STRIKING ORANGE BUD VARIATIONS 



A. D. Shamel, Rk'crside, Cal. 



ATHOAISOX strain" tree of the 

 Washington navel orange vari- 

 ety in one of the individual tree 

 performance record plats on 

 the Eureka ranch near Riv-ersidc, 

 Cal., has for eight years consistently 

 produced striking bud variations. 

 Typical fruits of two of these varia- 

 tions and one of the typical Thomson 

 oranges are shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustrations. It has been discovered 

 that the Thomson strain is a bud varia- 

 tion of the Washington navel variety. 

 The Washington fruits, borne by a limb 

 in this Thomson tree, may be considered 

 in the nature of reversions to the parent 

 variety. One of the large limbs bears 

 the corrugated fruits. In this limb oc- 

 casional Washington and Thomson 

 fruits have been found from time to 

 time. 



Propagations of buds secured from 

 fruit-bearing budwood were made from 

 the Washington limb, the limb with the 

 corrugated fruits, and the Thomson 

 limbs, in the spring of 1913. The trees 

 from these propagations came into fruit- 

 ing for the first time this season, 19 IT- 

 1918. The young trees have uniformly 

 borne fruits similar to that borne by 

 the parent limbs and the budwood from 

 which they were propagated. In other 

 words three strains have been isolated 

 from the parent tree through bud selec- 

 tion, viz., \\'ashington. Corrugated, and 

 Thomson. 



There are certain foliage characteris- 

 tics of these strains which have been 

 reproduced in the young trees. The 

 young trees of each of these strains 



have characteristic habits of growth 

 similar to that of mature or full-bearing 

 trees of these strains. 



DIFFERENCES OF LMPORTANCE 



The very important commercial dif- 

 ferences in the value of the fruits of 

 these strains can be easily seen from the 

 photograph of the typical fruits. The 

 diiferences in rag, juiciness and quality 

 of the juice of these fruits is not so 

 easily shown or described. The Wash- 

 ington fruits have a tender rag, melt- 

 ing in the mouth, an abundance of juice 

 which possesses the rich and high flavor 

 characteristic of the fruits of this vari- 

 ety. The Thomson fruits have a woody 

 or tough rag, are lacking somewhat in 

 juice, and the flavor of the juice is in- 

 ferior to that of the Washington fruits. 

 The Corrugated fruits have a tender 

 rag, very similar to that of the Wash- 

 ington fruits, but the juice, while abun- 

 dant in cjuantity, is lacking in both acid 

 and sugar, resulting in a ver}^ inferior 

 quality of fruit. This example is typi- 

 cal of the occurrence of frequent and 

 striking bud variations in citrus varie- 

 ties. It explains the origin of the many 

 diverse strains of the commercial citrus 

 varieties in California. It explains the 

 presence of the many trees of these 

 strains in the citrus orchards. It also 

 shows the necessity for care in the selec- 

 tion of budwood in order to avoid so 

 far as possible the propagation of bud 

 sports. The selection of parent trees 

 and of fruit-bearing budwood in these 

 trees can be most safely done by means 

 of individual tree performance records 

 and intimate tree knowledge. 



189 



