Revive old orange trees with lots of bad tastig fruit?

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srkrause Boulder Creek, CA(Zone 9a) Feb 17, 2008

My daughter just rented a place that has 2 old orange trees that are loaded with fruit. But she says they taste awful. They are very big and likely over 50 years old. This is in the SF bay area close to SF Bay. [California...]

I'm wondering if they are just worn out, bad trees to start with, or need some TLC to produce better tasting fruit? I wonder if we could juice them and add sweetener... Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) Feb 17, 2008

The fruit flavour won't change, as it is genetically determined; sounds like they might be Seville Oranges, which are bitter, but the best sort for making marmelade. Look up recipes for marmelade.

Resin

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Feb 17, 2008

There are also some oranges that need heat in the summer to sweeten the fruit. You didn't say where in the SF area your daughter was, but if she's in an area that gets a lot of summer fog she wouldn't get enough summer heat for a variety that requires heat to sweeten up (something which the people who originally planted the trees probably didn't think about--you go to local nurseries and they have every type of orange you can imagine and don't bother to mention the heat thing). Here's a table from Four Winds Growers that talks about heat requirements (as well as other requirements) for several different varieties of citrus http://www.fourwindsgrowers.com/solver/varietyinfo.html

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