In normal, well-maintained citrus trees, you will find the grapefruit leaves to be larger and a couple of shades lighter green in color. Identifying citrus varieties by their leaves can be complicated when you are looking at plants in containers because their care can have an influence on color and size–which are a couple of the characteristics you look for. How do I tell an orange tree from a grapefruit tree? You can find the grapefruit growing in clusters all over the tree (not just on the top). The tree’s medium-sized leaves are shiny and green and cover the tree from top to bottom. In South Texas, farmers usually keep the trees to 15 to 25 feet high, making the fruit easier to pick and ensuring a larger fruit size. They don’t use a machine they pick all the fruit from the trees by hand.Ī grapefruit tree, when left alone, can grow has high as 40 to 50 feet. What kind of machine do they use to get the fruit off the trees? Select citrus that is heavy for its size–that’s an indication of its juiciness. Texas grapefruit often has an orange color that includes patches of a pinkish blush, almost like it has been “kissed by the sun.” Avoid fruit that is lumpy, which can indicate the fruit has over-ripened. Later in the season the fruit turns yellow or gold on the outside and this can also be a sign of maturity. How do you know whether grapefruit is ripe or not? Does it depend on its color?Įarly in the season the fruit may be green on the outside but perfect on the inside and ready to eat. Available at certain times, normally October through May. Its smooth, yellow skin is naturally tinged with a reddish blush and an interior color 3 to 5 times redder than Ruby Red.įLAME CATEGORY: Red, but not too red, with the sweet, delectable taste of the Ruby-Sweet and Rio Star. RUBY-SWEET® CATEGORY: Includes the famous Ruby Red, and other redder varieties – Henderson and Ray. It has an overall blush on the exterior peel with a deep red interior color which is 7 to 10 times redder than the Ruby Red. RIO STAR® CATEGORY: Combines the two reddest varieties – Rio Red and Star Ruby grapefruit. Texas produces the following trademarked categories of grapefruit–look for them: Texas Red Grapefruit are sweet, juicy and tree-ripened, literally stored on the tree to the peak of perfection. Each new finding was named for the grower who found it. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, redder bud mutations were found in numerous groves. It was about the time of the great stock market crash in 1929 that the accidental discovery of red grapefruit growing on a pink grapefruit tree gave rise to the Texas Red Grapefruit Industry. The first commercial shipment of citrus – packed in onion crates – left the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas in 1920. In 1914, he bought 16,000 acres of brush land and after clearing it, proceeded to grow his first crop of seeded white grapefruit. Shary, also known as the “Father of the Citrus Industry,” combined his interest in growing citrus with the latest irrigation techniques and a determination to sell valley citrus commercially. Shary, a developer originally from Omaha, Nebraska, was so impressed by the small crop raised by early citrus experimenters that he felt citrus was the crop of the future for Texas. Initial grapefruit plantings in Texas were the white varieties, followed by pink varieties. The first reported planting of a grove in Texas was in 1893. Eventually, the grapefruit made its way to South Texas, most likely by visiting Spanish missionaries. During same period of time, it’s believed that grapefruit made its way to the United States in the form of seeds brought by either Spanish or French settlers to Florida. Originally known as “the forbidden fruit,” it wasn’t until the 1800’s that a Jamaican farmer called the fruit “grapefruit” for the grape-like cluster in which it grows on trees. Years later, research confirmed that grapefruit is a hybrid of a pummelo (Citrus grandis) and the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis). It is thought that the grapefruit was first found in Barbados during the 1750’s as a mutation of the pummelo. The origin of the grapefruit, also known by the Latin name, Citrus paradisi, is somewhat obscure.
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