Moro Blood Orange for Sale - Buying & Growing Guide

Planting and Care

by Mary Van Keuren | Gardener (30+ Years Experience) – last update on June 21, 2022

Planting instructions

Site your Moro Blood Orange in well-draining soil that gets full sun during the day. Unpot your sapling and tease out any encircling roots, which can girdle the tree and slowly kill it. Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and twice as wide. Place the plant in the hole, spreading out the roots. Holding it upright and steady, fill in around it with topsoil, tamping down as you go to eliminate air pockets. Water thoroughly. Apply a 2-3 inch layer of an organic mulch such as bark chips to conserve moisture and hinder weed growth.

Watering and nutrients

When newly planted, water your Blood Orange every few days, but not so much that it’s sitting in a puddle. Once you see vigorous new growth, taper back watering to once or twice a week. You can check if your tree needs watering by looking at the soil 2 inches under the surface. If it’s dry, give your tree a drink. Feed during spring and summer with a citrus fertilizer as package directions indicate. Scale back on feedings during winter months.

Pollination

Moro Blood Orange is monoecious, meaning that male and female reproductive organs occur on the same plant. You can plan on a harvest even if you only have one tree. It’s worth noting, however, that having multiple trees near each other will boost the level of pollination, which occurs through the actions of bees and wasps. If your tree is indoors, you can hand-pollinate the flowers using a small toothbrush or cotton swab (like a Q-tip) to move pollen from one blossom to another.

Pruning

Moro Blood Orange doesn’t need much pruning. Monitor your tree for dead, diseased, or broken branches, and remove these when you see them. If you wish to constrain the height of a container-grown tree, you can prune lightly for shape and size after the tree fruits. Also remove any suckers that grow from the base of the tree.

Pests, diseases, and animals

Although not prone to pests or diseases, there are a few insects to watch for. These include the red spider mite, scale insects, aphids, and mealybugs. Some of these can be dealt with by releasing predatory insects such as ladybugs, which eat aphids. Diseases of the blood orange include sooty canker, a fungal disease causing the bark to peel back, and citrus stubborn disease, which causes lopsided fruit and is spread by leafhoppers.

Harvesting

Blood oranges ripen in the winter months, so plan on a harvest in January or February. The fruit is ready to pick when the stem starts to dry out and the fruit develops an orange-red blush. Taste one to see if the flavor is fully developed before picking. The fruit does not continue to ripen after picking, so plan your harvest for when you are ready to eat your oranges. They will keep in the refrigerator for four to six weeks.

Achieving maximum results

Growing your Moro Blood Orange in a decorative container is a great idea if you live in regions where the temperatures dip below 10 degrees. Use a container that is roughly twice the size of the root ball with good drainage and a high quality potting mix. Plant it as per our directions above, watering well until water starts running out of the pot’s drainage holes. Your pot-grown Blood Orange may need more frequent watering than one in the ground, and should be fed regularly. When you bring it indoors for the winter, occasionally wipe down the leaves with a damp cloth to eliminate dust and insects, and mist the leaves regularly.

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Customer Reviews

Anonymous

Verified Buyer May 21, 2021 at 9:21pm

Good to go!

No problems encountered.

Anonymous

Verified Buyer April 29, 2021 at 3:42pm

Blood Orange Tree

Tree was in fantastic shape when it arrived!!!!!

Anonymous

Verified Buyer November 16, 2020 at 8:42am

Great

Exceptional!!!!!1

Anonymous

Verified Buyer August 5, 2020 at 4:49pm

Blood orange

Great. Excellent condition