Thanks for the responses! We recently bought the property next to ours where we had planted a Valencia and a California navel (and a ton of other stuff not relevant to this post). I was skeptical about the quality possible from the oranges in this climate because all the oranges we’d bought were not very sweet or flavorful. But the two navels we got from the tree’s first harvest were the sweetest most delicious I’ve ever tasted! The Valencia also produced a few sweet fruits. My guess is that people here pick citrus waaaay too early. But meanwhile the new property we bought is full of Valencia trees in very poor condition and the fruit is consistently very sour. We’re taking out a lot of them, will probably top work a few, and a couple we’ll try to recuperate and see if we can get them to produce something good. Most of the trees just finished a full bloom and are covered with little fruit but our Valencia has a huge green orange on it, just one, and I have no idea how long it’s been hanging there. I guess I’ll just keep squeezing it and hoping for at least a subtle color change.
Anyway that brings me (in my head) to 2 questions. One, what’s the general time from flower to ripe fruit for the citrus varieties lime, navel orange, Valencia orange, pomelo, oro blanco, and mandarin?
Two, an aside, that huge Valencia has what looks suspiciously like a navel- do Valencia’s ever have that or could this tree be a mis-label?