Is It Illegal to Grow Oranges in Florida? Permits and Penalties

No, it is not illegal to grow oranges in Florida. Growing citrus is lawful, but it is heavily regulated: the trees you plant, where you plant them, how you irrigate, who sprays your pesticides, and how you move fruit are all controlled by state and federal law. The rules apply with the most force to commercial growers, but even a backyard planter can break the law by buying nursery stock from the wrong source, planting inside a regulated zone around a commercial nursery, or carrying a citrus tree in from another state.

Here is what the law actually requires, and where the real risks are.

Where You Buy Your Trees

Since 2008, it has been illegal in Florida to distribute citrus nursery stock that was not grown inside a protective structure approved by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). Nurseries must also sit at least one mile from any commercial citrus grove, defined as a solid planting of 40 or more citrus trees. Nurseries registered before April 1, 2006 are exempt from the one-mile setback if they stay at their original location, but they still must use an approved protective structure.¹

The enclosed structures exist to keep Asian citrus psyllids, the insects that spread citrus greening, away from young trees. Budwood sources and nursery production must happen inside psyllid-proof enclosures and be certified free of huanglongbing (HLB).¹

For anyone planting citrus, the rule is simple. Buy only from an FDACS-certified nursery operating in an approved enclosed structure. Stock that was not produced under those conditions is illegal to sell or plant in Florida.

Where You Can Plant

FDACS designates regulated areas around commercial citrus nurseries established after April 1, 2006, extending up to one mile from the nursery perimeter. Planting citrus inside those zones is prohibited outright. Trees that already existed before the zone was created can usually remain, but if FDACS determines a tree is infected with citrus canker or greening, the department can order it removed by immediate final order. The property owner pays for removal of any citrus planted without approval.¹

Movement rules also apply once trees are in the ground. Citrus plants can leave Florida only if certified by USDA and originating from an FDACS-compliant nursery. Fresh citrus fruit must be cleaned, inspected, treated, waxed, and certified by USDA at a regulated packinghouse before shipment. Within citrus black spot quarantine areas, commercial fruit cannot be moved outside the zone unless it is in a covered vehicle or secured under a tarpaulin that contains all fruit and leaves.²

Bringing Citrus In From Out of State

This is the provision that surprises people most. Importing citrus plant material from another state or country without a special permit from the FDACS Division of Plant Industry is a third-degree felony, not just a fine. A single tree carried in from a trip can trigger charges.³ Given the state’s long fight against citrus greening and canker, prosecutors and FDACS treat unauthorized movement of citrus material as a serious threat to the remaining groves.

Licenses You Need to Sell Fruit or Spray

If you intend to sell citrus fruit commercially, you need a citrus fruit dealer’s license for each shipping season under Section 601.55, and you cannot operate a packinghouse or processing plant without registering with FDACS.⁴

Anyone applying restricted-use pesticides on your grove needs a Florida applicator license from FDACS under Chapter 487. Each applicant must pass a written or oral exam covering equipment use, environmental hazards, concentration calculations, pest identification, protective gear, and container disposal.⁵ Fees run $100 for a private applicator applying to their own operation, $100 for a public applicator, and $250 for a commercial applicator for hire. Licenses last four years. Renewal happens by retaking the exams or accumulating continuing education units. If your license expires and you do not renew within 60 days, a $50 late fee applies. After one year of expiration, you must start over. While your license is expired, you cannot legally purchase or apply any restricted-use pesticide.⁶

Applicators certified in other states may qualify under reciprocal agreements that waive the Florida exam, but they still need a Florida license from FDACS before applying restricted-use pesticides here. Aerial applicators always need a Florida license regardless of their home-state certification.⁶

Water: Permits and Best Management Practices

Irrigating a citrus grove requires a consumptive water use permit from your regional water management district. Chapter 373 authorizes the districts to require permits and set conditions to protect the area’s water resources. Individual domestic use is exempt; commercial agricultural irrigation is not.⁷ Thresholds and conditions vary by district. Most citrus-producing counties fall under the South Florida, Southwest Florida, or St. Johns River water management districts. Operating without a required permit can result in the district ordering you to stop withdrawing water entirely.

Florida’s Best Management Practices (BMP) program for citrus growers covers nutrient management, irrigation efficiency, and pesticide handling. FDACS publishes the manual and offers free on-farm assessments. You submit a Notice of Intent with a BMP checklist, then implement all applicable practices within 18 months.⁸

Enrollment has a real legal payoff. Implementing verified BMPs gives you a presumption of compliance with state water quality standards, which shields you from certain enforcement actions related to the pollutants your BMPs address.⁹ If your land is inside a Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) area, enrollment is not optional. You must either enroll in the FDACS BMP program and properly implement the practices or conduct water quality monitoring prescribed by the Department of Environmental Protection to show you are meeting standards. Skipping both exposes you to action from the water management district.⁸

Agricultural Property Tax Classification

Section 193.461, often called the greenbelt law, allows agricultural land to be assessed on its use rather than its market value. In many Florida counties, that cuts the tax bill dramatically. Land must be used primarily for bona fide commercial agricultural purposes. The property appraiser weighs factors including how long the land has been in agricultural use, whether that use has been continuous, and whether you have made a genuine effort to care for the land through practices such as fertilizing, tilling, and mowing. No minimum acreage is required.¹⁰

The deadline matters. You must file your agricultural classification return with the county property appraiser on or before March 1 each year. Missing March 1 waives the classification for the entire year, though a late application may still be filed by the 25th day after the property appraiser mails the annual assessment notice.¹⁰

Citrus growers affected by state or federal eradication or quarantine programs, including the Citrus Health Response Program, get special protection. The land keeps its agricultural classification for up to 10 years after the compliance agreement is signed, and while the land is fallow or replanted under the agreement, it is assessed at no more than $50 per acre on a single-year basis.¹⁰

Hiring Workers

Growers who use the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program must pay at least the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), which sets a floor so that hiring foreign workers does not depress wages for domestic agricultural employees. The current Florida non-range AEWR is $16.23 per hour, and it applies to H-2A workers and domestic workers performing the same tasks.¹¹ Range occupation workers follow a separate monthly rate.

Beyond wages, citrus operations must comply with worker safety rules covering heat exposure, pesticide re-entry intervals, field sanitation, and transportation safety under both federal OSHA standards and Florida law.

Federal Crop Insurance

For the 2026 crop year, USDA Risk Management Agency coverage is available for Florida citrus under the Florida Citrus Fruit Crop Provisions (both Actual Production History and dollar-value plans) and the Florida Fruit Tree Crop Insurance Provisions. Operations in northern Florida, southern Alabama, and southern Georgia may also qualify through written agreements with the RMA regional office.¹²

Three limits catch growers off guard. Meyer and improved Meyer lemons are expressly prohibited from coverage, and written agreement requests for those varieties will be rejected. To insure Stage 1 citrus trees north of Interstate 4, you must have frost protection in place and document your water source type and capacity along with emitter type and capacity. And the regional office will not accept fruit or tree insurance requests for lemons and limes north of I-4 due to cold tolerance concerns.¹²

What Happens If You Break the Rules

Enforcement has criminal and administrative tracks, and they can run at the same time.

On the criminal side, violating any provision of Chapter 581 or its rules, interfering with FDACS inspectors, or refusing to identify the source of plant material is a first-degree misdemeanor. Importing citrus plant material from other states or countries without a special permit from the Division of Plant Industry is a third-degree felony.³

On the administrative side, FDACS can impose Class II fines for each violation, place a violator on probation for up to one year, and suspend or revoke certificates of registration or inspection. Remedies can be stacked. If a fine goes unpaid for 15 days, the department can suspend or revoke a certificate without a further hearing and add $100 per day for each day the violation continues.¹³

The regulated-area rules carry their own mechanism. If you plant citrus inside a regulated zone around a nursery without FDACS approval, the department can issue an immediate final order requiring removal at the property owner’s cost, and the same immediate-order process applies to infected or infested trees found within a regulated area.¹

Growing oranges in Florida is a long-standing, lawful business. The question is not whether you can do it, but whether you have lined up the right trees, the right site, the right licenses, and the right paperwork before you start.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 581.1843 – Citrus Nursery Stock Propagation and Production and the Establishment of Regulated Areas Around Citrus Nurseries
2
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Citrus Quarantine and Disease Detection Maps
3
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 581.211 – Penalties for Violations
4
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 601.55 – Citrus Fruit Dealer License Required
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 487.044 – Certification Examination
6
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Pesticide Applicator Certification and Licensing
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 373.219 – Permits Required
8
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Agricultural Best Management Practices
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 403.067 – Establishment and Implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads
10
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 193.461 – Agricultural Lands; Classification and Assessment
11
Flag.dol.gov. H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rates
12
Risk Management Agency (USDA). Crop Year 2026 Underwriting Guidelines for Cold Hardy Citrus Fruit and Tree in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia
13
Florida Senate. Florida Code 581-141 – Certificate of Registration or of Inspection Revocation and Suspension Fines