Our expert Sumo Citrus growers survey the land year-round to make sure the fruit is growing to its fullest potential, producing only the sweetest, juiciest, most enormous fruit fans that wait for every year. During the summer, our Sumo Citrus farms are primarily focused on irrigation and sun protection.

How do our growers tend to this perfectly imperfect fruit?

A Focus on Quality Over Quantity

May and June days cause many fruit to turn yellow and fall off, called “June drop.” June is when the marble-sized fruit that remains starts to show itself and really start to grow.

Sun Protection for the Bumpy Skin

Like many of us, Sumo Citrus loves warm, sunny weather – but the fruit needs sun protection to avoid damage.

Our growers take careful precautions, like applying clay sunscreen to protect the fruit’s unique bumpy skin from

the harsh summer rays of the Central Valley, which can reach triple digit temperatures in the summer. This level of pampering of the delicate fruit ensures a successful harvest next season.

Careful Watering

As soon as the weather gets hot enough for sunscreen, that means irrigation season has arrived. In summer and fall, it doesn’t rain much in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where Sumo Citrus is grown in the United States. Growers irrigate the groves in order to ensure that our Sumo Citrus trees receive sufficient water throughout the drier months and keep growing enormously delicious fruit to its full potential.

Sumo Citrus also conserves and stores extra water when it’s available, through water reservoirs and basins, capturing water from rainstorms, and recycling irrigation water. And our farms use every opportunity to recharge local water tables and put water back into the ground.

Although it’s always a test of patience to await the return of Sumo Citrus season every year, these important growing practices in the summer season are crucial to producing the fruit that’s truly unlike anything else in the produce aisle.