A Few Facts About the Florida Orange

Each winter, Florida orange growers hold their breath. They brace themselves for possible freezing weather that could either completely or partially ruin their crop – or, like magic, turn it into a harvest of sweeter-than-normal citrus enviable to the rest of the world’s orange growers.

In orange production, Florida orange growers rank Number 1 in the United States and Number 2 in the entire world, trailing only behind Brazil. And although oranges and other citrus also grow in Texas, Arizona and California, it’s the subtropical climate unique to Florida that can literally make or break any year’s harvest of the famous Florida orange.

As one Florida orange grower explains, freezing temperatures 28 degrees Fahrenheit lasting three to four hours or longer can damage and even kill orange fruit and sometimes the trees themselves. However, those same temperatures that last for shorter periods of time actually increase the sweetness of the Florida orange, turning it into a premium product.

When icy weather threatens, Florida orange grove owners do what they can to protect the fruit. Flooding their fields and spraying the fruit with water helps in raising the temperature the few degrees that are critical to preventing damage or death to the Florida orange.

For more than 150 years, the Sunshine State has grown the Florida orange, as well as other citrus fruits, forging it into what is now a nine-billion-dollar per year industry. And although most of the Florida orange crop, about 95%, goes to making juice, a significant number of fruit-basket enterprises sell the fruit as gifts and to people desiring to get the “freshest and the best” – an offering that can be had almost year round.

Spaniard Ponce de Leon, the first European explorer to visit Florida, introduced the orange to the state in the 16th century. De Leon ordered each of his men plant 100 orange seeds at any place they landed. With an ideal subtropical climate and growing conditions, the trees flourished. By the 19th century, Florida orange groves had become a major industry for that state’s economy and an entrenched means of livelihood for the people living there.

Growers of the Florida orange and other citrus produce a number of offerings to consumers. These include navel, Valencia, and Temple oranges, as well as grapefruit and several varieties of tangerine, among others. Because of its lack of seeds, the navel orange reigns as the most popular Florida orange; however, other oranges, such as the Valencia, are renowned for their extreme juiciness and abundantly sweet flavor.