White orange tree

[Tylerhoage]

I planted some orange tree seedlings and 1 is white. Is this normal? I thought it was a lighting issue but its in my grow room which has 4 grow lights on the ceiling so I doubt that's it. Is this rare? Will it turn green eventually?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

If it never produces green chlorophyll, it will die. It is a mutation called albinism.
If it produces green stripes, or markings, it is variagated, a different mutation.
Time will tell.

 

[cbroad]

Could also be etiolation, plant growth in the absence of light, or very weak light. Not a very good circumstance, means the plant is stressed and is using all of it's energy to find the light.

How far above the plant tops are the lights?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I said the following in another thread, but I think it would apply here too, so I'm quoting myself:

At my job we did a highly controlled experiment with 100% desease free plants (tested) in sterile conditions. We wanted to know if LED could safely replace our T5's.
150+ genotypes * 5 plants * 2 conditions (led vs. T5)
With the led group we found +/- 6 % of the plants turned albino whereas the controls did not. It was not a genetic factor, because the control clones, and even some in the same container in the LED group, did not albinize. If it were genetic, all 5 clones should have responded the same.
We decided to stay with T5 bulbs for the time being.

I'm not saying there are other things possibly at play here. But we found that it has to do something with LED lighting for our crops.

In cannabis as well, it's pretty common for led grown plants to locally albinize, frankly, it's always the buds closest to the LED.

In that same topic, various other causes were described, being viral, bacterial or fungal of origin.

In addition to that, plant growth in the absence of light does create white plants. However, when there is little usable light (instead of total absence) plants tend to color a darker green due to the fact that they accumulate more chlorophyll to compensate the lower photosynthetic activity. Plants that grow in the shade tend to be of a tad darker green compared to those grown in full sun for that reason.

 

[karen82]

I planted some Hong Kong kumquats and out of about 20 seedlings, 3 are albinos. Maybe albinism is more common in Citrus and related species?
Right now, my albino seedlings are growing, but are smaller than their green siblings. I expect they will die once they use up all the nutrients in the seed.

 

[penumbra]

Interesting, I hope others do controlled experiments relating to types of lights. About 80% of my lights are LED and the others are T-5. I have not noticed much difference except that the T-5 seem to be better for rooting cuttings for me. Have not noticed any albinism or differences in variegation.