Author Topic: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest  (Read 66951 times)

jim VH

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #150 on: April 18, 2019, 11:43:45 AM »
To me, the bottom half of the Bloomsweet still looks viable.  Don't hold me to it though.  If the roots died, all bets are off, of course.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #151 on: April 18, 2019, 05:06:29 PM »
here's a close up of the trunk


jim VH

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #152 on: April 19, 2019, 11:14:22 AM »
Well, that new angle does make it look considerably worse than the earlier one, which seemed to show a green strip down to the graft.    Still, I've seen some just as bad come back.  I've also seen things that look better abruptly die.  I'll be interested to hear what finally happens.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #153 on: April 20, 2019, 05:00:59 PM »
Ten Degree Tangerine, still appears alive and green, but no leaves. A small amount of grey and die-back on the outermost branches.


SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #154 on: April 24, 2019, 10:14:10 AM »
It looks like the Satsuma is dead. It had been uncovered since early April. I get the feeling the temperatures did not remain consistently warm enough for it to be able to recover.

The leaves on the Bloomsweet have also further yellowed to a sickly color and at this point are non-functional and will surely drop off. It remains to be seen whether the tree will be able to have enough vigor to put out new leaves.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #155 on: April 28, 2019, 05:29:12 PM »
Well, it does look like the Yuzu seedling is technically still alive, although it doesn't look well at all. No leaves, but I still see some green on the stem, and there's a little green bud where the last leaf fell off.


Here's the Keraji seedling that's still showing signs of life at the very bottom. I think that tiny leaf might have grown just a little bit.

(The other bigger Keraji seedling that was in a shadier spot died, both of the Keraji seedlings were covered)
« Last Edit: April 28, 2019, 06:10:59 PM by SoCal2warm »

tve

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #156 on: April 28, 2019, 07:47:37 PM »
Quote
Well, it does look like the Yuzu seedling is technically still alive, although it doesn't look well at all. No leaves, but I still see some green on the stem, and there's a little green bud where the last leaf fell off.

Oh man, sad. I know how you feel, I've had grafts not take well and watched one bud after the other turn brown, yet hope 'til the end (and past it)...

BTW, interesting (to me) cold effects this year in my orchard. Typically our frosts are short, e.g. something like 2am-6am at most, followed by a clear sunny day that warms and dries everything. This year, however, the coldest period was long, more than a week of cold, wet and no sun and a night (or two?) of light frost in the middle. We've seen more frost damage than other years even though the absolute minimum was less low (by 1-2 degrees). Half the fruit, whether orange, lime, mandarin, or lemon got black spots and trees seem unhappier overall coming out of it. For the fruit the wet cold was more of an issue than anything else. I definitely learned that just counting degrees temperature is missing a big part of the picture.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #157 on: April 28, 2019, 09:19:54 PM »
Oh man, sad. I know how you feel, I've had grafts not take well and watched one bud after the other turn brown, yet hope 'til the end (and past it)...
You can't compare zone 10 with zone 8a. This was in zone 8a. (And to top it off, about 700 miles north of citrus growing territory)

Just an experiment to see if smaller seedlings could survive. I had high hopes but did not have any high expectations.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2019, 09:21:52 PM by SoCal2warm »

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #158 on: April 30, 2019, 12:54:12 PM »
Yuzu


Bloomsweet


Dunstan citrumelo


April 30

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #159 on: May 06, 2019, 01:26:38 PM »
Dunstan citrumelo putting out growth


I have a feeling the citrumelo is definitely going to be able to survive long-term here.


Bloomsweet, it still has several leaves that appear to be alive, although they are not a healthy green. At least one of them towards the bottom (which happens to be coming out below the trunk damage) appears like it may be able to hang on and recover.


Yuzu

As can be seen, about half the leaves on the Yuzu were able to survive the Winter and have recovered, looks like a healthy green now. The full extent of any Winter-induced damage should be vissible right now since things have warmed up.

Still no leaves on the Ten Degree, but the little branches still look a green color, although just a little small streaks of grey have now become vissible, indicating very low level damage from the Winter ordeal.

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #160 on: May 07, 2019, 03:16:48 PM »
I went to Cistus nursery (Portland) and, by serendipitous luck, met the owner. I explained to him that I was very interested in hardy citrus, had many rare obscure hybrids, and wanted to undertake a hybridization project.
I had seen C. ichangensis listed under the plant list on their website, but when I had called in, the person on the phone told me the only hardy citrus they had was Flying dragon and one or two citrumelos. I went there anyway, hoping to pick up a Green Gage plum (which I noticed was also on their plant list), and just to check out for myself in case there was a tiny chance the person on the phone was wrong (sometimes happens with nurseries).
The owner said he might have one or two ichangensis plants in the back, if he had two, I could have one. So I waited, and eventually asked one of the employees whether he could check on the situation. The nursery employee came back with a small C. ichangensis plant, and the owner was giving it to me free! (He said it was because the owner was expecting seeds from me in the future)



Unfortunately the nursery did not have Green Gage plum and I was told the nursery doesn't really carry fruits and edibles anymore. I did notice several Dicksonia antarctica tree ferns in the greenhouse, which the tags indicated could survive outside with some light protection some winters. And I also noticed a Flying Dragon growing outside in the bushes besides the entry road.

I do already have several cuttings of ichangensis but I was not entirely sure whether they would successfully root and survive (the tiny leaves looked like they took a turn for the worse after I removed the cling wrap that was covering the cups to hold in the humidity), so it's nice to have an actual potted plant that's established.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #161 on: May 08, 2019, 02:31:59 PM »
Good news! The Ten Degree is just beginning to put on the tiniest signs of new growth.
I can see a tiny green bud beginning to come out in one of the upper branches, and there's a tiny fresh green stem appearing to come out just above the graft line.

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #162 on: May 08, 2019, 08:05:02 PM »
the Dunstan citrumelo with new leaf growth



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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #163 on: May 10, 2019, 02:35:52 PM »
More good news. I can see some tiny bit of growth coming out of the Bloomsweet. Tiny new leaflets are forming. It's coming from a branch above where the trunk damage was.

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #164 on: May 18, 2019, 11:32:35 PM »
small new leaflets coming out of the Bloomsweet



It's not dead yet!

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #165 on: May 30, 2019, 06:44:34 PM »
Here's the citrumelo:


It's looking good, has put on a lot more leaf growth.


The Ten Degree was never able to leaf out. The tiny little green buds shriveled up, as if the plant just didn't have enough energy to grow them out. A bout of colder weather for a week probably didn't help either.
The plant still appears to be alive though, and the stems are green, though a lot of damage from the Winter is vissible on the trunk and stems.

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #166 on: May 31, 2019, 10:07:39 PM »
Leaves growing out of the Bloomsweet


here you can see the damage on the trunk, it looks pretty bad, I'm surprised it was able to leaf out



The leaves are coming out above the trunk damage.

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #167 on: June 03, 2019, 07:37:00 PM »
Finally, a tiny bud breaking out of the Ten Degree



You'll have to look very carefully in the picture, sorry I couldn't take a more up close detailed picture.

This bud looks like it's going to make it.

(That's an Ichang papeda that just got planted in the background, so ignore that)

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #168 on: June 05, 2019, 01:59:08 PM »
Here you can see how much cold damage there is on the trunk of the Yuzu plant:

It looks really bad. It did go through an unusually bad Winter. No wonder the Yuzu hasn't really sent out any new leaves yet. But half of the old leaves have recovered and look a healthy green.

This just goes to show that even Yuzu can be kind of borderline in this climate. Suffered really bad looking damage but the tree managed to survive. (That might say more about the vigorous nature of Yuzu than how resistant to cold it actually is)

But also a bit surprising, it looks like the little Yuzu seedling has finally popped out a new green bud, I see tiny little leaflets beginning to form

The little Yuzu seedling is still alive!

Took it long enough to show signs of life though.

June 4


SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #169 on: June 15, 2019, 06:34:46 PM »
Unfortunately the tiny little keraji seedling that got killed down nearly to the ground, but still held onto a very tiny green leaf, got accidentally hacked further down by a gardening crew a few months ago. However, the bottom stem did remain a green color, though not the healthiest looking green.

I think I now see a tiny little green bud growing out of it, or trying to grow out.
June 15

Might still be a little too early to tell but I think it is technically still alive. The seedling is tiny though, not even an inch above the ground.


The little bud that looked like it was just starting to leaf out on the Ten Degree looks like it has shriveled up and fallen off.

However, now I see another green bud forming.

I'm not getting my hopes up though because this Ten Degree has continued trying to grow out green buds during periods of heat, but then a stretch of cold comes along, and then the next day the little buds shrivel up in the sun, like the tree just does not have enough energy to keep pushing out the little buds that have formed.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #170 on: June 18, 2019, 04:06:59 PM »
Bloomsweet



SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #171 on: June 21, 2019, 01:33:03 PM »
Well, it's not much to brag about but the tiny keraji seedling still appears to be alive. You can see tiny little leaflets beginning to grow out of the stub in the ground.



This was the same tiny seedling you saw before that had one tiny leaf. Unfortunately there was an accident several months ago when the gardeners came through and lopped the top of the seedling off, and with it the little leaf.
And if you'll recall, this little seedling did have a plastic cover over it over the winter.

It's a small seedling, tiny now after the top died back from the winter, and then another 2 cm accidentally getting lopped off later.

(And let's not forget, the other keraji seedling that was bigger, and similarly covered, but was in a shadier spot, did not survive)

SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #172 on: June 21, 2019, 08:34:47 PM »
It looks like the little Yuzu seedling is recovering, several medium small leaves on it now.


SoCal2warm

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #173 on: June 29, 2019, 06:05:47 PM »
Bloomsweet again



What's most remarkable is that some of those leaves are from last year. If they were dead, they would have fallen off by now. Of course they don't look a healthy green color, but the leaves do have some green, and look like they have slowly greened up a little. So it shows that leaves still can hang on Bloomsweet, surviving through cold.

The Yuzu that survived outside in the ground has finally started popping out some new leaf growth, and half the leaves from last year survived on the tree and have now turned back to a healthy dark green color.

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Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« Reply #174 on: June 29, 2019, 08:47:11 PM »
looks like the tiny keraji seedling is recovering



only about an inch tall but I think I see the beginnings of some strong leaf growth now