The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi,

last summer I bought a trifoliate orange from oscar tintori, 3 very nice developed plants grown into one huge root crown. The plant was full of small leaves but they sawed (I can still see the saw tooth ridges) some thicker branches to fit in the box.

In autumn it loses it's leaves, which is normal since it's deciduous, but now we're May and it's been getting plenty of sun, it got the usual slow release fertilizer mid march, the branches look green and lush, though some thorns and where it was sawed off have a yellow edge.
There are no signs of new buds, flowers of leaves, there are also no signs of damage or degradation, the branches do not turn brown or do not dry out, so I am confused as to why it isn't doing anything.
It was transplanted in a bigger pot with good soil mix last summer upon arrival, roots were washed out, the plant did not suiffer from this at all, I expected leaf drop but there was nothing, so I was happy to have a strong plant, but now I am wondering if he's adapting to our climate or needs a year to recover from the pruning or something else?

It stayed in my greenhouse in the winter, since it's cold hardy no additional protection was needed.
The only thing that still has leaves is a very young tiny shoot between those 3 plants but that one remains small. Since they're all grown from seed and not grafted , it's not a sucker so removal should not be required.

So, I am aware the poncirus trifoliate is deciduous and will lose its leaves in autumn, mine is doing so, but some branches on the lower end of the trunk (thin branches) turned completely yellow.
Is this also normal within the deciduous  phase or not? I pruned them off since they were not needed anyway but I haven't watered it in a week, and last week I watered it a bit according to winter regime, my other plants in the same soil do fine so this one's a bit of an oddball.

So in my previous topic I already mentioned oscar tintori sending me an overwatered pursha, by now it dropped most of its leaves but it's stable.
However their kaffir limes (one in a 20cm pot and one in a 30 cm pot) also had signs of overwatering but not as bad, however after repotting they got so stressed they dropped a lot of leaves and  some fruit and most of their leaves looked weird from the start, kinda like they were malformed.
pictures:







I did the following when these arrived, unboxed, let them settle in hte shade for a few days, repotted in a half peat half turface soil mix which drains really well and is good aerated, then put it against a wall that has the morning sun only, so they get 6 hours of sun but not the warmer afternoon sun, just about untill 13:00h

however at first it was kinda cloudy anyway so they could easily get used to it. Despite not being hit by hot sun yet, they started dropping a lot of leaves, and I only watered them once until the water started dripping out (happened very soon so that was good), the soil is still moist enough, I fed them like  I was told to but something in these branches looks off, is it me or is this tree afflicted with dying branches? the roots looked fine though, when I washed them out they were light in color.
I know Italy has had a heat wave so I'm aware they must have been under a lot of stress there but I really wish I knew how I can prevent these from dying.
Currently we're having a very hot sunny day so I did put them in the shade because that would do a lot of damage. Misting them with rain water doesn't help in revitalizing the leaves either

Especially now that autumn is approaching, they'll become dormant in october/november but if they're not doing well this usually means they won't survive.

I'm kinda at a loss here.
The only plant that is doing extremely well and had no stress at all was the poncirus I ordered from them, didn't drop a single leaf at all and has beautiful branches :3

Since coco coir (or coco peat) is used frequently for rooting citrus cuttings, I was wondering if this medium can be used as well to germinate citrus seeds, instead of using traditional seeding soil. The reason I would like to switch is because apparently the coco peat allows for much better root development, aeration etc though once the seedling is developed enough I will repot it in a different mix, I just wanted to know if it is good for germinating seedlings and growing them there the first few (2 - 3) months.

So I have a kumquat in good condition, nice green leaves, that recovered from root problems a few months ago. Since the new growth is looking very healthy I was hoping one day the scion would grow a new second main branch. Eventually it did, I noticed a tiny new bud growing at the bottom, well above the graft union (yes, I was very sure) but after a week just gently touching it made it fall off. Thing is, it's not from overwatering as it's planted in the full soil and in greenhouse, nor is it showing signs of overwatering ( no yellow leaves and no other leaves are dropping either).

I'm wondering if a sudden temperature increase from the sun suddenly being revealed after a few days clouds + rain and my greenhouse windows being at minimal opening to avoid excessive rain from entering (and the 80Km/h winds from destroying everything) may have caused this, even though it has a shade cloth against the window it's located near.
I really thought new growth should be more resistant, how are citrus in warm climates otherwise be able to grow? O.o (temperature in greenhouse was with clouds 23°C and without clouds 35°C, I have no option for ventilation, I try to open / close windows as timely as possible and yes I know there are automated windows systems, I just didn't take them)

I was recommended by several european people to use Mediterranean soil for my citrus as it doesn't dry out too quickly and because the 5-1-1 soil won't work (we don't have the same kind of bark and it starts to compost and do nasty stuff)

I followed a guide from a dutch website https://www.allimone.nl/citrus-limon/  (which I had to purchase, since this pdf is not free) and in that guide they too recommended
- to cover the drainage hole of terracotta pot with something such as a piece of a broken terracotta pot
- add a thin layer of expanded clay pebbles to improve drainage
- use Mediterranean soil mixed with perlite
- water in summer : 1l for plants smaller than 0.5m and 4L for plants bigger than 1m each week (more if theres a heat wave)

turns out the core of the root ball is drying out faster than the soil around it, the soil in the entire container stays too wet so I'd need to wait 2 weeks but despite that root rot still happens.
Granted I am using for some plants pots that are too big, but for 3 I managed to get a pot that was about 5 - 10cm wider (no more than that) so that would be an appropriate upgrade. Yet these are suffering from the same problem too.

In response to these issues I first mixed my soil with a larger amount of perlite (30% or so) but the soil didn't dry out enough.
I started noticing leaf drop (as I posted in some earlier topics) and yellowing / browning branches and that told me root issues,
I repotted all of them and added another 30% pumice (4 - 8mm size was all I could find from a german bonsai shop on amazon ) to further improve drainage. While gently removing the root balls out of the soil, I noticed that the size of the root balls of some of them reduced , some even by 50%
I also removed the expanded clay pebbles as others here mentioned they do harm for citrus.
 
So my questions:
- since my drainage can no longer be improved because I already did what I could, how can I decrease the time for the soil to dry out? (we had a few weeks of hot sun but after that much cloudy and rainy weeks, during rain I place them under a roof outside so the soil doesn't get even more wet.
- watering amount: i know many will say this is difficult to answer, I even looked up a table to calculate how many galllons for the canopy size and that came close to the amount I  found in that PDF but I still think for a freshly bought citrus plant in a 20cm pot dimeter with height of 60cm of plant (as mentioned on the site of oscar tintori) that 1 liter / week is too much. I started giving 0.5 liter but still seems to be too much. soil won't dry. (it feels dry on the top until the first knuckle of my finger and moist below that, never wet or sopping wet, but moist for so long is not good for citrus)
Is is perhaps a better idea to water 250ml with an accurate cup in the center of the root ball / week so it gets less water and should be dry by the next week?
Because, I know many will say "water only when it's dry or when you need to, not at regular intervals" and that's fine for me too but if my plant has root issues from this then I don't agree.

PS: the shards to cove the holes I use are not flat, they allow water to freely leak out, because they're somewhat curved. it's just to prevent the soil from clogging the hole.


Is there anything else I can do? I put them outside in the morning sun as much as possible but right now our summer is awful, the air humidity is high and we need more sun. and if it' not that then we get heat waves for which these young and now stressed plants are unable to withstand.
Side question: I have a pursha that was bought in a 30cm pot, this plant was bigger, but lost half its root ball due to heat wave (40+°C in greenhouse) it's still alive but losing a leaf or 2 a day, it's still has a lot of flowers and I was wondering if it's a good idea to remove them so he can concentrate on growing. I don't mind not having fruit next year, I want healthy plants.

So I bought 2 kumquats from oscar tintori a few months ago, one with a short thick rootstock  and one with a half-stock (alemow) rootstock.
At first they were fine but not long after (say about 2 wees later or so) the first one started dropping a leaf a day, sometimes 2 or 3.
When the second arrived, same thing happened.

Now after 3 months, the first one is almost bald, it has many new growth, new stem and leaf shoots (above the graft) but even the leaves and once a whole new tiny branch fell off.

In the beginning when they just lost a few leaves it seemed obvious it was due to the wind, our climate was also colder than it should be, so I moved them into the greenhouse.
Since they're nagami kumuats they should handle 38+ °C (this season it hasn't even gotten that hot yet inside there).
To aerate the greenhouse I do open the windows but when there's heavy wind they're only a bit open, when there's less wind but sun I open them medium and when there's a lot of sun but low/no wind I open them fully.

Weather surprised us sometimes so again I thought some of the new growth could have blown off from wind gusts, but it's getting calmer, less wind and I see the new kumquat dropping more leaves, even fruits and new growth too just like the first one. The first one who is almost bald seems to have stopped dropping stuff.

Since I do not see any visible pests right now and I did spray them a few times before when I saw pests on other citrus I exclude this from the list of possibilities.
There's no sign of leaf miner.
The first kumquat has perfectly dark green healthy leaves (which he dropped) and the second one has that too but a part of them are curled down (seems they grown this way because they're very hard) and have yellow edges, as if they watered it too much (it was like this on arrival) or nutrient deficiency.
I'm giving a fixed proper watering schedule and feeding them properly too (except that I gave them some CaMg a few times before I knew that was not good for citrus).

In any case the strange thing is that only those 2 kumquats are affected, other citrus nearby (shikuwasa, mediteranean sweet lime, kaffir lime) are unaffected. while they stand right next to them.

And yes, container size is too big, I know, but there is no sign of root rot. I feel deep in the ground before I water and it never felt moist when I had to nor did it smell like fungus.

The first kumquat (that is almost bald) did have pests in the beginning though because I found orange resin on a branch that was pruned by the seller, I was able to scrape it off because this stuff attracts ants. Afterwards I applied a mixture of neem oil with brown soap once a week for 2 times and I always did the other one too.

I'm getting a Kumquat and shikuwasa soon because they're cold hardy for our winters and I don't have to worry too much about the plant dying from the cold (though I will protect it) but I prefer to plant these in full soil, not in containers in the greenhouse (because that's where I can plant whatever i want).
My question is, will such citrus survive warmer summers? Often I have potted citrus that get dried out leaves when the sun shines and the temperature rises above 32 °C, even during heat waves inside the greenhouse it gets to 50 °C.
The greenhouse is 4.5m long, 3m wide and 2.7m high, the sunny side has a shade cloth because the whole thing gets plenty of sun light anyway and has 4 windows and a double door. Naturally I open up everything completely when temps rise above 25 °C but I just want to make sure that I'm not making a stupid decision of planting these in the greenhouse.
As to why I want them in full soil:
- I prefer to limit the  citrus in containers
- Full soil has better moisture management and root development for long term
- no need to hassle with giant containers in the later phases.