Airlayer Kumquat and Lemon attempting to flower less than 5 months old

[DimplesLee]

Hi! I have air layered kumquats, a couple of ponderosas and a yuzu lemon all attempting to flower - each one is less than 5 months old from the time I cut them off the mother tree and put them in their own 3 gal pot. Should I pinch the flower buds off now or wait til they form microscopic fruits and then pinch those? Mother plants are all 6 years and upwards (owned by a friend) and I was told by the owner that his plants are setting fruit about now.

[Tom]

It certainly sounds like you did a great job. Enjoy the blooms but I would not let it set too many fruit this year. It would probably break all the limbs and deplete the food reserves to dangerously low levels. When the fruit starts to swell I'd take almost all of them off. You should really take them all off but it's your tree. Wait until next year. Then I'd still thin pollinated fruit judiciously to prevent alternate bearing. Tom