The Tropical Fruit Forum

It’s two different types of Australian limes bred together I was hoping they would cross it with an orange or something to get better fruit. Someone needs to get to work doing crosses. There is a thread about them on the forum. Not very interesting fruit other than being different but the high disease resistance and hardiness of the plant makes it worth growing and crossing with.

I keep my two small trees under nets with the bottom weighted down with bricks. It's now a year later and they are doing very well.
I'll soon be upgrading from 6' nets to 9' due to the recent flush of new growth. Once they fill those nets out in another year I plan on removing the nets altogether, as long as the brix is in the mid teens or higher. Still trying to figure out exactly how to arrange that.

If you use a rooted cutting it will seldom get taller than six feet. Ten tops depends on variety. Flying dragon root stock should be similar. You can keep the permanently under a net.

What are you growing? I used a cheap full spectrum fluorescent bulb just a regular light bulb but fluorescent. Has to be full spectrum and look bright white. The orange ones are not good for plants other than trying to induce flowering in fall but they can’t feed on them. Then I mix that with a full spectrum bright white reptile fluorescent with uv. And put them near a window to get any sun that comes in. A fluorescent bulb alone has a very narrow spectrum that the plant uses so it works better with the reptile bulb which has a narrow spectrum that is slightly different from the regular then the tiny amount of sun they get kept my Meyer lemon doing ok during winter. Did not work on bananas. As mentioned above something like weed or tomatoes needs really bright light fluorescents can be used if the plant is almost touching the bulb but it will burn if it touches it because fluorescents alone you can grow plants with but they put out the spectrum and intensity of some more expensive bulbs. But those sunlight reptile bulbs do look like real sunlight. I like those for myself in the winter up north when the lack of sun is depressing so it’s like a dual use the light is beautiful and cheap. I think a reptile flourescent bulb is like $30 and the regular fluorescent is a few bucks. The plants don’t use the uv but it puts out a really nice spectrum similar to sunlight.

My stuff did better outside in summer but those bulbs would keep them going through winter. The regular fluorescent you can put about an inch from the plant. The uv sunlight bulb has to be a distance or plants can lose leaves. And only the sun bulb can sometimes cause leaf loss sometimes not. But the sun bulb and regular full spectrum together or alternating works best. I don’t know why maybe the uv burns it but it does improve the plant mixed with the other.

If you get a fluorescent uv bulb that is purple it can be used at a distance but they don’t use much of that spectrum. Those are the desert uv. Or an orange house bulb I don’t think they use any of that. As long as it looks bright white it’s good to use but if it’s uv don’t put it close to the plant. The main one they like is actually the cheap White House bulb. I used it on seedlings and they grew towards the bulb not the window.

Most citrus I've seen fruit in five to seven years but I have seen some that don't seem to ever fruit but I always assumed they would eventually

You will need a good filter to filter out the yeast. Otherwise the yeast has a nasty sort of beer taste.

Citrus doesn’t like to be mulched

Its like weeds they grow on poor soil then rot and replenish it. Brazilian pepper tree in Florida grow like weeds in soil with few nutrients and over time the leaves rot and create top soil. I guess they pull nitrogen out of the air and I don't know how they get micronutrients. Just really big root systems that can scrape small quantities together i guess.

When you backcross to the 1/4 level fertility is restored pretty much other than a few low vigor seeds. It's like that with grapes muscadine x euviris. First generation hybrids have low fertility many have low vigor. It just needs crossed again.

But if you are dealing with three or more distant species that is more problems.

Over ripe I guess. Grapes can split from too much rain so I guess that's possible. Never had luck with watermelon or pineapple even though the plants are easy to grow. I can never tell when pineapple is ripe.

The other thing don't pull up all the grass around it. Let it grow into the grass and don't mow it. It helps shade the baby melons from getting dried up. You would think the grass would eat up it's nutrients but it does better with it as long as it's watered.

It required a massive amount of water to get melons and to keep them to maturity. It needs almost swamp like conditions, especially in sandy areas which is best. It has been a dry year. You need to water basically every day during hot summer. It is better to get them started before it gets too hot so they don't dry out. I have never seen disease problems just the struggle to get fruit. The plant itself will.grow wild on the side of the road though no fruit.

It needs to be in a ditch where water will collect and just water every day. Normally it rains like crazy in Florida in the summer so not too much of an issue but even in Florida have to keep them wet all the time.

Fertilizer needs are only minimum but some occasional fertilizer as well. It's one of the only things that will grow in Florida in the summer. Most garden plants don't do well in the summer in Florida.

I would imagine a desert lime crossed with a sour orange would be a good root stock

Rain water is far better than tap water if you can collect it. Plants will grow better. There's chlorine, salts, all sorts of stuff in tap water.