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Tales from the grove

Citrus County Chronicle – December 18, 2011

Despite the fact that over the last decade the number of acres of citrus in Florida has declined every year.

Despite the freezes of 1983 and 1989 and Hurricanes Charley, Francis and Jeanne in 2004 and Wilma in 2005.

Despite the years of real estate developments crowding out small groves and diseases like canker and greening that are running rampant through citrus groves up and down the state.
Despite all that, the most recent report (October 2011) from the Florida Department of Citrus for 2011-12 shows the projected Florida round orange crop to be up 4.8 percent from last year — an increase of 6.7 million boxes.

Likewise, the navel crop shows a projected 1 million increase and a 3 million box increase for Valencias.

That’s a lot of oranges.

Still, citrus growers in Citrus County aren’t out dancing in their groves — yet.

“Before the freeze (in 1983), we had about 80 acres of grove, producing,” said Mary Harrison, of Harrison Groves in Floral City. “I remember that last year we had a crop. We grossed $200,000, but we lost all the trees. We had little trees, but they weren’t producing.”
She said they had belonged to the Florida Orange Marketers co-op, but after they lost their trees they were out of the co-op. Now she and son Mark have 20 acres.

“It took two years for the 20 acres to start producing; that’s when we started selling at our (stand),” she said. “We didn’t have enough fruit for the co-op, so what else do you do with it? We also started taking them to the juice plant. Now we do both.”

To supplement their citrus business, growers often add other crops and investments. For the Harrisons, that means cattle and hay.

For Chuck Bellamy in Inverness, it’s sweet corn, greens and other vegetables. A third-generation grove owner, he’s as known for his corn as he is for his oranges.

Then there’s Ferris Groves, which takes up 450 of the 600 total acres that makes up Duval Island in Floral City.

At one time those 450 acres were solid citrus, said Dudley Calfee, general manager for Ferris Groves. Now, citrus accounts for only 25 acres of the farm. The rest is dedicated to strawberries and blueberries.

“After the freeze (in 1983), we started experimenting with different crops — melons, tomatoes,” Calfee said. “About 25 years ago we hit upon strawberries, and you’re not supposed to be able to grow strawberries this far north. But being an island and surrounded by water gives us a little different climate out there. The soil’s pretty good — one of the reasons the citrus did so good.”

According to information from the University of Florida, citrus “greening” (Huanglongbing or HLB) is currently the most devastating citrus disease that’s known, causing both orange and grapefruit production to plummet each by about 47 percent between 1997 and 2007.
It’s caused by psyllids, tiny insects that feed on citrus leaves and tender new growth. Local growers are spraying aggressively, trying to combat this enemy.

Calfee said Ferris trees got hit with greening about a year ago.

“We have it and we’re scouting for it and removing diseased trees and controlling the (insect),” he said. “We reset 500 trees this year and about 200 trees three or four years ago. It’s a constant process of evaluating the growth.”

Despite all that, Calfee said as far as Ferris is concerned, citrus has always been a part of the company’s operation. “We’ve got 25 acres of groves — we’re not 450 acres anymore — but we’re still in it,” he said.

As for the future of citrus, Calfee said he doesn’t have a crystal ball, but he sees evidence of the industry coming back after a rough decade. They still ship an average of 4,600 gift boxes of fruit each year.

“It’s something we really like,” he said. “It fits well with our business model for the (retail) store and it’s nostalgia for this business. We’ve always been citrus … it’s not a big money-maker for our operation, but it makes a nice little profit.

“Actually, this is one of those times when you’d love to be sitting on 500 acres of 10-year-old citrus.”

It’s the small, family-owed groves that Calfee said may not survive, and not just because of disease or loss from freezes.

“The breakdown comes when a generation changes,” he said. “Maybe the children live out of state and aren’t around or aren’t interested in continuing the business. You can see that in abandoned groves, in Citrus County and along I-75 and other places all over the state.”

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