Grapefruit And The 1,300 Pound Tree

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Have you ever wondered why a grapefruit is called a grapefruit? It doesn't look anything like a grape unless you buy from a vineyard located next to a leaky nuclear power plant. Why would someone call this big yellow thing a grape fruit?

Well the answer lies in the grapefruit tree. The fruit that it bears comes in clusters resembling grapes, unlike orange trees which grow fruit in an entirely different pattern. Pretty original huh. Can you think of another fruit that's named after another fruit? They couldn't come up with a unique name for this tart and sweet treat?

Actually the grapefruit is kind of a poor cousin in the citrus family. Unlike the orange or the lemon and limes, grapefruit doesn't have a breeding line that goes back thousands of years. Other citrus fruits not only have been around for a long time but were found all over the globe. Not so the grapefruit.

In fact nobody is certain if the grapefruit occurred by an accident of nature or if somebody actually planned it. It is essentially a cross between a sweet orange and a pomelo and was thought to be first grown in the West Indies. What we do know is a French guy took a couple of saplings and brought them for planting in Florida in the mid 1800s.

Humble beginnings for sure but those early saplings started an industry that produces over 1 million tons of grapefruit each year to feed a worldwide demand. Think about that for a second. That's an awful lot of grapefruit.

So what does it take to produce a million tons of this stuff? Well it takes one of the most productive fruit trees known to man.

The grapefruit tree takes about six years before it is mature enough to bear fruit but once it hits six years it starts cranking out those babies like there's no tomorrow. A single tree can produce 1300 to 1500 pounds of grapefruit each year. A single acre of land can support 100 grapefruit trees. That means each acre can potentially generate 35 tons of fruit.

So if you live in a nice subtropical environment, and you have a big craving for grapefruit juice, you might want to consider planting one of these things in the backyard. Yes you'll need a ladder and a sack to harvest your 1300 pounds of grapefruit but think of all the money you'll save at Christmas time. All your friends will be delighted with your grapefruit gift baskets.

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