The Tropical Fruit Forum

Chester copperpot, welcome to this forum.  Your post was really quite interesting. As shown with a little effort, one can build a solar collector and save money at the same time. The guy who wrote the article had a good sense of humor. - Millet

From reading the above post by Phil, I see there still are some restrictions on retail citrus sales in Harris county, and that is citrus tree  sales can only be for trees that must remain in Harris county. No out of county retail sales. - Millet

Luak, to answer your question, in my greenhouse I currently have growing in the ground a Genoa Lemon, Marisol Clementine, Cara Cara Orange, Bearss Lime, Brown Turkey Fig, Wonderful Pomegranate tree, Red Lady Papaya, pink fleshed Chandler Pummelo, and a Double Mahoi Banana, all of which are full grown mature trees.  Also planted in the ground, but not yet fully grown are a Sweetheart Litchi,  Ruby Supreme Guava, Saint Teresa Lemon and a Ponkan Satsuma.  Growing in Containers of various sizes are 2 - T.R. Hovey Papayas, 2 - Page mandarins,  2 - Valentine Pummelos, 1 - Nova Mandarin, 1 - Bittersweet Orange, 1-Bizarrea Citrus, 3 - Black Twig Limes,  2 - Dekopon oranges, 1- Fringe Tree, 2 - Gold Nugget mandarins,  2-New Zealand Lemonade trees, 1 - very rare Saint Dominic Sour Orange tree, 1- Saint Michael  Paper Rind orange, 1- Sanguinele Blood Orange,  1- Star Ruby Grapefruit, 1 - Tarocco blood orange, 1 - Turunji Citrus Medica, 1 - Valencia orange, 2- Star Fruit trees, 1- Day Avocado, 2- Xie Shan Satsumas, 1 - Yosemite Gold Mandarin, 50 or so Pineapples, a dozen or so large vines of various wine grape varieties,  15+- cactus varieties, a large Canary Island Palm tree planted in a 4" X 4' X 4' container, various greenhouse tomatoes,  20 or so orchids, plus perhaps 20 to 25 various miscellaneous other plants.  - Millet

 Many mandarin varieties produce seedless or low-seeded fruit whether isolated or not from other pollen producing citrus fruits.  These include Gold Nugget, all Satsuma varieties, Pixie, Seedless Kishu, Yosemite Gold, Tahoe Gold, Shasta Gold, Tango, USDA 88-2, and the new UCR citrus breeding program releases - Daisy SL, Fairchild LS, and Kinnow LS.- Millet

Send me your address and I will send you enough liquid GA3 for your tree.  I purchase my GA3 from American Clay Works  857 Bryant Street, Denver, CO. There telephone # is  303-534-4044 or 1-800-873-2297. - Millet

Brian, it only takes a VERY VERY small Amount of GA3 per gallon of spray.  What strength is the GA3 powder that you  purchased ? - Millet

Fruit left hanging on a citrus tree inhibit the budbreak of both vegetative and floral buds at two key stages.  First, young developing fruit inhibit budbreak in the summer and early fall, reducing the number of new summer and fall shoots (branches) that develop, and thus reducing the number of nodes on which would have produce floral branches the following spring.  Second, mature fruit inhibit the spring's budbreak, and the  subsequent development of the predominantly floral shoots (branches),  as well as the relatively small number of vegetative branches that characterize the spring bloom,  thereby further reducing the floral  intensity of the bloom the following year. Winter fruit removal results in a shift toward more floral and fewer vegetative branches. Your trees not blooming had nothing to do with the Fling Dragon rootstock, but rather with fruit left hanging on the tree for an extended time.. BTW I've been to Fredericksburg Texas, a town of many stone buildings.  I liked Fredericksburg, its anice city with friendly people. I visited the Admiral Chester Nimitz museum  while I was there.  - Millet

U.S. consumers bought 36.11 million gallons of orange juice in the four weeks ended July 5, down 8.3% from a similar period a year ago, according to Nielsen data. A greater variety of beverages, including more exotic fruit juices such as açai, energy drinks and flavored waters, have taken market share away from orange juice, analysts and traders say
. - Millet

Anyone who delights in freshly squeezed orange juice or eats grapefruit for breakfast should take a moment to stop and savor the taste of those citrus fruits. Many of them are at risk of being destroyed by a disease spread by an invasive pest that's been sweeping across the citrus-producing regions of the world.
"It's horrible — it's a disaster," says Fred Gmitter, a professor of horticulture science at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center.

It might be time to kiss your OJ goodbye, unless science steps in to save the day.

At least 70% of Florida's citrus trees are already infected by the disease, known as citrus greening, huanglongbing, or occasionally just with an ominous "it," as in "It's here."

Florida's citrus crop this year is the lowest it's been in 30 years, and agricultural authorities have continued to lower their production estimates. Orange-juice prices are up nearly 20% this year alone and will continue to rise. The disease was a major factor in the lime shortage that made the price of a box of Persian limes jump from $18 to $85 last December. Prices could jump higher for oranges. Researchers and growers say that if a cure isn't found, the entire $9 billion Florida citrus industry could be destroyed.
Millet

Not sure why your trees have not put out a flush so far.  However one thing is for certain, and that is they can't begin a new flush until the tree's root system has finished it growth period.    Good things happen to those who wait.  The late summer flush normally is around August.  - Millet

Forgot to add that container plants grow well setting on top of the warm sun heated barrels due to the bottom heat the root system gets. - Millet

In order to raise 1-lb. of water up one degree requires 1 BTU of heat.  Conversely, when 1-lb. of water loses 1 degree of heat it gives off 1-BTU of heat. If you put one 55-gallon barrel of water (456-lbs. of water) inside your greenhouse it will give off 456 BTU of heat for every degree  the water inside the barrel drops over night.  For instance lets suppose after a day in the sun by evening the water inside the barrel has a temperature of 79 degrees F.  By the next morning the water has cooled down to 64 degrees.  That is a drop of 15 degrees. Therefore, the barrel has given off 15 X 456 = 6,840 free Btu's of heat into your greenhouse.  My greenhouse is 32-ft. wide and 72-ft. long. I have one hundred black plastic 55-gallon drums lining the side walls of the greenhouse. That is 45,600-lbs. of water in total.  Therefore, for every one degree that the water in the barrels cools down over night the greenhouse gets 45,600 free BTU's of heat .  So for even a 10-degree over night drop in water temperature 456,000  free BTU is given off into my greenhouse every night. Additionally, the water also helps to even out the greenhouse temperature during the heat of the day by absorbing much of the heat.  - Millet

If indeed it is a salt problem, and Chas is probably correct,  keeping the tree on the dry side makes the salt situation worse, because the soluble salts become more concentrated in the root zone when there is less water.   The tree is telling us that it needs more watering by the cupping of the leaves.  As far as nutrition, it is water that moves nutrients such as nitrogen potassium, iron and magnesium  throughout the tree.  High soluble salt levels at the root zone blocks the up take of nutrients, thus giving the tree the yellowish look.  As Chas wrote, there is some browning at the tips of the leaves, but it is not at the point of killing the leaf tips.  Give the tree a good flush with clean pure water in the amount of three of  four times the volume of the container.  Then fertilize the tree and you should see the tree starting to recover. If the irrigation water you use for your regular watering has a high soluble salt content, then flush the container at a regular interval, perhaps once every couple months with pure water having a very low salt content. .  -  Good luck and thanks for joining this forum - Millet