DWARF ORANGE TREES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21478, 29 April 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

DWARF ORANGE TREES

FOR EARLY BLOOM A novel way of growing a dwarf orange tree is to plant it in an orange skin. Cut a round from the rind of an orange near the stalk end. The piece should be about one and a-half inches across. Remove this and then, through the opening,, carefully work out the pulp without breaking the rind. Now fill the orange skin with dry sand and leave it to dry. This will take some days, but in the end the rind becomes hard and tough, almost like leather. Now fill the skin with fine soil and push in a couple of orange pips. Keep the soil just" moist and soon the pips start to grow. Only one tree is left, and the poorest one is removed altogether. All one has to do is to keep the orange with .the little plant in a light, sunr.y window, and the small tree soon grows. When the roots have filled out the isoil the tips of some will try to push through the rind. As this happens they should be steadily nipped off, and this will have the effect of dwarfing the tree The pinching back of the roots makes the little orange tree come into early bloom.