‘California of Canada’: In the face of U.S. tariffs, B.C. citrus growers say production could scale up

A B.C. citrus grower is pushing the boundaries on crops that can survive a Canadian winter after years of experimentation. Andrew Johnson has her story.

On a snow-covered Salt Spring Island, inside a greenhouse on a small farm, you will find the most unlikely of Canadian crops – a citrus grove. It’s Jane Squier’s subtropical happy place.

“Most horticulturalists love challenges,” she said.

About a decade earlier, Squier, entering semi-retirement, had stopped buying imported citrus, concerned about the use of pesticides and problems in the industry. She wondered how successfully she could grow her own oranges, lemons, limes, and passionfruit on British Columbia’s west coast.

“The challenge was to see if I could do it on the energy and nutrient footprint on this property,” she said.

Squier is now growing 35 varieties of citrus inside her 6,000 square foot greenhouse.

“I’m blown away they are productive under these conditions. Often this place is 1 C, and the soil temperature is down to 6 C, and yet the quality of the fruit is OK,” Squier said.

In some cases, better than OK.

“I have a couple friends of California I’ve given some fruit, and they said that’s probably the nicest avocado they’ve ever eaten,” she said. “It’s very oily, very nutty.”

Squier heats the place as inexpensively as possible, using a hydronic setup that begins with a wood-fueled furnace pumping in hot water that heats up two insulated pools. Fans then circulate the warm air rising from the pools throughout the greenhouse.

“My power bill for the whole farm is just about as much as a single-family home,” Squier said.

Squier doesn’t use fertilizers or pesticides, instead using compost and mulch. There is a focus on regenerative soil techniques that Squier says create a symbiotic relationship with the plants.

“There is biology in the soil that is actually functioning and actually is creating a bit of heat in there,” she said. “If I take a sample of the soil and look under the microscope there’s a lot going on.”

Squier runs workshops teaching her methods to others, as does Bob Duncan on Vancouver Island. Duncan takes a bit of a different approach to grow dozens of varieties of tree fruits, including oranges, lemons, and figs. If needed, he lightly heats his trees using only basic incandescent Christmas lights, which he says costs pennies per day.

“The heating cost for the entire winter is two to three dollars,” Duncan told CTV News. He covers the trees with a special cloth to keep that heat in.

With the threat of tariffs from the U.S., Duncan believes now is the time for more Canadians to learn to grow what they can, especially those who can take advantage of mild west coast winters.

“It is no longer a pipe dream; it is entirely feasible and possible,” he said.

Duncan is advocating for all levels of government to provide incentives to home growers, though he notes his methods are already both low cost, and low tech.

“It’s virtually unheated production of citrus,” he said. “We’ve worked out the techniques to do this with minimal energy and no carbon footprint.”

And like Squier, Duncan believes production of subtropical and mediterranean crops could one day be scaled up.

“In the future, maybe British Columbia will be the California of Canada.”