Syngenta Crop Protection Citrus Scout Internship Morgan McKenna East Coast Intern Vero Beach, FL May 20-August 16, 2013
Table of Contents Internship Overview 2 Scouting 3 Citrus Soil Assay 6 Florida Citrus Industry Conference 8 Intern Fishing Trip 9 Syngenta Intern Poster Competition 10 1
Internship Overview From May 20-August 16, 2013 I will be interning for Syngenta Crop Protection in the role of a Citrus Scout Intern. Through the course of my internship I will be interacting with sales representatives of the company, Syngenta agronomists, distributors of Syngenta s products, citrus growers in the East coast area, and the seven other Syngenta Citrus Scouts. This is a great opportunity for me to build and strengthen citrus industry relationships both in and outside the company of Syngenta. I will be serving in several different roles as a citrus scout: Scouting inspecting groves that are being treated with Agri-Mek or Agri-Flex to record levels of Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP), Leafminer, and Citrus Rustmite (CRM). Citrus Soil Assay pulling soil samples in groves that use Ridomil Gold to determine levels of phytophthora, as well as sieving samples to record root mass propagules. Florida Citrus Industry Conference represent Syngenta with the seven other interns at the conference and serve as volunteers to the Florida Citrus Mutual board members as needed throughout the conference. Intern Fishing Trip bond with the other seven interns and sales representatives Syngenta Intern Poster Competition travel to Syngenta s United States headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina to present the progress the Citrus Scout Interns have made over the summer. 2
Scouting This is a service provided to Syngenta s customers that use Agri-Mek or Agri-Flex in citrus. Agri-Mek is a miticide/insecticide used to control Citrus Rustmite (CRM) and Leafminer. Agri-Flex is another miticide/ insectide that is now becoming more popular than Agri-Mek. This is because it is considered to control the trifecta of citrus: Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP), Leafminer, and CRM. Asian Citrus Psyllid When first approaching a tree I check to see if the I see any ACP adults or nymphs on the new flush of the citrus tree. If I do not see any, I can the next step in checking for the adults. It is called the tap test. I take an eight inch in length PVC pipe in one hand and a clipboard in the other. I place the clipboard under a branch of new flush and tap the tree limb. I observe the clipboard to see if any adult ACPs are knocked from the limb. The ACP is considered to be a pest to the citrus growers because it is the vector of the bacterial disease Citrus Greening. This disease in Florida s Citrus Industry s number one problem because it eventually deteriorates the tree to the point of death. Citrus Rustmite After checking for ACPs, I pull a piece of fruit arms length into the tree canopy. I look at it through my bug lens on the front and back of the fruit. I record the number of mites based on the H-B Rating system. This system is based on how many mites I see per lens field. CRM is a pest to citrus growers because it can cause blemishes on the fruit which reduces the fruits quality in terms of fresh fruit. Mites 0 1-3 3-6 6-12 12-24 25-50 50+ Rating 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 3
Scouting Leafminer In order to determine if Leafminer is present or not I must inspect the top and bottom of leaves in the new flush. It is a worm that cocoons in the edges of the leaves. Leafminer is a pest to growers because it creates an open wound on the leaves which allows for the bacterial disease Citrus Canker to enter into the trees system more easily. Canker also causes blemishes on fruit as well. Scouting Reports As I am scouting throughout the day it is all recorded in my Windows based PDA. We use a program called AgC Scout specifically designed for the Syngenta s Citrus Scout Interns. This program was created for us by Ag Connections. Ag Connections also created for us a program called Land EC that is installed onto each intern s laptop during training. This allows me to upload my data recorded during the day and generate a summary report. I then send this to the Syngenta sales representative of the grove owner, as well as the grove owner himself. This allows the sales representative and grove owner to see an overview of the thresholds and level of pests in the particular grove. 4
This is an example of a report that Ag Connections programs AgC Scout and Land EC help me generate for the grower and sales representative. The name of the grower and several other details and been blacked out due to help ensure the privacy of the grower. 5
Citrus Soil Assay Syngenta s Citrus Scout Interns pull soil samples for customers that are using Ridomil Gold. It is a two part process, the first part is to determine the levels of phytophthora in the soil. The next part is to sieve every ten samples pulled to help determine the root mass of the trees. This program provided to the growers allows them to determine the root health in their groves. Phytophthora A soil probe is used to pull a soil core from the canopy drip line of the tree. Twenty cores are pulled from each grove. From here the soil is transferred to Ziploc bag and the location of the sample and the grove owner is recorded on the bag. After this it is brought to the intern in the lab to be plated and the levels of phytophthora recorded. The lab intern then passes on the information to the intern that pulled the sample and the sales representative. The sales representative and/or the intern discusses the levels with the grower and the course of action needed. Root Mass For every ten samples pulled a number then sieve is used to separate the roots from the soil. The roots are then dehydrated and weighed to determine the propagules per gram of root. This part of the internship was just added to the Citrus Scout Internship due to the recent findings that phytophthora is adding the deterioration of roots when Citrus Greening is also present. 6
Citrus Soil Assay Pulling soil sample and canopy drip line Sieving soil samples Syngenta Citrus Scout Bagging soil samples Plating soil samples Summer 2013 7
Florida Citrus Industry Conference The seven interns attend the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference along with the sales representatives that can. We represent Syngenta throughout the entire three day conference. Syngenta is a sponsor of the conference and therefore passes the use of the interns to the board members of Florida Citrus Mutual. Florida Citrus Mutual coordinates the conference and uses the interns as volunteers in all capacities. We help facilitate the meetings and learning sessions held during the day and in the evenings we help with clean out and the distribution of the conference flyer to the hotel rooms of attendees. This is an excellent opportunity for the interns to make strong connections with people in all capacities of the citrus industry. We interact with them at cocktail hours, dinners, luncheons, industry meetings, and learning sessions. This allowed me to learn how to properly approach and interact on a professional level at each of these types of occasions. 8
Intern Fishing Trip As a reward for the interns hard work over the summer, the sales representatives take the interns on a fishing trip. This allows for us to discuss the progress we have all been making as a team and to state our goals will still hope to achieve by the end of the internship. It also allows the interns to bond together. This to me is one of the most beneficial parts of the internship is to create such strong relationships with my fellow interns because they will be the ones I will most likely be continuing to work with throughout my career. We may not all always work for Syngenta, but our paths will cross considering the Florida agricultural industry is relatively small. 9
Syngenta Intern Poster Competition The Syngenta Intern Poster Competition is designed to bring Syngenta interns from across the United States to present their research projects and the progress they have help make on them. This is done by a ten minute elevator speech about the project and the only visual allowed is a poster. It is held in Greensboro, North Carolina. The interns present to an array of panel judges. Myself and one other Citrus Scout Intern, Kayla, will be traveling to Greensboro to present our role in the recent discovery in the interaction of phytophthora and Citrus Greening. We will also be presenting the excellent opportunity Syngenta has to help the Florida Citrus Industry. Currently one of the products in their portfolio, Ridomil Gold. Is the industry standard for treating phytophthora. This product has proven itself to continue to aid in the prevention of root deterioration even with Citrus Greening present. With the help of several Syngenta employees, Kayla and I collected as much data and research on the interaction of phytophthora and Citrus Greening. From here we sorted through the information to find what would be most beneficial to our presentation. We then had to compile this into a script that the panel judges would be able to comprehend, regardless of their prior knowledge of Citrus Greening and phytophthora. Script is on pages 11-13. Kayla had no prior design knowledge so I designed our 36x24 inch poster. A.jpeg version is available on page 14. However, a to scale version is available. 10
Syngenta Intern Poster Competition Introduction Morgan: Hello, I m Morgan McKenna (Kayla introduces self) and we are a part of the Florida Citrus Scout Intern program for Syngenta. Syngenta has helped play a vital role in making recent developments for the Florida Citrus industry by studying the interactions of Phytophthora and Huanlongbing, commonly known as HLB. Phytophthora Kayla: There are currently two varieties of Phytophthora in citrus: P. nicotianae-the more commonly detected- and P. palmivora. Phytophthora can cause foot rot, fibrous root rot, and brown rot of fruit in citrus. Soil Sampling Program Morgan: For 25 years Syngenta citrus scout interns and sales representatives have been working together to collect soil samples from groves in all of Florida s major citrus producing areas. This allowed Syngenta to create a baseline for typical Phytophthora levels and notice any major changes. Kayla: The twenty cores are pulled from the irrigation drip line of the tree to create one sample. The sample is then processed in the lab and placed on a V8 medium petri dish. The Phytophthora propagules are counted and a report is generated and sent to the grower as well as the sales representative. HLB Morgan: One of the Florida s citrus industries greatest battles is the bacterial disease Huanlongbing. The Asian Citrus Psyllid is the phloem feeding vector of the disease. It first colonizes in the root system and then moves into the tree canopy. The infection causes rapid fibrous root loss of 27-40% before any visual symptoms start to show in the canopy. Kayla: HLB continues the deterioration of the tree until the point of death or until it cannot bear fruit. It does this by causing nutrients deficiency in the tree. Along with root deterioration, it can cause irregular shaped fruit and early fruit drop; making it undesirable in the fruit market. 11
Syngenta Intern Poster Competition Interaction Morgan: In the past few years Syngenta s intern program was showing increasing levels of Phytophthora. However, at the same time tress being treated for Phytophthora appeared to be tolerating the impacts of HLB better than non-treated groves. Kayla: This encouraged industry leaders to further investigate the role phytophthora was playing with HLB infected trees. They found an article of research done in Taiwan confirming that phytophthora and HLB do interact with each other. Their interaction can be explained as Phytophthora levels of HLB infected trees initially increase, as roots are lost to HLB infection Phytophthora levels rapidly declines. Morgan: Both of these diseases alone can have extremely negative effects on the root systems of citrus trees. When both phytophthora and HLB are found they begin to feed off of each other. This makes the effects significantly greater than if only one disease was present. This led Syngenta to adapt their summer 2013 intern program to include determining root mass. At this time, there are no industry standards for root mass levels. Syngenta hopes to create a data set of root mass similar to the one they have built over the years for phytophthora levels. This will be used to determine the average grams of roots in a soil sample and help the grower understand the relationship of root mass and phytophthora levels. Kayla: Out of every 10 soil samples pulled, at least one is randomly selected to determine its root mass. A number 10 sieve is used to separate the roots from the soil. The roots are then washed and fibrous roots are picked out, placed in a bag, and put in the oven for dehydration. After this procedure the dried roots are weighed and recorded. This data is then passed on to the grower along with the Phytophthora counts. Morgan: For example, if you have 10 propagules on the plate and a root mass of 2 grams you would have 5 propagules per gram of root mass. Whereas 10 propagule counts for.5 gram root mass you would have 20 propagules per gram of root mass. At this time there is not enough data to determine a threshold for propagules per gram of root mass. This information is used more as a getting a general idea of the disease load. 12
Syngenta Intern Poster Competition Ridomil Gold Kayla: Currently, the industry standard for treating phytophthora is Syngenta s product Ridomil Gold. Before the introduction of HLB, Ridomil Gold was only used if high levels of phytophthora were present. Now, most growers typically use it once a year in order to reduce the effects of HLB and phytophthora in the tree s root system. Morgan: Syngenta is proud to carry Ridomil Gold because it is a vital part of helping the growers in the Florida citrus industry manages the diseases in the root system. The soil sampling program allows the Citrus Scout interns to take great pride in their work knowing that they are helping the industry get a better understanding of the diseases interactions. Closing Kayla: Thank you very much for your time; and at this point we would like to ask if there are any questions? 13
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