Parent Navel

Description

Parent Navel is a traditional navel orange treasured for its sweet flavour, practically seedless fruit and smooth, easy-to-peel skin. The tree is a heavy producer of large, very juicy and sweet oranges with glossy evergreen foliage and scented white flowers through the summer months, combining ornamental appeal with productivity for New Zealand home orchards and lifestyle blocks. Fruit typically ripens in late winter, at the Early end of the New Zealand orange scale, and is excellent for fresh eating and juicing. Because it sets heavily, it needs regular fertiliser through the fruit-growing months, and lightly thinning the young fruit set lets the remaining oranges grow large. Keeping quality is moderate; enjoy fruit through the winter season. Self-fertile, so a single tree fruits alone, though fruit stays seedless only if not cross-pollinated by nearby citrus in flower. Plant in full sun in fertile, free-draining soil with steady water and mulch; protect from hard frosts in cold districts.