Gene-Edited Trees Tested to Save Florida Citrus

Florida citrus growers are planting some of the first trees grafted onto a gene-edited rootstock designed to withstand a lethal bacterial disease — a high-stakes experiment that researchers and farmers say could determine whether the state’s iconic industry survives.

The rootstock, called CarriCea T1, was developed by the Tampa-based biotech company Soilcea using CRISPR gene-editing technology and was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in April 2026. Because the payoff — how the trees yield and how their fruit tastes — will not be known for years, the planting marks a bet on science over a crisis that has already reshaped Florida agriculture.

A Two-Decade Crisis

Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing, or HLB, arrived in Florida in 2005. The disease is spread by a tiny winged insect called the Asian citrus psyllid and attacks a tree’s immune system, leaving it unable to fight the infection. Infected trees produce bitter, discolored fruit and usually die within a few years. There is no cure, according to NPR.

The damage has been staggering. The EPA reported that greening has destroyed more than 90 percent of Florida’s citrus production over the past two decades. In the late 1990s, growers shipped around 300 million boxes of fruit each season; by the season that ended in June 2026, that had fallen to just over 15 million boxes, according to Matt Joyner, chief executive of the growers’ trade group Florida Citrus Mutual.

Ron English, a fourth-generation grower whose family ran a citrus business in the Tampa-area community of Valrico until greening forced it to close in 2015, described the collapse in personal terms. “We had some of the best looking groves around, and all the time and effort that we had spent, you just see it diminish right before you,” he told NPR.

How CarriCea T1 Works

Soilcea used CRISPR to make precise edits to the citrus tree’s own existing genes rather than introducing DNA from other organisms. The edits disrupt the interaction between the plant and the bacterium that causes greening, helping the tree limit infection on its own — an approach that also allows growers to rely less on chemical sprays.

Focusing on the rootstock is central to the strategy, said Soilcea chief executive Yianni Lagos. Although the first visible sign of infection is yellowing leaves, he explained, “before you even have symptoms, half the root system is already dead.”

The underlying science came from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, specifically the lab of Eminent Scholar Nian Wang at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred. The technology was exclusively licensed through UF Innovate, the university’s commercialization office, and supported by funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to UF/IFAS.

“This breakthrough exemplifies the world-class agricultural research and innovation taking place at UF/IFAS, our increasing focus on using biotech tools to accelerate solutions for growers and our enhanced efforts to commercialize innovations,” said J. Scott Angle, UF’s senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources.

From Approval to Field

The EPA registered CarriCea T1 on April 28, 2026, a decision the growers’ association Florida Citrus Mutual called “a major milestone” and a first-of-its-kind citrus rootstock, according to Citrus Industry Magazine. The timing allowed planting ahead of the 2026–27 season. Two months later, on June 30, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service deregulated the CarriCea Carrizo rootstock, clearing another regulatory hurdle.

Grower interest has been brisk. Since the EPA registration in April, Florida growers have ordered more than 300,000 CarriCea trees, per UF/IFAS. In April, Lagos told FreshFruitPortal that 200,000 trees were moving through the nursery pipeline.

“CarriCea T1 is the first look at citrus trees of the future, helping reduce input costs and strengthening the resilience of Florida’s citrus industry,” Joyner said. “Developed right here in Florida for Florida growers, this innovation has the potential to transform the global citrus industry.”

At a Soilcea test field in Thonotosassa, Florida, where trees were planted about a year ago, the early results are visible. Trees with the modified rootstock are taller and greener than adjacent trees without it. English, who now cares for the test trees, pointed to a neighboring tree with yellow, discolored leaves. “See the discoloration, that’s the disease already working through the tree,” he said.

The Long Wait Ahead

For all the optimism, the decisive evidence is years away. The real test will be the fruit — not only how much a tree produces, but how it tastes. “The data suggest it’s going to work, but until you have a 10-year-old tree, you don’t know how the tree is going to perform,” Lagos told NPR.

Soilcea has been explicit about the limits of its own projections: the company’s economic benefit calculator notes that it does not yet have yield data and that its estimates are based on current HLB resistance testing. Fruit from the new rootstock is classified by the USDA as non-bioengineered, and the developers say it is indistinguishable from fruit grown on other rootstocks — a point that may ease consumer acceptance of the technology.

The stakes extend beyond the orchard. Florida citrus is a culturally and economically significant crop, and the state directed nearly $196 million in investment to the industry in mid-2026, according to FreshFruitPortal. The investment covers research, field trials, nursery and packing infrastructure, and marketing.

A second Soilcea product, BeneCea D1, is also in development. But for now, the question that matters most hangs over every newly planted grove: whether a gene-edited root can do what two decades of spraying, tenting and antibiotics could not.

“This innovative tool for growers is giving our industry renewed confidence in the future as we work to recover and rebuild,” said Florida Citrus Mutual board president Kevin Koppelman.

For growers like English — whose family was in citrus as early as 1895 — that renewed confidence is a welcome change after years of watching groves disappear. Whether it endures will be measured one 10-year-old tree at a time.