I am excited to report that my single orange is still thriving. The summer months have kept it happily growing along with a bi-weekly dose of Neptune’s Harvest Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer. You can order this directly from Neptune’s Harvest, but if you want it in a smaller size check out your local hardware store (mine came from Lowe’s).
Back to my mighty orange, and it is certainly mighty.
As you can see from the series of photos that it is growing like a champ! The fruits’s skin texture has gone from a very shiny, lime green to a rougher surface and a deeper shade of green. I am looking forward to seeing it start to change from green to orange.
The tree’s leafs are a bit odd. I’m not quite sure what to make of them. It is as if I have two different trees coming out of the same trunk rather than a hybrid.
The “old growth” (left) are leaves from when I originally bought it, and the “new growth” (right) is what came in since it has been home.
The old growth image on the left shows the leaves are wide and somewhat flat, whereas the image on the right shows the leaves as much more narrow with a bit of curl. In addition the old growth leaves are pointed at the tip and the new growth have rounder tips.
I have seen apple trees that were grafted to have multiple types of apples on a single tree and I am wondering if this is the same thing.
I did look around online and the two species have similar shaped leaves although the grapefruit leaf is larger than the orange. It also looks like the orange leaves can vary. I’m no expert, but I have to wonder if the leaves are a little stunted due to the altitude? I am curious if the tree was originally grown at a much lower altitude (I’m at 6,000 ft), would that make all the newer leaves smaller? If you are knowledgeable in this area please let me know. You can share your wisdom in the comments.
Until next time, please share your fruit growing experiences with us. Leave a comment or share my story.
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