Grower Spotlight: Squeeze Citrus grows nutrient-dense food with regenerative agriculture

I had been wanting to talk to Herb Young for weeks, but I had trouble getting him on the phone–he was too busy packing grapefruit. When word spread on social media that Herb’s regeneratively-grown grapefruit has 8 times the nutrient density of conventional fruit, he was flooded with orders, and sold out within weeks. Meanwhile, Herb says he has neighbors with half a million pounds of satsumas in storage, unable to sell them. 

Herb runs Squeeze Citrus in southwest Georgia. After decades working as a scientist in chemical agriculture, Herb thought there had to be a better way to grow food. So in his retirement, he bought a rundown farm with a history of heavy discing and chemical use, and four years ago planted a citrus grove with the primary goal of growing nutrient-dense food. 

Herb knew that nutrient-dense food starts with healthy soil biology. To restore the soil microbiome, he implemented a holistic regenerative management strategy, featuring nutritional fertigation, foliar sprays, and microbial inoculants. 

Herb in his orchard (all photos by Shelley Katz).

Cover crops were a core part of his management from the beginning. “My goal is to grow microbes, and cover crops are the biggest feeder of microbes, through their root exudates,” he says. Twice a year since he planted his orchard, Herb has seeded cover crops, using a different mix of species for winter and summer.* 

Conventional wisdom believes that groundcover roots should be eliminated so they don’t compete with tree roots, so in a conventional citrus grove, herbicides are applied three to four times per year in a 12 foot strip under the tree row to keep the ground bare, and tightly-mown grass grows in the drive lanes.

Herb’s orchard looks very different. It’s knee-deep  in cover crops. Because his tree rows are fertigated with microjets, the cover crop growth is most lush and dense right near the trees, which in a conventional grove would be bare soil. In his fertigation, Herb makes sure to include products not just to feed his trees, but the cover crops and soil microbes as well. He includes Spectrum™ and other microbial inoculants along with AEA’s SeaStim™, HumaCarb™, and Rejuvenate™. Every two weeks, he alternates soil treatments with foliar applications consisting of AEA’s Rebound ™ copper, iron, zinc, boron, and other nutrients based on sap analysis. 

Herb considers the trifecta that drives soil health in his orchard to be microbes, tree roots, and cover crop roots. Combined, they create a holistic system with seriously beneficial effects. 

The results are profound. In the tree rows, the ground feels spongy and is raised about 2 inches. A penetrometer, which in a conventional orchard may penetrate 4-5” deep, goes in 30-36” in Herb’s orchard. “Put the slightest pressure and it goes all the way to the handles. It’s a visual and physical indication that the cover crops are going wild and doing wonderful things in the soil.” 

Has all of this conscientious management achieved Herb’s initial goal of growing nutrient-dense food? Herb put his scientific background to work and designed a study. He picked two varieties from his grove, and picked those same varieties from two neighboring groves on the very same day. He immediately juiced them, froze the juice, and shipped it overnight to a USDA-certified lab in North Carolina. The results were astounding. On average, the vitamin, flavonoid and carotenoid levels in Herb’s fruit were 8 times higher. Three flavonoids were entirely absent from the conventional fruit, but present in Herb’s. All of the substances measured have known benefits for human health. 

Herb’s customers know the value of nutrient dense food, and he says that’s why they’re willing to pay a premium for it. “Long-term, hopefully profitability will come from nutrient density,” says Herb. 

What started as a retirement project now has Herb making plans to deepen and expand the business. He received a grant to do more nutrient analysis; over the coming year he’ll also be sampling other varieties and comparing them to more local groves. And he says he’ll have to figure out how to manage packing four times more fruit next year, as young trees come into bearing. 

You can get updates from Herb on LinkedIn and Instagram, where he frequently posts data from his orchard.

*Cover crop species in Herb’s mixes: 

WINTER:

• Clovers (Crimson, White, Arrowleaf, Balansa)
• Hairy Vetch
• Austrian Winter Pea
• Buckwheat
• Diakon Radish
• Cereal Ryegrass
• Black Oats
• Kale
• Turnip

SUMMER:

• Brown Top millet
• Oats
• Clovers
• Sunn Hemp
• Buckwheat
• Spring pea
• Fenugreek