Last edited on March 18, 2020. View history
Trifoliate Orange
Trifoliate Orange
A variety of orange
How to sow trifoliate orange: Transplant grafted sapling
Sun requirement for trifoliate orange: Plant in Full Sun
The trifoliate orange, Citrus trifoliata or Poncirus trifoliata, is a member of the family Rutaceae.
The species is unusual among citrus for having deciduous, compound leaves and pubescent (downy) fruit.
It is native to northern China and Korea and is also known as the Japanese bitter-orange, hardy orange or Chinese bitter orange.
The plant is reasonably cold-hardy citrus (USDA zone 6) and will tolerate moderate frost and snow, making a large shrub or small tree 4–8 m tall. Because of its relative hardiness, citrus grafted onto Citrus trifoliata is usually hardier than when grown on their roots.
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Trifoliate orange facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For trifoliate orange, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 13°C and a shortest growing cycle of 180 days at its best temperature, about 2160 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your trifoliate orange will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
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Where trifoliate oranges grow
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Who's planted trifoliate oranges
- corvi Containers on the deck · salt spring island
Trifoliate orange harvests
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Sapindales Rutaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -10 °C |
| Life form | tree |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about trifoliate oranges
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