An orange tree is one of the citrus trees that produce delicious fruits. These trees are growing in many different sizes.
Some oranges are growing tall and some varieties are growing small. If you are going to grow an orange tree in the ground, you must grow those standard orange trees.
While if you want to grow orange trees indoors, you must grow smaller orange trees. Depending on what kind of orange trees you will grow, it will give you oranges once they get mature.
How Big Does An Orange Tree Get?
Standard Orange Tree Height
A standard orange tree grows around 20 to 30 feet (6-9 meters) tall. Among the orange tree varieties, this tree grows the tallest.
Since this orange tree is growing too tall, it is commonly grown outdoors. Growing them outdoors will give them enough space to spread their roots, branches, and leaves.
Because of their size, they need more sunlight which they will surely get especially when they are planted outdoors.
Sunlight is more available outside, especially in an open field. There are times that there are big trees growing nearby and you must plant your orange trees at a distance from them because they might block the sunlight away from your orange trees.
Standard orange trees can’t be grown indoors. They are growing tall and growing them in containers and placing them indoors will make them grow poor.
A container or a pot is not enough for their roots to spread. The size of a standard orange tree cannot be changed.
Constantly they are growing that tall but the good thing about this tree is they can bring more oranges.
This tree is growing big and tall and because of that, it can grow more branches. On each branch, you will get many orange fruits.
Semi-Dwarf Orange Tree Height
The semi-dwarf orange tree is a little bit shorter than the standard orange tree but taller than dwarf oranges. The semi-dwarf orange tree grows 10 to 15 feet (3-4.5 meters) tall.
This tree can be grown outdoors or indoors if you are going to make them small. A 10-15 feet tall tree is still a little bit tall and you need good spacing if you want to place them inside the house.
Pruning can help this tree become small. When a tree is small, it can be placed indoors. A good container with enough size for the tree is needed so that the tree roots have enough room to spread.
A semi-dwarf orange tree will also give you oranges. But since its size is a little bit smaller than the standard orange trees you may not get the same number of oranges compared to those standard ones.
When a tree has more branches, it can handle more fruits because the tree size is enough to handle the weight of many fruits.
Still, you need to give this tree enough water, sunlight, and nutrients to achieve a great harvest.
Dwarf Orange Tree Height
The smallest kind of orange tree is a dwarf orange tree. The dwarf orange tree grows around 6 to 12 feet (1.8-3.6 meters) tall.
This tree is suitable to grow in pots/containers. They are growing small and they just need a small spacing for their roots and branches to grow.
There are many dwarf orange trees that you can get. In nurseries and garden centers, you can find many varieties of oranges that are just growing small.
You can place them indoors and they will grow just fine as long as they will get enough sunlight regularly.
It is best to place this kind of tree near the window because in that spot sunlight is more abundant.
A potted orange tree needs more water. One reason is the soil in the pots/containers dries fast because there are many air pockets in the soil and the air or oxygen enters those pockets which makes the soil dry quickly.
You need to water your orange tree when the soil becomes too dry. When the orange tree gets enough water regularly it will produce many oranges.
One good advantage of growing a dwarf-orange tree is you can easily harvest orange fruits.
The oranges are reachable and you can pick them easily. You don’t need to use a ladder in harvesting oranges.
Also, when orange trees are not producing many fruits, you can do hand pollination. Since this kind of tree is just small you can easily pollinate its flower by using a small, soft brush to transfer the pollen to the flower’s stigma.
Or by picking a flower and brushing them on the other flowers too.
Can Orange Trees Be Kept Small?
Yes, you can keep your orange trees small by pruning. When you notice that your orange tree gets so tall, you can cut some of its long branches to make them smaller.
It is easy to manage a small orange tree because you can easily see if there are problems on the tree like damaged branches, and problems with the leaves, and monitor the overall growth of the tree.
You need to use some pruning tools because when you don’t use the right tool, the cut will not be fine.
If you want to make the trimming better, use the right tools. Dwarf-orange trees usually don’t need pruning because they are already that small.
But you can still do some light pruning to make your tree look better.
What To Do When An Orange Tree Grows Slow?
The orange tree is one of the fastest-growing fruit trees. If you are noticing that they are growing so slow, you need to analyze if they are getting enough sunlight, water, and nutrients.
The orange tree makes food and gets energy from the sun. The sunlight will hit the tree leaves and the leaves will convert them into food.
The sunlight is essential to making the orange tree grow fast. Another thing is you must give it enough water and nutrients.
Water and nutrients will also help the growth of your orange tree. Pests and diseases can also affect tree growth and by keeping pests and diseases away, the orange tree will thrive well.