- Author: Kathy Thomas-Rico
My long-running love affair with growing my own blood oranges has ended in a very ugly way. My beloved ‘Moro’ blood orange tree has failed me.
Or have I failed my tree? Take note of the photo below. What a sad, sad harvest I’ve had. Some of the lovely, little oranges on the tree have split. What caused this? I thought I had been doing everything right: We transplanted the tree into a much larger container in late spring. We moved the tree to a more sun-soaked location. The tree put on dozens of fruit, a major coup. I thought I had figured it all out. And now some of those fruits have split.
My after-the-fact research has uncovered a predisposition for some citrus to split as the fruit nears ripeness. Many factors come into play when this happens.
— Blood orange trees, in particular, have less foliage than other citrus. When the oranges are small, that lack of leaves allows the fruit to be overexposed in spots. This weakens the skin, and as the orange fills out and ripens — or has an autumnal growth spurt — a tear occurs.
— Splitting, which is most common in navel oranges, appears to happen after “fluctuations in the weather, temperature and watering,” according to a UC Publication. The publication continues: “A period of high humidity followed by a dry period can trigger the splitting effect. Usually only a few fruit on any given tree are affected. Monitor for extreme or sudden climate changes and keep the soil under citrus trees evenly and consistently moist, not soggy, to alleviate the problem as much as possible. Irrigate when the top 3-4 inches of soil have dried out.“
Alas, I’ve been fooling myself. I know blood oranges can be tricky to grow, especially in a container and in our super-hot-and-dry climate zone. I lacked the tenacity to get out there and check the soil moisture. My fertilization schedule was anything but consistent. What a bad Master Gardener I’ve been.
I now realize the real holiday miracle will be the harvesting of the unscathed oranges my little tree managed to put on. Here’s to a few blood orange mimosas to celebrate the season. And I will raise a toast to a happier harvest in 2013.