Orange Trees

[shaggy1969]

Hi all,

The wife and I are making a piece of land ready to make into a fruit tree orchard of various fruits,you know the usual banana,mango,papaya,tamarind,longkong and pineapple but unfortunately one of my favorite fruits the orange we left of this list because we had heard was easy to grow but very difficult to taste good,seems that they are very sour and acidic.After talking with the owner of our local plant and tree nursery it may still be possible according to him to grow sweet juicy oranges if planted in an area that has Nut grass, Cocograss.Has anyone else heard of this method?

Shaggy

[Pond Life]

After growing fruit tree's, rice & vegetables for approx 7 years,

I have learned to ignore almost everything the locals tell me.

If you want oranges, just get them planted, they will either taste good or they wont.

Good Luck

[soidog2]

Best advice you can get, if you start with quality grafted trees; you will have excellent oranges.

Never mind the the grass or other witchcraft.

Regards

[afarang]

What varieties of orange trees? What countries was the original stock imported from?

[JungleBiker]

If you are talking about mandarins (the easy peel citrus that you see everywhere during the "winter" months, then I thought it was the other way around - good taste but difficult to grow! (Due to pests and diseases - so usually require lots of chemicals to keep them healthy, plus good nutrition, irrigation, soil management, etc). BUt as the others suggest, why not try and see what results you get.

If you are talking about proper oranges (thick peel, difficult to peel) then I haven't tasted any good oranges produced in Thailand.

There are a few mandarin varieties around - I can't remember the names of them now - one is Shogun. They should be budded onto special rootstocks - there are a few rootstocks in use in Thailand - you are supposed to select the rootstock to suit your soil. Rootstocks also affect the quality of the fruit but not to the extent that you need to worry about for a home garden.

I agree that the nut grass, coco grass advice sounds like BS.

JB.

[shaggy1969]

Thanks for the advice guys

We are only going to try and grow a couple of orange trees (turns out they are the mandarin type),and have decided to try 1 with the nut grass and one without,at least that way i can judge for myself if it is witch craft or not.

We have also decided not to grow them with the rest the other trees in our future orchard because my wife thinks that if the locals see them then we may not have any fruit left to eat for ourselves.

Do any of you know about anyone that has had success with growing real oranges (import)?

Many thanks

Shaggy