Not to start a fight, as you do have valid points, but many moons ago I WAS a citrus "dirt" farmer in overseeing 2500 acres.

A few points for those who have never spent time sweating in the fields:

Yes, it is beach sand that the crops grow in. Smart growers take advantage of this situation because hydroponic growing is the most efficient means of production. "Gentleman" farmers just throw a lot of money at a grove and over spray, fertilize, water, etc. Basically wasting money and messing up their grove.

Putting the nutrients exactly in the root zone of the tree maximizes uptake, minimizes weeds, and allows the grower (to some extent) to control the maturation of the crop (bloom, size, coloring, etc.) Also allows grower to tailor the carbohydrate cycle of the tree.

Crap, even the sprayers are computerized and turn off the spray between trees (and cut the rate for shorter trees), saving tons of spray material. Spray materials have improved to reduce side effects on environment, allowing greater pest control using beneficial insects, plants, and fungi. We had the most cost effective pest control program in place using only spray (light vegetable) oil, copper and sulfur. No need to use weird chemicals because we stayed tight on our scouting, pruning, and water/nutrient management.

Trees have microjet irrigation under them that put water only in the root zone. Fertigation through the micro jets allows for exact placement of nutrients.

You can't control the weather and yes, sometimes periods of heavy rains do move fertilizer out of the root zone.

Each tree is now located using GPS, and their overall condition is graded by satellite (helps in crop estimates), but there is still no better method of increasing production than footprints in the grove.

Most groves in the flats now have their own water retention facilities (usually about 10% of the total acreage is water retention) so that they basically supply (and recycle) their own water. Yes, the diesel pumps run (could be converted to biodiesel), but only because you can't use electric pumps - they shut off power to growers during freeze events because homeowners want to be toasty. No power during freeze means no freeze protection = dead trees.

I know you're aware of all this technology, but there are lurkers out there that still think we're out there spraying arsenic all over everything.

Dang - now you've got me yapping like Wouter. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />