CITRUS PRODUCTION PRORLEMS Howard A. Thullbery ied in size from 5 to 105 acres each. The acreage totaled 554 acres with 30.4 per The topic assigned me is "Citrus Pro cent of the trees being grapefruit. The duction Problems" and since all produc trees were from 20 to 35 years of age. tion problems today revolve more or less The costs were kept for the season around production costs, I shall discuss beginning August 1st and running to production costs. July 31st of the season the crop was mar During the 1945-46 fruit season, the keted. citrus growers of Florida were little con These groves were entirely under our cerned about production costs. In the supervision. The association furnished season of 1946-47 they became quite pro all supplies and did all the work. This duction-cost-conscious and since that enabled us to keep accurate records of all time have steadily become more so. moneys spent and allowed us to arrive We felt, back in 1945-46, that the time at accurate production costs. would come when this would be true, We maintained then, following a pro and at that time selected at random gram designed to produce quantity and what we considered were 33 represent quality fruit, and are still of the opinion ative groves of the Haines City Citrus that anything cut from the program in Growers Association. These groves var the care of citrus, that is needed to pro- COMPARATIVE PRODUCTION COSTS 1945-46 1946-47 1947-48 Number of groves 33 33 3 3 Number of acres 554 554 548 Number of boxes 211,071 219,026 263,679 Boxes per acre 381 395 481 Percent trees grapefruit 30.4 30.4 30.4 Costs per acre $138.30 $168.67 $137.71 Costs per Box: Firing .008 .025 .016 Irrigation .017 .025 .008 Spraying and dusting .062 .060 .042 Spray materials .052 .051 .039 Cultivation .011 .011 ..009 Pruning .023 .027 .024 Fertilizing .010 .009 .006 Fertilizer and amendments .173 .183 .120 Hauling—truck .005 .004 .005 Miscellaneous .002 .032 .017 Total .363 .427 .286 1948 (61) 62 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1948 duce quantity and quality fruit, will in they might be more easily culivated and the end cost rather than save the grower sprayed. The fertilizer and amendments cost money. Let us review the chart showing these shows a considerable decrease in the costs over the seasons 1945-46, 1946-47, 1947-48 season, dropping from around and 1947-48. (See page 61.) $.18 per box to $.12 per box. Aside You will notice the acreage dropped from the increased production this was the third season from 554 to 548 acres. due to a cut in total units of plant food This was due to 6 acres of one grove and a more economical mixture being being sold. applied. The production for the season 1945-46 Under the miscellaneous costs you was 211,071 boxes, increasing to 219,026 notice a sharp increase for the 1946-47 boxes in 1946-47 and 263,679 boxes in and the 1947-48 seasons. This is due 1947-48, or an average yield of 381 to the replacement of dead or missing boxes, and 481 boxes per acre for the trees and their care in these years. Dur three seasons. ing the war we had neither the trees nor The costs over the three seasons were the labor to make these replacements. $138.30, $168.67, and $137.71 per acre. The total box costs for the three sea In commenting on the breakdown of sons were $.363, $.427, and $.286 re the per box costs, we would point out spectively. that only 163 acres of the 554 were fired, The lowest box cost we had the past although this cost is spread over all season was on a 5-acre grapefruit grove fruit on the 554 acres. Likewise only a which was $.12 per box. The produc portion of the groves were irrigated. tion was 915 boxes per acre and the Regarding the items of spraying and per acre cost was $109.47. On a 10-acre dusting, and spray and dust materials, block, one-half grapefruit and one-half we would call your attention to the fact oranges, the cost was $.172 per box that for the season 1947-48 dusts were with a production of 789 boxes per acre applied throughout the year with the and an acre cost of $136.20. On a 5-acre exception of the melanose and oil sprays, block, 80 percent oranges, the cost was while for the first two seasons dusting $.232 per box with 573 boxes per acre was practiced only during the time all and an acreage cost of $136.20. The spraying machines were busy applying highest per box cost was $.516 on a the oil spray applications. All groves grove 80 percent oranges that was both received an oil spray yearly. fired and irrigated and had an acreage The pruning costs ran $.023, $.027, cost of $148.11 and a production of 292 and $.024 per box. On the acreage boxes per acre. The highest acre cost basis you can readily see that more was $199.08 with a per box cost of $.244 money was spent on this item in the and production of 813 boxes per acre. 1947-48 season than any other year. This 64 percent of the trees were grapefruit. was due, first, to the heavy scale in The past season showed a decrease in festations of the 1945-46 and 1946-47 sea the per acre cost of $30.96 or 18.4 per sons and second, to the fact that many cent from the 1946-47 season. However, of the groves were lifted and some our per box cost was $.141 less or a hedged the past season in order that decrease of 33 percent. THULLBERY: PRODUCTION PROBLEMS 63 This means that 56 percent of the 33 ble equipment may soon be available. percent decrease in the per box cost Another important factor in low cost was due to spending less money on the production is proper management of groves and 44 percent of the decrease labor and equipment. Work should be was due to increased production. planned well in advance so as to cut Putting it another way, had the pro delays between operations to a mini duction in 1947-48 been the same as in mum. Labor should be trained for the 1946-47, the per box cost would have job they are to do and properly super been approximately $.35 instead of $.286. vised. The equipment they use should While I believe we should do every be good and kept in good repair if pro thing possible to improve quality, we duction costs are to be kept down. must have production if we are to keep In summary, we believe it to be eco production costs down. Furthermore, I nomical to use that program which will believe a heavy set of fruit is the num give us the largest quantity of the best ber one requisite of a quality crop. You quality fruit. That anything omitted can't expect quality on a light crop of from the program that the grove needs Valencia oranges regardless of what pro to gain this end will, in the long run, gram you follow. I can't go along with cost rather than save the grower money. the fellow that says he wants to grow We believe that the number one requi less and better fruit. site of quality, especially on Valencia We have pointed out the lower spray oranges, is heavy production and that it ing and dusting costs of the 1947-48 is a major factor in low box costs. season. We believe a saving can be Other factors tending to lower costs made by dusting rather than spraying, are economical fertilizer mixtures, dust except for the melanose and oil sprays, ing a part of the year, provided proper and the quality maintained, provided equipment is available, and proper man proper equipment is used. We would agement of labor and equipment. hesitate to follow a dust program unless Acknowledgment is made to the a California-type duster or a helicopter Haines City Citrus Growers Association were available and proper speed main for use of data used in this paper. Also tained. However, research is being done to Professor L. W. Zeigler and W. L. on different type dusters and suita Tait for compilation of same. A METHOD OF MAINTAINING VIABILITY OF CITRUS SEED IN STORAGE1 The storage of citrus seeds for ex lows: Fermate (ferric dimethyl dithio- tended periods, as is frequently neces carbamate), HE-175 (disodium etliylene sary in shipment over long distances or bisdithiocarbamate), Phygon (dichloro when planting time is delayed for one for trial from materials at hand, as fol- reason or another, is usually attended by napthoquinone), Semesan (hydroxy- a serious reduction in viability. Con mercurichlorophenol), DuPont 1155HH sidering the importance of the problem, (DuPont Semesan Co. code number), 8- there is surprisingly little information hydroxyquinoline sulfate, Puratized N5E available in the literature on storing (phenylmercuritriethanol a m m o n i urn citrus seed in viable condition for pro lactate), ethanol, thiourea, and thiocyano longed periods. With the exception of aniline. L. V. Barton's2 work, information is Tests with Seed Disinfectants. The largely confined to rule-of-thumb rec first five materials listed above were ommendations such as to store the seeds applied in dust form to freshly extract in charcoal or in damp sand, or to store ed Duncan grapefruit seeds that had the fruits under refrigeration and extract been washed to remove juice and mucil the seeds when needed.