Bruce Ackerman/Staff photographer
Charlie Sanders looks over navel oranges growing on a citrus tree that now grows 11
different varieties of citrus fruit in the yard of his home in the Tropicana Village
in Belleview on Monday.

Blimey! A citrus tree with 11 kinds of fruit
The grafted tree bears several types of oranges, tangerines and tangelos.

By Kimberly Sarmiento
Correspondent
Published: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at 6:30 a.m.

BELLEVIEW - Charlie Sanders grew up in Michigan knowing nothing about the citrus industry. But when he settled in Florida, he decided he wanted to grow fruit.

He now is the proud owner of a citrus tree that bears 11 different fruits, including several varieties of navel oranges, tangerines, tangelos and grapefruit.

The tree is the living legacy of Sanders' friend, citrus grower Don Johnson, who passed away two years ago and never got to see his creation bear fruit.

The novelty tree is based on the root stock of a Key lime that Sanders bought several years ago because he loved Key lime pie and wanted to grow fresh ingredients. The tree never bore fruit, and he was told it was probably grown from a seed.

"You can't grow citrus trees from seeds," Sanders said. "I cut it down as close as I could to the ground. I was probably going to kill it and plant something else, but I got these branches growing out of the trunk."

Sanders called Johnson and asked him about the tree. Johnson told him it would never bear limes, but they could graft some fruit onto the healthy branches growing out of the trunk. So Johnson cut open the limbs of the tree and taped in 12 different fruit buds from trees growing on his property.

According to Sanders, Johnson let it grow that way for about a month and then came back to take the tape off and see how the grafting had worked.

"You have to take the tape off and trim it back," Sanders said. "He cut one of them too short, and he killed it. So instead of the 12, I've got 11 on there."

"If they got 11 out of 12 to take, that's pretty good," said David Holmes, Marion County Extension Director.

"In the old days, we used to recommend the sour orange root stock. Swingle citremello is the root stock we use now. That would not produce anything you would want to eat. Once the tree gets started, we bud a desirable root stock onto it," Holmes said.

"Whatever grows out of that leaf or that stem, that's going to bear that fruit. For most people it's not practical to do, but it's a nice novelty" he said.

Sanders agrees. "We just did it to see if it would work," he said. "You're only going to get maybe 15 or 20 of each fruit."

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We should get Joe in the papers!

.....Alan.

They deserve respect for what they did with that tree but I hope he is wrong about citrus seeds

Of course a citrus tree can be grown from seed and a bear fruit, it just takes a little longer. The misinformation concerning a seedling tree being unable to ever bear fruit, never seems to die a noble death. However, it is great that Mr. Saunders has such a wonderful tree.- Millet

I find it curious that he's using a Key lime for the rootstock. Belleview is only ten miles or so south of Ocala and they do get freezing weather down there just as I do though usually a degree or three higher. It seems to have held up well.

.....Alan.