Hi,

Let me introduce myself. My name is Theresa, I live in Wisconsin, zone 5, and joined this group last spring. And up until now I've had no questions but have been enjoying the education that I've been getting. Let me say, this is the best forum.

Anyway, I think that my beloved valencia (my favorite type of orange) is really a navel orange (not one I was planning on buying).

Last spring my tree produced 2 oranges for the first time ever. Today one orange fell off. It looked and felt ripe. When I cut it open there were no seeds. The color was perfect and it smelled good. It did taste sweet and that is good for northern growing conditions. Oh, and it had that little blob on the bottom.

From my understanding, valencias hold well in trees, navels fall off
valencias take a long time to ripen, navels
are fast ripening
valencias have seeds, navels are seedless
navels have that little orange blob, valencias do
not.

These are the reasons that I think my valencia is really a navel.

So are my suspicions correct?

You Are Most likely correct. Even if indoors in your zone.

And by this time, all of my regular navels have fallen off too while Valencia waits for early to mid-summer.

Thanks for the quick reply.

This fall was exceptionally warm, even down right hot until October. I think that this may be the reason that the orange was sweet this year and that it may not be next time. The fall is usually quite chilly here.

In the winter my house heating range is kept in the high 60's to 70 during the day and 55 or higher at night. Will this be enough to for the tree to produce sweet oranges? I surely hope so.

Oh, by the way this was my 1st orange crop ever. My other harvests have so far been meyer lemons, key limes, limequats, and 1 persian lime.
Yum!