Dear friends,

State of emergency: the disease which have already killed millions of coconut palms in Ghana and Tanzania is now strongly expanding in Côte d'Ivoire. It already destroyed hundreds of hectares of coconut plantations, threatening the livelihoods of farmers and causing social troubles. Many farmer's children cannot go to school due to lack of money... See our movie, also available in English and French version :

http://diversiflora-international.blogspot.com/2016/03/maladie-du-jaunissement-mortel-du.html

http://diversiflora-international.blogspot.com/2016/03/coconut-lethal-yellowing-disease-in.html

Kind regards

Roland
http://rbourdeix.blogspot.com/

Ouch, so sad to see.

Like Miami in the 1970s, except peoples' livelihoods (perhaps lives) are also at stake.

whoa!!!

that is a very sad site to see indeed!

I saw a documentary on the devastation of coconut palms in Guam. they are dying at a faster rate than they can be planted. 

(That can and has happened to people too.)

Wonder if there's a way to vaccinate plants?

7 minutes ago, DoomsDave said:

(That can and has happened to people too.)

Wonder if there's a way to vaccinate plants?

Coconut palms can be inoculated against LY but protection is temporary and must be repeated at intervals. Process involves drilling holes in the palm trunks which leaves visual scars and staining. Very labor intensive and not cheap. Most people here just wing it - as do I. What you find with LY is that initially nearly all palms are destroyed. Over time (months? years?) the epidemic tails off. Any palms that survive may show resistance. Eventually, resistant varieties allow some reintroduction of coconut palms but whether immense plantations of them return, I don't know. Tall varieties seem most susceptible. This disease also attacks other species of palms, i.e. Pritchardias, spindles etc. The carrier is a species of leafhopper or some other insect.

I remember first reading about LY in SFL in Time Magazine in the 1970s (I believe it originated in the Caribbean). I was crestfallen at the prospect that coconut palms might be wiped from the earth. Terrible this is happening in areas where people depend on them for livelihood. How did this disease get introduced over there? I thought it was pretty much confined to FL.

There's concern about it getting here to California. The big question is whether we have a suitable vector, i.e., a bug that transmits it.

Texas lost their CIDPs in the Rio Grande Valley from what I hear. Alas.

 

Roland,

That is horrible.  I didn't think LY existed in Africa, and certainly didn't think it existed in Guan in the Pacific.  I though it was only a disease in the Americas.  It makes me wonder if the CIA and Ft. Detrick, Maryland didn't have something to do with this spreading epidemic, especially since so many tropical countries depend on the coconut palms and coconut products, and especially since coconut water is great for you, and coconut oil is even better for you than olive oil!  Don't laugh at what I just said.  If any of you have ever been in the military or served as a police officer (I have done both), you would NEVER AGAIN trust the system we live in again, period!

John

Truly alarming! I hope continued research can find a cure for this dreadful disease.

LY is a problem any time palm trees are present. I don't believe there is a cure but there is an inoculation that helps prevent it. It is called Arbor Jet and it is fairly expensive and scars the trees but I have it done anyway. The scaring doesn't bother me...I grew up with scared Jamaican Talls. The tree trimmers would wrap their belts around the trunk and put on their boot spikes and climb the tree.