After a series of major freezes in the 1980s, citrus growers gradually migrated southward. Polk County, in the central part of the state, remains the top citrus producing county and much of the oranges in Florida are grown in the southern two-thirds of the Florida peninsula, stretching from coast to coast, where there is low probability for a freeze.
“Citrus has a lot of challenges and probably the biggest one is that it’s not a 9-5 job and it’s not five days a week. A lot of times it’s seven days a week. It’s from daylight to dark and sometimes it’s even after dark, if it’s a cold night and we’re running pumps and we have to protect the crops,” said John Barben, Florida citrus grower.
