Orange tree from the stone at home. Orange tree

Few true amateur flower growers have ever tried to grow citrus on their own. The bone germinated, but it didn’t go beyond that. To grow an exotic orange from a stone and get a fruit tree at home is quite possible.

But this fruit requires increased attention and proper care, as it is quite whimsical. The taste of orange citrus, grown in a pot at home, can not be compared with the purchased ones, but this does not stop true fans of indoor plants.

Growing other ornamental trees at home:

Planting seeds (seed)

Orange seeds can be planted at any time of the year, but it is preferable to do it in spring. First, the mature fruit is selected, the bones are extracted. Empty and dried seeds are not suitable for planting. At night, it is desirable to soak them in warm water.

Soil for the plant can be purchased at the garden shop already ready or make up yourself (1 part peat, 1 part sand, 2 parts turf soil). It is advisable to use a clay pot for planting - it absorbs excess moisture well.

Seeds are planted to a depth of 2-2.5 cm, after which you need to slightly moisten the ground and cover with foil. This culture prefers high humidity at high temperatures, so the pot is placed in a well-lit place.

22-24 o C - the optimum temperature in order to germinate an orange. Under these conditions, the first shoots appear in 3-4 weeks.

Sprout transplant

Sprouts grown to 1.5-2 cm are transplanted into separate containers with a diameter of 8 cm. Drainage is necessarily placed at the bottom, and the ground for citrus fruits is placed on top. At this stage, the seedlings are quite fragile, therefore, when transplanting, the roots are treated as carefully as possible.

For young plants, regular watering and spraying with settled water at room temperature is mandatory. Oranges are transplanted into more spacious pots by transshipment after at least 6 leaves have appeared.

Trimming is an important element of care.

How to grow an orange from a stone at home and see the fruits on it? This is possible if properly form the crown. Since this plant blooms and bears fruits on branches not lower than the fifth order, one should not expect the appearance of fruits earlier than in 5 years. The shaping procedure is simple. When the branches reach the desired length (10-15 cm), they pinch. From the sleeping lateral buds, new shoots soon awaken, they also need to be shortened. As a result, after five years, an orange tree is obtained, which has many short shoots.

For the first time, a flowering plant needs to adjust the number of ovaries for proper development. In the first year, 2-3 fruits are left, in the second - 7-8, then - about 10.

Is it possible to achieve flowering in 3-4 years? Keeping in a well-lit place at a temperature of up to 10 o C in winter, rare and moderate watering provokes a more powerful increase in spring. In this case, the flowers appear ahead of time. Cold wintering contributes to better fruiting.

Care

In order for a planted orange to delight with its excellent appearance and good fruit bearing, it is necessary to create conditions that are close to optimal.

Lighting

Quite a bright place, but without direct sunlight. With a lack of lighting, the fruits may not ripen or become bitter. Placing under the direct sun leads to burns of the leaves.

Temperature

The growing room should be cool enough. The maximum comfortable temperature is 17-20 o C in spring and summer. At a higher level, the culture does not set fruit and is strongly affected by pests and diseases, while at a low level, all growth processes are slowed down.

Air humidity

It is desirable daily spraying, especially in the warm season.

Fertilizers

Growing an orange from the stone provides for the obligatory introduction of regular supplements. Special citrus fertilizers are applied 2-3 times a month from March to October. A good result is the instillation into the ground of the tea from tea leaves.

Watering

Must be moderate, with strong waterlogging citrus can rot (especially in winter). Short-term drought tolerates normal. For irrigation water is used at room temperature.

Orange Tree Pests

It is not enough just to plant an orange from the seed and provide it with the required conditions in the hope of a good harvest. Mandatory are the daily inspection of plants for viruses, pests, diseases and regularly taken preventive measures.

Loosening the soil and watering with a solution of potassium permanganate will save the orange from root diseases.
Removing leaf dust and spraying with water at room temperature will help protect against many diseases.
Treatment with insecticide every six months will not give the opportunity to spread, thrips, and.

In order to get a guaranteed harvest, it is necessary to grow an orange at home and to plant it when it reaches the age of three. For this procedure, you must have a certain experience, so it is better to entrust it to a specialist. Graft branches of fruit bearing tree of orange, grapefruit or lemon. Not only the number and size of fruits, but also their taste, benefits from crossing.

Possible problems

As a houseplant, orange is demanding of temperature, light and humidity. If these rules are not respected, yellowing and precipitation of leaves and buds begins. In severe cases, the tree dies.

Main reasons:

insufficient watering;
a surplus of fertilizers (in the cold season, the plant is not fertilized);
the gulf (especially at cool contents during the winter period);
too abrupt changes in conditions of detention (for example, from a cool balcony to a warm room);
low illumination during warm wintering (above 10 o C);
unreasonably large pot;
drafts;
too dry air.

Growing citruses at home is quite a costly and troublesome task. But if you want to get your own harvest of these overseas fruits, you can try.

General principles of growing citrus at home

Citrus cultivation has its own characteristics common to oranges, lemons, mandarins and other things. You can learn about them from this video:

Fans of indoor plants, especially exotic, no doubt wondered how to grow an orange from a stone and whether it can be done at all in the conditions of the room. Grow your orange tree is available to everyone. In addition, it is an orange is well suited for the cultivation of citrus crops.

Why for planting in the room is better to take orange seeds

Orange is ideal for home cultivation, as its low-growing varieties have a maximum height of 3 meters (in the conditions of subtropics there are trees reaching 7 meters). It has several other advantages:

The plant is evergreen, which means that year-round will delight the host with glossy petals, flowers and fruits.
Of course, having arrived to us from the subtropics, the orange loves sunshine very much, but with a slight lack of illumination it is tolerant of this.
It is not difficult to create suitable conditions for culture in the conditions of a closed room.
Any other citrus plant can be grafted onto an orange tree.
Seeds for planting seedling pick is easy. These overseas fruits can be bought on the market or in the general store. Select several fruits to plant an orange from a pit.

Advantages and disadvantages of planting a sapling

Oranges are propagated by cuttings and seeds.
A tree planted with the help of a cutting, of course, will take root faster, bloom, will give fruit.
A tree propagated by cuttings retains all the properties of the original plant; it does not need to be grafted. But with such great advantages, the method has significant drawbacks:

the cutting is difficult to get;
the seedling also needs to be rooted.
the cost of the sapling, already fructifying, rather big.

Most often, amateur gardeners grow an orange tree from a seed indoors. This method has its advantages:

Orange seeds are easy to buy.
From seed grows wild, strong, with a beautiful thick crown.
The tree grown from seeds, more adapted to the conditions of the room, resistant to disease.
With proper care, the orange tree will bloom for 8-10 years after planting.

The disadvantage of this method is that the seedling must be planted in order to get tasty fruits.

Features planting seeds

Choose a sweet, ripe orange with a deep orange color. Its form should be flawless. The looseness of the pulp can also suggest the degree of maturity of the fetus.
Select the seeds of the largest and fullest. Dry, half-empty seeds for planting will not work. The skin of dried seed is too hard, their germination will be very low.
If you could not pick up material for planting from one fruit, you can add from another.
Seeds should be pre-treated:
- remove pulp, rinse well;
- soak in water for 5-6 hours. In the water, you can add diluted citrus fruit fertilizer.
Prepare small cups for single seeding or a low box. The tanks should have openings for water flow, drainage.
Before you plant an orange, it is advisable to purchase a special ground for citrus. When using garden soil add to it the same amount of peat. Fill containers with earth.
Plant seeds to a depth of 1.5 cm, with a distance of 5 cm between the seeds (back away from the edge of the box 3 cm). Sprinkle with water to keep the seeds in a wet environment, but not deep.

Seedlings put in a warm place. If it is a cold window-sill, then it is desirable to warm it, for example, with foam plastic. The ground should be warm, wet, but not wet.
To create a greenhouse effect, the boxes are covered with cellophane film or food. Glasses can be covered with plastic bottles with a cropped bottom. From time to time, remove the caps on the bottles, provide fresh air.
Shoots should appear in a month. By the way, some gardeners produce the first distillation of seeds in wet rags, and not in the ground. But they create the same greenhouse conditions.

Plant transplant

When the seedlings in the boxes will have 2 true leaves, it is necessary to carry out a pick. The root of the shoots is very weak, so transplant gently. Root neck should not go deep.
When 4-6 leaves appear, seedlings are transplanted into separate small (up to 10 cm in diameter) pots. Small tanks are chosen so that the soil without roots does not remain wet, does not turn sour, do not forget about drainage.
Seedlings from individual cups just roll over with the ground.
Planting soil consists of turf land, vegetable humus, peat and sand in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 1, respectively.
The next transplant is done when the orange sprout grows to 15-20 cm. The diameter of the pot must be 2 cm larger than the previous one.
The soil is changed, its composition is the same, but the sod land takes more by 1 part.
Full plant orange transplanted in two years.
An orange tree that has reached the age of 10 is not transplanted. Remove the top layer of earth and pour fresh.

Crown Formation

To form the crown should begin after the tree trunk reaches a height of 20-30 cm, following this procedure:

In March, you should leave the main shoot up to 25 cm in size, pinch off the extra leaves.
Side shoots are reduced to 3-4 pieces. They should be the strongest and evenly located on the trunk. They are also pinned to restrict growth and stimulate the development of shoots.
At the next spring pruning on each branch leave two shoots of the 2nd order. On these branches will grow shoots of a higher, third order;
On the shoots of 4-5 orders horizontal branches will develop, which will be fruitful;

Have an adult orange annually spend sanitary pruning, remove excess, thickening branches.

Grafting an orange tree

A tree that grows from seeds is often a wilderness. Its fruits will be small and bitter. In order to get tasty fruits, a seedling must be planted with the help of a bud or a sprig of a full-fledged plant.
Do not delay the process. It is best to plant a plant when it reaches one year old. At the age of three will be the last opportunity to achieve the emergence of full fruits. Pay attention to the features:

Vaccination is performed in April and early May, when sap flow begins. The bark is well separated at this time.
The stem of the plant you are going to plant should not be thinner than 6 mm in diameter.
With a sharp knife or blade at a distance of 5 cm from the soil, make a longitudinal vertical incision of the bark to 1.5 cm. A peculiar pocket is formed.
Consider the harvested sprig of a fruit tree. In the middle of it, find well-formed buds.
Remove leaves from the blank, leaving a small scape above the kidneys.
Cut the kidney - sprouted eye with only a piece of bark, and a piece under the kidney, along with the element of wood. 1.5 cm above the kidney and under it.
Do not touch the cut with your hands to avoid contamination of the tree.
Take the bud by the scape and carefully insert it into the pocket of the seedling.
Wrap elastic tape.
It is recommended to pour orange abundantly.
After 5 days, it will be clear whether the vaccine was successful. If yes, the petiole will fall off, the kidney will be alive, green; if not, the petiole will turn black.
After 3 weeks you can remove the harness.
Swollen buds should be removed until a new kidney wakes up.

If the process seems difficult to you, it is better to turn to gardeners-masters of grafts.

Features of fruiting

In the fourth or sixth year after planting, your orange blossom. He is ready to start fruiting. Scientists recommend strictly follow some rules:

In the first year of the appearance of the buds, it is necessary to leave 3 ovaries so as not to weaken the plant.
Pollination of crops grown artificially, using a cotton swab. Carry pollen from the stamens of one flower to the pistil of another.
It will be necessary to normalize the formation of fruits. Note that on average, 15 leaves should have one ovary for good nutrition.
To stimulate the formation of buds, the plant is satisfied with a cold winter at a temperature of + 2- + 5 degrees with limited watering in winter. When the temperature rises, buds appear actively and ovaries form.

Orange care

Flower growers who decide to grow an orange tree, it must be remembered that the ideal conditions for its development - this is an African subtropical climate or Mediterranean conditions. These are the conditions you will need to create citrus culture:

Ensure air humidity is above 40%. To do this, next you can put a jar of water. With low humidity, the tree will start dropping the leaves and may die.
Watering with settled during the day, heated to 25 ° with water. Chlorine contained in tap water is very dangerous for the plant. It is good to spray leaves regularly.
Keep the soil moist but not wet. This can lead to decay of the roots.
Allocate for a tree a place where there are no drafts.
In the summer, make the air, avoiding direct sunlight, water every day.
Feed special citrus fertilizer once every 2 weeks. You can cook it yourself.
The mixture is prepared per 1 liter of water:
- nitrogen fertilizers - 2 g,
- phosphoric - 2.5 g,
- potassium salts without chlorine - 1.5 g
There are ready-made mixes that can be bought in the store. It is recommended to include potassium permanganate once a month and iron sulfate 4 times a year.
In winter, reduce the temperature to 12-15 above zero, reduce the number of waterings.
Arrange sufficient illumination without hitting the direct rays of the sun. Note that with a lack of light, the plant will be worse to bloom and bear fruit. Therefore, in the winter, you want to create additional lighting.
Four times a month, the plant should be rotated 10 degrees, changing its position to the light.
The temperature in the presence of buds, leaf growth in the spring support +18 degrees.

Citrus Pests and Diseases

Exotic fruit has a lot of pests. These are aphids, spider mites, whitefly and scythos.
You must regularly inspect the tree for timely detection of the disease. Treat insecticide twice a year.
Non-chemical compounds help in the fight against pests - tincture of garlic, bitter pepper, a solution of laundry soap.
Growing an orange in the conditions of an apartment, a greenhouse will interest every amateur grower. An orange tree grown by yourself will decorate the interior of the greenhouse, the room will be the pride of the grower. The aroma secreted by orange flowers contributes to the destruction of bacteria. In addition, with proper care, the orange plant lives and pleases the hosts up to 70 years.

Orange varieties

Oranges are divided into two large groups: sour (bitter) and sweet varieties. There are three types that are most often found on sale in our country.

Sweet. Chinese or Portuguese fruit. The most common and sought after variety.

Sour. Usually these are hybrids of mandarin and pomelo. Have a bitter-sour taste. These fruits are often called oranges.

Bergamot. A hybrid of citron and orange. It has a strong bitter-sour taste. All oranges are equally healthy and tasty. They contain a huge amount of vitamins, amino acids and trace elements.

Washington Navil. Sour-sweet fruit with thick porous skin. Many people are mistaken, considering that the homeland of this variety is the USA. In fact, this variety comes from Brazil. Its fruits have practically no pits.

Valencia. Variety of Spanish oranges. They are distinguished by a thin peel of bright orange color with red patches. The flesh is the same color. These oranges have a pleasant sweet taste.

Blonda Kommun.Sort from Sicily. For a long time was the most popular at home, but in recent years, gave the palm to the two previous varieties. It has a lot of bones and is beautifully grown from them.

Oval. The name accurately describes the shape of the fruit. To taste this variety is almost the same as Valencia.

Toropko. Another early ripe Sicilian variety. Fruit picking season lasts from November to January. These oranges have not only a pleasant taste and exquisite aroma. However, the fruits are popular not only because of the excellent taste, but also because of the unusual blood-red color of the pulp.

How to prepare an orange bone for planting

The stone of the orange is covered with a rather dense, hard skinned, on the one hand, it keeps the sprout from all kinds of damage, and on the other hand, it prevents its germination. If the seed dries up, it is very difficult to make it slip, therefore only fresh seeds are used for planting.

Orange Bone:

Planting an orange at home

Since in countries where oranges grow in nature, trees generously receive both heat and light, it is possible to provide seedlings with the longest possible daylight hours by planting seeds at the end of winter or in March. But in this case, young orange trees respond well to the extension of the daytime with the help of special lamps.

A clay pot with a diameter of about 10 centimeters is the best fit for this:

How to care for an orange at home

To grow an orange at home, it is necessary to carefully care for him.

First, timely watering. To find out when a tree needs watering, take a wooden stick and tap it on the plastic pot where the orange grows. If you hear a deaf crash - it means that the plant needs to be watered. Usually, the most abundant watering of an orange requires summer and spring — in order to grow an orange at home, during these periods, water it in the morning and evening.

Secondly, maintaining the level of humidity. Preservation of moisture is achieved primarily by the application of organic fertilizers. Orange likes high humidity, so once every 1-2 days spray a plant from a spray bottle or place a humidifier next to it. Every three weeks, arrange a plant shower, covering the ground with cellophane.

Thirdly, top dressing. In specialized stores there is a wide range of mixes for feeding orange trees. The only thing you should pay attention to is that the mixture should contain only organic substances (as a last resort, the overwhelming majority of ingredients should be of organic origin).

Orange transplant at home

Due to the peculiarities of the root system, the orange does not tolerate the transplant, especially with damage to the earthen coma, it is transplanted only by the transshipment method, and if the roots have not filled the entire space of the container, they simply replace the upper and lower layers of the soil.

Fruiting trees roll over every two to three years, young, intensively growing - annually, in a pot with a diameter greater than 1-2 cm than the previous one. Transplanted in the spring before the start of growth, such work should not be done during flowering, fruit ripening, or at rest. When planting ensure that the root neck is not buried.

The soil mixture recommended for young specimens consists of sod, leaf earth, humus and sand in a ratio of 2: 1: 1: 1, for mature trees, the proportion of sod land increases (3: 1: 1: 1) and a small amount of clay is added.

Formation and pruning of orange crown at home

If you do not carry out regular pruning, orange, as a rule, does not bloom. Moreover, the crown of such a plant has an unattractive appearance. Blooming orange must go through all the stages of formation: flowers are formed only on the branches of a certain age and order. In other words, if the crown is not formed, and the tree does not grow, the plant will not bloom. The active formation of the crown occurs before the tree reaches 3 years of age. The young plant should leave some of the strongest shoots of the first order, shortening them to 20 cm in length, and all the rest to cut off. Second-order branches are shortened to the same length, and the third and fourth order involves trimming only 5 cm. That's all, the formation of the crown is almost over. You just have to remove the weak shoots at the beginning of each next year, gradually giving the crown of orange the desired shape and proper appearance.

Reproduction of homemade orange cuttings

For cuttings, choose stems with a diameter of 4-5 mm and a length of about 10 cm. The cut should be carried out below the bud, and above the bud above. On the handle you need to leave 3-4 live buds and 2-3 leaves. The cutting for greater effect needs to be treated with a root growth stimulator, and placed in 1/2 length in water for 3 days. To root the cuttings of homemade orange, plant them in boxes or pots with soil consisting of a mixture of humus, coarse sand and flower earth in equal shares. Plant the cuttings in a compacted substrate to a depth of 3 to 4 cm. Initially, the twigs do not have roots, this does not allow the plant to get enough moisture from the soil, therefore the orange tree requires daily spraying of the leaves with water. The soil should be well hydrated, but do not allow souring. The optimum temperature for rooting + 20 + 25 degrees. Final rooting occurs in 30-45 days. Then the homemade orange tree can be transplanted into a separate small pot.

Fresh articles about the garden

Why the orange turn yellow and fall leaves

Sharp temperature drop. This happens if the plant is brought from the street into a warm room. In such a situation, it is necessary to do everything to preserve the natural moisture for the orange and it stood in a place where diffused light falls.

Non-compliance with irrigation rules. This culture does not tolerate strong drying of the soil, as well as, indeed, its waterlogging. In summer, the plant should be watered once a day with warm water. In addition, the plant should be provided with high humidity, so it must be additionally sprayed. In winter, the plant needs to be watered only a couple of times a week, preventing the soil from drying out.

A lot of fertilizer. Orange must be fertilized, but it is important to follow some rules. Plant signing should occur no more than once a week. To do this, use special fertilizers shown for citrus - superphosphates, organic salts, ammonium sulfate and potassium.

Homemade Orange Diseases

This culture can be affected by many types of fungi and viruses, but the most dangerous disease, and at the same time the most often-encountered is gummosis, also known as acupuncture.

With this ailment, in the orange tree, parts of the bark die off, from which a sticky liquid of golden yellow color is released - gum. This disease appears due to various fungi that settle at the root collar and layers of wood. A deep landing, insufficient drainage, mechanical damage can provoke the appearance. To fight, you must first get rid of the external cause, and then, with a small affected volume, the wound is cleaned to a healthy layer of tissue. After being disinfected, cover with garden pitch. If the plant is seriously injured - it is better to burn it. Among other things, oranges can suffer from fungal infections such as wart, anthracnose. These diseases are treated with fungicides. If a plant is affected by a viral disease, such as a tristetsa, the best way out is to destroy it. Proper care of the culture will reduce the likelihood of orange disease.

Planting an orange seed in the ground is a simple matter, and a child can do this for the sake of interest. And it may very well be that it will germinate, because of all the citrus fruits, orange is the most unpretentious plant: it grows quickly, adapts to any light conditions, develops normally even in a room with dry air. However, if you want to not only plant a seed, but to grow an orange tree from it, then you will have to familiarize yourself with some tricks.

Planting orange pits should be raw as soon as you eat the fruit. For planting clay pots are best suited - they absorb excess moisture, and with its lack - give back. Put drainage on the bottom of the pot; be sure to take nutrient soil.

The most suitable for citrus is the land from under the oak or from the high nettle. If you fail to get one, then prepare a mixture of leafy soil, well-washed large river sand, humus and soddy soil, taken in a ratio of 1: 1: 1: 3. It would be good to procure more land to further add it to the pot, thus enriching the nutrition of the growing tree. It is desirable to plant several seeds to a depth of 2.5 cm, and in different pots - orange seed seeds are multi-seed and seedlings may appear immediately in the form of a bush. After planting, pour the soil, cover the pot with film and put it in a well-lit place, just not under the direct rays of the sun. Do not remove the film until the emergence of shoots, which at a temperature of 22 - 25 ° C will appear somewhere in three weeks. Choose the strongest among the sprouts from one bone of the few shoots, pinch the rest.

The grown up strong escape should be transplanted into a large pot so that the plant growing up to two meters in height would be spacious enough. It is not recommended to transplant an orange tree, it is better to simply enrich the soil with fertilizers or change the top layer to a new nutritious land. In the room, choose a place for him with a bright diffused light and do not rearrange and turn the tree unnecessarily. In case of insufficient lighting, shoots on a tree are stretched out, leaves are formed thin, they can even fall off. In the summer, often water and spray an orange; you can take it out to the garden or to the balcony, gradually hardening in spring. It is recommended to apply citrus fertilizer once every two weeks.

For normal flowering and fruit on a growing orange in the room you need to form a crown. The fact is that the flowers of this plant will appear on the branches of the 5th order, which means - not earlier than in five years. During this period, your task is to form a crown with the largest possible number of 5th order branches. To do this, in spring, twigs 10–15 cm long should be pinched off, the uppermost leaves should be left intact, and two leaves under them should be abruptly cut off so that the buds can wake up, from which young shoots will appear. They will also need to pinch. Thus, you will be able to form a bushy orange tree with a lot of short twigs, on which flowers will later form.

However, you can achieve flowering before. To do this, the orange tree should be provided with a “cold wintering” - content in winter in an illuminated place at a temperature of 7 - 8 ° C, sparse watering (once every 10 days) and rest from fertilizers. After such a gentle regimen in spring, the plant forms a powerful increase, and will be able to bloom in 3 to 4 years. Moreover, the flowering and the formation of the fruits best occurs at a temperature of 15 - 18 ° C. Pollination of flowers should be carried out independently: gently collected with a brush pollen from one flower to transfer to another. If it is not possible to lower the temperature in winter, the orange tree continues to be fertilized, watered every 5 days, sprayed, ventilate the room and keep the plant on cool (no drafts) window sills. At the same time, additional illumination with fluorescent lamps is organized in order to extend the daylight hours to 10-12 hours. But, unfortunately, without a cold wintering, the tree will bloom much later, and maybe not bear fruit at all.

Of course, citrus, grown in indoor conditions, require attention and patience. And the grown oranges will not be as large and tasty as the fruit from which you planted the seeds. But it’s still worth planting an orange seed: if you don’t wait for the fruits, it will please the flowering, and if there is no flowering, the mood will lift the scent of fresh or dried shoots, pinned from the orange tree.