Pioneering in Organic Citrus  

Written by: Deborah S. Wechsler (2004)

Dennis Holbrook
South Tex Organics
Mission, Texas
www.stxorganics.com 

When Dennis Holbrook came back from college and bought out his father’s citrus grove management company in 1977, he soon began questioning the chemically oriented practices used in commercial citrus operations. “I got to looking at cost and return and saw a pattern that was concerning to me,” says Dennis. “Before herbicides were in common use, growers let weeds grow 6-12 inches tall and then tilled them in, and were constantly turning organic matter into the soil. They generally flood irrigated their groves 3-4 times a year. However, by the early 1980s, using herbicides in the groves, they were irrigating 8-10 times a year. The roots were shallow with no root pruning to force the trees to put down deeper roots.” While they had fertilized once a year with about a pound of nitrogen per tree, now they were having to fertilize three times a year, with nitrogen recommendations rising to 1.5 pounds per tree. All of this was more labor, more trips through the grove, and more expense.

“I also took soil samples in 1981,” recalls Dennis, “and took them to Dr. George Schultz, who owned a local soil lab. He was able to compare them to samples from land in the same area from the 1950s. In the 1950s, the organic matter ranged in these areas from a low of 1.5% to as high as 2.75%. Now, the highs were around 0.4% and the low was 0.225%. There were no earthworms and minimal microbial activity; the soil was essentially sterile.”

At about the same time, he was asked by a university to included his company in a pesticide residue study being done on farmworkers, and was startled to discover that, from time spent working in the groves and for a crop duster, he had higher residue levels in his body than his farmworkers, despite not having done that kind of work for several years. This was particularly concerning, says Dennis, since he and his wife were in the process of starting a family.

Dennis began to research extension recommendations from the 1930s and 1940s, before chemical agriculture took hold, though he received little support from the experts in his efforts. When a 100-year freeze devastated the citrus industry in December 1983, he took it as an opportunity to make changes and decided to make the 20 acres of his own organic. Though he had no track record to show, he managed to persuade two of his management customers to join him in the process as he set up South Tex Organics. He sold his first marketable crop to Austin-based Whole Foods in 1987, then still a small and local company, packing it all on a home-made, labor-intensive packing line given to him by a neighbor. The next year, building on this success, he set up his own packing shed.

With help from Texas Sweet Advertising, Inc., the advertising company set up through the Texas citrus marketing order, and from the Texas Department of Agriculture, he began to make contacts in California and around the country for wholesaling his organic fruit. Two things helped him market his fruit: First, he promised to harvest the fruit the same day it was picked up so it would be as fresh as possible. Second, since he had to meet the standards of the Texas marketing order, he impressed his organic customers with the professionalism of his packing and grading. “They were used to getting all different sizes of fruit jumbled in second-hand boxes,” says Dennis. “Not only did all our boxes match, but now they could build those nice pyramids of oranges and grapefruit to display.”

South Tex Organics continued to grow. In 1989 a second big freeze that killed back many trees encouraged consolidation in the citrus shipping industry and discouraged many smaller growers. He decided he needed to be exclusively organic and dropped all his management clients who preferred to stick with conventional practices. While the trees were regrowing, he diversified by planting onions, watermelons, and vegetables. He still grows onions and watermelons and has also taken on management of an organic avocado grove, but citrus is the mainstay of the operation. South Tex Organics wholesales nationwide and to Canada, and has exported to Japan and Europe. Mail order, which they call “home delivery” rather than gift fruit, is a small but growing segment of their market, and features mixed boxes of fruit as well as single-variety packs.

Soil building and orchard floor management are key in organic citrus production. Dennis estimates that it takes 4-5 years to transition to organic if you do it naturally via cover crops, but he shortens this by applying some compost and organic fertilizers to help build the soil. The farm makes much of its own compost, using utility line trimmings, the farm’s own culls and packing waste, and the corn/yeast-based growing medium from a nearby facility that raises sterile fruit flies for field applications. He gets as much as 16-18 tons/week of this high-nutrient material, which can also be applied directly in the groves. The applicator rotates constantly through all the groves applying the corn material, and each field gets about 4 tons/acre per year. He is pleased that recent tests show organic matter content up to 1.7 percent (his goal is 2 percent, which would be very good for these warm climate, sandy soils) and irrigations are down to only 4-5 times a year.

The ground under the trees is primarily in native grasses, mowed and tilled several times a year. A major problem is guinea grass, first introduced as a livestock forage for South Texas, but now a major weed that can grow entirely up and through the tree canopy. Flame weeding under trees is an option; Dennis is also researching the use of a dense, low-growing ornamental rhizome peanut as a ground cover. It shows promise for high nutrient content, crowding out weeds, and heat resistance, but he does not yet have enough planting material to do much of a trial.

Pest problems include greasy spot fungus and mites. While copper sprays are the standard organic control for the fungus, he doesn’t like to use copper and is trying other products, including a botanical yucca extract that may suppress the fungus. “Rust mites,” says Dennis, “are the number one economic issue.” His control methods include maintaining a good environment for beneficials, vegetable based oils, and sulfur; he is also searching for a good predatory mite.

South Tex Organics is continuing to grow and change. Dennis is planning to take over management of an additional 140 acres of grapefruit next year, which will increase his acreage by one-third. Partly because of this, and because a wet season in 2004 caused a much higher percentage of unshippable fruit, he is thinking of putting in a small juice facility. Juice would be sold in bulk to other juice companies, he says, since if he created his own label, he would then be committed to having product year-round. He is also thinking of starting to add value by purchasing a fruit-sectioning machine and entering the growing market for ready-to-serve prepared fruit.

A founding member of Texas Organic Growers Association and one-time member of the National Organic Standards Board, he remains active in the leadership of the organic community as a member of the state of Texas’s organic advisory board. As Dennis constantly makes improvements to guarantee the sustainability of his farm business, he also continues to help steward the growth and sustainability of the organic industry. 

Location: Southernmost tip of Texas, just north of the Rio Grande and Mexican border
Climate zone:  9 Soil type: Sandy loam
Years in commercial production: Managing citrus since 1977. Company formed in 1984.
Acreage: Owns 170 acres, manages or leases an additional 160; markets fruit for several other organic citrus growers (50-70 acres).
Crops/products: Grapefruit, oranges, lemons, watermelon, onions, avocado
Value-added products: Gift boxes in assorted sizes
Notable facilities and equipment: Packing plant
Weeks in production: Year-round.
Markets: Mostly wholesale to fresh market, cull fruit to juice processing; small percentage mail order. Organic certification through the Texas Department of Agriculture.
Labor: 8-10 full-time, 35-50 seasonal workers for harvest/packing.