Hopes were high that apple exports could start next year, but Australian demands for expensive quarantine measures have delayed the process indefinitely. Unfortunately for apple growers, the WTO could take years to resolve any dispute and the possibility of a change of government in Australia later this year means that Kiwi apples will not be on Australian menus anytime soon. Top level trade talks have failed to overturn Australia's 85-year-old ban on New Zealand apples. Frustrated...

Because you indicated that your citrus tree is probably more than 10 years old, it may be that it is simply nearing its life expectancy. The tree then goes into fairly rapid decline with extensive twig dieback, off-season flower production, and small fruit. You will still be able to plant another citrus tree in the same area with no after-effects from the removed tree. Trees grafted onto rootstocks with a limited life expectancy, such as the sour orange rootstock, start to show decline...

Not only did they appreciate the care and attention that is required to grow the plants, they understood that soft fruit plays an important role in healthy eating. In fact, its the only strawberry that they are guaranteed to eat. The Baby AVA berries are small in size but big on flavour and typically retail at 99p for 160g in Sainsburys. I always find that the ultimate taste testers are my children, and they love AVA. Baby AVA help educate Scottish children. Angus Soft Fruits the only soft...

A: Armallaria root rot (sometimes called oak root fungus) is a fungal disease that attacks herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees, including apples, citrus and stone fruits. As for fruit trees, pear, fig, persimmon and black walnut, and strawberry guava are comparatively resistant to Armallaria. Progression of the disease may be slowed by pulling out all infected stumps and roots over an inch in diameter, and allowing the soil to air dry in an affected garden. If you have lost ornamental...

It includes, for instance, an easy-to-explain provision banning farm subsidies to cotton, rice, wheat and corn growers with gross annual incomes greater than $1 million. Now, as the 600-plus page bill heads for vote in the full House as early as next week, Tina Mizuno and others like her must keep watching even more closely. It will pay for research and marketing, and for federal snack and school-lunch purchases. The more complicated truth, though, is that the bill also raises by tens of...

The process used to make that is the same process used to make orange (and lime, etc. Lunchtime has always been the Monitor's witching hour an all-too brief spell in the working day when grafters are freed from the 9-5 office slog to indulge in a spot of online loitering (with honourable intent, of course) pm and 2pm this afternoon, and in place of Friday's letters page*, the Monitor is staging a live and constantly updated extravaganza of comments, conjecture and confabulation submitted...

He d tell them about California farmers who had mechanized lettuce harvesting and were using citrus pickers with infrared sensors to detect ripe fruit. Senate immigration bill that would have offered legal status for up to 900,000 undocumented agricultural workers failed, and immigration officers detained nearly 200 workers at a Portland produce processing plant. The high-tech machine which uses shaker rod technology to coax grapes off the vine into molded silicon rubber collection baskets...

Ask customers who drive miles out of their way to shop at the market why they do so and you will repeatedly hear because the products are fresh. As soon as you step from your vehicle, the sweet savor of fresh fruit fills the air, seeping into the parking lot, as if to call you from your car. Ripe vegetables and fruit fresh for the picking fill the grounds in rows as customers browse the isle for whatever recipe they may be stirring up. There does not seem to be anything like eating...

To Wall Street, Chief Executive Indra Nooyi reiterated the company's strategy of doing smaller, tuck-in acquisitions over a larger transformative one, dismissing as "rumors" a report last week in The Wall Street Journal about unsuccessful negotiations to combine with Switzerland-based food and drink company Nestle SA. But its shares waffled as the company announced declines for Gatorade sports drinks and Tropicana orange juice, contributing to a 1 percent slip in beverage volumes in North...