The Tropical Fruit Forum

Ditto.  My Star Ruby grapefruit are still on the tree but I am planning on my low biurette spray this weekend on all my citrus.  Moro blood orange and ujukitsus and Meyers are still full of fruit so we will see..

Johnny Redland,  Many people wrongly suppose that citrus fruit draws all their required growth elements to produce a fully grown fruit from the foliage of the entire citrus tree.  However, research as shown that a particular fruit draws all of its required energy and nutrients only from the three closest leaves to the fruit, and not from the entire tree in general.  Thinning the crop load, especially the fruit clustering will help a lot to increase fruit size... especially on young trees. By the way Johnny how old is this tree?

I have 2 clusters of up to 10 star ruby grapefruits and the fruits have not gotten very large. Maybe baseball sized. How close do these 3 leaves per fruit need to be? On the same branch close enough?  Also, when should one thin the fruit and how "thin" should one do it?   
Millet, I acted on your low biurette spray advice before flowering, at fruit set and before drop to see about boosting fruit hold and, hopefully, fruit size.  This is the first year  (5 years in the ground) I have any production on this tree.

Roof rats love key limes.   My mother had to cut her tree down. We were absolutely inundated with roof rats in my townhouse community in Scottsdale. I even saw them crossing on top of the red lights to go from community to community.  One winter, I killed over 100 with rat traps and peanut butter.
Finally, this year it is under control.  The remedy?  Feral cats moved in, ate them all and left.  From my experience, if you have roof rats, that is the only way to get rid of them!!

Its been shown that cats will not tackle a grown rat. Cats will decimate birds, lizards, frogs and mice.  Adult rats they meekly avoid.

I stand by my meiwa kumquat starting in late November, early December, eating fruit after fruit, spitting the seeds out onto the ground yet I never get any seedlings.  Same with my chang-shou kumquat.  Even throwing blemished fruit down and they never send up volunteer seedlings.  Are kumquats particular as to sprouting conditions? 

Roof rats love key limes.   My mother had to cut her tree down. We were absolutely inundated with roof rats in my townhouse community in Scottsdale. I even saw them crossing on top of the red lights to go from community to community.  One winter, I killed over 100 with rat traps and peanut butter.
Finally, this year it is under control.  The remedy?  Feral cats moved in, ate them all and left.  From my experience, if you have roof rats, that is the only way to get rid of them!!

Empirical and video evidence indicate shows that cats rarely wil attack an adult rat.  An adult rat is too aggressive and will put up a fight the cat would rather avoid.  There are videos that show rats and cats ignoring each other as they both go thru trash looking for food and of rats running past a cat as if the cat was not there.  Cats will decimate the bird, lizard, frog, vole and mouse populations though.
 
What rats are to fruit growers cats are to the environment.

Squirrels eat just about everything except my citrus (grapefruits, lemons, oranges, mandarins are ignored).  One winter 4 or 5 years ago they ravaged my meiwa kumquat tree but that has not been repeated since (that was a low production year for my pecans, and acorns, so they must have gotten desperate).  Curiously they left my carambola alone (it froze last year so I don't have it anymore) and it was very productive.  Squirrels will eat my peaches, persimmons and pomegranates when they are still small and hard. They are murder on my figs and clean up what the birds leave. 

Best option is to trap, shoot or poison but poison has collateral damage I do not like to consider.   

So pretty much all my pomegranates succumbed to some disease that turns the fruit black.  I am led to believe the vector for this disease is leaf footed bugs and stink bugs, which I have in profusion since I have numerous very large pecan trees on my property.  Anyone have a secret to manage the bugs/disease?  I am planning on a copper spray regimen next year after fruit set to see if that saves the fruit.

That is a fine collection! I think that precocious pomelo will be taxing on a tree so small. 

I have used neem oil in Perth western australia.......the strange thing is......they recommend it for ornamental trees here but not for citrus but in nz they say its fine for citrus...............we have a big problem with citrus leafminer over here.....I have tried pest oil/eco oil and it doesnt work........they coat the leaf but the miner still get in.....the neem is a bit different....it coats the leaf but it also soaks into the leaf ....killing the bug as well........it doesnt offer 100 % protection but i find its the best i can do.........I usually spray early eve around 6pm and every 14 days..........Spring is nearly here and all my trees are putting out spring flush..........last year the miner turned up early.....they are supposed to come summer time.......i hope they stay away this year....so i can get that spring growth to maturity .....will need to start spraying soon.........the only one i dont spray is the kaffer lime because i use the leaves for cooking on that one.
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LDB, Neem is an organic extract that is widely used in the cosmetic industry to be applied topically. Also, it is approved to be ingested for certain ailments (perceived or not, I'm not sure). It is harmless to mammals and other vertebrates (lizards, frogs, birds and the like).  I've read it isn't the best for fish (not fatal but slightly deleterious) so keep it out of ponds and streams. In other words, no need to withhold neem from your kaffir lime because even if you ingested a little bit it could be good for you!  So spray neem without concern on your foodstuffs. (Clearly, as with everything, moderation is paramount.)

Hi temps should make those grapefruits sweeter, I would think!

And I would not prune away any side branches.  The trunk looks pretty spindly as it is.  No need to make it worse.  Plus side branches will thicken the trunk and produce the leaves the tree needs (and the fruit).

How does TR Hovey taste? I trust they are much better than store bought because store bought taste somewhere between vomit and soap.

Marsh grapefruit is not a cold hardy cultivar.   I remember Dr. Malcolm Manners once wrote on the old forum, that a Marsh grapefruit he picked from a 25 year old tree was the best grapefruit he had ever tasted.  That tree was growing on the collage campus of Florida Southern Collage.

Millet,
Is Marsh available where I could get it?  I remember the white grapefruit when I was a youth that I had to put sugar on it so I could eat it.  Today, I love the pink fleshed Rio Red (now Rio Star) gf. I could eat two a day.
I see Texas A&M has Reed Marsh, is this the same varietal?