On Wednesday, December 20th at 9:00 AM; growers, key employees and other allied members are invited to an in-grove greening identification demonstration. The grove belongs to Smoak Groves and is located on HWY 70, south of Lake Placid. Go west on 70 from US 27 for 4.8 miles and turn south on Lightsey Ranch Road and proceed ½ mile. Park on the west side of the road south of the canker washer (this will allow harvesting & hauling operations to be uninterrupted). Everyone will be required to enter through a personnel canker decontamination hoop and are reminded to thoroughly decontaminate their vehicles prior to arriving at the grove.
Mason Smoak has arranged for Jim Snively (VP of Grove Operations-Southern Gardens) to be there along with other personnel from Southern Gardens (Mike Irey or Tim Gast) and Holly Chamberlain from Lake Alfred CREC (hopefully). There are multiple trees confirmed with the disease at various stages of the disease at this site and this is an excellent opportunity to see the disease symptoms in the field.
We will have greening identification material to hand out during this field trip. If you need additional information contact Ray at the HCCGA office; 863-385-8091 or on his mobile 863-381-8551.