Honeybell Oranges: The Minneola Tangelo on the Treasure Coast

A Honeybell is not an orange at all but the Minneola tangelo, and the Honeybell name comes from the gift fruit trade, as UF/IFAS explains it.

The UF/IFAS fact sheet on the variety describes the Minneola as a Duncan grapefruit x Dancy tangerine hybrid released in 1931 by the United States Department of Agriculture Horticultural Research Station in Orlando, which makes it half tangerine and half grapefruit (UF/IFAS Minneola tangelo fact sheet). Most Minneola fruit carry a stem-end neck that makes them look pear or bell shaped, and that look gave rise to the Honeybell name in the gift fruit trade, while the proper name remains Minneola. The same sheet puts a typical Honeybell at 3 to 3.5 inches across, with a thin, smooth peel that turns bright reddish orange at peak maturity and clings to the segments.

UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions calls the Minneola arguably the best known tangelo variety and says Minneola tangelos are often marketed as honeybells for the distinctive stem-end neck (UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions citrus page). Florida law has its own definition. The Department of Citrus rule on tangelos classifies the fruit as a hybrid between tangerine or mandarin orange and either grapefruit or pummelo, and allows the word tangelo to be preceded by a variety designation such as Orlando or Minneola (rule 20-13.009 text).

Honeybells mature from December to February, the window both UF/IFAS publications give for the Minneola tangelo.

The Minneola fact sheet says the fruit matures in the December to February period (UF/IFAS Minneola fact sheet), and the UF/IFAS home landscape guide lists Minneola Tangelo (Honeybell) as a midseason fruit for December to February (UF/IFAS Citrus Culture in the Home Landscape, Table 1). The table below sets the Honeybell beside the specialty varieties that the same UF/IFAS table lists around it.

Source for every row: UF/IFAS HS132 Table 1. The October list of Fresh From Florida items from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services names oranges, tangerines and grapefruit among produce in season that month, and no tangelo appears on the list (FDACS What is in Season Now, October). UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions adds that ripe citrus can be stored on the tree for a few months and usually gets sweeter, while fruit does not keep ripening once it is picked (UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions citrus page).

Florida Department of Citrus rule 20-13.009 sets the color and juice standards a tangelo such as the Honeybell must meet before it can be shipped as mature fruit.

The rule page for tangelos, the class that includes the Honeybell, lists the Department of Citrus as the agency and shows the current version effective 11/29/2015 (Florida Administrative Code rule 20-13.009). Under its color test, a tangelo counts as mature only when each fruit shows a break in color, with yellow predominating on not less than 50 percent of the surface in the aggregate; the color break requirement does not apply to fruit for processing from December 1 through July 31 (rule 20-13.009 text). The juice must also hold at least four tenths of one percent anhydrous citric acid, again with no minimum for processing fruit from December 1 through July 31.

For fresh Honeybells and other tangelos, the rule sets a flat 8.55 to 1 solids to acid ratio for shipments from December 1 through January 31 with no minimum solids, and a flat 8 to 1 ratio for shipments from February 1 through July 31 (rule 20-13.009 text). The 2015 amendment deleted Nova from the tangelo rule so that Nova could be reclassified as a tangerine, which the department said would help fresh fruit marketing (rule 20-13.009 history). The Minneola and the Orlando stayed in the tangelo class.

USDA counted 200 thousand boxes of tangerines and tangelos in Indian River County and 27 thousand in St. Lucie County for the 2025-2026 season, out of 460 thousand statewide.

Source for every row: USDA NASS Citrus Summary, August 27, 2026. NASS reports tangerines and tangelos as one group and does not break out the Minneola, so no official count of Honeybell boxes from the Treasure Coast exists in this report. The same summary says statewide tangerine and tangelo production in 2025-2026 is up 15 percent from the previous season, with 301 thousand boxes used fresh and 159 thousand processed, and an on-tree price of 32.91 dollars a box, against 20.45 dollars in 2024-2025.

Citrus acreage has fallen as well. The preliminary 2026 Commercial Citrus Inventory puts statewide specialty fruit at 10,253 acres, with tangerines and tangelos at 4,813 acres, or 47 percent of specialty fruit (USDA NASS Commercial Citrus Inventory, 2026 preliminary). For Indian River County, the inventory lists 8,627 acres of all citrus in 2023 and 6,135 acres in 2026; for St. Lucie County it lists 17,560 acres in 2023 and 12,741 acres in 2026.

Yes, if it was grown inside the Indian River production area that Florida Statutes section 601.091 draws, because only fruit grown within a named production area may carry that name.

Section 601.091 says that, unless a final court order from a case filed before July 1, 1976 provides otherwise, only citrus grown within a specified production area may be identified, labeled or otherwise designated with that area's name (Florida Statutes 601.091). Its boundary description reaches the southwest corner of St. Lucie County and the south line of Martin County before closing along the West Palm Beach Canal; the Treasure Coast guides hub traces the full line. The statute draws the line by township, range and county lines rather than by listing whole counties.

Federal citrus canker rules let fruit from a quarantined area move to other states only when it is packed in a commercial packinghouse that holds an APHIS compliance agreement, treated under 7 CFR part 305 and free of leaves and twigs except stems under 1 inch (7 CFR 301.75-7). The Treasure Coast guides hub sums up the state and federal shipping rules in more depth.

The Minneola is not strongly self-fruitful, so a Honeybell tree bears poorly without a pollenizer variety planted close by, and even well-pollinated trees sometimes set small crops for reasons UF/IFAS calls not clearly understood.

For a Honeybell block, the UF/IFAS fact sheet names Temple, Sunburst and possibly Fallglo as suitable pollenizers (UF/IFAS Minneola fact sheet). Cross pollination changes the fruit: a Minneola in a solid block is likely to be seedless or nearly so, while trees in mixed plantings typically carry 7 to 12 seeds, and the full range runs from 0 up to perhaps 15 seeds per fruit. Because yields can disappoint, commercial growers often use gibberellic acid growth regulator sprays or girdle the trunk to raise fruit set, according to the same sheet.

Disease is the other limit on Honeybell yields. The fact sheet says the Minneola is subject to Alternaria and scab, which may call for a vigorous spring spray program, and that in some groves Alternaria has become severe enough to reduce yields and strip leaves (UF/IFAS Minneola fact sheet). The home landscape table sums the variety up as a tall vigorous tree, a shy bearer and very susceptible to Alternaria and scab fungus (UF/IFAS HS132 Table 1).

UF/IFAS describes the Minneola, the Honeybell tree, as a vigorous, fairly cold hardy tree that grows large, needs room and bears best with a pollenizer variety nearby, and UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions calls tangelos suitable for many parts of Florida.

The fact sheet ranks Minneola cold hardiness just below its sister cultivar, the Orlando tangelo, but warns that because the fruit does not mature before freeze danger in colder parts of Florida, it is not a good choice there (UF/IFAS Minneola fact sheet). Cleopatra mandarin is perhaps the most widely used rootstock for tangerines and tangelos, Swingle citrumelo gives a somewhat smaller tree, and fruit quality is best on slower stocks such as Swingle or trifoliate orange. The same qualities that sold the Honeybell in the gift trade, its looks and eating quality, also made it a popular dooryard tree.

For picking Honeybells or any home citrus, UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions advises tasting one or two fruits before harvesting a whole tree, using a pull-snap-twist motion and washing fruit only when it is about to be eaten, which keeps the natural wax (UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions citrus page). It points home growers to their county Extension office for further help. Last verified: October 22, 2026, against the UF/IFAS Minneola sheet and HS132 season table, Gardening Solutions, both USDA NASS citrus reports, the Department of Citrus tangelo rule, Florida Statutes 601.091, 7 CFR 301.75-7 and the FDACS October produce list.