Citrus Greening has plagued Florida farmers for decades.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, since the disease was first detected, Florida's citrus production has dropped by almost 95%.
But a newly developed tree approved for rollout last week could be the potential solution.
It's called CarriCea T1, and is a rootstock that University of Florida researchers developed that resists citrus greening.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the company Soilicea to sell more than 300,000 of these trees.
Mingder Yang is the assistant director of UF Innovate, the school's technology commercialization office which licensed these new rootstocks.
He said this approach is revolutionary because it offers an alternative method to protect against citrus greening.
The usual remedy? Yang said farmers inject their trees with antibiotics, but that can be costly and time consuming.
" People are trying all different type of things. Try and find beneficial bacteria to combat it. Nothing has so far proven a long-term success or economic beneficial for the growers. And this is a more permanent solution, if you will," Yang said.
Yang said the next step is to see — over time — how well these new trees fight off citrus greening and how well they bear fruits.