nish travelers introduced the sweet orange to the American continent. On his second voyage in 1493, Christopher Columbus may have planted the fruit on Hispaniola. Subsequent expeditions in the Hawaiian Islands, but its cultivation stopped after the arrival of the Mediterranean fruit fly in the early s.Florida farmers obtained seeds from New Orleans around 1872, after which orange groves were established by grafting the sweet orange on to sour orange rootstocks.California Citrus cultivation in California began with the Spanish missionaries, who planted oranges and lemons at Baja California around 1739 and at Alta California missions by. Early fruit was thick-skinned and sour, not suited for commercial markets. The first sizable grove was established at Mission San Gabriel in, with about trees on six acres. This mission-based agriculture ended with secularization which closed the missions and gave away their lands in . Jean-Louis Vignes likely planted the first private orange gro