Thanks Tom. Have an idea to try out this fall for getting a bit more color.

Here is a pic of some moros purchased on a recent trip from a roadside stand in a very fertile growing area of north county San Diego.

As you can see the color is kind of fair. The flavor, however is a great blend of the wine and the mild tart burst you might expect from a quality blonde orange. A very well cultivated fruit in one of the richest growing areas in the state! If I can get the flavor of mine close to this it would be tremendous.

Very cool! It's funny though, the juice of a cut up blood orange always reminds me of a slasher movie murder scene! Well named orange, lol.

So true, Barb! The stain on the cutting board stays with it for quite awhile also. Reminds me of cleaning fish.

These come from a vendor at the Farmers Market. They are consistently this dark in color. Flavor is very strong burgundy and has no tartness what so ever. Guessing that this contains way more anthocyanin than the lighter moro oranges. He charges a pretty penny for them, $3.50 per pound but well worth it! The vendor claims that he grow around Reedley, CA. Looks to be prime blood orange growing country between Visalia and Fresno.

Yep, much hotter than where you are. I've read the deeper color comes when the summer is really hot. Especially the nights. I bet where you are, even if it gets hot in the daytime, the fog comes in at night and cools you down.

I'm in a similar area, even though I'm at least 20 miles from the beach, when evening comes the fog comes too and we drop about 20 degrees from the daytime highs.

Great for sleeping, lol, but not so good for things that like hot day and night, like blood oranges or grapefruit.

I have 2 large moro trees. during autumn, one was placed in a greenhouse where the daytime temperatures would equal right around 80-85F degrees during the day and in the evening got cold, around 35F to 40F. this tree has dark red fruit by January. by February and march is had reached a even darker purplish color. the fruit where fantastic exactly what you would consider the perfect moro.

The tree what was left outside with the same lows but much cooler daytime highs, in the 50 to 65 degree range, this tree did not develop the red color and only had red flecks by January. By Feb/March the tree still had only streaks of red. the fruit was much more tart and not as wine/berry flavored. both of my moros have remained in the greenhouse during ripening ever since.

On a side note I found Satsumas ripen the best outside and prefer a cooler autumn.

Thanks for the great feedback Ryan and Barb. Temperatures here stay on the mild side much of the summer. Hotter temperatures in August, September and even into October. A mile or two inland and the temperatures are much warmer in the daytime. Rarely gets to be in the 40's at night here also.

Do get that "May gray and June gloom" period of 6-8 weeks when the fruit is setting also which probably doesn't do things much good. Hardly see the sun for stretches of like 3- 10 days sometimes in those months.

No problem PKG. I envy you the beach actually. I really dread the heat waves we do get slightly inland. We don't have AC and some nights it's tough. But they are few and most nights the fog comes in.

I just love the beach weather, I like the fog and the cooler temps and the smells of seaweed, salt and all of it. Plus the sound of the waves is so calming.

Ryan, that's so interesting. I have heard that a change in day/night temps colors up citrus peels much better than tropical day/night heat. You don't see it much anymore, but I remember from my childhood in the summer we got Valencia juice oranges from Florida in the markets and the peels were part green but the inside was still very sweet. Maybe the color of blood oranges works on the same principle?

Anyway, it's nice to see them ripening up in cooler temps! My first experience with blood oranges was on a trip to Spain. I went with my Mother when I was a teen in 1976.( dating myself here, lol.) That's what they used in Sangria pretty much exclusively and it was delicious. The age to serve alcohol was much lower than the USA.

We stayed about 3 months, (my Mom had an extended leave from work, she was a teacher and it was counted as education training experience, though no pay was given) and shopped in the local markets. Citrus was a large part of the diet there and they had way more varieties than we had at the time in the grocery. It's also where I first tasted Jaffa oranges from Israel, an amazingly delicious fruit. A shame they're not sold more often in Garden Centers, they would do quite well in CA as it's similar weather.

Wow, sorry for the wall of text! Anyway, congrats on your blood oranges PKG!

Thanks again for the insight and the fond memories of your trip to Spain. What a wonderful adventure that must have been. Have recently considered a trip to Italy at harvest time.