Citrus x sinensis
Navelina
Harvest: October – March. Table / Juice.
Datasheet
No certification yet. We say so rather than leave it out.
Harvest
Regional picking window: October – March.
Pick when the fruit is ready, not just when the calendar says so. Check the balance of sugars and acidity, juice content and rind condition against the intended use. Rind colour alone does not establish maturity.
Navelina opens our campaign. At the start of its window, check the fruit's internal maturity as well as its appearance before agreeing a picking week.
Work backwards from the delivery week, allowing for packing and transport. The window is a regional reference; the picking date and availability of our fruit are confirmed with the grower before an order.
Where Navelina sits in the campaign
Navelina opens our season. Of the four varieties on this site it reaches its regional picking window first, and it holds that window longer than any of the others, so at some point it overlaps with everything else we grow. If your programme starts before the bulk of Spanish Navel supply is moving, this is the variety to ask about first.
The window shown above is regional. The harvest section on this page records that our own picking dates are still to be confirmed, and the two are not the same thing. Tell us the week you need fruit at your premises and where it is going, then ask which part of that window the grower can commit to, before it becomes a promise to your own customer.
The variety also travels under other names. Our datasheet lists Smith's Early and Dalmau as synonyms, and an offer can reach you under either of them. Use the cultivar name as it is written here on the order, on the specification and on the packing list. A synonym on one document and the cultivar name on another is a query waiting to be raised at reception.
What the fruit looks like beside the other Navels
Variety datasheets from the IVIA describe Navelina as barely taller than it is wide, close to a sphere, with a very smooth rind. Of the three Navel cultivars we grow it carries the most intense rind colour, a deep orange with a reddish cast. The citrus collection at UC Riverside describes its navel as small, and that is what you see at the blossom end: a closed, puckered button.
It is also the smallest of our three Navel cultivars at the tree. Read that against the fruit your customer expects to handle or to see in a display. If the requirement is for the largest fruit we can offer, Navel Foios is the one to compare. What we pack from this variety sits in a narrower band than the full range on the datasheet, which is worth knowing before you write a requirement around the extremes. The sizes page explains how to phrase one that can be checked on arrival.
What is still open on this variety
Sweetness, acidity and juice yield have not been measured on our own fruit, and the post-harvest treatment is not confirmed. We hold no certification. The datasheet keeps those rows visible instead of leaving them out, because a missing row is easier to misread than an honest blank. If a measurement or a document decides whether you can buy, name it early, with the sampling and the date it has to carry.
No plot has been declared for Navelina on this site yet, which is why this page carries no planting list while the other varieties do. Ask which plot the fruit would come from, what the grower can confirm in writing about origin, and how much of your requirement is realistic as a first order rather than as a full season.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.