A Homemade Fix For Branches Bending From Weight of Fruit

I took a photo of our navel orange tree and broke the rules of photography by not having the sun at my back.  That's why it looks kind of hazy.  On the right side of the tree, you can see one branch drooping so that the branch is almost horizontal.  Tips of the branches are touching the ground.

A closer inspection shows nothing is really wrong with the tree.  Actually, the reason for the drooping branches is a good problem.

Navel oranges the size of grapefruit fill the branches.  The sheer weight of the fruit is pulling down the branches.  The limbs of the tree bend easily - almost like rubber, so I don't think the branches are going to break.  But I don't want to take any chances.  Plus, the fruit pulls down the limbs until the fruit touches the ground and that causes the fruit to rot.  We can't have that now, can we?  What can we do?

I have an idea!  A good friend of mine was having the same problem with her citrus tree, and she told me about some branch supports that she found online and ordered.  At the time she told me, I didn't know that I would have this problem.  Now I think it is too late to order them.  It is just one branch anyway, so I think I'll try a homemade repair.  All I need is a branch of another tree with a fork in it.  Check!  I have one of those.  I measured the distance from the navel orange tree's limb to the ground with enough space to lift the fruit.  Looks like about three feet, so I grabbed my ax.

I placed the sagging branch in the fork of my branch support and lifted until the branch support was perpendicular to the earth.  The weight of the branch and fruit applies enough pressure so that the brace is firmly wedged and sturdy.

This is a temporary fix for this year, but i think it is going to salvage a dozen or two dozen oranges on this particular limb that would not have made it to maturity had we not done a little redneck restoration.

Once we harvest the fruit off of it this winter, we'll have to look at pruning the limb better to avoid this situation next year.  The tree is healthy and loaded with fruit.  Looking forward to fresh squeezed orange juice and we'l do what we can to salvage every single orange.