Winter season can be tough for Orange Trees and although many are cold-hardy, they still need protection from the freezing weather. It is essential to educate yourself on how cold temperature affects your Orange or Citrus trees. Orange Trees can withstand temperatures between 35 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Trees that are bearing fruit can endure the cold weather with temperatures below 27 degrees Fahrenheit but if the temperature gets lower than that it can damage the fruit.
There are some easy ways that you can protect your trees. The easiest way to protect your orange tree is to grow it in a container or pot where you can just take it inside your house, garage, or any place where it’s not going to freeze solid and just keep it there for the winter. Another way to provide cold protection to your tree is by wrapping an old blanket or frost cloth around the tree trunk. You can also use plastic zip ties to tie blankets on the lower limb or parts of the tree without foliage and leave it until the winter season is over.
Types of Oranges
Most trees stay dormant and do not bear fruits in the winter, but oranges are an exemption. Their prime days are winter months. Oranges love cold climates yet not freezing temperatures. They say the chill makes the oranges sweeter and brings out the vibrant color of the skin. In South Florida and California, wintertime is the citrus season. Here are a few varieties of oranges that bear sweet, juicy, and refreshing fruit between winter and summertime.
Navel Oranges
Navel Oranges are one of the most common types of oranges. This type of orange is seedless and has a semi-thick peel that is easy to remove. It has a sweet flavor with low acid content. This variety is named navel orange because of the undeveloped hole at the bottom part of the fruit that resembles a human belly button. Because it is seedless the navel orange is propagated via cuttings and grafting.
Valencia Oranges
Valencia orange has thick skin, is very juicy, and has a minimal
number of seeds. It is also a common orange that you can see in the market. Valencia
oranges are mostly utilized for juice extraction and cooking applications. They
may also be used for making marinades, salad toppings, cocktails, or sauces.
Valencia Orange trees have a small version called the Dwarf Valencia Orange
Tree. Unlike the standard-size Valencia Orange Tree which grows around 8 to
12ft, the Dwarf Valencia Orange Tree only grows to about 6ft high and is
suitable for indoor planting.
Honeybell Oranges
Honeybells flourish in the Floridian climate and they tend to grow bigger, juicier, and more flavorful. This type of orange is a hybrid of sweet orange and tangerine and was once known as Minneola Tangelo. This orange has delectable sweetness, is terrifically juicy, and often seedless. The weather plays a huge factor in terms of the color of the fruit. When it is wintertime the fruits tend to have a deep orange color. However, as the days approach the coldest parts of the season, the color of the fruit becomes lighter yellow-orange.