Any Citrus Farmers or people?

I need some help figuring out a few things about it...



How do you harvest oranges or kumquats.. by hand?

How much do you spend a year on the farm and how much do you profit from it?

What types of fertilizers do you use if any?

Any Citrus Farmers or people?
Pretty much same as Paul in San Diego. I live in South Marion County Florida %26amp; mine are hand-picked. Once you do it 1 yr or so, you pretty much know a general date to pick but u shouldn't have to pull or twist too much to get the fruit off tree.



My kumquats were ripe approx 3-4 weeks ago, my tangerines ripe at Christmas and other oranges in January. There generally isn't a great profit in this...period. No matter the size of your grove. I go to Porter's Nursery and they have these colorful bags (orange %26amp; green) of Citrus Fertilizer which I put at the base of all of my trees.



Not sure where you live but you can visit the writer Marjorie Rawlings homestead which is owned by Univ of Florida-Gainesville %26amp; located in Cross Creek Florida. Tours daily %26amp; caretakers inform you on everything including how they take care of their great variety of citrus. I only say this because this is a great place to plan a vacation to %26amp; the cemetary for the real life characters of "Cross Creek/Yearling" books is a few miles from house %26amp; it is all sooo interesting. Yearling Restaurant in the area too.
Reply:Just pluck them off the tree by hand when they're completely orange. Growers usually hire laborers to pick the fruit. They get paid by how much they pick.



I don't have a farm, but I have kumquat, lime, and tangerine trees.



Use a granular fertilizer that is specifically designed for citrus and avocados. You just sprinkle it on the ground around the base of the tree and water it in.