Hello UBC Members I have just started at this site, and I already feel like this is where I should have started. Firstly, I am from Ontario Canada. I am growing an orange tree from seed and need some pointers. I have been growing my tree since mid March, and it's about 3 to 4 inches tall with 6 full leaves and 2 new ones starting. I have tried to contact both growers, suppliers and nursries to find out about grafting, when the time comes. I have yet to have any of the 2 dozen places acknowledge my existance. I am trying to get growing info for my tree... what fertilizer and soil. How often to fertilze given the age and size of my tree. I am also looking to find out if my species of orange tree will require grafting or not and at what age it will need to be done. The seed I have grown came from an Indian River Direct fruit shippment (seedless navel orange). I purchased approx. 11 boxes through the winter months, and only came across 1 seed in all those oranges. So I decided it was special, and worth trying to grow I also have 4 other seeds I believe are ready to sprout soon, these seeds came from Indian River Direct but are from California since they were after the Florida season ended. These are also Seedless Navel orange seeds... Is that an Oxymoron? If anyone can help with any info on my orange growing, it would be awesome. P.S. I am looking for at least one of these trees to produce fruit eventually. Thanks OrangeDragon
For marketing purposes, citrus fruit is considered to be seedless if the number of seeds in the fruit falls below a certain threshold. The seeds you found are in that sense not so special. The seedling that you have will not be of much use in grafting if your intent is to graft it onto an established rootstock as that would not reduce the juvenility period of the scion. It would be many years (10-15) under ideal conditions for an orange seedling to mature and begin to flower and bear fruit. If you are serious about growing a citrus tree you would be much better off to buy a named variety at your local nursery. Some grafted varieties of oranges have recently become available in my area. A one gallon sized specimen typically sells for 25 to $35.
Hey Junglekeeper I am only looking for USEFUL information to the questions I posted. What you have posted would appear as jibberish to most people, and not at all helpful and for most part is sounding like you like telling people how much time and effort they are wasting. As for seed level in citrus??? What level would that be? When you find ONLY 1 Seed in 250+ oranges, it is fairly special. And by the way, 90% of the people I have talked to so far indicate 6 to 7 years for fruit bearing years, not 10 to 15
University of Florida Extension -- Introduction on Growing Citrus: And, a search on the forums for: [SEARCH]citrus fertilizer seedling[/SEARCH] Read more about citrus from UCLA's Botanical Garden: Citrus
