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Messages - mrtexas

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1
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Citrus in the Pacific Northwest
« on: July 26, 2020, 01:58:18 PM »
Citrus won't grow with nights 55F or lower at least where I live near Houston

2
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Pomona Lemon
« on: July 20, 2020, 10:51:20 AM »
I have only recently discovered this variety and I’m able to buy one. Ive been wanting a New Zealand for a while, so I’m wondering, since this is a sweet lemon, does this one compare? A good substitute for a sweet lemon?

Pomona lemon is an acidless citrus. Tastes like sugar water. New Zealand lemonade tastes like
lemonade.

3
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Enjoying some Nova Lee mandarins
« on: July 09, 2020, 01:11:16 PM »
Got bud wood for lee x nova many years ago. Two friends
have large trees with lots of fruit this year. I got many fruit
last year from one friend. Very good. Trees were slow to
come into production.

Have also eaten lots of lee x orlando. Still waiting of lee x robinson
to produce much fruit.

4
Citrus General Discussion / Re: 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« on: July 09, 2020, 01:09:46 PM »
My experience as well. I had a branch of marsh white on my
large grapefruit tree. Never got sweet either. Best satsumas I ever ate
were from 25 year old tree. Have had to wait 10 years to get edible
fruit on satsuma myself. Common problem for satsumas.
https://mrtexascitrus.weebly.com/citrusfruitquality.html

5
Citrus General Discussion / 17 brix marsh white grapefruit
« on: July 09, 2020, 10:47:36 AM »
A friend has a mature marsh white grapefruit that tests 17 brix in Houston,TX. 17 brix is sweeter than
most round oranges. Sweetest grapefruit I have ever eaten. I have eaten the fruit for several years and it is amazingly sweet. Ate several 5 gallon buckets last year. His tree was loaded last year but is looking on it's last leg this year, probably
wet feet. We had a very wet spring. My friend hasn't fertilized regularly and the tree has very little budwood.
Have tried two years in a row to propagate with no luck due to questionable budwood in the fall. I picked some decent
looking bud wood a week ago, nice and green and have t budded several rootstocks
and bark grafted to my mature seedling. I have my fingers crossed. I usually don't bud in the heat of summer like the 95+F weather we have been having. Budwood was only max 4 inches and was hardened off current flush. In my experience a tree has to be growing
vigorously to have abundant and high quality bud wood.

Hope the grafts take and fruit quality is so sweet. I grafted a super sweet satsuma
years ago with poor luck. The young trees didn't have the same high quality fruit.
Sometimes size of tree or location are the cause of exceptional fruit quality in citrus.

6
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Persian Lime tree - need advice
« on: June 03, 2020, 07:14:27 PM »
Lime won't survive freezes of Houston unless protected
for every freeze. I live near Sugar Land.

7
Buds may not grow if not at the top of the tree. You may get lucky
but I don't depend on luck. I graft buds on the top of the tree.
Good luck if you tee budded kumquat. That has never worked for me.
Have had success with chip buds and cleft with kumquats.

8
Citrus General Discussion / Seedlings
« on: June 03, 2020, 07:00:09 PM »
A forum member sent me some giant key lime fruit and I'm growing out the seeds. Gave some of them to many friends.
Also growing out Daisy SL(seedless but has the occasional seed) I got from a local grocery.

I give up on giant key lime bud wood. After paying $200+ for
giant key lime and red finger lime bud wood and none of the 40 buds took, seedlings for me. Texas bud wood bureau charges
$150 service fee plus $40 per variety for imported bud wood plus $35 overnight shipping. IMHO finger lime is just a novelty so
I give up on it as it doesn't come true to seed.

One friend noticed his giant key lime seedlings are all mono-embryonic. Mine
seem to be as well but I'm confident they will be true. If not, out just some time.

My latest seedling success is Florida sugar belle. Can't get the bud wood here in Texas
so 6-7 years ago I bought some fruit and grew out seeds. Budded the seedling bud wood to swingle
for fast growth and handed them out to several friends and first fruit was last year on a friend's tree. True
to seed as I remember the flavor/shape from the fruit. This year my seedling on swingle is having it's first fruit.

Not my first time to grow out seedlings. My sunquat seedling fruited the second year. My sour orange
seedling fruited the 3rd year. Most take 5-6 years in the ground but a friend waited 17 years for
a cocktail grapefruit. In pots, all bets are off since the trees must reach a large size to fruit. I say that
but a friend has a marumi kumquat fruiting in a 3 gallon pot after 3 years!

Variety selection here in Texas is becoming limited. Trees must now be grown in expensive screen houses
and only a couple nurseries doing it. This year is the last year to sell off any remaining pre-screen house trees.
So local Houston favorites like golden grapefruit and ujukitsu aren't available any more.



9
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Multigrafting question
« on: June 03, 2020, 06:05:23 PM »
I have several in ground large trees I have top worked in my yard.
I graft using mostly bark graft on a high branch. Then to
insure the graft grows I make the graft the highest bud on the tree.
Unless you do that your graft may never grow even if it took.
Downside to more than one variety on a tree is one will always
outgrow the others. With my way of doing it I have one variety on the bottom
and one on the top so vigor of variety is not so important.

BTW the picture with arrows, those grafts are only one year old and already
as big as before the graft. They grew around 8 feet in one year. Root stock is citrange.
I have gotten lots of scions from CCPP thru the Texas bud wood bureau in the past. Not so much
lately as Texas has started to charge a $150 handling fee on out of state budwood in addition to $40
per variety and $35 overnight shipping.

CCPP won't sell me bud wood directly. Last time I paid $250 for giant key lime
and red finger lime and none of the buds took(approximately 40 buds). Sometimes budwood doesn't work
even though it looks good. Usually 9 out of 10 work for me. Interestingly enough, two varieties of pummelo
hybrid scions in the same order, all the buds took.

For example on large in ground trees:
sugar belle on top of pixie
bream tarocco on top of valentine
shiranui on top of sour orange
cara cara on top of gold nugget
shiranui branch on tango
One tree has branches of shiranui, turkish sugar orange
and mostly sugar belle seedling.




10
Your county agent will tell you self propagating citrus
in Florida is illegal.

11
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Seedlings and grafting???
« on: June 03, 2020, 05:50:44 PM »
So Im attempting to graft for the first time this year...I currently have about 30 trifoliate seedlings I started last fall(Thanks to a member here offering me some free seeds.. So awesome!!) , They are about 6 inches tall and very thin...My question is are they to young to graft? If so when would be a better age?..Thanks Everyone

Better to wait until trunk is 1/4" or larger. Usually takes minimum of one year.
Bark must also be hardened and not green like new growth.

12
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Grapefruit Tree Dying?
« on: June 03, 2020, 05:46:20 PM »
Can fertilize monthly in frost free Socal.
Looks like lack of water and fertilizer to me.

13
Citrus General Discussion / Re: What kind of Kumquat do I have?
« on: December 30, 2019, 05:02:34 PM »
Saxon/Bechnel uses carrizo citrange for most citrus. Rickie at the Orangefield location
told me this a few years ago. However rootstock for kumquat might be different IMHO.
Kumquat is difficult to tee bud. I only chip bud or cleft kumquat.

14
Citrus General Discussion / Re: What is this?
« on: July 07, 2019, 01:45:47 PM »
Satsuma seedlings don't have thorns

15
Citrus General Discussion / Re: CCPP budwood
« on: July 04, 2019, 07:34:02 PM »
Take a few buds of what you got from CCPP and bud them to
a citrus tree you buy at the local nursery. Then you won't have to
re-order when the rooted cuttings fail.

16
Spray. pretty much anything kills them.

17
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Ebay & etsy seed
« on: June 07, 2019, 11:35:43 PM »
Now is not the right season to be buying and planting trifoliate seeds. They are ready around Sept 1. If not stored correctly none will sprout now. They don't need to be stratified. They can be planted Sept 1 and won't freeze all thru the winter. Or dry overnight, dust with fungicide and store in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator. They will last at least a year if stored correctly. If you want quart there is a certified nursery in California that sells them for around $150 plus shipping.

18
Vainiglia tastes like dishwater to me. Somehow I managed to eat a 5 gallon
bucket of the fruit.

19
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Arctic Frost Satsuma experience
« on: April 26, 2019, 10:54:22 PM »
You had -6F December 23, 1983. You are dreaming if you
believe zone 8a

20
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Where to get Flying Dragon rootstock
« on: April 22, 2019, 10:26:37 AM »
Usually 2 years for trifoliata & flying dragon. Same year or the following for swingle.

Have you heard of or grow tiny dragon?

21
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Where to get Flying Dragon rootstock
« on: April 21, 2019, 07:59:09 PM »
Your best bet is to ask for seeds in the fall. Here near Houston flying dragon is
ready Sept 1. Can be stored but needs to be dried, dusted with fungicide, and stored in the
refrigerator. I wouldn't trust typical sellers to store correctly.

You could get bud wood and graft to rootstock. In my experience that didn't speed up
fruiting when I did it flying dragon on seedling flying dragon.

22
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Grafting Question: Advice Needed
« on: April 16, 2019, 11:13:36 AM »
Kelley, how can you tell that the buds aren't blind.  Do they look different from blind buds?

MrTexas said this: "You can usually tell if the lowest buds are blind or not by inspecting to make sure there is a bud there."  But this statement didn't make sense to me.  Unless "blind bud" literally means a junction (leaf junction?)  on a piece of wood without a bud in the junction.

Blind bud means no bud at all. Easily inspected for.

23
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Ujukitsu vs. New Zealand lemons
« on: April 06, 2019, 05:26:58 PM »
NZL has an upward growth habit.  Much like a lemon tree.

Look me up next fall. I have a bearing NZ lemonade tree in the ground in Sienna Plantation. Ujukitsu is pretty good if
you wait until January. It is not one of my favorites however. I recently topworked the lemonade tree to blood oranges. The lower part of the tree will still be lemonade.  IMHO cara cara is way better than either ujukitsu or lemonade. https://mrtexascitrus.weebly.com/citrusvarieties.html

24
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Grafting Question: Advice Needed
« on: April 06, 2019, 05:24:15 PM »
You can usually tell if the lowest buds are blind or not by inspecting
to make sure there is a bud there.

25
Mark in Texas can tell you about the citrus bureau there. They get it from CCPP and both CCPP and they tack on a nice surcharge. $150 budwood.

Someone contacted CCPP recently and told me they will have it again in June.

The Texas budwood bureau got me some from Florida, CCPP didn't have it available. Cost me
$250 for 20 buds including service fee/shipping/buds

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