Spring in Bloom on the Sumo Citrus Trees

Throughout the season, our expert growers carefully prune and tend to their groves to protect the Sumo Citrus trees and allow them to produce the sweetest, most high quality fruit during the winter. The trees’ prunings are left in the field to create a thick mulch that cultivates a thriving ecosystem for soil microbes and protects the trees from the sun, wind, and rain.

As spring approaches, our Sumo Citrus growers keep their eyes peeled for the beginning of “Bloom,” a hopeful and celebratory time on the farms, second only to the harvest itself. 

Bloom is when the Sumo Citrus trees explode with flowers and the fruiting process begins for next year. The petals of each bloom fall away and in their place, a budding Sumo Citrus fruit is left to grow. Only then does the promise of the next harvest become more tangible. 

“Bloom is never a given,” says Sumo Citrus grower Gunnar Avinelis. It’s “that time you’re anticipating the harvest to come that you’re not going to see for really seven or eight months in the future.”

Sumo Citrus is grown in California’s Central Valley, where the conditions are ideal for growing citrus. The climate offers hot, dry conditions during the summer, cool winter nights, and ample water supply for irrigation—thanks to careful conservation efforts by our experienced growers throughout the winter—that yield the perfectly imperfect Sumo Citrus fruit you know and love. 

But ultimately, the fate of every season is in the hands of Mother Nature. So our Sumo Citrus growers balance their knowledge and expertise with respect for nature and a little prayer as they move through the harvest cycle. 

“You put your day-to-day heart and soul into this,” said Sumo Citrus Agronomy Research Assistant Mazie Jameson. The result comes many months later during harvest, when the most enormously delicious fruit is picked and heads to stores.

Want to learn more about the full Sumo Citrus harvest life cycle? Check out what’s happening on our farms during the summer here, fall here, and winter here or visit our Growing page here.