Grapefruit Tree
All About the Grapefruit Tree
The grapefruit tree is considered one of the more recently discovered fruit trees, even though it was first described in 1750. It was found growing in Barbados, where it was called the “forbidden fruit.” It first became known in the United States when seeds of the grapefruit tree were brought to Florida from the Bahamas by Count Odette Phillipe. That was in 1823 and by the end of the 1800s the grapefruit was becoming a cash crop in Florida.
A grapefruit tree can grow to be twenty feet tall and it has evergreen leaves that are between three and six inches in length. Its branches have small thorns and the tree has little white flowers with four petals which grow to be up to two inches wide. Like grapes, the grapefruit grows in clusters on the end of branches. The fruit of the grapefruit tree is four to six inches thick with rounding or slightly flattened ends. It comes in white (yellow) and pink (red) colors. Like an orange, a grapefruit has separated segments (11-14). As many as twenty grapefruit have been seen growing in one cluster on the grapefruit tree.
Grapefruit grow in areas where the climate is subtropical. In the United States, that includes the states of Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona. Depending on how warm or cold the temperatures are, it can take anywhere from seven to thirteen months between the flowering of the grapefruit tree and the harvest of fruit. You can grow grapefruit in a pretty wide range of soils, from slightly to moderately alkaline. The content of soil can vary with different kinds of rootstock. Grapefruit trees grow best in areas that have around forty inches of rainfall each year.
Between the 1940s and the 1970s, growers experimented with many different kinds of grapefruit rootstock. Today, booth sour and sweet orange rootstocks are used depending on the weather and kind of soil where the orchard is located. The top three rootstocks are ‘Troyer citrange,” “sour orange,” and “Swingle citrumelo.” Grapefruit planting is very similar to that of oranges but more room is needed between trees. The soil should be checked for nitrogen, as too much can result in fruit with lower juice content.
Florida still grows sixty-percent of the world’s grapefruit. There grapefruit mature in September and October, which is the best time to obtain fresh grapefruit in the supermarket. Grapefruit are sometimes stored on the trees by commercial growers for up to three months. This does not affect the quality of the grapefruit but tends to reduce the size of the next year’s crop. Some grapefruit growers still harvest by hand but others now use mechanized limb shakers. After purchasing, consumers can store grapefruit for a week to ten days in the refrigerator.