What was it all about?

There are a number of economically significant diseases of citrus that are incurable and lead to yield loss, reduced fruit quality, stunting, tree decline and tree death. A repository for healthy planting material is essential for the citrus industry’s biosecurity preparedness.

This project funded protection and testing of the National Citrus Repository pest and disease free foundation trees for nursery tree production, from 2010 to 2015.

Foundation trees were maintained and tested for disease and new citrus selections were certified healthy. The foundation trees provide high health status, true-to-type budwood to the Auscitrus propagation scheme as well as nurseries.

At the end of this project 115 publicly owned citrus clones from both Australia and overseas were housed in the repository.

The repository is an industry asset that serves as an insurance policy for the future health and economic viability of the Australian citrus industry.