FROSTPROOF, Fla. - Can bamboo save Florida's citrus industry?
As more orange trees fall victim to the disease citrus greening, growers are finding themselves with two choices: Diversify their crop or go out of business.
Byron Matteson, of Mattco Enterprises in Polk County, is betting on bamboo.
Past the rows and rows of orange trees on his Frostproof farm is a new, and for now, smaller crop.
“My gut tells me it's a good thing,” Matteson, a third generation citrus grower, said.
It's a gamble, and it took some convincing before he was ready to make the massive investment in 14,000 bamboo plants. He is partnering with Italy-based Only Moso.
As a citrus grower, Matteson has watched other growers go out of business because of greening. For Matteson and his wife, a fifth generation grower, that wasn't an option.
“My husband gets all the credit for this,” Cynthia Matteson said. “He's going to get the praise, or he's going to get the blame if this doesn't go well.”
Orange trees cost about $10 to plant, but it can take up to a decade before any money is made off of them. Bamboo is about four times more expensive to plant, but growers can make money off it much sooner.
“By the end of the second year, beginning of the third, you're starting to see return on it right away,” Byron Matteson said.
Bamboo’s uses are practically endless, he added, from construction to food to clothing.
The Mattesons have no plans to abandon their "family tree," but are looking forward to the future bamboo brings.
“Win, lose or draw, it's just fun to start with something on the ground floor and take it up the best you can,” Byron Matteson said.
The Mattesons still have about 85 acres of citrus, compared to 35 acres of bamboo. A few years from now, they expect the little plants to be at least 10 feet tall.
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