Available Counts

Carton Weight

Count 40 =  90 mm

Count 48 =  86 mm

Count 56/60 =  78 mm

Count 72 =  73 mm

Count 88/90 =  69 mm

Count 105 =  65 mm

Count 125 =  62 mm

Count 144 =  59 mm

15kg

Variety

Availablitiy

Navels (South Africa)

April - July

Delta Seedless (South Africa)

July - August

Midnights (South Africa)

August - September

Valencia (South Africa)

August - September

Navelates(South Africa)

July - September

Shamouti(South Africa)

June - August

Tomango

July

Delta Seedless

Originating in 1952 near Pretoria, North West Province, South Africa, Delta is more productive than the standard Valencia, with slightly larger fruit. More importantly, it bears much of the fruit inside the tree canopy, resulting in it being less susceptible to wind blemish and consequently having a better pack-out percentage. The fruit is of good quality, nearly seedless, and only a small minority of fruits have one or two seeds. It has a lower sugar content and acidity than Valencia, especially in early production years, and reaches acceptable maturity one to three weeks earlier. Because of its tendency to produce low solids Delta should preferably be grown on a high quality-inducing rootstock.

Midnights

Of unknown origin, this variety was first noticed as a slightly earlier maturing tree growing in a Valencia orchard at Addo, Cape Province, South Africa, by A.P. Knight, about 1927, but its potential was not recognized until the 1970's.Midnight trees are slower growing than Valencia and have a marked scion overgrowth at the bud union in combination with most rootstocks. It is also susceptible to copper deficiency causing twig dieback. Virus free trees grow faster and attain better size. Midknight trees are slightly more frost susceptible than Valencia.Its main improved characteristics are the exceptionally high juice percentage, better flavour, near seedless and significantly larger fruit size. Midknight matures two or four weeks earlier than Valencia but holds on the tree just as late. It is, however, more difficult to peel because the rind is thinner and more tightly adhering, and often oily. In fact, when grown in hot, humid climatic conditions it becomes almost impossible to peel. Clearly best suited to those areas where fine quality navels are produced.

Navelates

Discovered in 1948 by D.A. Gill at Vinaroz, Casiellon Province, Spain, as a limp mutation on a Washington tree, it was released for propagation in 1957.The trees are vigorous and slightly larger in size than Washington but are thorny.The fruit is medium to large in size, somewhat smaller than Washington, and has smaller and often concealed navel. The rind is of similar texture but is thinner, more leathery and somewhat less easily peeled. In Spain external color develops about three weeks later than Washington, which is normally first harvested around the second week of December despite both being internally mature at about the same time. However, it can be left to hang on the tree for four months or more without appreciable loss of quality.The Navelate has always promised to be a significant breakthrough in navel orange production. However, today it accounts for no more than 5% of Spain's navel production, although it presently accounts for around 1% of navel orange plantings.Even in Spain, Navelate can be an erratic performer with light cropping being a common feature, although it was realized this was due to inadequate irrigation at flowering time. In Morocco Navelate never became established due mainly to its low juice percentage, while in South Africa it produced light crops of fruit which had oily peel that was difficult to remove. Interest in California has been minimal and is unlikely to change given Navelate's performance. Light crops have also been a feature of Navelate in Argentina since it was first introduced in the mid 1980's despite excellent fruit quality albeit with a tendency to be affected by rind creasing. In the recent past an incompatibility problem has been reported on trifoliate rootstock in Argentina. Meanwhile, in Spain, where the combined Navelate and Lane Late production currently accounts for 12% of navel production, (compared with Navelina / Newhalls' 63% and Washington's 25%), plantings in recent years clearly indicate the importance growers have given to later maturing selections, with Navelate playing a somewhat lesser role than Lane Late. Navelates and Lane Late are harvested from early January, with the former ending mid-April at least six weeks earlier than Lane Late.

Navels

Navel oranges have the distinctive feature of having a small secondary fruit embedded in the apex of the primary fruit, and although this characteristic is sometimes found in other oranges and particularly in Mandarins, it is never consistent and varies depending upon climatic factors.Generally speaking, navels are the earliest, maturing of orange varieties, producing seedless fruit of larger size than most others, with deep orange, easily peeled rinds, and a sweet and pleasant flavour.However, there are serious limitations to their production since the trees are less vigorous and less productive than those of many other varieties, and they are far more specific in their climatic adaptability for example, navels thrive and produce superior quality fruit only in subtropical, Mediterranean type climates and are unsuited to many regions where other orange varieties perform well. In contrast with Valencia oranges, which are grown in many citrus-producing environments and are one of the mainstays of production in tropical as well as semi and subtropical regions, navels are far more restricted in their distribution. Nevertheless, they are important in many countries worldwide and form a significant proportion of the citrus production of China, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, South Africa, California, Australia, Uruguay and Argentina.While navels are rarely equaled, and never surpassed, by other oranges as a dessert fruit, they also have characteristics other than poor climatic adaptability which prevent their more widespread production. Although navel oranges yield less juice than most other oranges, it is the development of delayed bitterness in the juice which makes them unsuitable for processing. unlike the bitterness in grapefruit caused by the compound naringin or in sour oranges by neothesperidin, bitterness in navel orange juice becomes evident only when the fruit is juiced and the bitter factor limonin is released from other closely related compounds. Although navel juice contains only extremely low levels of liminin, it is a very bitter compound which most people are able to detect at levels of no more than around five parts per million. For this reason navel orange juice cannot usually be used for the preparation of juice products unless it is blended with juice of other varieties of low limonin content.For some time it was widely believed that the navel orange we know today originated as a limb sport on a tree of the old established Salata variety at Cabulla near Bahia, (now Salvador), Brazil, some time prior to 1822. there is now much evidence to disprove this theory, for navel oranges are known to have grown in Spain and Portugal for many years and thence to Brazil much earlier than this. however, the worldwide expansion in navel orange growing started only after the Bahai navel was sent in 1870 to the United States Department of Agriculture facilities at Washington, DC, for propagation in glasshouses before being sent to California and Florida in 1873. It was from this importation that the Washington navel spread to other citrus areas.Navels are genetically far more unstable than other leading orange varieties, with the result that countless selections have been made by growers and others in many parts of the world during the past century. Many have fruit characteristics which are almost indistinguishable from Washington navel but a few have markedly different traits particularly with respect to time of maturity. It is now possible in many navel-growing regions to extend the season from normal tow or three months to six months and sometimes longer. During the past two decades Lane Late has further extended the harvesting period by around tow months and the recent importation of some of Australia's Ultra Late navels may push out the end of the season by another month possibly two.

Shamouti

The Shamouti originated as a bud mutation on a local Beladi or common ornage tree in 1844 in an orchard near Jaffa, Palestine (Now Israel.). Several strains have been identified: some earlier, others later maturing than the common type, and some pigmented or seedy.The Shamouti tree has a distinctive upright growth habit, is moderately vigorous, thornless and has large broad leaves. Its productivity and external and internal fruit quality are greatly affected by climatic conditions, rootstock and soil factors. In Israel the best quality Shamouti is produced in the narrow costal belt and on Palestine sweet lime rootstock, while in Cyprus it produces fruit of similar quality when propagated on sour orange.Shamouti fruit has distinctive characteristics which might at first sight indicate the fruit is not of superior quality. It is medium to large in size and oval in shape with a slightly flattened stem-end. The rind texture, particularly at the stem end, is pebbly (somewhat rough on larger fruit) and fairly thick. It is the easiest of oranges to peel and releases little rind oil in the process. the Shamouti has a distinctive fragrance and unique outstanding flavour, being rich and sweet but with adequate acid to give a good sugar to acid ratio.The segments are particularly tender and the fruit is virtually seedless. Unfortunately, the juice yield on a weight basis is rather low: moreover, Shamouti juice develops delayed bitterness like navel oranges which discounts its value compared with that from other varieties such as Valencia.A mid season variety reaching acceptable internal quality in mid-December in Israel but at peak maturity a few weeks later, the Shamouti develops good color and hangs well on the tree without it's quality deteriorating. If picked when fully mature it stores particularly well.

Tomango

The origin is not known with certainty but it was first propagated on a commercial scale on H.L. Hall's Mattafin Estate, Eastern Transvaal, South Africa in 1916.The trees are slow growing and have an upright habit with leaves arranged in clusters, and they are slow to come into production. Of only limited adaptability, the Tomango has the serious shortcoming of producing predominantly small fruit, albeit of good quality.Fruit is slightly oval in shape with a smooth rind texture, pale orange colour and devoid of any blush. The thin rind is fairly easily peeled and the flesh is particularly render and juicy. Seeds are small and few in number, typically only one or two in each fruit.Although Tomango is a light blood variety, this trait is not normally expressed since production is predominantly in the warmer regions of South Africa. When grown under semi-tropical conditions it has excessive vegetative growth, poorer internal quality and a yellowish-orange rind colour. In cooler sub-tropical Mediterranean climates it matures very soon after the navel, with which it cannot compete in terms of size and quality.

Valencia

It is commonly assumed, perhaps understandably considering the name, that the Valencia is of Spanish origin. However, the variety first became of interest in the Azores and is almost certainly of old Portuguese origin.No other citrus variety has more fascinating and improbable history than that of the Valencia, which is now the world's most important orange. Sent from the Azores in the early 1860's to Thomas Rivers, a nurseryman at Sawbridgeworth, England, it was first named Excelsior. rivers had recognised it's late maturing characteristics and believed it suitable for growing in containers in the fashionable orengeries of country houses. He sent trees of the Excelsior and other varieties to S.B. Parsons, Long Island, USA, in 1870, who in turn supplied both A.B. Chapman of San Gabriel, California, in 1876 and F.H. Hart, Federal Point, Florida, the following year. Chapman named the variety Rivers Late, while Hart's trees were initially designated as Hart's Tardif (or Hart Late).In 1887 Rivers Late was renamed Valencia Late at the suggestion of a Spanish citrus expert visiting California who believed that it bore great similarity to a late maturing orange grown in the Valencia region. It was a decade or so later that authorities recognized that the Hart Late and Valencia Late were in fact the same variety.Its outstanding equalities were soon recognized and the Valencia orange was to change the face of citrus production on a world scale so that today it is the leading variety in may citrus producing countries and an important one in others. There is no other citrus variety more widely grown and on such an extensive scale. The Valencia leads production in Argentina, Australia, California, Florida, Morocco, Southern Africa, uruguay and other countries and is an important variety in Brazil, Israel and elsewhere. Traditionally Spain showed little interest in Valencia but since the 1970's production increased, reaching higher priority has been given to late maturing navel varieties. In China, Valencia is the fourth most widely grown orange, producing around 100 000 tons mainly in Chongquing, Suchuan and Guangxi Provinces.Valencia trees are vigorous, upright, large and very prolific but have some tendency to alternate bearing.Fruit size is medium to large, roundish-oblong in shape, with a well-coloured, moderately thin rind of smooth, but sometimes finely pebbled, texture. Valencia rind is prone to creasing particularly on some rootstocks. Not difficult to peel when fully mature, the rind is thin and leathery and the flesh well coloured, with a very high juice content, outstanding colour and good flavour although sometimes slightly acidic except when fully mature. Seeds typically number two to four per fruit. It is the latest maturing of all sweet orange varieties.