yianni Lagos says you cannot judge a tree by its leaves alone.

He says that by the time people see yellow leaves, half the root system is already dead.

So the company focused on the roots.

In the company's test field, Ron English looks at many new trees.

These trees were planted last summer.

Beside them are older trees without this rootstock.

The new trees are taller, have more leaves, and are greener.

The older trees are smaller, with yellow leaves.

Ron English says, look how big the new trees' leaves are.

He says the older trees' color is wrong; the disease is already inside them.

The company's people are confident.

But Lagos says the real test is the fruit.

The fruit will take many years.

Whether the fruit is good depends on how big it grows and how it tastes.

Lagos says the data suggest it may work.

But without a ten-year-old tree, we do not know how it will really perform.

This is something both the company and growers must wait for.

The company says this rootstock can change the industry.

EPA assessed the fruit scientifically.

EPA says people can eat this fruit.

EPA says that without new tools, prices will rise.

That will make Americans eat more foreign fruit.

In April 2026, EPA agreed.

Growers can plant these new trees in the 2026-2027 season.

EPA says this fruit is the same as ordinary fruit.

EPA says the technology reduces spraying and is good for people and the environment.

EPA says that without new tools, American citrus will keep shrinking.

The company says 200,000 young trees are now growing.

A growers' group says this gives them new confidence.

They say this is the first rootstock of its kind in the world.

It is also the citrus industry's first new tool of this kind.

Some growers are happy.

Others still want to wait and see.

They still need to see how the fruit tastes.

Only a ten-year-old tree will show whether it is good.

People who support this approach hope it works.

The company says the technology can reduce pesticides.

This is a completely new technology.

Economically, this also matters.

Whether growers plant it also depends on the fruit.

If the fruit is bad, growers will not plant it.

No one knows now what will happen in ten years.

Ron English says he will keep watching these trees.

Florida's growers will watch these trees too.

Can these trees bring Florida's citrus back?

Growers still have to wait ten years.