Green is Good (So is Orange)
Citrus is a big plus for Florida’s environment. A modern grove design provides large areas of undeveloped land, delivering an exceptional wildlife habitat and a natural barrier between farmlands and urban development. University of Florida researchers recently observed more than 159 native species of wildlife within grove ecosystems. Research shows that for every acre of mature trees, 16.7 tons of oxygen is produced per year. Fun Fact: A single 140-gram orange supplies a whopping 92% of the Vitamin C intake you need in a day.
Florida’s Citrus History
Christopher Columbus brought the first citrus to the New World in 1493. In 1513, Spanish explorers including Ponce De Leon, Hernan Cortez, and Hernando DeSoto brought citrus to Florida. In the mid-1500s, one of the early Spanish explorers -most likely Ponce de Leon- planted the first orange trees around St. Augustine, Florida.
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Almost 250 years later, in 1763, Jesse Fish of St. Augustine created the first commercial citrus grove. The industry grew and in 1776, the first references to the shipment of fruit out of Florida appeared in writing, where it was noted that 65,000 oranges and 2 caskets of juice went via boat to England. After the Civil War, commercial production began in earnest, thanks to the development of the railroad that allowed citrus growers to ship their products across the country. In 1894 and 1895, freezes devastated much of the state’s citrus crops. Refusing to be beaten, many citrus growers went further south and started growing again. Within 15 years, the industry rallied and by 1950, Florida produced over 100 million boxes of citrus. In 1970, that number reached 200 million. At that point, citrus had grown into a billion-dollar industry, and orange juice could be shipped all over the U.S., with television spreading the word.
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You can read more about Florida’s citrus history here, with challenges through the years that included blights, freezes and hurricanes, and the successes that helped it flourish, like discoveries about insects, ways to increase productions—like topping trees—and advertising to help it stay in the public eye.
Today, most citrus is grown in the southern two-thirds of the Florida peninsula, where probability of freezing temperatures is lowest, although Polk County in Central Florida holds reign as the top citrus producing county in the state. Fun Fact: In 1982, scientists in Lake Alfred, Florida, learned that micro-sprinkler irrigation offered citrus tree protection from freezing.
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