Citrus - Orange Valencia Citrus sinensis

The sweet orange's culture is set out on the Washington Navel page and is the same species' here, all of it from the NC State toolbox, an American reference: direct sun with early morning sun in the growing season so that new growth does not freeze, a well-drained loam or sand kept moist but not overwatered, and pruning only after the fruit has ripened. The toolbox calls the species frost tender and drought tolerant; its American list of pests and diseases, from citrus rust mite and scales to citrus canker and citrus greening, is on that page too.

For Valencia itself the saved texts give very little. The Riverside collection's Valencia Late page, a Californian reference, gives a season of ripeness, a history and tables of fruit samples; it carries no notes on the tree. So no reference read gives Valencia a habit, a vigour, a size or a cold tolerance of its own, and no Australian reference was read: this page has no climate zones, no frost figure and no Australian season. The months given are California's. The Australian Plant Census accepts Citrus × aurantium as the name of the sweet orange. The status of exotic rests on the variety's history in the quoted description; no Australian reference was read for it, and the Atlas holds only a name entry for Citrus sinensis.

The NC State toolbox lists the sweet orange for a container, a lawn or as a houseplant, for an edible garden, and as a flowering or small tree, and gives its bloom as winter and spring; nothing was read for Valencia in particular. The 1967 description the Riverside collection quotes for the Washington Navel ranks that orange a major variety second only to Valencia, the one statement of Valencia's standing in the saved texts.

The table above shows the sizes growers list. No saved text says how the Australian trade propagates Valencia, what size it reaches here or when it ripens here, so those are questions for the grower. For roots and pests see the HortOS guide to judging nursery plant quality. Stock that crosses a state border moves under the state and territory biosecurity rules; the HortOS guide to buying from a wholesale grower says nursery stock moving interstate may need a plant health certificate. The drawbacks the sources give: a species the NC State toolbox calls frost tender, and seeds in the fruit by the collection's samples.

The NC State toolbox says the sweet orange can cause contact dermatitis in some people and records thorns on the species; no reference read says whether Valencia itself has thorns. The toolbox, a plant finder and not a poisons register, also lists the species as poisonous to humans at low severity and a problem for cats, dogs and horses.