California Agriculture

New early- and late-maturing navel orange varieties have expanded the navel orange season for California’s domestic and export fresh-fruit market. For 5 years, we evaluated the fruit-quality characteristics of purported late-season varieties imported from Australia to determine whether they have any advantages over Lane Late, the first late-season navel orange imported from Australia and grown in California. Of the six varieties evaluated, Autumn Gold, Barnfield, Chislet, Powell and Lane Late had late-maturing characteristics, but none of these varieties stood out as having the latest maturing fruit for all traits associated with maturity at all nine locations studied. For certain locations, sample dates and years, there were significant differences among the varieties for quality traits associated with maturity, such as solids-to-acid ratio, percentage acidity and puncture resistance, but these differences varied depending upon location.