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Mystery fruit looks like fuzzy navels

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED SEP 4, 2020

Notice the three-part leaves on this citrus tree. They are a clue to its identity. (Photo courtesy Allen Pierleoni)

Citrus rootstock sprouts a trifoliate orange tree

“What’s growing over my fence?”

That’s a common question from many gardeners, one that I ask myself sometimes, too.

In the case of fruit, it comes with a corollary: “Can I eat it?”

Such is the case of this mystery fruit, spotted by a loyal reader in Fair Oaks. He pondered whether he was going to get some bonus citrus – or should cut the branches back.

“The skin is slightly velvety, the plant is growing next to a grapefruit tree. Unusual leaves, no?” he wrote in a note with his photo of what looked like fuzzy navels.

All three observations were clues to the mystery fruit’s identity – plus one more. Look out for those great big thorns.

The fruit is a trifoliate orange ( Citrus trifoliata ), also known as Japanese bitter orange or Chinese bitter orange. And it sprouted from the rootstock of the grapefruit tree.

Allowed to grow and thrive, the trifoliate orange is forming its own tree – and could crowd out the grapefruit grafted on its roots.

Trifoliate orange – named for those three-part leaves – is among the most cold-hardy citrus. So, it’s often used as rootstock to give tender grapefruit and other citrus a little more cold tolerance (especially in Northern California).

The fruit is covered with soft down. Usually packed with seeds, it eventually ripens to yellow and looks like a small orange but with skin that feels like a peach.

As for taste, it lives up to its bitter nickname.

My advice: Get out the pruning shears.

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garden mystery citrus gardening Sacramento Fair Oaks backyard produce rootstock home orchard

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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