"Patty, Meet Mr. Caterpillar..."

There was never any real illusion that as a Florida citrus grower, I would be able to produce organic fruit.  It's Florida, for heaven sake.  We have nearly as many varieties of bugs as we have tourists! But I set out to determine the best possible practices for growing with the absolute minimum of intervention and the earth-friendliest growing plan I could devise.  Growing trees are hungry though - ravenous, actually.  With 200 hungry mouths to feed it became clear from the start, at a 4:1 cost ratio of organic vs generic, I wouldn't be able to give them the gourmet treatment. I settled on frequent soil and leaf testing and adapting soil enhancements to use only what they needed.  So much for dropping by every once in a while and throwing a little fertilizer on them -- it turns out there is an entire science associated with the feeding and nutrition of growing citrus trees.

The bugs, however, I would take on via hand to hand combat.  The first year in the ground, I began to notice neatly munched on leaves (and mind you, they didn't have that many to spare in the beginning...) and coincidently it seemed like I had a LOT of bird droppings???  It was weird.  On closer inspection I found the culprit -- an army of inch long gray mottled caterpillars.  It turned out that those "bird droppings" are the larval stage of the Dreaded Orange Dog Caterpillar and they are voracious.  By the time I identified them, there were hundreds and hundreds of them!  Like any good tree-mom, I was livid!  I searched online and found that the only way to get rid of them was to pinch them off and squish the little buggers.  Except...  Right there on the same pages as this monster, there was a picture of: a Giant Swallowtail Butterfly.  They go from a blotch of what looks like bird poop to a gorgeous graceful creature.  I couldn't squish them. :-(  The solution turned out to be a grocery sack full of caterpillars pinched by hand and transported to a lovely new home at a Tallahassee luxury hotel and apartment complex (which shall remain unnamed here, LOL) where I am sure their guests that year still talk about the swarms of lovely butterflies.

The story did not turn out as charming when I became acquainted with Citrus Leaf Miners, White Flies, Rust Mites, Red Scale, and all the other population of critters that just want a good meal and to reproduce in peace.  Even with the lady beetles and predator wasps and other benign creatures I tried to enlist, it has taken the sensible and sparing use of the least possible toxic solutions and constant vigilance to catch them early.

So the satumas are not organic, but they are gently and sustainably grown on valued heritage land, in honor and respect for Mother Earth.