Washington Navel Orange Tree Live Plant – 1/2 Gallon Pot, Grafted

Overview

Experience the delight of homegrown citrus with your very own washington navel orange tree. This live plant, provided in a 1/2 Gallon Pot, is a grafted specimen, ensuring robust growth and earlier fruit production. The Washington Navel variety is renowned for its exceptionally sweet, seedless, and easy-to-peel oranges, making them a favorite for fresh eating. Originally imported from Brazil in 1870, this variety quickly gained popularity for its superior fruit quality. The trees develop a charming, round, and slightly drooping canopy, reaching a moderate size at maturity, which makes them suitable for various garden settings or even as an indoor orange tree in colder climates. Cultivating a washington navel orange tree offers not only delicious fruit but also an attractive addition to your landscape or patio.

The ease of growing the washington navel orange tree makes it a rewarding choice for both novice and experienced gardeners. Its adaptability allows it to flourish in containers, providing flexibility for those in cooler regions who need to bring their citrus indoors during winter. The vibrant green foliage and fragrant blossoms add to its appeal, creating a sensory experience before the juicy fruits even ripen. This particular specimen is a grafted orange tree, meaning it’s propagated from a mature, fruit-bearing parent plant, ensuring you receive a tree with desirable characteristics and a head start on producing those wonderful sweet navel oranges.

Key Benefits

Adding a washington navel orange tree to your garden or home offers numerous advantages beyond just delicious fruit. This versatile plant provides both ornamental beauty and a bountiful harvest.

• Exceptional Fruit Quality: Enjoy sweet navel oranges that are seedless and incredibly easy to peel, making them perfect for snacking, juicing, or adding to culinary dishes. The flavor is rich and satisfying.
• Grafted for Success: As a grafted orange tree, this plant offers increased vigor, disease resistance, and typically begins bearing fruit sooner than trees grown from seed, giving you a quicker return on your gardening efforts.
• Attractive Ornamental Value: The tree’s lush green foliage and moderate, rounded canopy provide year-round beauty, enhancing patios, gardens, or indoor spaces. Fragrant white blossoms add a delightful aroma in spring.
• Container Growing Friendly: The moderate size of the washington navel orange tree makes it an excellent candidate for container planting, allowing you to move it indoors during colder months, extending its growing range considerably.
• Rewarding Home Harvest: Experience the satisfaction of picking your own fresh, ripe oranges directly from your tree. There’s nothing quite like the taste of fruit grown with your own hands.
• Relatively Easy Care: With proper attention to sunlight, water, and soil, the washington navel orange tree is delightfully easy to grow and maintain, suitable for gardeners of many skill levels.
• Historical Significance: Grow a piece of citrus history; the Washington Navel has been a staple in American citrus cultivation for over a century, known for its consistent quality.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

Caring for your washington navel orange tree involves understanding its fundamental needs for sunlight, water, and soil. This delightful tree can thrive with consistent attention. Like most orange trees, the washington navel orange tree demands abundant sunlight, requiring between eight and twelve hours of direct sun exposure daily. If you’re growing your tree indoors, position it near a south-facing window to maximize light. During darker winter months, supplementing with grow lights can significantly benefit its health and fruit production. Good airflow is also crucial for indoor plants to prevent fungal issues.

When it comes to watering, the navel orange plant care routine is essential. This tree prefers low to moderate moisture levels but dislikes soggy soil. Container-grown trees will typically need more frequent watering than those planted in the ground. To determine if watering is needed, check the top two to three inches of soil; if dry to that depth, it’s time to water thoroughly until it drains from the bottom. Ensure the pot has adequate drainage holes. For optimal growth, your grafted orange tree needs fertile, well-draining soil. A high-quality citrus potting mix is ideal for container plants, providing the right balance of nutrients and drainage.

Pruning is an important aspect of maintaining your washington navel orange tree, encouraging better fruit production and a healthy, outward-growing canopy. Regularly remove any dead, broken, or diseased branches as they appear. Light shaping can also help maintain its moderate size and attractive form. Fertilize during the growing season with a balanced citrus-specific fertilizer, following package instructions. While generally robust, keep an eye out for common citrus pests like aphids or scale and address them promptly with appropriate organic or chemical treatments. If you live in a cooler climate, remember to move your indoor orange tree indoors before temperatures drop to freezing.

Size & Details

This offering is for one washington navel orange tree, supplied as a live, grafted plant. It comes in a 1/2 Gallon Pot, ready for transplanting into a larger container or directly into the ground in appropriate climates. The grafting process ensures you receive a vigorous plant with the genetic traits of a mature, fruit-bearing Washington Navel tree, leading to quicker establishment and earlier harvests of sweet navel oranges. At maturity, these trees typically develop a rounded, slightly drooping canopy and can reach a moderate size, generally between 8 to 15 feet tall when planted in the ground, though they can be kept smaller with regular pruning and container growth.

Expected growth rates vary based on climate, care, and growing conditions, but a healthy grafted orange tree can show noticeable progress in its first year. Fruit production typically begins within 2-3 years after planting, depending on the tree’s age at purchase and care. This makes it a rewarding long-term addition to your edible landscape or patio garden. The tree is shipped in its nursery pot to minimize stress during transit, ensuring it arrives in the best possible condition, ready for you to continue its journey of growth and fruit production.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big will my washington navel orange tree get? A: When planted in the ground, a Washington Navel Orange Tree can reach 8 to 15 feet tall. If grown in a container, its size can be managed with pruning and the pot size, typically staying smaller, around 4-8 feet.
• Q: Is this an indoor orange tree or an outdoor plant? A: The Washington Navel Orange Tree can be grown outdoors in USDA Zones 9-11. In cooler climates, it thrives as a container plant and should be brought indoors during cold winter months to protect it from frost.
• Q: How much sunlight does a washington navel orange tree need? A: This tree requires a significant amount of sunlight, ideally 8 to 12 hours of direct sun per day. If grown indoors, place it in the brightest available location, such as a south-facing window, and consider supplemental grow lights.
• Q: What condition will the grafted orange tree arrive in? A: Your tree will arrive in a 1/2 Gallon Pot, similar to the pictures, with established roots and foliage, carefully packaged to ensure its health during transit. It will be ready for immediate planting or repotting.
• Q: How quickly will my washington navel orange tree produce fruit? A: As a grafted tree, you can typically expect your orange tree to start producing sweet navel oranges within 2-3 years after planting, given proper care and optimal growing conditions.
• Q: What kind of soil is best for navel orange plant care? A: The Washington Navel Orange Tree thrives in fertile, well-draining soil. For container planting, a specialized citrus potting mix is recommended to provide adequate drainage and nutrients.
• Q: How often should I water my washington navel orange tree? A: Water when the top 2-3 inches of soil feel dry to the touch. Container plants generally require more frequent watering than in-ground plants. Avoid overwatering to prevent root rot.
• Q: What are sweet navel oranges known for? A: Washington Navel Oranges are highly prized for being exceptionally sweet, completely seedless, and very easy to peel, making them one of the best varieties for fresh eating.
• Q: Is this tree suitable for beginners? A: Yes, the washington navel orange tree is considered delightfully easy to grow, making it a great choice for beginner gardeners interested in growing their own citrus, provided basic care guidelines are followed.
• Q: What is the ideal temperature range for this orange tree? A: Washington Navel Orange Trees prefer warm temperatures, ideally between 60°F and 90°F. They are sensitive to frost and should be protected when temperatures drop below freezing.