Factors affecting citrus production and quality

quality are influenced by many factors, including climatic conditions and production practices. In subtropical climates, the temperature usually falls below 70°F for several months during winter. This period of cool temperatures causes growth to cease and citrus trees to become dormant for about three months. The cool temperatures during this dormant period promote floral induction. When warm spring temperatures, among other things, stimulate the resumption of vegetative growth, induced buds grow and produce flowers. In tropical climates, there is no period of cold temperature to induce dormancy. However, with periods of less than ample soil moisture (drought stress), flushes of bloom and vegetative growth normally follow these drought periods. It is well documented that vegetative and reproductive fruit growth compete for available resources, such as carbohydrates (sugars) and mineral nutrients. Flushes of heavy vegetative growth will reduce the resources available to developing fruit, resulting in fruit with lower total soluble solids (TSS). A period of dormancy, during which there is little or no vegetative growth, reduces this competition for resources and results in fruit with increased TSS. The competition for resources between vegetative and reproductive growth is one of the reasons that citrus fruit grown in tropical climates tend to have lower TSS than that grown in subtropical climates.