^5^ 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



April, 1910 



The cloth-greenhouse showing the canvas hauled close to when 

 not in use. 



The cloth. greenhouse showing the framework construction and the 

 way it is built. 



A Protected Grape-Fruit Grove in Florida 



By C. M. Berry. 



IX YEARS ago my partner and I built a 

 cloth-greenhouse at Orlando, Florida, for 

 the purpose of growing, during the coldest 

 months of Florida winters, strawberries, 

 and extremely tender vegetables such as 

 cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, 

 frame-grown lettuce and beans. We had 

 had three years' pre\'ious experience in growing these crops 

 under cloth-greenhouses, ha\'ing been forced to the protec- 

 ti\'e measure bv the frosts and freezes that sometimes 

 totally destroyed such crops in the open. When we had fin- 

 ished this cloth-house and put in our first crop (which was 

 lettuce, planted in September, to be followed by tomatoes 

 in December), this proposition occured to us: 



As grape-fruit had won such a high place in the markets 

 of the world and appeared to be the great, coming, citrus- 

 fruit crop, and as voung grape-fruit trees were frequently 

 destroyed by cold, making it difficult to get a gro\'e started, 

 and the fruit on old trees was often partially or entirely 

 ruineci by freezing, why would it not be a good undertak- 

 ing to grow grape-fruit under cloth-greenhouses? 



We did some close figuring and found that — estimating 

 the life of a cloth-greenhouse at ten years (we have one 

 now that is eight years old and it will easily last two years 

 more before the cloth will ha\'e to be renewed), the cost 

 of protecting each tree would be $1.21; per year. We de- 

 cided that this would be cheap insurance considering that 

 we were absolutely sure of saving our trees and fruit when 

 out-of-door trees and fruit were injured or destroyed. 



It then occured to us to protect and grow not only these 

 trees without a cent's cost up to the time of bearing fruit, 

 but, to make also from $500.00 to $1,000.00 off the same 

 ground while the trees were growing, by raising straw- 

 berries and vegetables on the ground at the same time. 

 This, at first glance, looked too good, but we determined 

 to make the experiment, so on March 8, 1904, we set out 

 I 10 small grape-fruit trees among our tomatoes. 



Old orange-growers told us that the trees would never 

 prosper as we would o\'er-fertilize them in giving sufficient 

 plant-food for our heavy crops of vegetables, but we did 

 not agree with them as we claimed we could correct the 

 over-fertilizing of the trees, granting that they did take 

 more than they should have. As a precaution we gave the 

 soil around each tree two pounds of sulphate of potash to 

 counteract the effect of the high percentage of ammonia in 

 the vegetable fertilizer and the trees throve and grew as no 



trees had done previous to the old days "before the freeze." 



The second year we planted a varied crop of lettuce, 

 strawberries, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes and cauliflowers, 

 and the trees were given their sulphate of potash and con- 

 tinued to prosper despite the cries of our old orange- 

 grower friends of — "just wait! You will kill your trees 

 before they come to bearing." I'he third year we planted 

 again a \'ariety of vegetables, making the double crop, as 

 was our custom, between the months of September and 

 May, and at the end of the sununer our trees were touch- 

 ing the top of our se\'en-foot cloth-greenhouse. We then 

 put in taller posts and raised our co\-er to seventeen feet, 

 which will accommodate the trees for twenty years, as the 

 grape-fruit tree spreads into umbrella form when the 

 weight of the fruit begins to train the branches out and 

 downward. 



The fourth year we planted egg-plant and string-beans 

 among the trees and gave the trees much more room than 

 in previous years, but this crop, though onlv about half a 

 crop, on account of giving the trees more ground, brought 

 us $300.00 and the trees were double the size of our neigh- 

 bors' trees of the same age, which were being pinched back 

 by frost and stopped in their growth during the winter, 

 while our trees grew continuously. 



In February of 1908, just forty-seven months after plant- 

 ing this grape-fruit nursery stock, when the beans were 

 forming on the vines, we noticeci a few bloom-buds starting 

 on the trees and by the end of the month they were in full 

 bloom. On December i, 1908, the trees were loaded with 

 grape-fruits of a very superior quality and the entire prop- 

 erty stood free of cost with almost $1,000.00, besides, to 

 its credit from the sale of small fruits and vegetables. 



We will hold this fruit e\'ery year until late in the spring 

 as we do not have to gather it from the trees and rush it 

 to market with the great bulk of green fruit that the grow- 

 ers as a rule get off their trees as quickly as possible for 

 fear it will get frozen, and, naturally, we will get a fancy 

 price for this well-matured, fine fruit. (The writer has sold 

 grape-fruit as high as $7.50 per box, during the month of 

 March.) By giving individual attention to every tree we 

 expect to make them bear from ten to twenty boxes each, 

 per year, and with a range of price of from $2.00 to $4.00 

 per box depending upon the seasons and the weather con- 

 ditions, it is easy to see that our protected grove is a very 

 valuable property. The trees now average two boxes of 

 grape-fruit to the tree and this is only the first setting of fruit. 



