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Moro Navel Blood orange?
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Posted by woodrok AL zone 8b (My Page) on Fri, Feb 10, 12 at 21:45
| Ok, I have been enjoying the heck out of my 1st crop of blood oranges but now I have a question. I was looking at the oranges trying to judge ripeness based on reddish tint on the skin. As I lifted one of the oranges up I noticed it had a navel just like my navel oranges do. Is this some kind of mutation or can this just naturally occur? I have never seen an orange that wasn't a navel with this characteristic. Has anyone else?
Rob |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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| First, don't think you can judge ripeness of the Moro by skin blush. That actually occurs due to divergences in temps. So, you'll see that the oranges on the north side of your tree will be more blushed than those on the warmer, south side :-) In my area of the country, Moros are ripe between December and February. And yes, navels are natural mutations. You'll see them pop up now and then. Watch that branch. Place a marker or ribbon on it and see if that branch continues to "sport" navel Moros. If so, you've got a sport branch that can then be grafted to produce an entire Moro navel orange tree :-) Oranges with navels tend to be seedless/nearly seedless, which is always a perk when eating fruit out of hand. Here is an interesting article about the Navel orange and how they came about. Patty S. |
Here is a link that might be useful: NPR: Who Put the Navel in the Navel Orange
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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| Cool! Thanks for the response. Upon closer inspection the orange next to it on the same branch has a little tiny navel too. I will see if I can get a picture later and post it. And I will definitely be marking that branch! Thanks Patty. Rob |
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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| Excellent, Rob! I have something like this going on with m Persian lime tree. The tree was here when we bought the house, and I almost removed it, since I'm not really a fan of insipid citrus, BUT I was picking up some dropped fruit from the tree and when I cut into it in the house, it was pigmented! I apparently have a blood sport branch on that tree. I need to go out with a knife and tags or ribbons and start picking and cutting to identify the branch. Now, if I could just figure a way to add back a little acid, I'd have something that was actually edible. Patty S. |
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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Here is a picture of the above mentioned orange.
Rob |
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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| Rob, this is quite awesome. Keep that branch tagged. Please let us know if you've really got a navel in there (a twin) when you cut this orange open, and if there are no/little seeds. This would be a very cool thing to share with the UCR folks. Let me know if you'd like a contact there. You should be able to share budwood with UCR, since you're in a non-quarantined state, and I KNOW UCR would love to have some of your budwood for this!! Consider yourself a very citrus-blessed person :-) Thanks for sharing the photo!! Patty S. |
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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| It did have a twin inside though not as large as I usually see in a navel orange. There was 1 seed. There were also 3 other oranges on this branch with little tiny holes on the bottom and also had the twins inside. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on this branch this year. Rob |
RE: Moro Navel Blood orange?
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| I would plant the see, woodrok, and see if eventually you can graft the seedling to a rootstock and see if the seedling ends up producing navel blood oranges. It will be a bit of a wait, but might be a fun long-term project! And, you DEFINITELY want to take some budwood from this tree, and graft, graft, graft!!! Talk with Auburn University about your cool find, and see if they want some budwood in trade for a few grafted trees back to you. Patty S. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Auburn University Citrus Station
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