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Messages - Tom

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1
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Question on Kishu mandarins
« on: February 24, 2021, 10:04:44 AM »
That would be my thought but there might be a better variety in AZ. I pulled a citrus off a tree hanging over a golf course in Glendale AZ. and the home owner hollered and told me to leave her tree alone. (I was out there to watch Auburn win the national BCS football championship. We had a great time.) There was lots of fruit wasting on the ground half rotten but she was correct. I should not have picked her fruit ! It was pretty good. Ask around. There maybe something better in AZ but Xie Shan and Brown’s Select are fantastic around here ! Be safe . Tom

2
Citrus General Discussion / Re: What is ‘Mandarin F” ?
« on: February 23, 2021, 05:23:43 PM »
Perhaps it means Mandarin ‘Fruit’. Just a wild guess. At a big box store (C) one year they had some nice tomato plants. Their labels all said something like, ‘Tomato Plant’. I did not buy this unknown variety of tomato. Maybe that was better than labeling the plants with the wrong named tomato variety. I hope this makes sense. Both circumstances are ‘weird’ ! Tom

3
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Question on Kishu mandarins
« on: February 23, 2021, 05:07:40 PM »
Thanks Millet, getting to meet you when you were in Alabama was a highlight of my citrus experiences ! I’ve been busy and decided I needed to check back in to this citrus forum. I’m hanging in there and still trying to grow citrus. You are still a national treasure to us ! Tom

4
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Question on Kishu mandarins
« on: February 22, 2021, 09:58:34 PM »
I have an in ground Kishu that’s a few years old. It is at least 6’ tall and 4’ wide grafted on something but most likely not flying dragon. It’s never had a Kishu fruit with a single seed. Taste is better than average. Xie Shan was my favorite in at least 3 blind taste tests. I had some Brown Select from a friend’s tree that was incredible. Other years the same tree is just ordinary. Maybe too hot or too much water some years. I need to get 2 or 3 Xie Shan trees 6’ tall and I’d really have something. I’ll work on that this spring !!! Tom

5
Do I remember correctly that pecan is one of the few things that do not do well in air pruning type containers ? Tom

6
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Marathon Mandarin
« on: June 28, 2020, 05:23:33 PM »
Sounds very good ! Thanks for the information. Tom

7
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Dead Wood In The Tree Canopy
« on: September 25, 2019, 05:18:35 PM »
Great ‘how to idea’ to destroy diseased wood. The bird bath In your grove must be huge ! The whole state of Alabama is under a no burn order and they just increased the danger level. We have been without rain for a long time this summer. Tom

8
Citrus General Discussion / Re: ailing Meyer lemon tree
« on: September 25, 2019, 05:07:49 PM »
greenday, how does your Meyer look now? I agree about Meyer grown from cuttings, they seem to be most common and it’s because the cuttings have fruit much quicker. The cutting can grow to be huge in ground but a pot can help keep it small. Keeping it small can be a problem by getting root bound pretty quickly. I’ve gone way down the road discussing Meyer lemon grown from cuttings ! My in ground Meyer from a cutting has been very fruitful for several years. Tom

9
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Remember GreggN from the old forum?
« on: June 08, 2019, 05:34:33 PM »
The article mentions "a special breathable tarp" that he uses for winter protection. Does anyone know what it is?
Vlad,

That must be ‘Frost Cloth ‘. It can be purchased in different sizes and weighs. A few home and garden stores around here usually carry it. You can buy small bags made of frost cloth that will fit over a small pot. Sometimes they have a draw string at the bottom. It can come in rolls 35’ wide and maybe 100 feet long. It’s not cheap but with a little care can last several years.

It’s lets limited amounts of light and water and air pass through. With the old fashioned Christmas lights or incandescent light bulbs it retains a lot of heat. A plastic covered greenhouse gets much hotter during day light hours but would very hot during the day without adequate ventilation or a cooling system.

The frost cloth works much better than plastic for some situations.

I hope this helps.

Tom

10
Citrus General Discussion / Re: A lot of you probably remember...
« on: May 16, 2019, 03:52:11 PM »
Beautiful pictures !

11
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Meyer lemon, why?
« on: May 10, 2019, 09:38:19 PM »
Rubino Clementino comes true or very close to true from seed.

The best use I have found for the heavy bearing meyer is you have plenty of ammo to throw at your neighbors...


Great idea ! Or let the neighbors pick their own. The thorns slice me badly and they hurt !

Tom

12
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Meyer lemon, why?
« on: May 09, 2019, 10:31:23 PM »
I haven’t found any blooms that smell better or more numerous than a Meyer. Nothing I have has produced as much fruit as the Meyer I have. I think Meyer is easier and quicker to propagate by rooting their cuttings. It’s the number one home grown citrus for some reason !

No way to compare a Meyer lemon with kishu, Xie Shan or a really good Brown Select. A Rubino Clementino that I’ve got was grown from seed. Bought it from a member here before I knew the seed aren’t true to their parent. Maybe it belongs in Laaz’s big compost pile. I’m watching it a little longer to see if it’s worth a hoot. Worse buy ? Probably. Buyer beware.

Tom

13
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Strange Red Clementine Seedling
« on: April 02, 2019, 09:43:40 AM »
I bought three very small seedlings from Laaz late 2013 that he said were red clementine seeds he had sprouted. I gave two away and one of those died. Both remaining bushes decided to bloom a little for the first time this year. The one I kept is in a large concrete planter, or pot, and the tree is 6 feet tall and very thorny.

My specimen is very dense and vertical. It’s still blooming a little bit but the earlier blooms don’t seem to have stuck. They were all very small blooms.

I can attest that seeds are not my favorite way to propagate, that’s way too slow for a soon to be 67 year old ! I’m also afraid that clementine seed are not true to the fruit they came from. Hopefully the fruit will be interesting if I ever have any.

I hope to get my red clementine out of its pot and into the ground this summer. Maybe it will have lots more blooms next year. I might have some fruit but I can’t see any possibilities from the blooms this year.  The  fruit can be very hard to spot when they are the same color green as the leaves and stem.

Tom

14
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Foliar spray
« on: September 23, 2018, 07:15:34 PM »
I think you’d be making a huge mistake to fertilize this late in Canada or anywhere you’d have frost in the northern hemisphere this late in the year.

15
Millet,
Can you please put all your citrus knowledge in a book?  That way, I can carry it out to my greenhouse, and not have to drag my iPad out there and search for the correct topic on the Forum.
 
I have a good digital SLR camera - I would volunteer to shoot the pictures for the book, in exchange for a first edition copy... :) :) :)

Carolyn

Daintree, I couldn’t agree with you more ! Great idea ! Several of us think Millet is a national treasure !!!
Tom

16
Excellent work Lory, sounds very promising. Green house growers in high risk situations should be especially encouraged. Thank you for all the time spent and for keeping us in the loop ! Tom

17
Citrus General Discussion / Re: When and how much to irrigate?
« on: May 21, 2018, 11:19:39 PM »
How sandy is your soil ?

I think your citrus will need more water than your grass. It’s said many citrus are watered too much and even to death. I think that’s called loving them to death. You can also not water enough especially this time of year when the temps get really up there ! Try to keep grass away from your inground trees or the grass will get too much of the fertilizer and water. Commercially speaking, any time a crop is noticeably stressed by too little water then damage has already been done hurting yield. I would take that as an encouragement to be proactive and get ahead of the curve.

I’d think it would not be good to have standing water or saturated ( soggy) soil for long periods of time. I hope this helps. We been getting some much needed rain the last 2 days. It’s coming from a ‘back door ‘ front meaning from the opposite direction from where we get most of our weather.

18
Variability meaning consistency should be considered too. There is unexplained variability in most foods to some extent and often a lot of it ! Weather temps, water, fertilizer,  timing of all variables and so forth makes each year different ! I have found blind taste very interesting. Very seldom have I seen repeatable taste winners that dominate from year to year. Tom

19
Either a tax is to raise money for the public good or its to punish adults in a free world. Yes, to make the people do what the government thinks is best for all. Probably a little bit of both I guess. I don’t like the punitive idea for a free republic.

I’d agree that moderation is best in all things but I don’t like the government looking over my shoulder telling me what to do.

Since income taxes started there is way too much intervention in our private lives that was never intended by our forefathers. We are on a long slippery slope it seems to me.

20
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Happy Easter
« on: April 01, 2018, 10:24:53 PM »
He is risen indeed !

21
Citrus General Discussion / Re: new greenhouse planning
« on: March 18, 2018, 05:15:33 PM »
Brian, Everything looks fantastic ! Thanks for the update. Your dirty foot made me think of Adam Sandler in Mr. Deeds. Sandler had a black foot that had zero feeling and he played a prank on his butler. Also the butler was ridiculously quick and when asked about it he always replied ‘do not underestimate my sneaky ness ‘. There were other ongoing gags and I guess it’s my favorite Sandler movie ! Tom

22
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picture request
« on: March 16, 2018, 10:38:45 AM »
Flying dragon is the most dwarfing rootstock that I know of for citrus. I wish I had more of it because some of my other grafted trees are growing too much. I’m 65 years old and and I get on ladders as seldom as possible.

I think Flying Dragon might have a limiting life expectancy. I read about that long ago on the old citrus forum. I think if correct the life expectancy would still be at least 20 + years or probably more. The benefits would out weigh the negatives to me.

Tom

23
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Xie Shan Q
« on: March 10, 2018, 11:07:27 PM »
Mine is grafted to an Omari.  Seems to have a weeping growth habit.

Do you mean an Owari satsuma ? Your Owari is grafted to some other root stock I’d think. The Xie Shan could certainly be grafted or budded to an Owari satsuma. Owari is the satsuma grown more than any other or so I’ve always heard.

24
Citrus General Discussion / Re: When to Pick Moro Blood Orange?
« on: March 02, 2018, 12:58:00 AM »
You briefly mentioned Cara Cara. I have a very small tree and I was very impressed with the flavor for such a small fruit on a small tree. It was much better than most navels. I bought some huge Cara Cara at Sam’s and they were excellent too. I’ve been disappointed by regular navels for many years. They seem more dried out then when I was a child. The Cara Cara is much better to me.

Tom

25
Mrtexas, I can jump in and say I remember Darkman was probably going to lose at least one of his favorite citrus trees to Ambrosa beetles. It was an older tree not a small nursery tree as I remember. He didn’t know how he got it or why he got it but it was bad as best I remember. I was afraid it was terminal. Cold or not banking soil didn’t kill all those trees. He is probably hotter than me in summer but he does get down in the low teens some winters. I’m sure he knows about banking the soil around the trunk. He had a lot going on and hadn’t quite retired. He had lots of citrus and was working really hard on them and lots of other fruit too. I think he hard a heart attack or had a close call and then I lost all contact. I’m glad he’s back !

Tom

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