The Tropical Fruit Forum

My meiwa continues to decline. Now I realize this exact process happened to my nagami kumquat months ago. Except that the nagami was on own root and I chalked it up to root rot without really looking at it and tossed it.

There must be some sort of fungal or bacterial pathogen that only affects the grafted kumquat scion because the the rootstock (citrumelo) and interstock (poncirus) are unaffected.

I found this post on the Houzz forum which describes the same process. Hmmm

As a last resort, I put the meiwa in my greenhouse where it recieves full sun, day temps already get into the 90s.

Does anyone know how often I should water now that it's in the greenhouse? It's in 5-1-1. I will check it tomorrow for moisture, but since it has no leaves I don't want to drown the rootstock.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4704398/branch-dieback-on-my-other-kumquat

Yep that's the same article that convinced me to do the poncirus interstock on my meiwa that is on citrumelo since it mentions tree death after 5 years. Briteleaf emailed me about my first dead meiwa (the one with the brown line at the union) and offered to send one on X639 but I declined.

@poncirusguy

I planted a bunch of seeds so if I lose this meiwa at least it won't take too long to get it flowering and fruiting again. Faster if I use a vigorous rootstock.

The first meiwa I owned came from Briteleaf that one died at the graft union... it was grafted to mandarin (SCS sun cha sha?) which I thought was a strange choice. There was a brown line at the union which looked fungal. Anyway I took budwood from that one which is the current meiwa that's dying again. So maybe there is some kind of pathogen? It grew for 2 seasons and had fruit without signs of anything though. I'll try spraying it with copper or agrifos if it continues declining.

Here's the original vine I've been posting about, took these today. This will be the 2nd winter it survives.
I painted the vine to minimize winter sun damage.

The other plant I didn't look at is probably fine as well, it's in a shaded spot behind a fence. 




Healthy buds



Tiny bit of damage on the young tip

My 10 seeds came from Etsy. They were pretty dry but still had least 50% germinate. They take a while though. Lost 3 to a weed wacker despite clearly labeling and marking the plants.

I still have 2 vines planted outside that are alive after 2 winters (this will be the 2nd winter). So far no damage to stem coldest has been 15f.

I have rooted mature edulis cuttings but it's too cold to ship. If you don't find any message me in the spring

Thanks Nick. Yeah I'll do that then.

My theoretical fruit will probably finish inside my grow tent under LEDs, provided I don't get pests or mold issues on it due to the high humidity of the tent. But that is to be seen. I don't recall which forum member did this but he put his potted annona by a window indoors and it seemd to ripen the fruit so that is also an option

It put out most of this growth while in the grow tent. I actually topped it at one point in order for it to branch out but it shot up a new shoot anyway.
You can tell this is indoor growth because the leaves are pretty big compared to the lower leaves when the plant was outside.




The new main stem where I topped it is still pretty green, not lignified wood. I don't want it to get taller so I just pinched growth at the top.

I am going to give it some 0-10-10 fertilzer, maybe it will put out some flowers in the spring or is that too soon?

The annonacin also works as an insecticide, with effects to the nervous system. Probably why you felt nauseated

The plant is otherwise healthy, or was. I had to cut it back when it didn't get watered when I was unvailable (that's after all of the fruit was harvested). But it's growing back now.

It gets full sun when outside. I will try fertizling with the reccomended once it gets back outside in the spring. Since I cut back now, I have 3 nice branches where I could potentially graft a different variety. If its too difficult to graft I might just get a pink guava the next time I see any for sale, or just give up and grow a big feijoa in its place since I definitely know the quality of the fruit.

Thank you for the ideas and tips!

I did in fact get it at Home Depot. I don't remember it mentioning the nursery other than it was one of those "grow it on your porch" series of sub/tropical fruit plants that they sell once in a while here in north Jersey. It came in a colorful metal pot