14 S G M A G A Z I N E | S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 It wasn’t until Smith moved back to the family farm that he started considering growing citrus commercially. “I was playing with the idea of growing citrus about 10 years ago,” said Smith, who also operates a freshwater aquarium business. “I planted a few satsuma trees for commercial production four years ago, so we are now beginning to harvest marketable fruit from these trees.” Smith is also in partnership with a group of local growers that now represent one of the largest satsuma operations in South Georgia. “Through our group, we have about 10,000 trees in Thomas and Grady counties,” said Smith, who predicts to harvest between 100,000 to 200,000 pounds of satsumas this year. “We also added about 1,000 trees in Decatur this year.” Dr. William Todd Cason, superintendent of the Valdosta City Schools, and Dr. LaConya McCrae, principal at J.L. Lomax Elementary School, receive an update from Lowndes County extension agents Jake Price and Josh Dawson regarding satsuma trees planted at the school. Kim Jones has more than 2,800 satsuma trees planted and operates a 12,000-square-foot citrus packing facility.