Emma and her dad Jason, from Southern Pines, NC,
get a taste of a fresh-picked orange from Stanley
McKenzies young grove. Jason and his wife Mandy are
planning to try growing citrus on their own farm.
http://www.scnow.com/scp/news/local/article/citrus_in_south_carolina/29858/
Citrus In South Carolina?
By David Green
The Weekly Observer Editor
Published: January 26, 2009
SCRANTON Stanley McKenzie has been growing oranges, grapefruits and tangerines for years in South Carolina. Lately hes been busy planting an orange grove to expand his operations on the Lake City Olanta Highway. Its just coming into bearing, and next year hopes to have a pick-your-own harvest for his customers. He will keep them pruned so they wont ever get more than six feet high.
Last fall McKenzie offered tours of his citrus growing experiments and nursery for the public. He also offered taste tests of the results, in the form of freshly picked oranges and tangelos that he peeled and passed out to visitors.
Growing citrus is harder than it is in south Florida, but it is possible, says McKenzie. One of the keys is to grow only the hardiest varieties, of which there are quite a few available. Then they need some extra protection from the coldest winter weather, especially when the trees are young. As the trees age, they increase in cold hardiness and the fruit gets sweeter, as well.
In his young grove, which is just coming into production McKenzie has a sprinkler system, with nozzles at each tree. When temperatures drop into danger zones during the winter, he turns on the sprinklers and leaves them spraying over the trees. The trees will accumulate a layer of ice, but the plant tissues will not freeze.
He says other ways to protect them might include setting a barrel of water next to the tree to hold the days heat for the cold night, planting them in sheltered locations, or covering them when cold threatens. He says one can also decorate the trees with strings of Christmas lights, which will give off enough heat on a cold night to keep the buds from freezing.
He says dwarf Satsuma oranges can be grown as far north as Raleigh by building a wire frame large enough to enclose the entire tree. When cold weather first threatens, full the wire frame with pine straw, completely covering the tree, then tarp the entire bundle and leave covered until spring. Then he says, Fertilize the tree and watch it grow!
McKenzie owns a nursery, which supplies a variety of fruits and ornamentals, but citrus is his passion and that part of the business has been growing. Part of his demonstration was to show how citrus varieties that he propagates are grafted or budded onto the wild trifoliate orange rootstocks. Trifoliate will produce fruit but it is bitter and the plant is very thorny. But the plant is very disease resistant and cold hardy, so it makes an excellent rootstock for grafted varieties.
McKenzie has obtained bud wood from citrus that has been growing in South Carolina, even since colonial times. One variety that hes anxious to propagate is from a tree he discovered in Summerville. Im glad we got these snips to keep this bloodline going. The gentleman that owned this has died, and we have no guarantee that the tree will be kept. You cant buy this variety anywhere in America. Visitors who tasted the fruit pronounced it delicious.
Another favorite is the little Clementines, which he said he saw in a grocery store at seven fruits for $3.98.
Yuzu, a Japanese variety, got him mentioned in the New York Times. The fruit is used in Japan, peel and all, for sauces, and even for bathing. The food editor from the Times called and asked if I had any Yuzus. I said, Yeah, Ive got a few trees. He asked if he could mention me in an article, and I agreed. I had kept them around as a curiosity, but no one knew anything about them and few ever wanted them. After the article, the phone rang off the hook from people that wanted their own trees.
Visitors were surprised that many of the orange varieties had green fruit rather than orange. But when sliced, the insides were orange and juicy.
McKenzie has been interested in citrus since he was a boy. His grandmother had an orange tree, just across the road from his present home. He tried growing oranges several times over the years and failed each time. But then in the 1980s he was in Charleston and saw a grapefruit tree at a doctors office. Then he found other citrus growing in other areas of the state. The rest is history, he says. Ive been fooling with it ever since. I enjoy it every day.
He has been a conventional farmer all his life, but also raised some vegetables for a stand beside the road. In 1999 he began to sell nursery stock to fill in the seasonal hole. And hes been gradually changing focus to do more and more nursery.
But he waved his hand toward his young citrus grove and pronounced, This is my retirement.
Resources
McKenzie can be contacted through his web page:
http://mckenzie-farms.com/
The Southeastern Palm Society sponsors a Citrus Expo each year for persons interested in growing hardy citrus:
http://www.sepalms.org/ 
