[Rons Landscaping]

I was reading some of the remarks that people responded with and I have to chuckle with some of the answers. I have planted fruit trees here in Florida that do just fine. Now I wouldn't go out and just plant a fruit tree just because you like a certain fruit, there are some questions you need to ask yourself first. Do I have enough room on my property to grow one? do I have enough sun exposure for my tree? Is it going to interfere with my neighbors property? Our new customers that move here from the north ask me all the time can I plant fruit trees here? Because of where we are located here in Florida there are only a few fruit trees that I would use. The answer is yes you can, but your chances of success are not very good with some of them. In the 28-years I have been in the horticultural business here in Florida I would only use a Peach tree or a Grapefruit tree here in The Villages. You can plant orange trees, lemon and lime trees, cocktail trees, and the sort, but you will roll the dice with those trees because of our winters here. Now you can't go by our last 2 winters here, they were extremely warm. I have seen it happen 4-times where freezing weather did them in. And even if they make it through a hard freeze and the tree lives, and if it produces fruit the following years, the tree will become a (sour tree) meaning you will not be able to eat the fruit. I can remember back in the 80's when leaving The Villages and driving to Orlando on the turnpike it was solid orange groves as far as the eye could see all the way to Orlando. But the freezes in the 80's and 90's did them in and the farmers finally gave up. Grapefruit trees do pretty good here, I like the Ruby Red grapefruit myself much better then the white. If you plant one make sure you have enough room so not to interfere with your neighbor. I have a peach tree here on my property in The Villages and it does really, really, good. You can grow peaches here in Florida and they do very good if you grow the right trees. Peach trees need to have enough cold days in order to produce fruit, my tree had over 200 peaches on it last year and they were very sweet. The fruit will be smaller then Georgia Peaches, but they are very good. When buying a peach tree look for trees like Florida King, Florida Grande, Florida Prince, Tropical Beauty, these are varieties that are grafted for Floridas climate. I myself have a Tropical Beauty and it loves it here. When buying one try to get one that is grown in a container rather then a bare root tree, they do much better. When the tree starts to produce fruit in the spring pick off some of the small fruit, that will help with over crowding and not put so much wait on the branches, also thin out some of the smaller branches inside the tree to give it more air flow, and your tree will thank you for it. Then during the winter months when it is dormant you can trim it back hard. My tree is only about 7-foot tall, you really don't want it much higher then that anyway because it's harder to pick the fruit. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't grow Peaches in Florida, you can and they are great. ( Hope this helps )

[mherzberg]

I'd like to plant a naval orange, a lemon and a lime tree. Is this something you can/would do? I would be looking for the smaller, or shorter, varieties if there is such a thing. We'd like to have some minor landscaping done along with the trees.

[Rons Landscaping]

Originally Posted by mherzberg

I'd like to plant a naval orange, a lemon and a lime tree. Is this something you can/would do? I would be looking for the smaller, or shorter, varieties if there is such a thing. We'd like to have some minor landscaping done along with the trees.

If you would like to call me at 352-227-7788 we can talk about what it is that you would like to do and then go from there. Also you can visit our web-site at RON'SLANDSCAPINGINC.COM there you can see photos of jobs that we have done here in The Villages.

[samhass]

I have citrus trees and apple, pear, peach, plum, nectarine, avocado, pomegranate, banana and fig planted. The nectarines, figs and plums are setting fruit for the second time this season.

[tag460]

Thanks for the information!