Here is a picture of the fruit

close-up of the leaves

close up of cut fruit - yes it was tasty, but certainly not too sweet

It is apparently some sort of orange. Why not ask the grower what type orange might have gotten mixed up with/mislabeled as Rio Red?

Barring that, if you like it, keep it.

Looks like an orange. Could be a Valencia, which would not be ripe until at least May. Does it have a navel? Does it have seeds? Is the rootstock and scion painted at all with a dab of paint? If so, the actual grower can decipher the rootstock and scion for you.

Patty S.

thank you John and Patty! I am in communication with the grower but all i have so far is: "think its a Valencia". They will hopefully get back to me with something more specific - or perhaps a list of possibles.

Although i am NOT experienced in growing Valencias, I would like to be cautious about jumping to that conclusion for the following reasons:
only 2- 3 seeds per fruit (2 fruit cut open so far)
My other Valencia's (Cutter - in the ground) fruit are still green, just starting to get a hint of orange color the past 2 weeks - while this one is pretty much ready to eat!
There is no navel.
There is no marking on the trunk at all.

I will post what i find out from the Grower... thanks again!
- George

My Valencias have very few seeds, and I have tons of opportunities for cross pollination. Let me ask you this - when you scrape the skin, what do the oils smell like? That's a pretty darned good indication of whether or not you have an orange or orange hybrid (tangelo), or a mandarin. Unlikely it would be anything else. It could possibly be a Minneola, which are ripening about now through March, but it doesn't really have enough of a neck. Have you asked the grower what other citrus they grow? Why don't you give us their rundown, and we can tell you what we think. Right now, still leaning towards Valencia that might simply be off-cycle, or Minneola. Not a Wekiwa - that would be ripe by now - could be a Tarocco and simply not pigmented (they tend to be a little more sprightly than Valencias or Minneolas, even when ripe, which is Dec-Feb), could be a Sanguinelli, even more tart and less likely to be pigmented tht Tarocco, and ripe Dec through Feb. Could be Red Smith Valencia that didn't pigment, as those are still not quite ready in my yard (maybe another month). But, if the grower doesn't grow these cultivars, no sense in guessing something they don't grow :-)

Patty S.

Commercial wholesale nurseries use pain colors to code and identify both root stock and the graft. Make a note, or better yet a picture of the painted stripes and you can track it down. If your local nursery does not know for sure what the paint codes mean, then try to find out who they buy from and email a picture to the wholesale grower.
And you could compare the colors above the graft to other trees at other nurseries and see what those are. But beware, not every wholesale nursery grower uses the same code. Most do but there are exceptions. Example, most use a single orange stripe above the graft for Washington Navel but not all do. A single yellow is usually Lisbon lemon but not always. and it may be different in FL that here in CA. That's why checking the color with the grower it your more reliable source.
and that is definitely not a grapefruit. : )

I think I know the wholesaler by the tag. It's not easy to see, but if I'm right it's a pretty distinctive tag. Not naming names but I went to their web site and they do list the varieties they have, however it is not apparently a complete list.

We have some of their varieties at my work that are not listed on their web site. They must sell more varieties wholesale to nurseries than they list on their public web site, so I guess you will need to ask them what are ALL the oranges they sell, retail and wholesale.

I too think it's a Valencia of some kind. Not only because of the seeds, but the pith and membranes around those segments look very much like a Valencia as opposed to a Navel. Valencia membrane has that line along the inside edge of each section, it's much thicker than a navel. Navel's membrane and pith is softer and less stringy in my opinion. But which Valencia is anther question.

People lie. Even some who run plant nurseries. If a customer wants to order 100 "XYZ" citrus from a wholesale nursery and the nursery only has 87, does the seller offer to sell only the 87, or does the seller re-tag 13 other citrus with the "XYZ" tags and ship out 100 plants???? You know, the "If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your insurance plan" kind of thing. Yep, I have purchased quite a few fruit trees that grew up to be quite different from what the nurseries' colorful plastic tags claimed. QUITE different. Like 3 "LSU Purple" fig trees that have yet to make a fig bigger than 1" or be any color other than greenish over a 15 year period. Et cetera.

Some mail-order nurseries have that reputation, most do not.

But that wouldn't happen for very long in a wholesale to retail situation. A retail store's wholesale vendor has a on going relationship to the store. They will order week to week, and often a live rep is going to take the order.
If a wholesale nursery were to pull that kind of stuff the stores will catch on pretty quick, and if it's not rectified that vendor will be dropped very quickly. Sales contracts are negotiated yearly, and there is always someone else available who won't lie.

And anyway if my hunch about this wholesale vendor is correct, they are a very reputable company that would not pull that on purpose.

What does happen very often is that the labor hired to put those tags on are not always as vigilant about details as they could be. Minimum wage tends to get you that amount of quality control. Plus, it's their managers responsibility to make sure the tags and the block of plants being tagged are correct.

But stuff happens; Workers are sent to the wrong greenhouse, codes sometimes can get printed onto the wrong tag, things like that.
In a busy, busy spring/summer shipping season these mistakes often don't come to light until quite a while afterward. Hard to track down what customer bought which trees at that point.

It's actually amazing it doesn't happen more often that it does. Most plants are tagged correctly, but yeah, stuff happens. Usually not on purpose.

Thank you all! [Barb - you are a sharp investigator - - - i tried to choose a picture that didn't show the tag :-)]

I am still awaiting a list of possibles from the grower. Most likely just a mix-up somewhere in the yard/greenhouse. [certainly a bummer as i was hoping to plant a Rio Red].

I picked another one of the fruit a few minutes ago. The aroma of orange is now obvious; scratch and sniff indeed orange. Early this month, it had little to no orange smell.

No navel. 2-3 seeds per fruit. Not reddening so not a blood. The Valencia guess is looking highly likely, but I am surprised that it got so orange so early… The sweetness is beginning to develop now.

A very faint trace of gray paint is visible on the rootstock; Carrizo rootstock is confirmed via grower. There is no trace of any paint on the scion.

I will try to find out what kind of Valencia and then find it a home.

Thank you again!

Hello all, the leading guess is Valencia on Carrizo that got a bit off cycle. The grower advises that they had been working with the following types of Valencias so it may be any of these. ~ Midknight seedless, Delta seedless, Olinda, Cutter, Campbell, and Frost.

I suppose only time will tell for sure.
- thank you for your help!

deleted duplicate post, stupid microsoft tablet....

This post was edited by Becauseican on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 16:26

Not so important which Valencia it is; I think Midknight is the best the world has today, but that is only my opinion.
Bottom line, if you like it, keep it and enjoy it.