Citrus × sinensis
Orange
Common names: Sweet orange, Orange tree
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −2 °C
- Harvest
- Jan, Feb, Dec
- Spacing
- 350 cm, rows 350 cm
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Ellen Levy Finch (Elf) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
The orange is a evergreen citrus pot tree with dark glossy foliage, fragrant white flowers, and sweet, juicy fruit that ripen over the winter months. It is slightly more frost‑tolerant than the lemon, but in the DACH region it is still not fully hardy outdoors and requires a bright, cool winter shelter. On a terrace or balcony it makes a lovely, impressive container plant.
Care instructions
Place the orange outdoors in full sun and sheltered from wind from mid‑May (week 20) after the last frost. Water evenly with low‑calcium water and fertilize regularly with citrus fertilizer from April to September. Overwinter it in a bright location at 3 to 10 °C and reduce watering significantly. Lightly prune in spring (March, week 11) to open the canopy and maintain shape.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestJan–Feb, Dec
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
humus-rich, well-drained, loamy, lime-avoiding
In Central Europe you grow the orange as a container plant. The substrate must be loose, humus-rich and very well drained, because waterlogging is fatal. Mix a humus-rich loamy soil with coarse sand or lava rock for drainage. The orange does NOT avoid lime; it even needs a little. Only an excess is a problem: water that is too lime-rich raises the pH above 6.5 and blocks iron uptake (chlorosis, yellow leaves). With hard tap water, therefore, water regularly with stale rainwater.
Feeding
Heavy feeder
Months
Mar–Aug
From March/April, when the shoots start into growth and the tree is back outdoors, work horn shavings shallowly into the top layer of substrate and water in well. From April to the end of August, water regularly with diluted compost or nettle liquid feed as a supplement, to cover the high nitrogen demand continuously. Do not feed from September to February, because the tree needs a cool, bright rest period.
Overwintering
Bring the orange tree, as a container plant, before the first frost (from about 5 °C night temperature) into permanently frost-free, bright quarters at 5 to 10 °C, such as an unheated conservatory, a bright stairwell or a greenhouse with a frost protector. Water sparingly, keep the root ball only slightly moist, and in spring, after the last frosts, gradually get the tree used to the outdoors again.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
- Cuttings
- Grafting
- Layering
You can propagate the orange in four ways, and each method has its place in the home garden.
Cuttings (recommended for hobby gardeners): In spring or early summer, take semi-ripe shoots about 10 to 15 cm long. Remove the lower leaves and insert the cutting into a mix of seed compost and coarse sand. Cover the container with film or a propagator lid to keep the humidity up, and put it somewhere warm (ideally 25 to 28 °C soil temperature, e.g. next to a radiator). After four to six weeks the first roots form.
Sowing: Carefully wash fresh seeds from a ripe orange and insert them about 1 cm deep into loose, warm seed compost. Citrus is often polyembryonic; several seedlings can appear per seed, and the lateral seedlings are often true to type. Bear in mind: from seed to first fruit usually takes five to ten years, and seedlings can differ from the mother plant.
Grafting (quality fruit true to type): For a reliably fruiting plant true to type, graft a scion of the desired variety onto a seedling rootstock; for hobby use, Poncirus trifoliata or sour orange (Citrus aurantium) is suitable. The most proven method is chip budding: a dormant bud with a small layer of wood is inserted into an equally sized cut in the rootstock and fixed with grafting tape. The best time is spring or late summer, when the rootstock is well in sap.
Layering / air layering: Score a bark ring about two fingers wide on a strong shoot, moisten the spot and enclose it in moist sphagnum moss, wrapped airtight with film. After eight to twelve weeks roots have formed; then you separate the layer. This method reliably passes on the characteristics of the mother plant and is easy to do without grafting skills.
Companion planting
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
For signed-in gardeners
Sign in to see symptoms, severity, season and prevention for every one of your plants.
Free account, set up in 30 seconds.
For your garden
Grow Orange yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
Notes from real gardens
What other gardeners have written down about this variety, anonymous and voluntary.
No notes shared yet. Will you be the first to write one down?
From the magazine
Pear rust: orange spots and the juniper next door
Bright orange spots on the pear leaf: pear rust looks dramatic but has a decisive weakness. It absolutely needs a juniper as its second host. How to break the cycle and get rid of the rust for good.
Persimmon and Kaki: Growing, Hardiness and Ripening It Right
The kaki carries its orange fruit into November, long after the garden has gone quiet. How to plant the hardy exotic, overwinter it and ripen it properly so it tastes honey-sweet instead of mouth-puckering.
Reading rose diseases on the leaf: how to spot black spot, powdery mildew and rust and cure them without chemicals
Black stars, a white veil, orange dots: three leaf pictures tell you which rose disease you are facing, and how to cure it with a rake and secateurs instead of a spray bottle.