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I'm fortunate to live by local Florida orange growers. Nothing like juice made from Valencia Oranges. The economics of Oranges and juice are fascinating. In Fl

I'm fortunate to live by local Florida orange growers. Nothing like juice made from Valencia Oranges. The economics of Oranges and juice are fascinating. In Florida, we had a major outbreak of citrus canker that made most of the oranges grown here unsuitable for sale by USDA standards (still safe for consumption). So, off to the juice factory to be stored in those massive vats.

HillaryBriss 8y ago
interesting. in SoCal there are a lot of urban citrus trees growing amongst the houses and apartments, including Valencia oranges. most of the time, the oranges are a bit on the tart side, but there are some sweet ones here and there. IDK what makes the difference. maybe sun exposure on the tree, or more cold weather in a given year. in any case, i'm surprised at how many go to waste. ... which leads to my question: what happened with all the citrus greening disease in Florida? i heard it had destroyed a lot of trees. have they found a good way to combat that?
- 01100011 8y ago
  Sweet citrus needs heat. You can grow sweeter fruit farther from the coast. If you're near the coast, plant it in an area that collects heat. Citrus needs a lot of fertilizer. I finally did the calculations one year and I was astounded at how much nitrogen I needed to apply. Once I did, I got amazing yields. Micronutrients are important too, but man, that nitrogen. In socal, stick to an acidifying source like ammonium sulfate or cottonseed hulls.
  - pvaldes 8y ago
    Some Citrus are much hardier than another. Tangerines, the fruit that gave its sweetness to oranges are much hardier (orange is an hybrid, it does not exist in nature). Grapefruits suffer even more with cold than oranges
- pvaldes 8y ago
  > what happened with all the citrus greening disease in Florida? Globalisation happened. People basically does not care about it, but new plant diseases are a big problem for the economy of a country.
- pvaldes 8y ago
  > most of the time, the oranges are a bit on the tart side, but there are some sweet ones here and there. IDK what makes the difference. Oranges are a type of fruit created twice, so can be split in two big groups: Sweet oranges, the fruit that we eat normally, and sour oranges, often used in landscaping and bitter (being bitter they do not attract vandalism). Sweet oranges include several subgroups also. Some are more tart than other.
  - oska 8y ago
    Interesting use of the word vandalism.
    - pvaldes 8y ago
      Well... Trees in the streets have an economic value attached, as any other public property. Damaged trees have to be replaced again and again. People picking oranges carelessly lead easily to crashed stems, ugly patches of dry foliage and damaged trunks. Fruit in the streets works great for some locations, not so for other ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Al-Khwarizmi 8y ago
I'm even more fortunate: I live in Spain so I order Valencia oranges directly from producers in the actual region of Valencia. When not on season, I buy oranges from South Africa or wherever, but I can't stomach the bottled juice. I don't know what flavor pack they use here but it doesn't taste even remotely like the real thing, I'd rather make juice from the worst oranges in the supermarket than drink bottled.
- arcticfox 8y ago
  Normally I wouldn't want to burst your bubble, but one-upsmanship is a pet peeve of mine. The Valencia orange was developed in California; Floridian Valencia oranges are just as valid.
  - eesmith 8y ago
    FWIW, details from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia_orange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia_orange : > William Wolfskill .. migrating to California .. hybridized the Valencia orange, a sweet orange, naming it for Valencia, Spain, which had a reputation for its sweet orange trees. .. The success of this crop in Southern California led to the naming of Valencia, California. > ... In the mid 20th century, Florida botanist Lena B. Smithers Hughes introduced major improvements to the Valencia orange .. the Hughes Valencia bud line [make] up some 60 percent of all Valencia oranges propagated for cultivation in Florida
  - yesenadam 8y ago
    >Normally I wouldn't want to burst your bubble, but one-upsmanship is a pet peeve of mine. Your comment would have been much more pleasant and no less informative to read without that first sentence. The only "one-upmanship" I detected was yours.
    - arcticfox 8y ago
      The original posted "I'm fortunate" with a nice story about something they enjoy in life (orange juice from local farmers). Then the other one posted "I'm even more fortunate" and wrote about how their oranges were somehow more authentic. To me, it's the definition of one-upsmanship. I live two thousand miles away from the nearest orange tree, so I'm not sure how I'm competing with them.

HillaryBriss 8y ago

interesting. in SoCal there are a lot of urban citrus trees growing amongst the houses and apartments, including Valencia oranges. most of the time, the oranges are a bit on the tart side, but there are some sweet ones here and there. IDK what makes the difference. maybe sun exposure on the tree, or more cold weather in a given year. in any case, i'm surprised at how many go to waste. ... which leads to my question: what happened with all the citrus greening disease in Florida? i heard it had destroyed a lot of trees. have they found a good way to combat that?

01100011 8y ago
Sweet citrus needs heat. You can grow sweeter fruit farther from the coast. If you're near the coast, plant it in an area that collects heat. Citrus needs a lot of fertilizer. I finally did the calculations one year and I was astounded at how much nitrogen I needed to apply. Once I did, I got amazing yields. Micronutrients are important too, but man, that nitrogen. In socal, stick to an acidifying source like ammonium sulfate or cottonseed hulls.
- pvaldes 8y ago
  Some Citrus are much hardier than another. Tangerines, the fruit that gave its sweetness to oranges are much hardier (orange is an hybrid, it does not exist in nature). Grapefruits suffer even more with cold than oranges
pvaldes 8y ago
> what happened with all the citrus greening disease in Florida? Globalisation happened. People basically does not care about it, but new plant diseases are a big problem for the economy of a country.
pvaldes 8y ago
> most of the time, the oranges are a bit on the tart side, but there are some sweet ones here and there. IDK what makes the difference. Oranges are a type of fruit created twice, so can be split in two big groups: Sweet oranges, the fruit that we eat normally, and sour oranges, often used in landscaping and bitter (being bitter they do not attract vandalism). Sweet oranges include several subgroups also. Some are more tart than other.
- oska 8y ago
  Interesting use of the word vandalism.
  - pvaldes 8y ago
    Well... Trees in the streets have an economic value attached, as any other public property. Damaged trees have to be replaced again and again. People picking oranges carelessly lead easily to crashed stems, ugly patches of dry foliage and damaged trunks. Fruit in the streets works great for some locations, not so for other ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Al-Khwarizmi 8y ago

I'm even more fortunate: I live in Spain so I order Valencia oranges directly from producers in the actual region of Valencia. When not on season, I buy oranges from South Africa or wherever, but I can't stomach the bottled juice. I don't know what flavor pack they use here but it doesn't taste even remotely like the real thing, I'd rather make juice from the worst oranges in the supermarket than drink bottled.

arcticfox 8y ago
Normally I wouldn't want to burst your bubble, but one-upsmanship is a pet peeve of mine. The Valencia orange was developed in California; Floridian Valencia oranges are just as valid.
- eesmith 8y ago
  FWIW, details from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia_orange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia_orange : > William Wolfskill .. migrating to California .. hybridized the Valencia orange, a sweet orange, naming it for Valencia, Spain, which had a reputation for its sweet orange trees. .. The success of this crop in Southern California led to the naming of Valencia, California. > ... In the mid 20th century, Florida botanist Lena B. Smithers Hughes introduced major improvements to the Valencia orange .. the Hughes Valencia bud line [make] up some 60 percent of all Valencia oranges propagated for cultivation in Florida
- yesenadam 8y ago
  >Normally I wouldn't want to burst your bubble, but one-upsmanship is a pet peeve of mine. Your comment would have been much more pleasant and no less informative to read without that first sentence. The only "one-upmanship" I detected was yours.
  - arcticfox 8y ago
    The original posted "I'm fortunate" with a nice story about something they enjoy in life (orange juice from local farmers). Then the other one posted "I'm even more fortunate" and wrote about how their oranges were somehow more authentic. To me, it's the definition of one-upsmanship. I live two thousand miles away from the nearest orange tree, so I'm not sure how I'm competing with them.