Which Orange tree is best in the Phoenix area?

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by stevek64

Thanks for following up pbenjamin....been a while on our last exchange.

That's too bad on the fruit quality on your washington navel tree. This document from the AZ coop extension mentions dried fruit problems and what could cause it...could be a rootstock/cold injury issue:

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/...ubs/az1492.pdf

The tag is long gone. Thought I was ahead of the game by remembering Washington. Still optimistic though. Our last navel tree (last house) had great fruit but only gave us a dozen or so a year. This one is prolific as hell and getting better each year, so time may yield a bumper crop of good fruit. Our street was once lined (in the "parkway" between the sidewalk and the street) with ornamental sour orange trees. Over the years they died of old age. We replaced ours with better trees. Even if it never produces we're no worse off than when the sour ones were out there.

[lewdog_5]

We received an orange tree as a wedding gift 3 years ago. We were still renting, so I potted it and do not remember it coming with a tag to tell us what kind (not that I would have cared or known at that time!). Is there a way to tell what kind it is now? It hasn't really produced great fruit yet but did have produce some small edible ones this past year.

[wit-nit]

Dry pithy possibilities.
Young, poorly established trees often produce dry fruit with thick rind and inadequate sweetness during their first years of production. The quality and amount of dryness in the early years of a citrus tree is highly variable as a function of variety, but no matter which variety, there is always a significant improvement in quality as trees mature. Varieties most susceptible to dryness include mostly grapefruit and pomelos and their crosses. But some tangerines and oranges will also be dry and of poor quality until well established. If you want good quality fruit early on, make sure to provide plenty of fertilizer. A good acid loving fertilizer such as camelia and rhododendron fertilizer will work very well. Avoid citrus fertilizers as they usually lack the soil acidifiers and will therefore not be as effective.

Drought Stress
Contrary to popular belief, citrus are not drought tolerant. They can take a lot of heat, hence they are popular in the desert. However, lack of water during the growing season can cause dry fruit especially when the tree is young, and excessive drought stress will defoliate and possibly even kill a citrus tree. Citrus trees prefer a bi-monthly deep watering cycle. Immature trees should be watered more frequently: at least once a week. Freshly planted nursery trees need watering at least twice a week for the first year to get properly established.

Rootstock
Citrus grafted/budded on vigorous rootstock take longer to get established into full production. As a result, they are more likely to have dry, pithy fruit for a longer period of time.

Why do some of my citrus become dry and pithy? : Rare Fruits, Edibles and Permaculture with a focus on tropicals

[raindance maggie]

Navel oranges are the best eating kind.
They're much better here than Sacramento where we moved from. When they were ripe for picking they were dry and stringy. It was because of the frequent cold snaps and freezes around there in December and January. The orange crops weren't protected like they should have been.
We have some orange trees in our neighborhood and it's amazing how juicy the oranges are. I was prepared for dried-out fruit because of this being such a dry climate but I was really surprised by the high quality.
I never see any citrus fields around here and it's a shame because they seem to ripen so well here.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by raindance maggie

Navel oranges are the best eating kind.
They're much better here than Sacramento where we moved from. When they were ripe for picking they were dry and stringy. It was because of the frequent cold snaps and freezes around there in December and January. The orange crops weren't protected like they should have been.
We have some orange trees in our neighborhood and it's amazing how juicy the oranges are. I was prepared for dried-out fruit because of this being such a dry climate but I was really surprised by the high quality.
I never see any citrus fields around here and it's a shame because they seem to ripen so well here.

There used to be lots of orchards around here. A big chunk of the Arcadia area, where I grew up, started out as citrus orchard, and still had groves in it for a long time. I'm always amazed when I go to FL and see what I would call stunted orange trees in the groves there. They look nothing like the big healthy trees I see in people's yards here.

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by observer53

There used to be lots of orchards around here. A big chunk of the Arcadia area, where I grew up, started out as citrus orchard, and still had groves in it for a long time. I'm always amazed when I go to FL and see what I would call stunted orange trees in the groves there. They look nothing like the big healthy trees I see in people's yards here.

Yep, houses took over lots of citrus groove. I think sunkist or some other big citrus company had a big citrus processing plant somewhere in the metro years ago?

Low desert citrus in my view is by far the best tasting. Same with peaches and plums. When I give friends who don't live out here a grapefruit or an orange grown in the low desert, they usually say "wow, this is the best citrus I've ever had by far". I read our hot summers make the fruit real sweet and the cool winter nights make the tart. I can tell right away where the citrus is from without even looking at the label just based on how sweet the fruit is.

[Sour Seville]

Originally Posted by wit-nit

AZ Sweets are grafted onto either lemon stock or sour orange stock. Find out which one you're planning on buying what their root stock is. The sour orange stocks are the best tasting/juicing. Lemon stocks makes the trees grow faster and the fruit can be bittersweet.

if I was gonna plant a citrus tree in my yard and lived in the valley I’d grow navels.
A Washington navel scion and a sour stock would be my choice all the way over the az sweet. Navels make really good juice too.

In the Sonoran desert, Both scions of az sweets do better and are a far superior quality fruit when grown on sour stock. Sour lemon stock fairs ok, but these trees have more disease, grow smaller and live shorter.
Sour stock Fruit trees tend to love the salt and verde river soil and grow larger, produce more fruit, are immune to more disease and taste superior. A family friend local grower for 40 years swears by the sour Seville rootstock and Washington scion and his navel oranges are probably the best Oranges I’ve ever eaten.
It’s sad to see most of the citrus gone now.. large citrus groves create their own climate and cool surrounding areas significantly since they regulate heat so well... I remember groves and groves of navels, eureka, Meyer, ponderosa lemons, kinnows, Orlandos, minneolas, Tangelos, tangerines, sweets, Valencias, marsh and ruby red grapefruit, And you could buy all of them at the Marketplace citrus store.

[Jnvlv247]

My aunt in Venice FL says my parent's AZ navel oranges are better than her local ones