Description
Footy Navel Orange (Citrus sinensis)
The Footy Navel is a lovely looking orange tree with lush and dense, deep green foliage. Like other navel oranges, it’s sweet, juicy, and seedless. However, once it starts to fruit, you’ll notice this little beauty is not built like other oranges! Rather than the typical, round shape we automatically associate with oranges, the Footy Navel orange is rather oblong. In fact, it looks kind of like a footy ball, hence the name!
A medium growing tree, the Footy Navel can get up to 4m tall in the right conditions. Full sun, good drainage, and plenty of good quality, organic fertiliser will be your best bet at getting some excellent performance out of this tree.
It’s a really good grower, too, with a bit more of an upright habit than some of its other navel orange cousins.
In terms of fruit quality, it can range between medium to large in size. As with other oranges, often you may find that with a larger crop, you’ll end up with smaller fruit.
Likewise, with a smaller crop, you’ll often see bigger fruit! This is pretty normal behaviour, as holding fruit is quite taxing on a tree, even when it’s mature.
It has a nice, dense flesh that makes it really great for snacking on, with a beautiful and sweet flavour.
The Footy Navel is a great, early fruiting option for the garden, ripening from mid to late-May and through to June.
It can really help extend your harvest seasons by planting it with other trees that fruit a little later, like the Washington or Lanes Late navels, or perhaps an Emperor mandarin.
For our citrus care recommendations, please check our Help & Advice page!
