Hi, My father-in-law, like myself, is an amateur plant enthusiast. About 15 years ago, he planted a seed from a regular Sunkist orange. It is now a tree with a trunk about the size of a quarter but it has never flowered nor fruited. I have not seen this tree but presumably in our Toronto weather, it would have to be in a large pot that he brings outdoors in the summer and indoors in the winter. His question is how to make it fruit? Please help, Bernie
Hi Bernie, Does or has the tree develop flowers ever? How many hours of full sun does it recieve in summer? Sunkist oranges are foreign to me. I fear that may be a marketting name as opposed to a cultivar. Most orange cultivars and Hybrids flower through summer with the fruit maturing in winter. That can be tricky when you need to move the pet indoors for winter. What do you feed it with and how often? Try composted chook pooh (chicken). Citrus adore chook pooh minimum 6hrs full sun and consistant irrigation. If allowed to dry out when flowers are developing or during flowering then your crop of tasty fruit is gooooooooorn.
Hey Bernie, there has been some good discussion on this topic on the forums lately. Planting citrus from seed is a crapshoot. It is quite possible that the tree is sterile and will never fruit. It is certainly difficult to grow citrus in Ontario and that could be the problem too. Do a search of the forums for citrus and seed to find the threads on the topic. (The search button is at the top of the forums on the green bar.) Yes Puddleton, Sunkist is an American trade name, so it doesn't tell us much about what type of orange it was.
Actually Sunkist is a marketing cooperative of California and Arizona Citrus growers. The primary Oranges sold through this label are Washington Navel and Valencia Oranges. If this tree has been brought outside in the past and then brought in for the Winter and has not bloomed then it probably may not ever bloom. What you may consider is to have someone bud this tree with a known fruiting Orange. There should be some bud wood available in Ontario. I cannot say exactly where at this time. Get me home again on my machine and I can browse around for sources. Another thing to consider is that most but not all Citrus fruit that we buy in the stores are from grafted or budded parents. Meaning that even when we are able to grow seed on and finally get a tree to bloom for us and set fruit that the fruit will many more times not be the quality that we originally purchased. I've seen several people grow on seed from pink Grapefruit and have the fruit from the seedling tree be a white fleshed Grapefruit that was rather bitter tasting instead. http://www.sunkist.com Jim Puddleton: some time send me a private message about your water problems in Sydney.
Thank you all for your input. I will pass the tips to my father-in-law. I was reading the threads on making a grapefruit tree fruit, with advice from Mr. Shep. Would this orange tree also benefit from being in the cold a certain number of hours per day in the fall-winter? I also have another question. I would love to have a kitchen garden and am looking specifically for a bay laurel tree, a kumquat tree and a kaffir lime tree. I have read the threads on the problems about growing the kaffir tree from seed. In the USA, there is a site that sells these trees already at fruiting-age (acornsprings.com) but they will not ship to Canada due to national regulations. My question, is there a similar source in our own venerable country? Thrilled to have found this forum, Bernie
Hi, Bernie. Flora Exotica recently added Citrus hystrix to their offerings. AFAIK it is the only Canadian online retailer that has it. If you have connections around Ottawa you can try Richmond Nursery. A Vancouver source can be found in this post in Growing kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix) from seed? | UBC Botanical Garden Forums.
Hi Junglekeeper, Thank-you so much for the sites you listed. I love Vietnamese food and it turns out FloraExotica is geared towards that cuisine. My father-in-law will probably end up buying one of all their stock. Bernie
You're welcome, Bernie. I've not dealt with Flora Exotica before so I'd be interested in your experience with them and the quality of their plants.
Be careful with the tropical fruits as many of them will have to be grown in a heated and probably an artificially lighted greenhouse rather than indoors in a house for you to get them to bloom and set fruit for you. Definitely learn the growing requirements for each plant prior to their purchase. Many of the exotic fruit have been grown by the members of this link below. http://www.crfg.org Would this orange tree also benefit from being in the cold a certain number of hours per day in the fall-winter? Cold chill will not promote flowering for an Orange. Warmer temperatures and 4-8 hours of sunlight will help promote the flower formation and initiation. We want cold chill to enhance color of the rind and help the maturing Orange and Mandarin fruit produce more sugar. That is one of the reasons why Lemons and Limes are easier to grow in a cooler climate as their flesh and juice do not have to be sweet for us to enjoy them. The Kaffir Lime has rather sour fruit so I am giving you a heads up there. Can be juiced though and the juice mixed with a sweet Lime such as a Bearss, Mexican, Palestine and even a Persian Lime but the Kaffir Lime is every bit as tart as a Rangpur Lime is (actually a sour Mandarin) but will not yield as much juice as a Rangpur Lime will. Jim
Good call Mr Shep! Down here in our corner of the world, they are grown purely for the aromatic foliage. The juice is as scarce as rocking horse manure!
