http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/agriculture/pest-weary-orange-growers-turn-to-peaches-yes-peaches-in-florida/1059947

Pest-weary orange growers turn to peaches (yes, peaches, in Florida)

By James Thorner, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, December 20, 2009



Another orange fruit is trying to squeeze its way into the Florida citrus belt.

We're talking the peach, the fuzz ball that made Georgia famous.

Thanks to decades of cross-breeding at the University of Florida, peach trees can now grow in the Florida subtropics. That has inspired Florida citrus farmers to start planting peaches to diversify their increasingly troublesome orange crops.

From his orchard on the edge of the Green Swamp east of Dade City, Ron Wilson is a firm believer in the power of the peach.

After the viral disease tristeza infected the roots of his orange grove several years ago, Wilson approached nurseries to provide him with Florida hardy peach varieties.

Two years ago his 1,000 peach trees produced 80,000 pounds of fruit. They sold at Sweetbay supermarkets for $2.99 a pound. Unlike the peaches harvested in places like California that get picked too early, producing a sometimes grainy interior, local peaches can be picked at the peak of ripeness.

"They're juicy. They have an aroma. They taste like a peach should," Wilson said.

The key to growing peaches successfully in the previously hostile Florida climate is "chill hours." A certain number of hours below 45 degrees trigger a peach tree to start blossoming. In Georgia and South Carolina, 300 chill hours is normal.

Florida gets only 200 chill hours, with South Florida closer to 100.

Enter the University of Florida. For 50 years, horticulturists have tinkered with breeding a warm-weather peach. Growers in Australia and Morocco have adopted varieties such as Florida Prince, UF Sun and Tropic Beauty.

"We used to target North Florida. There used to be a peach industry in Madison County on the Georgia border. But a series of freezes in the '80s knocked it back," said Mercy Olmstead, a stone fruit specialist at UF. "Now we're targeting South and Central Florida. Peaches will grow as far south as Immokalee."

Historically, Florida fruit growers profiting from the state's $9 billion citrus industry didn't feel like messing with a delicate fruit known for easy bruising.

At the start of this year's late fall harvest, citrus is selling for $1.35 a pound, producing plenty of profits for farmers. The break-even price is about 75 cents a pound. But crop disease is making farmers miserable.

After battling pests like citrus canker and tristeza for years, growers are wrestling with a new disease called citrus greening. It's a tree-destroying bacteria spread by an insect called the Asian citrus psyllid.

Controlling the bugs requires costly extra spraying. An orange crop that once cost $700 an acre to produce now costs $1,200 to $1,500 an acre.

The idea of using peaches as a supplement — and sometimes replacement — for citrus is spreading to Wilson's Pasco County neighbors.

Terry Schrader, who manages his family's groves in Pasco's San Antonio community, was attracted to what peach proponents call an "early marketing window." Subtropical peaches are ready to eat from about late March to mid May. That lets Florida charge premium prices while fruit is still immature in Georgia and South Carolina.

"Peaches are more costly to maintain, probably $3,500 per acre. But tree for tree you can make more off peaches than you can off citrus," Schrader said. "We'll plant a couple of acres and see what happens."

So far peach cultivation appears to occupy fewer than 500 acres in Florida, including orchards in Dade City, Punta Gorda and Lakeland. Both Sweetbay and Publix carry the subtropical varieties.

With more than 35,000 acres under cultivation, California is by far the top peach-growing region. South Carolina is second and Georgia is third.

Wilson is at the center of a marketing drive to sell the consumer on a fruit long associated with our neighboring state to the north. One trial marketing slogan: Feel the Fuzz.

Sweetbay filmed a commercial in his orchard in June. Since crews arrived after trees had already been stripped of fruit, the producers dangled California peaches by wires off Wilson's trees. Once back at the studio, they even superimposed fake mountains in the background.

"We pick them by hand every other day. Within 24 hours they're in the store," Wilson said. "No more dry peaches. When you eat them the juice runs down your arm."

Jostling juicy fruits

Peach cultivation remains just a speck in the eye (500 acres) compared to Florida's massive citrus industry (485,000 acres). But
the fuzzy fruit is making a Florida comeback, thanks to the introduction of hardier varieties that resist the pests that are afflicting citrus.

Florida Nation's top citrus producer

California Nation's top peach producer

$1.35 Wholesale price per pound of Florida citrus this month.

$2+ Wholesale price per pound of Florida peaches.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20120314/NEWS/120319570

Some Former Citrus Growers Turn to Peach Farming


SCOTT WHEELER | THE LEDGER
Sean Harper thins out the peaches on his trees at SunSweet Peaches in Bartow recently.

By Elvina Nawaguna
THE LEDGER
Published: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 11:31 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 11:31 p.m.

BARTOW | White bucket in hand, Sean Harper walks down a row of peach trees, thinning out immature fruit a few weeks ahead of harvest. Just four years ago, this land was covered in a citrus grove. But on this sunny mid-morning, not one orange tree remains.

"I just got tired of dealing with the freezing and the greening and the canker," he said, plucking a small peach from a tree.

Like many Florida citrus farmers, the uncertainty caused by the citrus diseases and previous freezes caused him to turn to peach farming.

"We had a cold snap for one or two days and we lost about 60 percent of our fruit," the owner of SunSweet Peaches said. "We didn't want to plant it again. It was still too risky."

He estimated that his citrus losses from the freeze could add up to nearly $200,000.

Jacqueline Burns, director of University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, said citrus greening and canker have plagued commercial citrus growers all over the state and made growing the fruit too expensive for some.

The Asian citrus psyllid was first detected in Florida in 1998, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture. The citrus greening disease then showed up in Miami-Dade County in 2005 and later in other areas of the state, including Polk, in 2007.

"The cost of managing citrus has increased because of the extra precaution taken to grow the crop," Burns said.

Some citrus growers, she said, are buying new land to start growing peaches or are turning some of their groves into peach orchards.

"There's disease pressure, but there's also business pressure," Burns said. "Growers might think, ‘If I can't productively and sustainably grow citrus, what else can I do?'"

With the University of Florida now producing peach varieties that can grow in Florida's sub-tropical climate, peaches have become an alternative for citrus farmers who want to diversify and spread their risk.

"I think they're seeing the writing on the wall that they can't have all their eggs in one basket," said Mercy Olmstead, an extension specialist for stone fruit production with University of Florida's Department of Horticultural Sciences in Gainesville.

The school has come up with "low chill" varieties of peaches that don't require as many cold days to produce fruit like more northern trees do and can survive Florida's mostly subtropical climate.

Although growing peaches is usually associated with Georgia, peach farming is not entirely new to Florida. According to Olmstead, Florida had about 5,000 planted acres of peach trees in the early 1980s, but a devastating freeze in the mid-80s caused a drastic drop to about 500 acres by the end of that decade.

Florida peach farming only started to pick up again about a decade ago, she said. Today, there are more than 1,000 planted acres of peach trees, mostly in Central and South-central Florida, compared to 240 acres reported in 2007.

Georgia has about 12,000 acres.

About a quarter of Florida's orchards are producing their first fruit this year when harvest starts in April, according to Olmstead. A peach tree takes about a year to produce its first fruit and up to three years to be in full production.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture still doesn't track Florida's peach production, Olmstead said the industry will keep growing and expects at least a 15 percent increase in production this year from 2011.

Sterling Ivey, a spokeswoman for Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the best definitive information on Florida peach production will come out in a USDA Census report that will be released in February 2014.

"However, there are indications through occasional reports that peach production continues to expand," Ivey said. "We estimate in the next three years we'll see a massive increase in production acres, which currently remains far less of the number of acres dedicated to citrus.

This will be Harper's second harvest. He planted his first 10 acres of peach trees in the spring of 2010 and sold most of his first fruit through a "you-pick" last year, charging the public about $1.50 per pound picked.

Over the last two years, SunSweet Peaches planted 15 more acres and plans to have a total of 40 acres planted. Harper expects to harvest 40,000 pounds of peaches, up from 15,000 pounds last year, and is in talks with a few grocery stores to start selling his fruit commercially.

The advantage with growing peaches in Florida, he said, is that the peaches hit the market two months before Georgia and California and can enjoy a market with little competition. Currently, Florida peaches are mostly sold within the state and neighboring states.

Andrew Meadows, director of communications at Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual, said the organization is aware of citrus farmers diversifying to peaches.

"We're not concerned that we're losing citrus growers at this point," he said, adding that the peach growing industry is still in such an infant stage that it doesn't significantly affect the citrus industry.

"Anytime growers can broaden their portfolio and have an option in addition to citrus, that's a positive thing," Meadows said. "It's just smart business not to put all your (oranges) in one basket."

[ Elvina Nawaguna can be reached at Elvina.Nawaguna@theledger.com or 802-7515. ]


SCOTT WHEELER | THE LEDGER
The advantage with growing peaches in Florida, Sean Harper said, is that the peaches hit the market two months
before Georgia and California and can enjoy a market with little competition. Currently, Florida peaches are mostly
sold within the state and neighboring states.