Citrus Grows in Georgia

Becky Mills
Contributing Editor

When six southeast Georgia buddies take a fishing trip to Louisiana, you can bet there will be tall tales told, a run on hot grease and corn meal, a card game or two played, and maybe even a cold beverage consumed. If you're specifically talking about Joe Franklin and his friends, add the birth of a new enterprise to the list.

Most years, the group makes the annual trip in spring. But, in 2009, their fishing guide talked them into waiting until fall, promising abundant redfish. When they got to Louisiana, Franklin says they kept seeing roadside stands advertising Satsumas. They didn't have a clue what a Satsuma was, so they stopped and bought a bag.

Like most folks, Franklin was quite taken with the sweet taste of the fruit, a variety of the mandarin orange. It didn't take long for the analytical mind of the retired Statesboro businessman to kick in.

Fifteen years later, he vividly recalls that day. "When I first peeled one, I got that sweet citrus smell. The second thing I noticed was the sections separated very easily. The third thing was when you put it in your mouth and bit on it, it was very, very juicy, and you got that sweet citrus taste."

Then, he noted the albedo, which he calls "rag." That's the white stuff you see when you peel an orange. In Satsumas, Franklin says, "there wasn't as much rag, and it wasn't bitter but very pleasant and tender."

IDEA TAKES ROOT

Franklin's mind was not on fishing after tasting the Satsuma. Normally, he and his friends would start fishing at daybreak and return to the dock by 1 p.m. They'd relax the rest of the day.

Not Franklin. With the taste of the Satsuma still fresh in his mind, he went looking for a nursery that sold the citrus tree. Franklin found Star Nursery, in Belle Chasse, where owners Joe Ranatza and his daughter, Dawn Camardelle, answered his questions and took an order for 200 Satsuma trees for delivery the following spring.

Georgia is known more for peanuts than citrus, but Franklin was optimistic. "Our soil is very similar to Louisiana's. Our weather pattern is about the same, too. We get the spring rains from fronts coming from Louisiana and Texas. In Florida, this is the dry time of the year; it's too far south to get those fronts."

He admits he always did enjoy planting something and watching it grow. Trees, most anything, really.

"From the time I retired in 2004 'til I started in the citrus business, I planted all kinds of peaches and plums, apples, palm trees, kiwi vines, grape vines ... we've tried all kinds of stuff. In my hoop houses, I used to have papayas, bananas and mangoes."

TIME TO PLANT

By the time the trees arrived in the spring of 2010, Franklin had chisel-plowed strips across 2 acres, then hand-dug holes with a shovel. With fertilizer, drip irrigation installed and $18 per tree, he estimates the start-up enterprise cost at $4,000.

It takes Satsumas around four years before they really start to produce, but Franklin didn't slow down. He continued expanding each year. And other people were watching and thinking along the same lines as Franklin.

Lowndes County Extension coordinator Jacob Price says other growers were looking to citrus as a new income stream for the area. Price serves as area citrus specialist for the budding industry, and he says by 2013, growers had planted citrus groves ranging from 10 to 20 acres.

"After four years, the trees were surviving. So, bigger farmers started putting in 20, 30, even 50 acres," he says. A state mandate to buy local food for school lunches helped fuel the increase.

Today, Price estimates there are 4,000 acres of citrus in South Georgia, with 65% of those Satsumas. "They are a lot more cold hardy than other citrus, so there is a lot less risk," he explains.

TEMPERATURE AND SHIFTING CLIMATE

Satsumas may be cold hardy, but when nighttime temperatures dropped to 14°F on Franklin's farm during Christmas 2022, followed by two more nights of bitter cold, he headed off a total disaster by calling a friend and getting harvesters into the orchards before the fruit froze.

"We were able to sell it so we came out OK," Franklin reports. However, he says damage to the trees and resulting loss of foliage means he had a light crop in 2023. "We just got the trees replanted from the damage." It was the late-spring freeze in March 2022, though, that did the most short-term economic damage by destroying the buds. He estimates it reduced his crop by 50%.

"I knew the cold weather was going to be my main obstacle to overcome. It still is," Franklin says.

Looking at data, the threat of cold isn't as big a danger as it once was. Pam Knox, University of Georgia agricultural climatologist, says, "The average temperature for December through February in Georgia, which is the climatological definition of winter, has generally been rising since the early 1960s, although of course there are year-to-year variations."

EXPANSION AND EXPERIMENTATION

Franklin say he's betting on those little temperature bumps. He's up to 78 acres of citrus, including cara cara (a red navel orange), ruby red grapefruit, Georgia Kisses (a seedless kishu) and Meyer and Yuzu lemons. Meyer lemons tend to be more juicy than other varieties, while Yuzu lemons are used in Asian dishes strictly for their zest.

Satsumas still get the most acreage and star billing at Franklin's Citrus Farm, but Bingo, a small seedless, easy-to-peel mandarin, is an up-and-comer. Developed by the University of Florida, it got its name in a blind taste test when a researcher called out the original numbers of the experimental varieties and a grower responded with a hearty "Bingo."

Franklin says, "This is our first year of full production."

READY MARKETS A PLUS

Citrus is definitely a high-risk, high-reward enterprise as far north as Georgia, but Franklin is generally pleased with his return on investment.

He usually sells a 20-pound box at wholesale for $24 and a 5-pound bag retail for $12. He tries to maintain 150 trees an acre, and each tree produces around 150 pounds of fruit annually once established.

Ready markets are another plus. Besides his own farm stand and the farmers' market he sells at in Statesboro, his citrus goes to Georgia farmers' markets in Atlanta and Savannah, as well as South Carolina markets in Bluffton, Charleston and Port Royal. The goal is to double production to have the volume to sell to grocery store chains. Franklin predicts he'll make it by 2027.

Don't think Georgia's Satsuma king is letting his 78 birthdays slow him down, either. With Franklin's 39-year-old farm partner, Billy Renz, the next big idea is a you-pick operation the two opened in late-March 2023. It's now 24 acres and features citrus, peaches, watermelons, blackberries, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers and squash. It's strategically placed behind the operation's farm stand on busy U.S. Highway 301. It's just one more rung in Franklin's diversification aimed at keeping the cash flowing year-round.

He only has one regret. "I wish I had gotten into this 40 years ago," Franklin smiles. "But, hindsight is always twenty-twenty."

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