Harvested the yummy Washington navel oranges today. A basket full of heavy juicy delicious oranges. The Washington navel orange is a perfect orange for eating fresh from the tree. Large, delicious, sweet, seedless, and easy to peel fruit. Ripens in late November-December, but as can be seen they hold well on the tree for quite a long while until harvested. The tree is very attractive with its dark green leaves and scented white flowers, and the fruit add an attractive bright orange colour in winter. Our notes on the Washington navel orange are available here: Orange, Washington Navel | Aprici
Impressive! Based on your public profile on this forum - are these in a greenhouse in Saanich area ? Do you move the potted trees out in summer? How do you deal with spider mites and other insects How do the bees pollinate to make fruit ? Your photos esp with young person farmer are wonderful PS - if you ever have an opportunity to visit this state park in Riverside CA (fairly close to Disneyland or - in other direction - Palm Springs) — it’s like a museum of all diff heritage trees California Citrus SHP Thank you
Not sure how to reply to one item at a time, so here is my first attempt, please forgive any faux paws ;-) : Based on your public profile on this forum - are these in a greenhouse in Saanich area ? Yes, sort of. A bit north of Saanich, we are in North Saanich. How do you deal with spider mites and other insects Mostly using oil spray a couple of times a year. It suffocates mites without being toxic. We provide info about it in our "Growing Citrus" pages under "Pests": Pests | Aprici How do the bees pollinate to make fruit ? Most citrus do not actually need pollination so we don't worry about it. We do get the odd mason bee in the greenhouse and we just let it bee if you know what I mean ;-) ... we have had no issues with fruit set. Your photos esp with young person farmer are wonderful Thanks! We appreciate the feedback. The "young person farmer" is our son Brandon. I had been thinking of discontinuing to share as there has been very little feedback, but if folks like the info we are happy to continue to share. PS - if you ever have an opportunity to visit this state park in Riverside CA (fairly close to Disneyland or - in other direction - Palm Springs) — it’s like a museum of all diff heritage trees Thanks again! Have not seen that state park, but I will add it to my list of things that are good to do after the COVID is under control... Thanks
Just testing a suggestion from Wendy about replyig to individual questions... seems to work! We are based in North Saanich. Postal code is V8L 5S8 if that helps....
Ha-ha, that's good! Because it's documented at How to post a message | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. I'm glad I don't have to redo that. I didn't say there that in the completed posting, the up arrow next to the user whom you're quoting is supposed to take people to the quoted posting. Using the Edge browser, it only works for me if the quote was on another page. but it works on Firefox.
How many years old are your trees? Did you start from seed fr supermarket oranges ? Do you uncover the greenhouse in summer months (too hot)? Referring back to California - the gentlemen citrus farmers (ranchers) were enticed from colder climes much like the old Okanagan promoted to gentlemen orchard farmers fr prairies The state park is not so much a large building full of stuff — it’s more rows and rows of trees ... in non pandemic times there are events and outdoor concerts on a big lawn area.
There are many different ages as I have been collecting citrus for quite a while. I think the Washington navel is about 5 years old now. No, it is a grafted tree we bought. We use fans to cool it down when needed. The fans are hooked up to a thermostat and the fans come on automatically.
