Researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC) are working to identify and evaluate new therapies for citrus greening disease through trunk injection technology.

Lukas Hallman, a postdoctoral research associate at UF/IF AS IRREC, leads field research efforts alongside his team in the Postharvest Physiology lab and collaborators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). As part of the Grove-First initiative, the researchers conduct therapeutic screening trials, injection optimization studies, and residue analyses in commercial citrus groves.

John-Paul Fox, research assistant for IRREC shown injecting a citrus tree. [Photo courtesy IRREC].

Hallman explained that traditional laboratory and greenhouse screening are more time-consuming and costly. With citrus greening continuing to threaten Florida's citrus industry, there is an urgent need to accelerate the discovery of effective therapies.

"We're testing a wide range of potential therapies, from antibiotics to naturally derived compounds," Hallman said. "By injecting them directly into citrus trees and monitoring their responses under real-world growing conditions, we can determine which treatments have the greatest potential to help growers."

Following injection, researchers evaluate treatment effectiveness by monitoring changes in canopy health, fruit yield, and fruit quality.

Since the launch of the Grove-First initiative, the research team has screened more than

400 potential treatments. In 2026 alone, the team has injected more than 2,500 citrus trees as part of a statewide research effort conducted in collaboration with commercial citrus growers across Florida.

.Lukas Hallman, postdoctoral associate for IRREC is injecting a peach tree in Washington state. [Photo courtesy IRREC]

Hallman said approximately 20 treatments have shown promising results in initial screening trials and are advancing into further testing and optimization studies.

The impact of the Grove-First initiative is extending beyond Florida citrus. Hallman recently traveled to Washington State to collaborate with USDA researchers in Wapato, where scientists are applying knowledge gained from citrus trunk injection research to evaluate potential therapies for X-disease, a devastating bacterial disease affecting peach and cherry trees that shares similarities with citrus greening.

"Our work doesn't stopwith citrus," Hallman said. "We're taking what we've learned in Florida and applying it to other crops, with the goal of protecting agricultural industries across the country from devastating plant diseases."

"Our ultimate goal is to identify effective therapies that can be commercialized and made available to citrus growers," Hallman said. "Currently, oxytetracycline is the only antibiotic approved for trunk injection to manage citrus greening disease, and we're working to expand the treatment options available to the industry."