First, don't think you can judge ripeness of the Moro by skin blush. That actually occurs due to divergences in temps. So, you'll see that the oranges on the north side of your tree will be more blushed than those on the warmer, south side :-) In my area of the country, Moros are ripe between December and February. And yes, navels are natural mutations. You'll see them pop up now and then. Watch that branch. Place a marker or ribbon on it and see if that branch continues to "sport" navel Moros. If so, you've got a sport branch that can then be grafted to produce an entire Moro navel orange tree :-) Oranges with navels tend to be seedless/nearly seedless, which is always a perk when eating fruit out of hand. Here is an interesting article about the Navel orange and how they came about. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: NPR: Who Put the Navel in the Navel Orange

I have 3 ruby red grapefruit and 3 minneola tangelos that are about 2 inches high now. i know they may not fruit for a long time and there may be a chance the fruit is terrible. But I do love growing trees and the fruit if any is a bonus. mike

Rhizo, It is in a plastic pot in regular potting soil at the moment because it was shipped to me with its roots in a bag with just a little dirt. I had to put it in something quickly so I used what was on hand. Luckily the pot is too small for it so it really guzzles the water so I am not having to worry about the soil staying too wet. It is going into a 16" clay pot with orchid bark, vermiculite and some regular potting soil very soon. I have only had the tree since February 15th of this year so I do not have it on a strict fertilizer routine yet.When I first got it I used vitamin B1 root starter transplant fertilizer since it had spent almost 5 days crossing the country to get here and was looking pretty ill. That really perked it up so I used it the next time I watered as well. Since then, I have been using miracle grow 20-20-20 around every 2-3 weeks but used 30-10-10 last week instead. It is kept in front of a southeast window but for the last two weeks it has been mainly outside with my other two citrus trees. Patty, Thanks for the encouragement. :-) I would like it to flower at some point but I do not want it to flower indoors when I bring it in this autumn (which is why I was hoping it may flower this summer.) I found out that me and some of my other family members are severely allergic to citrus blossoms when my clementine tree's flowers started to open. They make me and my other family members with asthma have asthma attacks. My mom, who doesn't even have asthma, starts to cough and wheeze when she smells them because the scent was so strong. :-/ ( I wish I would have known this before I ordered my trees. ) What I did to get rid of the flowers was I pulled most of the blossoms off, but left some of the ones that were about to open on the tree. I then removed the flower petals as well as the anthers and filaments from these remaining flowers. I also did this with my satsuma tree when it flowered as well. I just would hate to have to do this with my orange tree since it would be nice for us to have the tree flower outdoors where we could enjoy the flowers and still be able to breathe.

Before you plant it in the ground, be sure you want it there. Pine trees are forest trees and do well in such an environment. If you have a large piece of property to put it on that's fine. Pine trees should not be planted near a home or you will suffer the consequences later. They can and will destroy your sewer system and tend to snap off in high winds. I had two removed last year that were planted by the previous owners. Roots had traveled over 80' to reach the sewer pipe and invade them. It's also very costly to have them removed, at least 600 dollars a tree. Another consideration are the local laws concerning the removing of mature trees with in the city limits. Yes I'm talking about Houma. "gene"