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David E. Ross · 21-02-2007, 01:02 AM posted to rec.gardens

wrote:
We planted an orange tree (we bought it from Home Depot) It was
Washington Navel Orange.
(4 years back)
It gave 4-5 fruits for the first time this year. We were expecting it
to be sweet and easy to peel navel oranges, but they turned out to be
round orange(difficult to peel-- skin does not come out easily)

Does it not depend on what type of tree we plant? Is it depending on
what kind of pollination happened?
(from which tree it was pollinated?)
thanks for any info!

The pollination is irrelavent. Citrus is apomictic, which means it will
even set fruit and even form viable seed without any pollination at all.

The quality of the fuit depends more on nutrients and weather.

Be sure the fruiting branches are indeed from above the graft. The
rootstock might produce oranges, too; but they will tend to be sour,
seedy, and tight-skinned. If you have any branches from below the graft
and also some from above the graft, remove those below. If you have
only branches below the graft, return the plant to Home Depot.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/