Orange is still an exotic plant in indoor floriculture, the thing is that the plant is quite capricious, does not like drafts, temperature changes and does not react well to any stress. But, growing it according to all the rules, chilling and nurturing, you can grow not only a beautiful tree, but also achieve flowering and fruiting of an orange in indoor conditions.
How to grow a stock
The mistake of many novice growers is that they are trying to grow an orange tree from a seed and expect fruit from it. At home, such an orange will not bloom and, accordingly, will not bear fruit. You can only force him to do this by grafting a twig from a plant that has already yielded a crop, and a beautiful rootstock will turn out from the seed.
Remove the seeds from the ripeest orange and place them in a bowl of moist fertile substrate. It is best to use a ready-made citrus potting mix available from your flower shop.
Plant several seeds at once so that later you can choose the strongest seedling for the rootstock.
Cover the dish with foil or glass and put this mini-greenhouse in a sunny place. The sprouts will appear quite quickly, after which the shelter can be removed. Seedling care is simple. Water them as the topsoil dries out, the ground should always be moist.
When 3-4 true leaves appear, choose the strongest among the grown plants and transplant them into separate pots. Place in a warm, sunny place. Loosen the soil periodically, water and fertilize with special citrus fertilizers. Do not move the seedlings to another place, the orange does not like this very much.
How to graft a plant
When the shoots are lignified and at least 5 mm thick, you can start grafting. Prepare the stock. Cut 1-2 year old twigs from the cultivated plant. Remove all leaves from them, leaving petioles and buds. Cut the lower part of the cutting with a sharp blade at an acute angle on both sides (you should get a wedge), while the cut should be under the lower kidney.
Grafting should be carried out immediately after cutting the cutting, but if this is not possible, wrap the material with wet cotton wool or sphagnum moss and put it in a plastic bag.
Cut the seedling with pruning shears at a level of 10 cm from the soil surface. Make a vertical cut in it about 2 cm deep and insert the cutting blade into the resulting cleft. Combine the bark of the scion and rootstock.
Cover all sections with garden varnish, and wrap the graft site with insulating tape. After about 1, 5 months, it can be removed. If you did everything correctly, the stalk will take root, the orange will quickly start growing and after 2 years it will bloom with white flowers with a pleasant aroma and will delight you with the first fruits.
