Instead of spitting out orange seeds and discarding them, it's possible to grow your own trees. Germination and planting is fairly easy, but results may vary.

Matt Mattia used both hands to flip through the branch at his eye level, studying each side of every leaf as sunlight filtered from above. “Just healthy leaves,” he said, noting the dark green color.

On either side of a sandy dirt road, Valencia orange trees tower overhead with flecks of orange and yellow peeking through leafy green branches. Morgan McKenna Porter, 32, has spent her whole life in ...