I tried my first fruit of my sanguinelli blood orange today. My young tree was really too small to be bearing fruit but I let it keep the two fruit it set this year anyway. The tree is planted at probably 650-700' elevation here just outside of Hilo, HI. Advice I had seen indicated that only Moro blood orange was worth growing here and that the others would not develop any color at all. I planted a Moro and a Sanguinelli with low expectations for either developing any real blood pigmentation due to our lack of any real cold snaps here.
I was uncertain about the ripeness of the oranges. Regular oranges sometimes do not color up well here so I was not sure what to expect from a blood orange. The orange developed a nice deep orange color with a little rosy blush -- not the exterior color Sanguinelli is noted for but very nice! I was uncertain about the ripeness of the oranges; I would be gently probing & squeezing to see when they seem to have a little more "give". When I tried it today, it came off in my hand -- so maybe a bit over-ripe?
I was amazed when I cut the orange open, it had developed some nice rosy coloration in the flesh as well! The flavor was mild, low acid, mildly sweet, and juicy. It was sort of "citrusy" but not a typical orange flavor. There was another flavor -- maybe peach? -- that seemed more predominant. If I were blindfolded and someone popped this in my mouth, I would have no clue of what kind of fruit it was. My wife is not a fan of oranges but we both enjoyed it. I suspect it will improve significantly in the future. The fruit had 14 well developed seeds as well as 3 or 4 small aborted ones. Since I had no other citrus flowering at this time, I have decided to try to grow out the seeds. With no other citrus blooming, this will be a "selfing" (as plant breeders say) where it will just be juggling around the genes of Sanguinelli so there could be some interesting variants coming out of this.
The bottom line is, if you are in HI or similar tropical areas, do not just dismiss Sanguinelli as unsuited for your orchard. It might not color up as well as in subtropical areas but you might still be pleasantly surprised.
John
