Blood Orange Tree Polination
Question from Jess:
Do Blood Oranges need another nearby to cross pollinate? My mentor and I have researched this all over and can’t find an answer. We figured I anyone knew, it would definitely be you!!
Answer from Pat:
Blood oranges do not require cross-pollination with another citrus tree in order to bear fruit. On the other hand if there are other citrus trees nearby they might bear more fruit. If you have sparse fruit, however, this is not a result of not having cross-pollination, but more likely is the result of insufficient numbers of bees frequenting your tree. All that is necessary is for bees to carry the pollen from flower to flower on that one tree. Some tangerine varieties do need pollination by another variety that blooms at the same time, but so far as I know no other citrus requires cross pollination except some seed-grown trees.
One problem with growing blood oranges in Southern California is that they need more heat than available along the coast. They have much better color inside when grown in the desert. When blood oranges are grown in cool coastal zones their fruit will be orange inside, not red. In Italy, where summers are hot, more blood oranges are grown than navel or Valencia oranges.
I have a Valencia Orange, a Lemon, a Lime, an
d a Blood Orange Tree. All of them Bare fruit except the Blood Orange Tree. The Blood Orange Tree is a mature Tree and we have had it for 8 Years but NO Fruit. Do you have any suggestions on what I could do to get it to bare fruit?
Blood orange trees need deep fertile soil, good drainage, at least one pound pure nitrogen per mature tree (plus adequate bloom ingredients) applied over the root zone in late January. Also they must have full sun.
Blood oranges bloom in late winter or early spring. If there are no bees when they are in bloom you will get no fruit. If the weather is too cold when your tree is in bloom then there may be no bees. Always make sure there are bees on this tree during its bloom cycle and if not then get out there when blossoms are on the tree and hand-pollinate every morning after the dew has dried. To do this, purchase a sable watercolor paint brush and go from blossom to blossom making like a bee by twirling the paint brush in each blossom.
Occasionally, for whatever reason, there is such a thing as a recalcitrant tree that never blooms or bears. I have told this story before but it’s worth telling again. Years ago a man in Encinitas planted a magnolia and waited 12 years for it to bloom, when it grew even older but would never bloom he got so angry he beat the trunk with the hose and swore at the tree. The next spring the tree bloomed its head off and it has bloomed beautifully ever since.
Sometimes a plant is just too content and needs the threat of death to bear flowers or fruit but then it will bear a bumper crop. So if this tree does not bear fruit this year, beat it’s trunk with a blunt instrument, enough to damage and bruise the bark but not to girdle the tree, which would kill it. You don’t need to swear at it unless you want to.