I recently moved into a house in Tampa, FL with an orange tree. However, over the last couple months the oranges have been looking bad. Some of them are turning dark, almost black even. Others have what I want to call ‘scarring’ on them - some just a little, some of them half or more of the orange. C
an anyone tell me what is wrong with my oranges and if there’s anything I can do to fix it? I’m guessing this year is a loss.
I don’t appear to. The leaves are green and still on the tree. Admittedly, I don’t really know what an orange tree’s branches and leaves are supposed to look like, so it’s hard for me to tell if they are off. But I do know what an orange is supposed to look like, and that ain’t it.
Check the flesh inside. It might be fine. Sometimes the best tasting fruit look the ugliest. In other words this could just be a cosmetic issue.
The top picture has some elements of insect feeding damage. The blackness could be akin to sooty blotch on apples. The apples look awful but taste fine. An orange can be peeled. That might be all it takes.
can you post some pictures of the tree. there is a house right down the street from me that has an orange tree where the fruit looks very similar. some of it is black, but this tree is in pretty poor condition.
I did cut one open. It looked okay on the inside. They aren’t ripe yet, though, so hard for me to tell how they should look on the inside at this stage anyway.
I figured the scarring was probably insect damage.
I’m comfortable with eating fruit that looks ugly - the problem is, having never had a fruit tree before, I can only identify a ripe orange by color. I don’t know how I’ll be able to tell they are ready to eat if they are black or are scarred over.
Here is a picture of the tree, but I am guessing you meant of the trunk or close up of a branch. Or farther away, maybe. Either way, I can take more tomorrow when it is light again.
Looks like a rust mite problem and some bird damage.
speaking of ugly, here’s one citrus that seems to have the same affliction, and is coincidentally named ‘ugli’.
website says the ‘affliction is only skin deep and that the beauty is in the eating’
Belated thanks everybody. Tried one today that seemed not too damaged and colored more or less correctly. I don’t think it was ready yet, barely any taste to it. There was a but of brown discoloration at the stem end of the actual fruit, not sure if that’s a problem.
