Orange Tree Question

We're in Fla for the winter and I'm hoping to find a honeybell orange tree to take back home. Our meyer lemon and key lime we brought home last year both bore fruit even though both were small. The actual honeybell oranges are not very prevalent to even buy and eat, will I be able to find a tree?

I believe it is very very illegal to bring citrus out of Florida. They are under a quarantine.

Correct. We are having some disease problems that so far have not spread outside the state, and the agricultural authorities are trying very hard to control the spread. See http://www.freshfromflorida.com/pi/chrp/greening/cgmaps.html.

These things spread in part because everyone who illegally moves a quarantined plant across state borders thinks it won't matter if it's "just one plant", "just one time". That's wrong. Bacteria, fungi and insects don't care if you're a private purchaser or a company, and it only takes one infection going unnoticed for a few years to wipe out an industry, or at the very least to cost millions of dollars and add tons of pesticides to the environment.

-Rich

It was identified in Texas this year.
Guh!!!

Yes, I wondered why it was illegal and then read an article in the paper last night that described how the citrus industry has suffered due to the blight. Too bad, but I also found out that honeybell needs aother polinator to bear fruit. But still won't be taking one home. We have no citrus in MN and wonder if disease transmits to apple trees which we have a lot of. Probably not.

Apple trees are already some of the most disease ridden fruit trees on Earth. There is no need to contaminate them further.

"Not sure what I was trying to communicate in this post. It was after midnight so possibly I had a little too much drinky drinky."



This message was edited Apr 9, 2012 12:14 PM

My 4 apple trees are not really "disease-ridden", that sounds so heartless. The only problem with my poor trees is the dang bugs! One kind after another starting with petal fall. I'm not really into chemicals and many years my fruit is not edible, which is a shame because 2 of the trees are honeycrisp - which in my opinion is the best apple made.

I've read that if a person only knew how much toxin (chemicals) is sprayed on our fruit to keep them marketable, no one would buy much less eat them. That's why I garden, I like my food without the chemicals, please.