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Co-op History
The Grove
Grove Theater
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Our citrus trees are carefully cultivated to produce superior fruit. A citrus tree begins with a seed planted in a seedbed to grow for 9 to 12 months. This special “root stock” tree is then transferred to a nursery where a bud is grafted to it from an existing tree. These buds come from trees that have a traceable ancestry. The “parent trees” are registered and certified by the State of Florida. Thus, the young tree becomes a single citrus tree with known parentage. One year later, it will be ready to be transplanted into a grove.
The root stock process gives trees several advantages:
- It assures us that the variety will be pure and that the trees will be heavy producers, with roots that are suited for the type of soil found in each growing location.
- The trees are stronger. The combination of two trees into one leaves the new tree more resistant to pests, disease, and adverse weather conditions.
- The trees produce sooner. The buds from the mature trees help the small trees “speed-up” their growth process, which allows them to produce fruit in 3 years. Trees grown from seed usually take 15 years to begin bearing fruit, and the grafted trees also produce better tasting, higher quality fruit.
Orange trees reach maturity in approximately 25 years and can bear up to 2,000 pieces of fruit. Citrus trees have a long, rich life, bearing fruit for 100 years or more. Each fruit must stay on its tree until it is ready to eat because, unlike other fruit, citrus does not continue to ripen after it is picked.
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