Technically, Easter isn't until this Sunday, nevertheless for all you followers of the Western calendar, I hope you all had a blessed Easter. 

Hmm, lemon pickles.  I'll have to remember to try making those when I get 50+ meyer lemons and don't know what to do with them all.

Picture on that second link looks pretty doctored.  Could it be that the Russians are gas lighting these pages too? 

Oranges (moro, sanguinelli & toracco)  and satsumas (owari & xie shan) are blooming big time. Ujukitsu and the cara cara grafted onto it are blooming as well.  Meyer lemon, not so much this year and neither is the N33 navel orange grafted to it.  In-ground Rio Red grapefruit refuses to flower for the 4th year in a row (it had fruit when I planted it 5 years ago) though it is about 8 feet tall and lush. Too early for the meiwa and changshou kumquats to bloom.  They don't usually bloom around here until May, but they have leafed out very nicely after kicking their leaves due to the freezes we had. Bloomsweet grapefruit and chandler pomelo look to be taking this year off.  Kaffir lime hasn't bloomed either but that doesn't matter.

Peaches look good so the annual battle with the squirrels begins to see if I am able to harvest.  Pecans have not leafed out yet. Pomegranates haven't flowered and persimmons are beginning to bud. Fig looking strong as always. Loquats are fruiting late.  Usually I'm harvesting in March, but not this year. Brazos bell avocado grafted on to a hass volunteer rootstock expired due to cold or root stock death, not sure which.

Quote from: Yorgos on March 10, 2018, 01:03:54 PM

Mine is grafted to an Omari.  Seems to have a weeping growth habit.

Do you mean an Owari satsuma ? Your Owari is grafted to some other root stock I’d think. The Xie Shan could certainly be grafted or budded to an Owari satsuma. Owari is the satsuma grown more than any other or so I’ve always heard.

The owari is semi-weeping and my 3 year old Xie Shan grafted to this owari grows the same although it wants to be some what more upright than the owari.

I know this is an old thread, but how does Valentine compare to Chandler?  I think I only have room for one.

I’ve been disappointed in my chandler.  It’s been dry and extremely seedy.  I’ve harvested it in late December into,January and have never had an edible one, it’s been so dry.  My hope is to graft a valentine on it if I can locate bud wood. Maybe a white grapefruit to see what that fuss is all about!

Ypurgos you asked ...."would applying biuret to this tree in January counter the alternate bearing tendency'

The answer is it would not completely counter the alternate bearing, but it would help.  The fertilizer goal for the heavy crop year with alternate bearing trees is to provide adequate fertilizer to support the developing crop, and to also support the summer vegetative shoot growth (normally in June) which become the blooming shoots for the following year (the off crop year). Therefore, be sure to also apply a low biuret urea foliar spray directly after the tree's early drop period.  (After a citrus tree blooms the tree will set many more small fruitlets than the tree can possibly supply enough energy to bring all of them to maturity, so it drops a great number of the new fruitlets, plus many of the flowers that never set -- this is called the Early Drop). Foliar spraying low biuret urea directly after the early drop should supply much of the energy to greatly help with fruit set during the off year.

Thank you Millet.  This looks to be a banner year for my moro so I will have remember this for next year. This year I will need to thin I think. 

One thing to consider is it's easy to get Cara Cara in the grocery store. I've never seen Tarocco blood orange sold anywhere. I have seen Moro at the grocery.
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The reason one never sees Tarocco in the store is 1: tastes inferior to Moro and 2: does not reliably get the desired red inside as well as Moro.

This brings up another good question, spray for CLM or don't spray?    In my case CLM  seem to effect less than 10-15% of my in ground  citrus tree leaves regardless of time of year.

If I had such a slight infestation, I wouldn't spray.  One benefit of citrus to me is they are the host plant for the giant swallowtail butterfly.  I gladly allow the sacrifice of a few leaves for this caterpillar and CLM sprays kills these larvae. The leaves eaten by the caterpillar pale in comparison to the CLM. 

In any event, I was hit hard by rust mites last year so I will be spraying for those. 

I have an 8 yr old moro. (rather 8 years since I planted this nursery bought tree)   In the past, my fruit will start to fall on their own by early Feb or late January.  They certainly would not stay on the tree 'till March.  It is a in-ground tree so perhaps cold weather may be the cause of this.  Or maybe as the tree matures its ability to hold fruit will improve.

Millet, would applying biuret to this tree in January counter the alternate bearing tendency of this variety? It is highly alternate bearing.  This year, based on flowers, will be a good year.
Thanks all.  I love this forum!

Thanks Millet.  Good info. My citrus (except kumquat and grapefruit) are all in flower bud now so it's too late for this regimen for me.  However, due to a several day cold snap (~20F) here on the upper Texas Gulf Coast in mid-January most of my in-ground citrus pretty much kicked most/all of their leaves.  They are generally leafing out with abandon now.  Would this regimen have worked had I sprayed prior to the cold weather?
Thanks

Why not a bucket of water that the trap fits into?  This takes care of squirrels/rates/mice in a very few seconds. ThisCO2 contraption seems way too complicated. (and relocating your trapped rodents elsewhere shows zero consideration of the people in that vicinity).

Interestingly, January '17 we had a period of sudden freezes here in Houston TX after an extended period of temps in the 70's.  Trees were not hardened off. Temps fell into the upper 20's precipitously.  Different Citrus responded uniquely: 
1  Meyer Lemons all froze on the tree and the tree is against the south side of the house.  Tree suffered leaf burn but not much else.  its a mature (+15 year) old tree.  All crop was lost. 
2. Moro blood orange and bloomsweet grapefruit, which are away from the house on the north side, were all fine except for some minor leaf burn. Fruit unaffected. Same with the ujukitsu orange.
3. 20+ year old Meiwa kumquat kicked all its leaves and it is in a protected area between my and the neighbors house.
4. My 2 satsumas were totally unaffected.

Brazos belle avocado that's grafted onto a volunteer hass avocado stump didn't even get leaf burn and it's next to the Meyer lemon.

That was pretty much our winter.  Now I'm seeing a third flush of blooms on my Meyer lemon and it had never had more than one bloom flush before.