Have Any of You Planted Orange Trees in The Villages?
 

There’s a woman on my street with two big grapefruit trees, and I’ve found a few mentions in Talk of the Villages to planting lemon trees, though I haven’t seen any, but I haven’t seen any orange trees, nor references to growing them here. It’s Florida! Why aren’t people planting more citrus here? Is there some secret about them? Are they forbidden?

We've got a navel orange tree in the back yard. Last year we got more than one hundred oranges from it. It's a mature tree; it was there when we bought the house ten years ago.

They involve quite a bit of work, they can be messy, if there are any rats in the area, they are attracted to the fruit, and there is a citrus disease running rampant in central florida (citrus greening) causing the citrus farmers to cut down the trees and plant other crops.

Google; How to Keep Rats Out of Citrus Trees.

Also. Many older people take statins, blood pressure meds, and pain medication and eating grapefruit can alter how it affects you for three days and more. (P.S. I am not into alternative medicine. )

Grapefruit Warning: It Can Interact with Common Medications


We have opted to buy our citrus at Publix. I never thought I would pay so much for lemons in FLORIDA. lol.

Most citrus is available in supermarkets year round. We purchase Lemons in bulk save the juice by freezing juice in small ice cubes the bag them in freezer bags for use later.

I have three small to medium sized ones that are free to anyone who wants them. We don’t eat oranges.

Thanks for the link. It’s a good one! It seems that the blood pressure med I take and the cholesterol med I take are NOT affected by Grapefruit, so I don’t need to worry about it. Also, it seems that Grapefruit POTENTIATES the effect of many drugs, including some painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs and some blood pressure drugs. So, people could end up with even lower blood pressure or more pain relief if they eat Grapefruit. That could in some cases be a health benefit. I don’t take any of those meds at all, so I guess I can continue to enjoy Grapefruit soda (and vodka). It’s a link worth reading carefully.

Have lived in Florida most of my life. Citrus trees are very slow growing and take at least 5 years to get meaningful amount of fruit. Subject to diseases and if there is a long cold spell can get killed by freeze. In the 60' most of the area in and around Clermont were large orange groves. Most of the trees were killed off during cold winters(developers got the balance of them) If you want citrus good luck and have a lot of patience.

I'll apologize for all the "experts" who replied to every question except the one the op asked.

Before moving to TV we bought a resale south of The Villages that had a mature orange, lemon and grapefruit tree. They are messy. If you decide to plant them be sure you do what is necessary to prevent pests and make sure you have enough room for them as most of our yards are rather small. We go to the farmers market for fresh local fruit. No mess or trouble whatsoever. You might want to see what your neighbors think. Just a thought.

:bigbow::bigbow: Just check out the number of posts on some posters and the years as members WOW

We have had success with lemons here, getting small crops after a year from both a potted tree and a small tree. We haven’t tried growing oranges, as we’ve heard it is not warm enough here to ensure success.
The downsides to growing lemons IMO are they do require more attention than other plants and trees, and all the lemons become ripe within a couple weeks. We get about a dozen lemons from each tree. We squeeze most of the lemons into ice cube trays, then use the cubes in drinks or cooking for several months.

Orange trees and other citrus trees do take a long time to bear good amount of fruit. Also, sustained freezing can kill trees. Fortunately we do have two mature trees that produce fabulous juice.

Op you have gotten a few responses about those having Orange trees,

The almighty rant of citrus and your BP meds advice, from a non medical perspective, and a web search, which isn’t any part of your question.

Our neighbors have a large Orange tree, which they love taking care of. As fruit ripens, a basket end of driveway, for the fruits of their labor. Their advice is buy the larger mature tree, cause it takes too long for fruit. They have someone come and trim it. When it flowers the smell is amazing.

We had a small orchard of apples, pears, and cherries, up north. Any fruit bearing tree is work, but time is what you have in TV. There are master gardeners here to get intelligence answers from, as well as nurseries. Enjoy

I planted a small lemon tree in a pot a few years ago. The first year I got 18 lemons from it. I transplanted it in my yard, and since that time it hasn’t produced any fruit and it now looks like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree ;)

I’m considering placing it back into a large pot and putting it back on my pool deck.

We have a lemon tree that I planted about 5 years ago. It was a couple of years old when I planted it. About every 2 weeks I water it with Epsom salts. I fertilize it 3 -4 times a year. I trim it twice a year. It gives me about 30 lemons every year. The cold does affect the tree and any lemons on the tree but it has to be about 3 days in a row of frost. When it is smaller you can cover it when frost is predicted.

Our area apparently used to be a citrus grove. We do have several neighbors with fruit trees in their yards. But I was informed (when I asked the same thing) last year that most people actually had their fruit trees removed, because it was too difficult to keep up with them. They would put out baskets of fruit they'd collected every day during the season, at the end of their driveways. But so did everyone else. There weren't enough people who needed fruit, that didn't already have it growing on their own trees.

Rather than spend days crouched over the ground picking up rotting fruit to keep the rats away, they said to heck with it and got rid of the trees.

It's also unsightly, if it's in your FRONT yard, to see oranges rotting on your driveway because you're out of town for a week and unable to pick up after they drop. Makes a HUGE mess once they've already started to rot and can stain your driveway.

So placement is definitely an issue. Put a tree in the back yard as close to the house as the arborist feels safe without risking long roots damaging your foundation. Keep it trimmed so you can control how high/bushy it grows, and once the growing season starts, make sure someone is around to pick the ripe fruit every single day until the season ends.

Or, you can keep it ornamental by cutting the branches when they start to flower. Orange blossoms have an intoxicating aroma.