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Messages - tve

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 5
1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Preferred irrigation in Orchard
« on: July 03, 2020, 02:26:53 AM »
I like spinners, Netafim Jr to be specific (not easy to find). The top reason is that I fertilize / improve the soil with compost and mulch and the rain provided by the spinner makes it decompose and penetrate over time. But I'm in SoCal with less natural rain than you... Also, I have hard well water and drip gets clogged over time and you can't really see that until the tree tells you and by then it's far too late. In the veggie garden I use drip and inject citric acid to keep it going plus replace about every 2 years, plus it's easier to see there... The thing I don't like about the spinners is that they tend to wet the trunk of the tree... Lots of considerations you have to weigh based on your specific requirements...

2
That sounds small, interesting... Could the proliferation of pups have to do with the pot size?

3
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Seedlings
« on: July 01, 2020, 01:45:44 AM »
A forum member sent me some giant key lime fruit and I'm growing out the seeds.

What's your method for growing the seeds? I've had good success in germination but then had trouble getting the seedlings to really grow well. Do you seed into those 1 gal pots, or are these already transplants?

4
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Need help - nagami kumquat cutting
« on: July 01, 2020, 01:31:48 AM »
May I ask why you're trying to root that? You would be better off grafting it to proper rootstock. I haven't had much success with rooting rootstock cuttings, but the ones that took ended up with weaker root systems than the seedlings I've grown. Given how many years it takes to get the reward of fruit I concluded that rooting cuttings isn't really worth it. Maybe someone else has different experience, though...

5
My (limited) experience is that you can graft any time of year but you may have to wait for a long time if you pick the wrong time... I remember doing some T-buds in august on an in-ground tree. Weeks later no movement, bud still green. Months later still no movement, bud still green. Come spring, TADA! bud starts pushing! I hope cleft on a stick in a pot works better in the "off season"... I'll be trying that with nordmann nagami this august when the CCPP has bud sticks available again...

6
We cut this one yesterday.  Its a del monte gold plant that Simon gave us a year or so ago.





Brad the piney looks so good. Let’s us know how it tastes.
Nice pineapple! What size pot do they fruit in?

7
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Dead bearss lime tree
« on: June 10, 2020, 04:10:27 PM »
It certainly looks like phytopthora
What are the things you look for? I'm trying to learn...

8
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Dead bearss lime tree
« on: June 10, 2020, 03:02:01 PM »
To me this looks like the common phytophthora which is a soil-borne pathogen.
Can you tell me what makes it look like phytophthora to you? I'm trying to learn...
Quote
The graft line of your tree is only just above ground level which allows water splashes with soil and debris to reach the top variety. In addition, the rootstock and the Bears Lime don't seem ideally compatible so, clearly after many years, the knobbly graft union shape allows such splashes to lodge above the graft and cause problems. One of the purposes of using a grafted tree is to ensure the top variety is raised well above ground level. Either your tree was planted too deeply or the surrounding level has built up over time.
Yup.

9
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Dead bearss lime tree
« on: June 08, 2020, 03:38:29 AM »
I do not know what the rootstock is, are you sure these cannot be rootstock leaves?

In reading about Bearss lime on UCR CitrusVariety I came across this: "To date, all Persian lime trees are known to carry wood pocket, which can cause serious deterioration of the trees." Scientific name: lignocortosis. Searching around a bit more: "Characteristics of this disease are breakage or small defects on the bark of the tree. When you lift the bark, you can see that the bark underneath has become discolored. The tree can, unfortunately, die from this disease."

More: "The first evidence of the disease is generally a chimeralike variegation or blotching of the leaves (fig. 27A) . Frequently there is considerable chimeral striping of the fruit, especially of limes. The leaf color varies from only a slight loss of green to greenish-yellow to nearly pure yellow with diverse outlines. The disease apparently is a chimeral disorder which is seed- and bud-perpetuated but which is not transmissible by grafting. A short, narrow, irregular break in the bark of the trunk or limb is the first symptom on those parts (fig. 27B). The wood underneath discolors in definite regions even before this bark symptom appears. This led to the name wood pocket or lignocortosis. Elongated areas of dead, fissured bark, 1 inch to several feet in length, form on one side of the branches or on portions of the trunk. Wood underneath becomes irregularly discolored and darkly dotted in longitudinal view. Branches lose their leaves and die back gradually, or the leaves wilt suddenly as the branches die." From "VIRUS AND VIRUSLIKE DISEASE OF CITRUS" by KLOTZ, CALAVAN, WEATHERS.



The only thing that doesn't match is that I didn't see blotching of the leaves beforehand.

My biggest question is what I can plant in that spot... If it's really wood pocket I can put a new Bearss lime tree in (CCPP doesn't seem to have any other tahitian lime). If it's a root pathogen I'm in trouble...

10
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Dead bearss lime tree
« on: May 30, 2020, 11:27:46 PM »
The simptoms are that of Armillaria fungi.
Look into Armillaria root rot.
Sort-of, except that I have not seen mycelia under the bark and there also were no mushrooms under the tree in the winter. Oak root fungus definitely is around, so it's plausible.

11
Citrus General Discussion / Dead bearss lime tree
« on: May 30, 2020, 02:59:59 PM »
This winter our Bearss lime tree, planted in 2002, started to look sad. Overall thinning of foliage, twigs drying out. An algerian clementine that is about 12' away showed similar symptoms a few years ago and looked like it was going to die but after 2 almost-dead years it recovered and provided us with fruit for 5 months this spring. About a month ago the bearss lime went from looking sad to dead in maybe a week. I noticed that the bark peels off easily. I don't see any oozing. Location is Santa Barbara, sandy soil slope. I've gone through citrus disease keys and can't really nail it. Any thoughts about what the most likely causes are given soil & location?


This phot was taken after I removed the easy-to-peel bark, which is shown a couple of images down.






12
Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: Best apple varieties for zone 10b?
« on: March 05, 2020, 02:23:51 AM »
You may be interested in this list: http://www.kuffelcreek.com/applelist.htm

I only have a few varieties but so far my experience matches. Specifically, Pink Lady is great, and Ashmead's Kernel is mediocre (got the budstick I grafted from someone living nearby in a much colder microclimate and his is delicious).

13
Citrus General Discussion / Re: How to keep citrus seedlings growing
« on: March 04, 2020, 12:39:38 AM »
Before this turns into a perlite war  ;D let me say that some of the plants will eventually find their way into the ground while others may stay in pots. I don't know yet :-).

Lebmung, isn't your formulation too water retaining while the plants are in pots? Also, what would you use instead of coco coir: I've banned it due to the risk of salts (ruined several years of veggie starts and potted citrus before figuring that out, it's not that the coir is bad per-se, it's that I don't know where I can buy "guaranteed" salt-free stuff).

I know there are lots of fans of Turface, I just can't bring myself to invest in that...

In terms of worms as a potting mix ingredient, funny thought, my experience is mostly that I can't keep-em out! (not that I'm trying)

14
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Root Production Method
« on: March 03, 2020, 01:19:13 PM »
Is it just me or do others also find the "traditionally grown" tree in the photo better looking? Yeah, the other one is taller but it's just a slanky stick. The "traditional" one is bushier and seems to have more mass.

15
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Mandarin/Lemon recommendations
« on: March 03, 2020, 12:51:11 PM »
I'm also looking for a new lemon... The difference between lemons is a bit of a mystery to me 'cause it's not like I can go somewhere and buy multiple varieties to try them side by side...

I have a Eureka (Frost, I believe) that has issues (half broke off due to wind) and a meyer, I have some Femminello Siracusano 2KR from CCPP that hasn't gotten to fruit yet. Is there a lemon that is smooth and thin-rind like the meyer but has regular lemon flavor? Oolje, what do you find fantastic about the Femminellos? SoCal2warm, do you find a flavor difference in the juice between Lisbon and Eureka or just appearance, or ?

16
Citrus General Discussion / Re: How to keep citrus seedlings growing
« on: March 03, 2020, 12:45:03 PM »
Thanks for the replies! I hate working with perlite hence pumice, but I could report a couple of these little guys into 1:1 peat-perlite just to see. Questions:
- I would have to liquid fertilize or add slow-release fertilizer?
- How long should I expect to wait before seeing results either way? (They're in a greenhouse around 80F during the day and 55-60F at night in SoCal.)

I'm now wondering whether I concluded prematurely that they got overwatered and the issue is more like transplant shock. When I came back from my trip I took two out and examined roots and found the root ball soggy due to the original mix they came in, but I didn't really see rotten roots. The seedlings came in a very fibrous mix in pots (really more like tubes) 1" dia by 5" long. When I potted them up the roots had reached the bottom and formed a web mostly around the outside of the mix. I held them in the 24oz cups and filled my mix around the root ball. Mystery :-(

17
Citrus General Discussion / How to keep citrus seedlings growing
« on: March 03, 2020, 01:33:50 AM »
I've been rooting citrus cuttings for a number of years and recently started to germinate seeds. Plus I bought some C-35 and some Flying Dragon rootstock from four winds growers. Invariably I end up with problems when the seedlings get about a foot tall. Often it's my fault: I over-water or I forget one and under-water it, or I don't see the scale insects attacking the plant until it dies back.
Is there a "recipe for success" for watering these small plants and, related, is there a trick to get such stressed seedlings to get growing again? I've now had a couple that are about a foot tall, have 2-3 leaves, are green, but have not done anything in a year. Their roots are small but not rotten.

As potting mix I use half pumice and half the E.B./Stone citrus&palm mix (https://www.ebstone.org/products/eb-stone-organics?tab=outdoorsoilamendments#citrusandpalm-439) and I fertilize monthly with their citrus "plant food".

Some pics...
Here are 4x FD rootstock from 4Winds (left) and 4x C-35, received late january.


I repotted the FD as the roots were filling the tiny pots:


Unfortunately I didn't calculate the automatic watering correctly when I left for two weeks and the FD got overwatered as far as I can tell. (I should also have completely removed the very water retaining mix they were in as opposed to just filling my mix around the existing one.) Now I"m struggling to get them "restarted".. (Sorry for the bad photo with all the mess in the background.)


I've only recently started to use the transparent cups for the small plants after seeing that use on ourfigs.com. I need to put some paper wrappers around them to block the light, but so far there are not enough roots for this to be an issue :-(. The mix is very well draining but perhaps the 6 small holes in the cups are not enough. I'd love to experiment, but I find that it takes a very long time to see whether things are improving or not, typically the plant just sits there do nothing either way for a looong time...

Any help appreciated!

18
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Tree Dieback??
« on: June 01, 2019, 09:10:01 PM »
I have some trees that tend to have similar problems, with leaves dropping, twigs dying back, etc. After lots of head scratching my conclusion is that it's most likely due to temperature issues ("Winter Leaf Drop"), such as warm air in the greenhouse with cold roots in the pot, excessive day/night temp variations in the GH, cold air close to the greenhouse wall, etc. Not saying this is your problem or that I diagnosed mine correctly, but something to consider...

19
Citrus General Discussion / To peel seeds or not to peel..
« on: June 01, 2019, 08:52:31 PM »
I got a bunch of Taitri seeds from a generous forum member (thanks!!) and planted them about two weeks ago. I read about peeling the seeds and out of laziness decided to run an experiment (this way I only needed to peel half of them  ;D). So I put 10 peeled and 10 unpeeled into soil blocks and kept them at 80F bottom heat. In the photo below the left "column" has the peeled seeds and the right one the unpeeled ones. (I did not scarify any of them.)

The photo was taken a couple of days ago, by now all but one of the peeled seeds have germinated and only one of the unpeeled ones... Of course this is not a controlled scientific experiment, but I know what I'm going to do in the future with citrus seeds!

20
Citrus General Discussion / Re: new greenhouse planning
« on: May 26, 2019, 01:31:17 AM »
Quote
The best suggestion SB could offer was to try to find an old millivolt thermostat wit a mercury switch and mount it on a slant.    My, what a helpful suggestion that was.  How can I operate the SB at near freezing temperatures? Or is my desire to heat without electrical back up doomed?
Mounting at a slant sounds like a good idea to me... Your last post is a year old, so may not be relevant anymore, but if you have a friend who is handy with electronics he/she may be able to build/adapt an electronic thermostat for you, it really just takes a couple of components. The trick is that the thermopile can generate plenty of power for the electronics, just needs an appropriate boost or buck converter.

21
Citrus General Discussion / Re: greenhouse updates
« on: May 26, 2019, 01:21:06 AM »
What does the white cover do to your soil temperature? Might remain too cold?

22
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Current UCR budwood prices ?
« on: May 23, 2019, 02:44:49 AM »
It's pricey for out-of-state orders. I believe that the minimum is 12 buds per variety vs. 6 in-state. On the plus side, you seem to always get more buds than you order. I ordered one budstick of a bunch of varieties and got two for all of them. The email I use is for Rock Christiano, which is firstname.lastname@ucr.edu and he does reply.

23
Be careful if you buy a Valencia commercially (as opposed to graft CCPP budwood). I haven't seen anything other than the Midknight Valencia for sale in CA. It's seedless, that's why it's everywhere. It's reputed to be a slow grower and by that measure mine fits right in :-(.

24
Quote
If the grower was La Verne Nursery, I think he told us on the last CRFG LA Chapter nursery tour they use Fuerte seedlings.
I inquired about ordering some Avos at LaVerne and got the following reply: "The avocado rootstock is Zutano and the height we ship at is about 42” from the ground; we use a 42” stake and it will be at top of stake, the 5 gal container is 12” in height." from Richard Wilson - CEO, on April 24th.

25
Citrus General Discussion / Re: How to promote new growth on Scion?
« on: May 17, 2019, 01:01:16 AM »
Until the scions are completely brown and dead: don't give up! I grafted buds at the wrong time of year (august) and they sat there for 6 months until the right time came along and then started doing their thing. Won't do that again... Even if the scion dies, don't stop, just wait for the rootstock to come back and graft something new the next year :-). I'm sure you can tell I have experience with that, ooops.  ;D
So, can one rate the graft quality by the number of rootstock buds that sprout? E.g., a one-sprout graft is better than a three-sprout graft? Hmmm, I guess the number of available buds, i.e., grafting height, must play a role too?

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