Citrus

[pogrmman]

I’ve got a small, but growing citrus collection. They’re one of my favorite overall groups of fruits. If it wasn’t for the handful of hard freezes we get in a normal winter, I’d say they’d be among the easiest fruits to grow here. Aside from cold, the only major problem with them here is citrus leafminer, and that’s really just a nuisance. Whiteflies seem to like my citrus, but I haven’t seen much of an impact from them — I’m more worried about the impact they’ll have on my other plants after breeding on my citrus.

My biggest are some rio red grapefruit seedlings I planted in March 2018. I’ve been growing them as fast as possible and keeping them to a single shoot to see how quick I can get them to fruit. I know it’ll probably take a very long time, but I’m just doing this from curiosity. Grapefruit usually come true from seed, and it’d be excellent to have a seedling tree here — so when they’re knocked back by cold, they’ll sprout up true. They aren’t even 2 years old yet, but the tallest one is just shy of 6'.

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I’ve got some rooted cuttings of various citrus from around the area — one Meyer lemon, two grapefruit, and three of a big, seedgrown mandarin over 20 years old. I haven’t had fruit off the other trees, but the mandarin produces a lovely fruit much like a store-bought one, only much seedier and a bit tarter (unless it hangs on the tree until early spring). It’s really good. I’ve also got seedlings off of a 'Flying Dragon' trifoliate orange and the same seedgrown mandarin. Here are the cuttings and some of the seedlings.

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One of my neighbors has a large citrange bush — I’m guessing whatever was grafted onto it got killed one winter. It’s clearly fairly old, with a trunk maybe as big around as my thigh even though the whole plant is only like 10'. I’m starting some seed from that to use as rootstock. I also finally found a sour orange in the store to grow rootstock from (and cook with). I’d use trifoliate orange for the cold hardiness, but it tends to go chlorotic really easy in our highly alkaline soils and it’s super slow from seed. Plus, our variable winter weather seems like it might prevent a solid dormancy. I’m also trying some seeds of a cocktail grapefruit for fun — upon cutting them apart, they looked polyembryonic, so it’s worth a shot.

Lastly, in terms of not-so-experimental stuff, I’ve got a grafted Changshou kumquat I bought. It’s going to go in the ground once we actually get into spring (even though everything is already waking up and we had no freezes in January, it ain’t spring yet!). I’ve got a nice spot picked out for it. It should fruit this year. I cut off the fruit it had when I bought it because in TX, all citrus sold in nurseries are treated with systemic insecticides before shipping. Not something I want to eat.

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Do any of y’all grow citrus? What are your favorites and/or your easiest growers?

[alanmercieca]

Yes, I have Meyer Lemon, great tree yet I only like the fruit for cooking, I make a very good lemon pie with it. We also have a 'Midknight Valencia' orange, a very interesting looking tree, yet has not fruited yet, we'll see what the fourth season is like. I also brought some seeds from the Island of Malta, from some of their local 'bitter oranges', all from the same variety, I am trying to germinate them.

[pombazaar]

I've had mixed results with citrus in my zone. Back in 2018 I had a Persian Lime and Meyer Lemon. The Persian Lime got seriously infected with scale insects and died before making it outside in Spring. The Meyer Lemon lost all of its leaves but produced immense growth during 2019. I brought it inside late in September and it had hundreds of blossoms. After they all fell off all of the leaves fell off too. Shortly after it ended up dying too...I think due to a lack of light. All of the branches started turning brown at the tips until the entire tree was consumed. I was pretty bummed.

I also have an Australian Red Lime. I ordered this one from Logees in 2019 and it also put out some massive growth, tripling in size! This one came inside in September also and has been doing very good. It'll go back outside in April. I'm really looking forward to see how this one does this year.

[alanmercieca]

I've had mixed results with citrus in my zone. Back in 2018 I had a Persian Lime and Meyer Lemon. The Persian Lime got seriously infected with scale insects and died before making it outside in Spring. The Meyer Lemon lost all of its leaves but produced immense growth during 2019. I brought it inside late in September and it had hundreds of blossoms. After they all fell off all of the leaves fell off too. Shortly after it ended up dying too...I think due to a lack of light. All of the branches started turning brown at the tips until the entire tree was consumed. I was pretty bummed.

I also have an Australian Red Lime. I ordered this one from Logees in 2019 and it also put out some massive growth, tripling in size! This one came inside in September also and has been doing very good. It'll go back outside in April. I'm really looking forward to see how this one does this year.

Well if you have a citrus in little to no light and you put it in direct sunlight that is very bad for the tree. I am not sure if that could kill it, might depend on the size and the age of the tree, anyway such a sudden light change will make the leaves come off, and improved Meyer Lemon does loose it's leaves easily. Yet the branches dying means that something else went wrong. Where do you buy your citrus from, what kind of soil do you use, what kind of pot do you put it in, how often do you water it? Do you ever wet the leaves or the tree?

[bopcrane]

I'm not proud to admit it, but I have a citrus problem. I grow about 30 varieties of citrus, most of them are in containers but I have a few in the ground in my greenhouse. The ones in the greenhouse are the more cold hardy cultivars, mostly 'quats. various hybrids, as well as satsumas and some others. I think I will probably get a kinkoji/bloomsweet from Stan Mckenzie and it will be the final citrus tree I put in my greenhouse, I think it will be #12 in there. The challenge has been my crappy clay soil and finding a nice happy temperature medium to keep the other things in my GH dormant, and also the watering schedule for them during winter can be tricky. It still gets quite cold in my GH (I think the thermometer read about 26 degrees in there one time this winter). To my surprise the meiwa in my GH still has a bunch of kumquats on it. Most of my trees are still a bit young

It's been really interesting to see the arbequina olive, feijoas, loquat (blossoms & fruit!), cold hardy citrus(with fruit on some), chilean guava etc. in my greenhouse have all endured those low temps for several hours with no visible signs of damage to tender plant tissues. The maypop and pineapple plant in the same conditions had quite a bit of damage during that 26f night



Half of the citrus gang

[pogrmman]

It's been really interesting to see the arbequina olive, feijoas, loquat (blossoms & fruit!), cold hardy citrus(with fruit on some), chilean guava etc. in my greenhouse have all endured those low temps for several hours with no visible signs of damage to tender plant tissues. The maypop and pineapple plant in the same conditions had quite a bit of damage during that 26f night

You’ve got quite the collection indeed! For what it’s worth, loquats are far more hardy than lots of sources give them credit for. We’re usually down in the lower 20s a few times each winter, but it’s pretty unusual to have a year where the loquats don’t fruit. The last time that happened, we got down to the teens. I think the fact that most loquats here are partially shaded helps: most of our nights like that are radiative freezes, and the fruitlets are usually a bit protected. Maypops are supposed to die to the ground every winter, so it’s not surprising that they got damaged with cold like that. Feijoas and olives are pretty tough, too.

I'm not proud to admit it, but I have a citrus problem.

I’m rapidly developing a citrus problem, too. It’s hard not to when there’s so many excellent ones out there! In addition to what I’ve already got, I’d love to get my hands on a satsuma and a Eustis limequat. The satsuma should be easy to get around here, but the limequat might be a bit of a challenge.

I also have an Australian Red Lime. I ordered this one from Logees in 2019 and it also put out some massive growth, tripling in size!

Those Australian citrus are really cool. I hope yours does well! Growing citrus in your zone is quite the feat. Having to be inside September-April has got to be hard on them.

I also brought some seeds from the Island of Malta, from some of their local 'bitter oranges', all from the same variety, I am trying to germinate them.

That’s pretty cool. Good luck with your seeds! I’ve found that most citrus germinate pretty well if the seeds are fresh. I wonder what characteristics those bitter oranges have — the sour/bitter oranges seem to be a really diverse group, but aren’t usually seen in the US.

[pombazaar]

Well if you have a citrus in little to no light and you put it in direct sunlight that is very bad for the tree. I am not sure if that could kill it, might depend on the size and the age of the tree, anyway such a sudden light change will make the leaves come off, and improved Meyer Lemon does loose it's leaves easily. Yet the branches dying means that something else went wrong. Where do you buy your citrus from, what kind of soil do you use, what kind of pot do you put it in, how often do you water it? Do you ever wet the leaves or the tree?

Yes, I'm very careful about not shocking my plants. My Improved Meyer Lemon came from FastGrowingTrees and appeared very healthy and vibrant all season. I use HP Pro-Mix with mycorrhizae as my soil base and alternated between 10-10-10 slow release fertilizer blend along with Jobe's 3-5-5 and Gaia Mania 1-5-1. I only use GroPro containers. We had a lot of rain throughout the summer so I didn't find myself needing to water it regularly. Once it was brough inside I made sure that the soil remained moist but not soaked or wet. I also would mist the leaves daily. The hundreds of blooms were all very vibrant and immediately after the tree started to wither. I think this one ultimately was chalked up to a serious lack of proper light. Can you think of anything else that would have caused this?

[alanmercieca]

Yes, I'm very careful about not shocking my plants. My Improved Meyer Lemon came from FastGrowingTrees and appeared very healthy and vibrant all season. I use HP Pro-Mix with mycorrhizae as my soil base and alternated between 10-10-10 slow release fertilizer blend along with Jobe's 3-5-5 and Gaia Mania 1-5-1. I only use GroPro containers. We had a lot of rain throughout the summer so I didn't find myself needing to water it regularly. Once it was brough inside I made sure that the soil remained moist but not soaked or wet. I also would mist the leaves daily. The hundreds of blooms were all very vibrant and immediately after the tree started to wither. I think this one ultimately was chalked up to a serious lack of proper light. Can you think of anything else that would have caused this?

Did you by any chance give them any nitrogen in or close to the winter, I learned that could actually kill them. I gave up bringing citrus in to a heated area during the winter because our Meyer looked unhealthy during the winter when exposed to winter heat no matter what I did. Yet the year that there was nitrogen in the soil during the winter it looked the worst. Most of the flowers form in the spring so no need to keep it warm in the winter. Here is warm enough to leave our citrus in the unheated yet insulated Garage during the winter.

[alanmercieca]

That’s pretty cool. Good luck with your seeds! I’ve found that most citrus germinate pretty well if the seeds are fresh. I wonder what characteristics those bitter oranges have — the sour/bitter oranges seem to be a really diverse group, but aren’t usually seen in the US.

I am not sure about bitter oranges this day and age, yet back in the day, like in the 1920s, there was two kinds of bitter orange

01) The sweet bitter orange.
02) The Sour bitter orange.

The most bitter part of the bitter orange is the peel, even the orange part of the peel is bitter, the bitter oranges that I collected were on the ground way out of season, in late September, they drop a few of the oranges early, anyway they were dirty with clay soil so I did not even think of tasting the peel. I touched my finger with the juice and tasted what stayed on my finger, it was very obvious that the juice was very acidic like a lemon, it tasted a lot like a combination of mandarin orange, and navel orange more on the navel orange side, a very strong flavor, the orange and it's peel has a very strong navel orange like smell.

Like a lot of bitter oranges they are shaped a lot like a mandarin, yet not all bitter oranges are that shape. As far as I know all bitter oranges have a very rough looking peel. They were about as easy to peel as a mandarin orange. The particular variety I found, I had to tare the oranges apart by hand to find/get the seeds. When slicing them the only seeds I had seen, I had seen them after they were easily sliced by the knife. They had plenty of seeds. The seeds were in the fridge a few weeks before I put them in the pot to germinate them. The insides of the oranges were tough. The seeds seemed normal.

[pogrmman]

I am not sure about bitter oranges this day and age, yet back in the day, like in the 1920s, there was two kinds of bitter orange

01) The sweet bitter orange.
02) The Sour bitter orange.

From what I’ve read about them, those are the two main groups of them, but there is variability within each group. There’s things like willow leafed and myrtle leafed bitter oranges, ones selected for extra high oil content, ones with double flowers, and more.

I used the juice and zest of the one I found in the store to marinate some chicken, and it was fantastic. It’s got a really excellent flavor and I could totally see using it for everything you’d use a lemon for to give a different twist.