Author Topic: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree  (Read 1384 times)

Millet

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UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« on: May 15, 2019, 03:26:22 PM »
https://www.pe.com/2019/03/19/see-through-covering-rising-to-protect-riversides-parent-navel-orange-tree/

Citrus Joe (Joe Lohnes) and I went out to Riverside CA several years ago to see this tree, and visited the CCPP at the same time.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 03:33:49 PM by Millet »

Ken

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2019, 12:30:37 AM »
Thanks for posting that link. I’m in Riverside and didn’t even know about these little bugs. I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on my citrus.

Yorgos

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2019, 05:15:54 PM »
That is one old tree.  At almost 150 years old, I wonder if it still produces fruit? Its hard to tell but the tree does not seem that large.  Do they prune it or do orange trees grow to a certain size then stop?
Near NRG Stadium, Houston Texas. USDA zone 9a

SoCal2warm

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2019, 06:54:42 PM »
If that tree had been growing on its own roots to begin with, it would not need all this trouble now to keep it alive.
A tree on its own roots has a much longer lifespan, though does grow to be much bigger.

Laaz

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2019, 07:00:03 PM »
Lmao! May be time to find a new forum...

JJROSS54

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2019, 08:06:00 PM »
Here's a paragraph from an article about that tree.

Facing the inevitable loss of the parent navel orange tree in its dedicated park, a decision was made by the University of California scientists to try to save this tree by inarching. The tree had been girdled by gummosis and was rapidly deteriorating. The inarching was done by Dr. H. J. Webber, H. W. Mertz and Glenn Blackman.  They inarched with seedlings of sweet orange, rough lemon and sour orange. The gummosis lesions can be seen in the lower trunk just above the top of the protective cylinder. Dr. Klotz again photographed the inarches on July 17, 1944, twenty six years after the initial inarching was done in 1918 and the inarches are shown on the right in Fig. 4. In 1951, it was noted that some of the original inarches showed lesions of Phytophthora.  Therefore, in that same year, a second inarching was done using three seedlings of Troyer citrange and one of trifoliate orange. The grafting was done by Denard C. Wylie, Senior Superintendent of Cultivations at the Citrus Experiment Station.
The survival and preservation of the parent ‘Washington’ navel orange tree was dependant on the successful inarches made in 1918 and repeated again in 1951.   This same fungus killed its sister tree at the Riverside Mission Inn in 1922. However, the timely inarches saved this historic tree.  The tree was in good health and bearing a good crop of fruit.

SoCal2warm

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2019, 09:10:51 PM »
Lmao! May be time to find a new forum...
Was the original tree growing on its own roots, or was it grafted onto rootstock?

JJROSS54

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Re: UCR, City & State Saving Parent Washington Tree
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2019, 09:15:05 PM »
According to the article it was a grafted tree, it did not say what the root stock was.