Where is oranges grown

The Spanish brought oranges to South America and to missions in Arizona and California, and the French brought them to what is now Louisiana. In the s, orange groves were planted in Florida to much success. The Washington Navel has a thick, easy-to-peel rind and is easy to segment, making it one of the most popular eating oranges.

It is not, however, a good variety for processing into juice, as a higher limonene content makes it bitter. Valencia oranges are smaller and juicier than Washingtons, with a thinner rind, and are popular for juice with few seeds. Valencias can also produce two overlapping crops each year.

The Hamlin is similar to the Valencia—juicy and flavorful, but with lighter color fruit and juice. Blood oranges, so named for their red flesh and strong flavor, continue to gain popularity. They are grown selectively in Florida, but most are produced in the Mediterranean region. Another specialty orange is the bergamot, which looks more like a lemon or lime, and has an aromatic floral scent.

Output and consumption of oranges have grown sharply over the past three decades at a compounded rate of 3. Production and exportation of processed orange products have also increased by 4. Oranges are also used as preservatives and spices in some of the coastal communities. Oranges are valued for vitamin C content. It is also a source of other nutrients including folacin, calcium, and potassium.

Orange is one of the top citrus fruit grown in most of the countries after banana and apple. The most common species of citrus are the mandarins, sweet orange, and lime. There are many orange cultivars or varieties developed for each region. Typically our varieties mature at the same time every year.

For example, we know that our Cara Cara Oranges are usually ready to be picked about the first week January. Close to that time, our packing house will send out their field men to test our blocks of fruit when they have an order to fill.

Our field men will then test the sugar and acid content of the fruit, check size, and color and determine when they are going to pick a certain block.

Once a block is mature and an order needs to be filled by our packing house, a picking crew will come out and harvest the trees by hand. Citrus has a longer window for harvest than other fruits which have to be picked at their prime.

Oranges do not need to be picked just because they are orange. Then can hold on the tree for quite a while. Oranges that are juiced are the pieces of fruit that are cosmetically inferior.

The goal of most famers is to pick all fruit for fresh consumption; however fruit with too many blemishes and defects will be sorted out at the packing house and sent to juice. Read: From Oranges to Orange Juice. Watch: America's Heartland from Tree to Table. At Home Learning for the month of November Common Questions About Agriculture.

Ag Lit Catalog. Food and Farm Facts. Recommended Publications. In , approximately 93 percent of Florida oranges were treated with at least one type of insecticide, but standard applications range from 6 to 12 times per year. Commonly used insecticides in Florida are abamectin, aldicarb, carbaryl, dimethoate, fenpropathrin, imidacloprid, and petroleum oil.

However, citrus greening is the most serious citrus disease in Florida and worldwide. HLB is of significant concern as it can impact all citrus. HLB is now in all Florida counties with commercial citrus production. Symptoms of HLB include yellowing of leaves, foliage drop, lopsided and bitter fruit, fruit drop, and tree stunting and death.

While unimposing at only 3 to 4 millimeters long, during its 15 to 47 day life cycle the female can lay upwards of eggs. This equates to approximately 9 to 10 generations a year. HLB is transmitted when the psyllid adult or nymph feeds on a diseased tree. The disease needs a 21 day incubation period, but is then transmittable for life when the infected psyllid feeds on the leaves of an uninfected tree. Vertical transmission has not been indicated. Management of the HLB revolves around reducing psyllid populations, preventing their geographical spread, and ensuring groves receive proper nutrition.

Nutrient foliar spraying has been used to keep diseased trees productive with some success. Currently no treatment is available to treat HLB infected trees.

As efforts mount, public health professionals should stay informed of new methods used to combat HLB. Sweet oranges once picked do not ripen further; therefore, farmers must closely monitor their crop for peak maturity. An orange picked before maturity will tend to shrivel and are more likely to incur mechanical damage during processing. An orange picked after peak maturity will rapidly become soft and insipid. Some farmers use an abscission agent e. The majority of Florida oranges are picked by hand with workers climbing ladders with shoulder sacks that are then emptied in pound field boxes.

Finding enough workers to manually harvest the , acres of Florida orange groves in makes mechanical harvesting an attractive option. However, a significant upfront investment and concerns over tree damage to already very stressed orange trees in Florida from citrus greening has kept use of mechanical harvesting to a minimum. Oranges grown in a climate where the nights are not cool tend to produce oranges with some green color still in the rind even though the fruit is ripe. Some producers of oranges for fresh consumption will treat these oranges with ethylene gas.

The treatment will not further ripen the orange, but will help de-green the fruit i. A typical de-greening method may use parts per million ppm ethylene under ideal conditions. Upon arrival at the packing plant, oranges are loaded onto conveyor belts and sent through soaking and pressure washing system. Washed oranges are then either mechanically or manually sorted to remove fruit with physical or ascetic defects. Rejected oranges are sent to be made into orange juice.

A fungicide and edible polyethylene wax are then spayed onto the orange before final packaging for fresh consumption. Fresh oranges have an optimal holding temperature of 32 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit to maximize duration of shelf life. Moisture loss in the peel and pulp is the limiting factor in storage duration. Video: How Orange Juice is Made. Oranges arriving at the processing facility are cleaned, washed, and juice extracted on high throughput mechanical squeezers.

The orange peel is pressed to extract the oil, used later in processing for flavoring. The pulp is then filtered from the juice and both separately pasteurized. The pasteurized juice can be stored in large tanks to allow for blending of different varietals to create a consistent product. During final processing, if orange juice with pulp is desired, pulp is added back into the juice along with peel oil for flavoring. The juice is then aseptically filled into sterile containers. Unpasteurized orange juice undergoes a similar process through the extraction step, but receives little process beyond some filtering before final packaging and distribution.

The final product must be continually refrigerated and typically has a short shelf-life. After unloading from the delivery tractor-trailer, the fruit is cleaned, washed, and juice extracted.

The peel of the orange is pressed for the oil, which will be added back later in the process to improve taste and smell of the frozen concentrate. The juice is filtered to remove seeds and large pieces of pulp, then pasteurized to inactivate enzymes and biological contaminates. A high heat vacuum evaporator is used to quickly remove excess water. The concentrate can be frozen in tanks until needed. During the final processing steps, the frozen concentrate is combined with pasteurized orange peel oil and juice to add flavor back that was taken out during the evaporation step.

The final product is filled into sterile packaging.