It will come as no surprise to growers that albedo breakdown is quite widespread this season across the three major growing areas.

At a Citrus SA seminar late last month, former citrus researcher Michael Treeby said it was improbable that every grower in the Riverina, Sunraysia and the Riverland forgot to apply preventative treatments this season.

So, what is causing it?

“The effect of season appears to us, from our data - from our limited data - to be greater than the degree of control we can deliver by calcium or gibberellic acid (GA),” he said.