Good morning!
How's your week going?
We continue to work here. Going to the fields to pick the different products, then assembling each box and also solving the problems that may arise along the way...
As I told you, working in the field always involves solving different situations. Sometimes it can be due to the weather, other times pests... Or even solving situations with orders or with the shipping of boxes.
However, it is very satisfying when, after caring for the trees all year, our oranges reach each customer with their incomparable flavor and aroma. Just as you see them here, hanging from the tree, they arrive at your home freshly harvested:
In today's newsletter, I'm going to tell you the story of a disease called "La Tristeza" (Sadness). Several years ago there was a problem with it and my family's trees.
But first, let's remember something I told you a few weeks ago.
On some occasions, we have talked about how trees need to be grafted to produce quality fruit.
Among orange trees, we have bitter orange trees, which are also called "rootstock" or "border" trees.
Once you have this rootstock tree, you must graft it to produce fruit of a specific variety. For example, you graft the border tree with a small branch of the Valencia Late variety, and that tree, which previously yielded bitter oranges, will then produce Valencia Late oranges.
It seems unbelievable, but it works just as I'm telling you.
But... here it gets a little complicated because, within the rootstock trees, there are also varieties. These varieties have specific characteristics that help the plant grow healthy and strong once they are grafted.
So, it is important that the tree receiving the graft is resistant. This way, it will be able to produce quality fruits that also have the distinctive characteristics of a specific variety.
You may remember something similar in a newsletter about the clones of avocado plants that Javier, an avocado grower, makes.
But... you must be wondering where I'm going with this?
As I was saying, today I want to tell you about when a plague called "La Tristeza" (Sadness) killed all the rootstock trees in my family's fields. You read that right.
In the early 70s, all the orange trees died from this disease. It was a bacteria that had no cure and affected the rootstock trees. These were a type of bitter rootstock that existed then and was very sensitive to La Tristeza.
It was a very good rootstock, producing a lot of good fruit, but it had that problem, and when that bacteria appeared, all of them died.
So, as they died, plantations were uprooted and new trees were planted. As you can imagine, it was very difficult.
In the end, this bitter rootstock was replaced by rootstocks tolerant to La Tristeza. These are the varieties we have here: Cleopatra and Carrizo.
The plantations were made when those two I mentioned existed... Now you can imagine that there are some more modern ones. But that doesn't mean that the ones we have aren't very good rootstock trees.
To this day, they continue to produce a lot, and if you have received our oranges, you know the quality they have.
As you can see, every piece of land brings with it many stories. This is just one of the many we have in the rows of orange trees...
But for today, we've come to the end of the story of La Tristeza.
And well, it's not all oranges in this life! Before I say goodbye, I remind you that we have tender artichokes available on our website. See them here in full growth:
Later, I will surely tell you about artichokes and their growth in Valencian lands.
But for today, that's all. See you next week,
A big hug!
