It ought to flower this year. You're not that far west of me, and I've had citrus in the ground for at least 7 years. Citrus really like to be fed , so feed it some good citrus fertilizer and see what happens. If it doesn't flower this year, next year it most likely will.

even some of my trees that got bit really hard by this winter's cold at least flowered, (the fruit might not set, but they weren't totally killed back).

true citrus like to be fed, but since you have lots of growth and no fruit, they may be getting too much nitrogen. I would recomend a good mulch this year, and no nitrogen. Mulch, as it decays into the soil slowly, will give a broad spectrum of many elements a tree needs.

Softmentor has a point; Mulch never hurts anything, I would use a mulch like pine needles. A shredded wood mulch will tend to deplete the nitrogen in the soil, so be careful with that kind of mulch if you decide to use it. Since your other citrus are doing well, I am assuming that you are not treating the blood orange any differently than those; so if they are producing fruit, then you are probably feeding them correctly.

The first year I had my biggest orange tree, I got one orange off it. Granted the orange was about the size of a large softball, but only one. I didn't see another flower or fruit on that tree for almost 4 years after that. Most years I get between 10 and 30 gallons of oranges from this one tree, last year I got only 10 oranges, that's 10 fruits. This year it looks like it will be back to the "normal" production.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info. I have ordered another Moro blood orange from four winds to see if maybe it will do better or flower sooner. I have to say this is the first time I've ordered anything from them and I am very impressed. Shipping was fast, the trees look great and the packaging was awesome. I will definitely be willing to do business with them again.

Being in Florida, I don't have the luxury of ordering citrus trees from other citrus producing areas. But if they sell high quality mail-order citrus, then their other trees should be of similar quality.

Good luck.

I bought a Four Winds Moro blood orange this Spring, and it is very nice.
I didn't order online, so I don't know how their shipped plants or prices compare.
I'm quite happy with my tree, however.

Josh

The way they were packaged was incredible. I opened the box expecting shipping damage, and possibly dried out trees but it looked like I went down to the nursery and they handed me the trees instead of being shipped across the country. There wasn't even any loose soil.

So...I was walking my dog Christmas Eve and passed the blood orange tree in question above and out of the corner of my eye I see something orange. I look closer and there is a fully developed and ripened orange hanging on the tree. I have no idea where it came from. I never saw a single bloom on this tree. I was very pleased with the taste of this single orange, very sweet. It was not very "bloody" though, only had a slight pink blush. Hopefully this bodes well for the coming growing season.

nice job on your mysterious appearing orange.....small bloom maybe?
I have ordered from fourwinds before, and i agree, they are amazing, took 4 days to get to Arkansas where i live, only one leaf was slightly rolled (not from lack of water though, i don't really understand, in 3 months, it hasnt unrolled, though i is doing great) it is amazing

i have had this tree 5 yrars it has never bloomed the leaves are currly it is growing that is it

got a moro blood orange last year from the local county extension office sale and it had a couple flowers on it... after flowering i took the fruits off because the grower told me to not let it set fruit the first year. also got a brown select satsuma the same time and it has flowered along with 2 other citrus ive got. i fed with some epsoma citrus tone early spring and it had a great amount of new growth, no flowers. a couple weeks ago i watered in some rock phospate, and still no flowers. i am about to go foliar feed some high P bat guano to hopefully get it to flower.

does anyone know why it would have had flowers and now not any no matter how much P fertilizer ive given?

thanks!!

My Moro has not flowered yet, either. My Sanguinelli is covered with blossoms, but not my Moro, yet. So, just waiting for it to do it's thing :-) I don't think you can "fertilize it into flowering", so I would just make sure if it's in a container to allow it lots of sun and warmth, and it will eventually flower :-)

Patty S.

Souf,
The Moro in the pictures above was in the ground 5 years (2 yr old tree when I bought it) and never flowered. Last year it produced one orange but I never saw the flower it came from. This year (number 6) it is loaded with blooms. I also have a 3 year old moro that the top froze off the first year in the ground. It came back last spring and grews some limbs below the freeze damage. This spring it is about 2-3 feet tall and has approx. 30-40 blooms. I can't tell you why the two are different. They are both grafted trees. I agree with Patty on the fertilizer, too much and your going to kill the tree instead of helping it.

Rob

For everyone's Moro's that aren't flowering and fruiting, are they getting full sunlight? Also I agree that it may be getting too much Nitrogen fertilizer and thus pushing the plant to more vegetative growth as opposed to flowering and fruiting.

For my Moro, yes, Simon. All my citrus get 100% full sun both in the front as well as in my backyard (I have so many they are split in two places). The Moro is in the warmest part of my yard, as well (as are most of my citrus) - on the north side of my lot, on a slope that faces south, up against a very tall retaining wall of my neighbor's lot (if you look closely you can see my citrus trees planted on the top of this slope, on their own drip system):
{{gwi:511777}}

Patty S.

Mine is on the northwest side of the house and gets full sun after noon until dark. I noticed I had a typo above on the length of time this tree has been planted. It is now on its 5th year in the ground, not 6. Considering it was just a twig when I bought it I'm very pleased with how much it has grown. And since it is blooming well this year hopefully it will no longer be of any concern.

Rob

It certainly puts my mind at ease knowing that your Moros didn't bloom and fruit immediately.
I've had mine for one year now, but I like the tree enough to enjoy the foliage and shape alone.
Maybe next year the blooms will come!

Josh

Shouldn't be a problem Josh since yours is in a container. You get to baby it along and provide for all its needs. As I've stated previously mine are almost completely on their own as far as survival. I plant them and then I am kind of a lazy gardener after that. I wish I had the time and energy to have a yard like Patty's, it is incredible!

Rob

I had a tarocco graft take 5 years to fruit. The bud came from a bearing tree too. Turns out tarocco is too late for my area as well. I guess I'll have to topwork to Moro or Sanguinelli. Waiting is all you can do!

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

I bought this for my parents for their anniversary. 1st year did good. 2nd year lost all leaves, but continued to grow. 3rd year looked great @ 4ft tall. Now on 4th year and is 5ft tall with beautiful foliage. Never any blossoms. I was hoping that my parents could have seen it bare fruit, but my mother passed away unexpectedly. My father takes great care of it, and I'm hoping this is the year it blossoms. He is looking forward to it so much. He lives in Wisconsin, so it is indoors in the colder months. Beautiful foliage tree though.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Hopefully your father will get some blooms soon. This past year was incredible for my Moro. It bore bags of fruit and I enjoyed them immensely. I wish you and your father the best with your tree.

Rob

I finally got my moro orange to flower this season. I live in San Jose, CA. I bought both plants about 3 years ago. both were never flowered until I followed one of the tips from this forum. What I did was using a low N and high P fertilizer. I bought the fertilizer from OSH, but I forgot which brand and NPK ratio. I remember the P is higher than both N and K. I was having doubt at first, but the result prove that it works. It wouldn't hurt to use high P fertilizer.

The plant in the container is flowering like crazy, but not so much for the one in the ground.

This question pops up many times and next year another person will ask the same question again.

I hope this help.

In container:
{{gwi:585729}}

Ground:
{{gwi:585730}}

- Johnny

trees look good, but the pics have a weird greenish/blue hue to it. looks funky, lol

Woodrok;
I have a different take. If you had a real cold winter, lower teens, I would not be at all surprised if Moro does not bloom. Blood oranges have had more freeze damage in the Harris County (Houston) Master Gardeners orchard than regular oranges.

If your tree has been in a pot for a long time it is not unusual for it to skip bearing and have rank growth for several years after being put into the ground.

Souf;
I think this business about phosphorous on citrus trees generally does more harm than good. Most of the best citrus fertilizers have 3-1-2 proportions for N-P-K. The scion variety seldom determins how you fertilize. That is more a function of the rootstock. If you have trifoliate or one of its hybrids for a rootstock, high phosphorous is usually harmeful in that it often makes minor and micronutrients highly insoluble and you get chlorotic trees in anything but ideal pH soils. Example: Iron phosphate is almost inert. Meaning it just lays there. That also goes for manganese and zinc and especially for moly.

Citrus trees are not tomato plants. A. They don't need high phosphate. Mulching with a good non-wood or non-bark mulch will provide more P and micros than you need. Best use mulch from twigs and a little pine needles. B. If your pH isn't correct work on that. It will release the nutrients already in the soil. C. Check your water too! If you have an old farmed out or deep sandy soil you may need a little extra phosphorous, but just a tiny bit more. If you have heavy clay, you probably have more than enough.