My understanding is that navel oranges rarely have seeds and apparently are an orange growing within an orange...

I have a two year old tree I started from a navel orange that had one seed inside. Is it likely to grow any fruit, and if it does, would they be navel oranges?

I bought already several maybe 20 different orange trees from Bunnings.
Since some have 7 years, grow some fruits but nothing like in the shop or the picture attached,
Sour, small mostly with plenty of seeds.Simply not edible at all;
I wonder if that is Bunning's policy to sell only ornamental fruit trees, in order to avoid competition from people willing to grow their own fruits. ? I have been looking online for professional growers to get few trees same kind that provides stock to our supermarkets. Similar story with bananas. You need to apply to the government for a permit, then order only up to 10 plants from a certified provider. After 3 years they have some fruit but nothing that you could eat. Even my fruit bats and parrots despise them totally. If somebody could recommend a source of fruit tree that really have edible fruit, I would strongly appreciate link or address.I remember old days, there was nothing better in the whole world then eat all sort of fruits while seating on grampa trees. But it looks that this day you need to buy everything in the supermarket and not allowed to grow your own.

Funny as it sounds Haircut but that seedling your growing could even produce mandarin ( eventually )
Pot luck but rule of thumb it will most likely be something undesirable.
Grafted plant species are suppost to have uniformity, true to type characteristics with early fruit production and in some cases relative disease resistance
What I've noticed is a 2 or 3 year old avocado tree ( that usually develops root problems down the track ) if you lean on the thing it will fall over pathetically and yet seedlings that are growing from the parent tree are almost impossible to pull out and need some kind of chemical or tool for removal.
Super secret tip , if you want an avocado tree to reward you for long long time throw 40 odd rotten fruit ( chosen variety ) into a composted hole of choice and the supreme leader will emerge then go and do something else for about 7 years

The tortoise will win

Macro , I've personally had success with Forbidden Fruits Nursery. Not the cheapest but well performing produce in general. I think they do a plant expo up your way soon

I thought they had to be grafted to make fruit.....? Or seeds from store bought fruit won't grow a fruiting tree?
I dunno....

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HotBodMon said..
Macro , I've personally had success with Forbidden Fruits Nursery. Not the cheapest but well performing produce in general. I think they do a plant expo up your way soon

Thanks a lot. It is not about a price. I would like to buy something and enjoy. So far I spent a lot on irrigation, fertilizers etc but seems that fruit trees Bunnings are complete crap. Maybe because that any refund policy doesn't apply here and everything that looks like a tree and has leafs is already deal. They have good veggie seeds, I have always more cucumbers that 3 families could eat over the whole year

Mark is right I think and not that I know much about it but have had a little bit of experience with the department of agriculture guys in Fiji.

All citrus there are grafted on to what they call Bush oranges which are basically orange trees which thrive but produce crap fruit. So Macro don't pull the trees which are growing out just find a tree or multiple trees which produce great fruit and graft them on to the existing ones. It is really quite easy and you can have multiple different fruit on the same tree.

Mark , if the fruit itself has come from a ' species ' the seed usually ( not always ) will resemble the fruit
Orange and other fruit varieties we see available ( grafted ) are mostly cultivars that usually have infertile seed.
F1 or Hybrid fruit seed has genetics from different parent plant's and usually produce something from either but not quite the same
Avocado Grafts are usually from Reed or Guatemalan which are still edible but round in appearance with a huge seed
I bought a long yellow cayenne chilli from woolies once planted the seed content and some of the bushes produced small round red chillies

True that japie, fruit salad trees are fun but it must be the same fruit species , citrus , prunus etc

Don't know which clever person figured this one out , peyote grafted onto pereskiopsis succulent.. THATS CRAZY !!

CRAZY ??

I'd say its terrifid

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Carantoc said..
CRAZY ??

I'd say its terrifid

Influenced by the 60's triffid ? , ok getting off track now

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HotBodMon said..
True that japie, fruit salad trees are fun but it must be the same fruit species , citrus , prunus etc

Fond [rather fuzzy] memories of my Grandfathers fruit trees in the small front yard of the Regent Street house in Leederville.

Each side of the pathway were his "magic" trees, every branch carried a different fruit.
Apple tree had red and green apples as well as pears and something else,
Orange tree had navel and Valencia??, plus 2 x different mandarins, limes?? and gawd knows what else.

Back yard had rows of assorted fruit trees, trellises of grapes, vegies and a couple of beehives.

Also have very blurry memory of the bulldozer pushing the trees and house over to make way for the freeway.
Blurry 'cause I was bawling my eyes out at the time. [Dad had leaky eyes too]


Go on fellas - do the "fruit salad trees", even if you have to do the grafting yourselves, your grandkids will appreciate it.


Our awesome gardeners at work have a little plaque on the wall of their shed,

"a society is truly great, when it grows trees whose shade they will never sit under"

Here's Jaffa oranges, also a nickname for mates who couldn't get their wives pregnant, they were fruity but seedless

^this is interesting about the fruit potentially being mandarin etc. I was told by a nursery and reading online that citrus seeds almost always grow true to the parent, but not guaranteed

I haven't bought any bunnings fruit trees yet

I haven't had much success with avocado's from seed either. They went gangbusters for the first year or so, then leaves wilted and went brown, eventually dying. Planted flat and on mounds. However they were all started using tooth-pic over water trick, and not rotting directly placed in ground

So far the most successful thing i've grown from fruit seeds that we've been able to eat, are half a dozen passion fruit plants (panama red, yellow and nelly kelly) around the yard. They all produced a ton of fruit in barely a year. Erbs and vegies - basil, rosemary, lettuces, tomatoes and capsicum seem to do well in the yard, particularly in in winter, and all self sown from previous years, then re planting them.

^^^ don't do it for them, its creepy.

I might identify as a pistil from a citrus tree, see if the Govt recognises it.

^Pretty sure Orange can self pollinate without the need for bees as they have perfect flowers ( male and female parts ) like tomato.
santosorganics.com.au/food-philosophy/organic/genetically-modified-crops-threaten-bees/

Ed Pearce from the Coffs Harbour orchid society believes mosquito pollinate orchids

Wasps are another important insect, not only do they help pollinate but also damage pest populations in the process.
I plant Alyssum at the foot of various crops to draw in many biological bugs.
Almost Maintenance free and amazing fragrance , great example of build it and they will come.
I've identified 8 parasatoids and 2 hoverfly species. There are many more

The Hoverfly are most beautiful inquisitive drone-like creatures laying the best insect munching maggots you have ever seen
It's a brutal world the Insect kingdom and awesome to see it in action, watching baby wasps busting out of Aphid mummies is really satisfying stuff for farmers.


Not too sure but I imagine unpollinated citrus cease to develop then fall off later on ?
Unpollinated Avocado are marketed as seedless cocktail avocado and fetch a good price for elegant dining

Years ago I worked in a fruit shop and the Boss man sent me to pick up oranges from our local supplier, driving down the orchard driveway I noticed a row of orange trees much taller than the rest and assumed it was a wind break for violent weather. I asked the farmer ( Jim Wibberly ) what variety those taller trees were and he replied 'They are the same tree ( washington navel ) planted at the same time as the others.'
I was confused then he pointed out the power lines directly above had made the trees grow much faster and the fruit a lot bigger, so much bigger in fact that it made the fruit 2nd grade and he hated it but there was nothing he could do about it.

I wonder if other trees would perform similar or is it a citrus phenomena ?

HaHa Mark , that's a pretty plant nerdy joke

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sn said..
Go on fellas - do the "fruit salad trees", even if you have to do the grafting yourselves, your grandkids will appreciate it.

You don't even have to DIY as there are a few places doing tree's that are already grafted. I don't have a fruit salad tree but i have a semi dwarf tree that produces both nectarines and peaches.

I have a few fruit trees to compliment my various berry's and tomato's etc, probably 12 or 14 at a guess? All dwarfs or semi dwarfs and the mature ones produce pretty well. Just waiting on a semi dwarf avocado in about 6 weeks time and i'm pretty much done. They are a bit of work but not too bad if you like gardening.

It's great to see your kid(s) go pick fruit or berry's right from the tree.

naval oranges don't have true seeds, they all come from a single accidental tree. your plants are all related ,and grow off grafts. .have a think about shelter at flowering season ,and look at your soil and fertiliser types and levels , also where you are watering it. the feeder roots are out at the edge of the canopy , not at the trunk.