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North Florida farmers growing satsuma oranges
MARIANNA, Fla. (AP) _ One by one, Mack Glass and his fellow satsuma growers in Jackson County carefully pick the bright orange citrus fruit they hope will revive an industry that once thrived in their area.
Glass, who has timber growing on his farm, knows about the long-term view required any time you're talking about trees. He also knows that with many of the area's traditional crops - cotton, soybeans, peanuts - the potential income may not offset the risk.
"I am cautiously optimistic about it," he said of the citrus effort. "I think there is a possibility of a return greater per acre than I can generate from the other crops I have tried. The marketing is the challenge."
The wooden boxes that are a common sight in South Florida groves cover a large trailer. Glass, with help from fellow growers Nolan Daniels and Ryder Laramore, carefully clips the fruit from the trees and drops it in a mesh bag he has around his neck. They fill the crates and later, will pack cardboard "Cherokee Satsuma" cartons for deliveries to area churches, schools and civic groups who sell the fruit as a fundraiser.
The satsuma group is one of the four types of mandarin oranges. According to the Cherokee Satsuma Co-op's Web site, the satsuma mandarin may have originated in China, but actually came to the U.S. from Japan. George R. Hall brought the fruit trees to Florida in 1876. By 1911, roughly 1 million "Owari" satsuma trees had been imported from Japan and planted throughout the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas.
According to industry historians, Jackson County was known as the "Satsuma Capital of the World" in the early 1900s. Satsuma, Ala., just north of Mobile, was named after the fruit in 1915. At the industry's peak, there were about 3,000 acres of satsumas in the Panhandle alone. Freezes, including a bad one in 1935, wiped out the business.
In 1999, Glass attended a meeting of agricultural officials at the University of Florida who were talking about new farm programs, especially crops to consider. "I set out to look for an alternative crop so we could keep the land in agriculture," Glass said of his farm. "The farm has been in the family for over 90 years and we'd like to keep it a farm if we possibly can."
The decision to add citrus was based in part on its history in the area, and new techniques in freeze prevention developed by UF and Auburn University. Glass has installed wells and an irrigation system that actually sprays water on the trees as the temperature falls. The resulting ice insulates the tree from the damaging colder temperatures.
He placed his order for the trees in the fall of 1999. They arrived in March 2002.
"I had to learn about all the regulations," Glass said. "I had to get my trees grown at a certified nursery so I could market the fruit. And since I was getting them on a cold-hardy root stock that the South Florida citrus industry doesn't use, they had to grow the root stock and graft the satsuma variety to that."
He and wife Alicia have 600 trees planted 116 per acre, surrounded by a fence to keep out the fruit-loving deer. He carefully watches the irrigation level and soil nutrients. And when the fall does bring the cold nights, the chill helps sweeten the satsumas.
Nolan Daniels and his son Larry have 360 trees in their grove. "We are still in the infant stage of this business, trying to make a go of it," said the elder Daniels. It's too soon to tell how their efforts will turn out, he added, but through the co-op they share the best practices for pest control, fertilizer and other essentials. "If somebody has something working, then we'll all go to it."
Gerard Krewer, University of Georgia professor of horticulture, said citrus is gaining popularity in the region. "As long as we don't have the extraordinarily cold weather, we can do pretty well here."
While Glass, Laramore and Daniels have intentions of marketing their fruit commercially through the co-op they have formed, Krewer said much of the interest in citrus is among homeowners who want the fruit trees as part of their gardening activities. In southern Georgia, homeowners are growing grapefruit, kumquats and satsumas.
Those attending the expo are encouraged to show off what they have produced. "It's a big event," Krewer said. "There could be several hundred people here, and people bring samples of the fruit they have grown."
