Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [nafex] Galgal Lemon Tree - No blossoms for years

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Kieran <holycow@frontiernet.net>
  • To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Galgal Lemon Tree - No blossoms for years
  • Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:44:02 -0600

Dave,
Sorry, I don't check in very often these days, or I'd have answered your questions already. Yes, I am sure that your father got the seeds from Dr. Parmer, and the fact that it is a seedling is the problem. It is unfortunate that you chopped it already, as that will merely keep it in the juvenile growth pattern that seedlings do. If you had searched the top of the wood that you were cutting off for a nonthorny branch to bud or graft onto something else, that might have speeded things up.
Citrus seedlings have a problem from our viewpoint called "prolonged juvenility". This is characterized by upright growth and thorniness and of course non production. Once it comes out of that phase, presumably up above the local tree canopy, it can spread out and begin producing fruit and seeds. Commercial producers of citrus are generally using what is called an "old budline". Once your seedling starts producing, or say, when you bud from that tree, you will have what is called a "new budline". New budlines are slower to produce and bloom less than old budlines. When a seedling has matured, the fruiting branches are where scions are selected from for budding to rootstocks, then when that has matured the process is repeated, say 10 times, and the cells will start settling into being good producers. Since you have already suffered with this tree all these years, I'd say you may as well get it producing, and if the strain does well, it should be available here. Make it easier on yourself by cutting off most side branches and pinching thorns while they are still soft. Let the thing grow up as high as it wants, and see if it will bloom up there. You can ring the bark or tie a wire around the trunk or better yet one branch, and thus slow the growth enough to get it to change phase. Or take one of the new branches coming out and weight it down to just below level. (I've never actually tried that on citrus, it works on other fruit but I don't know what a thorny young citrus tree would do about it, I kind of think it won't work unless you let the branch grow 2-3 ft long first.)
There were a lot of these problems in Nafexers backyards back when the Houston bunch were sharing seeds or cuttings of seedlings they had raised. I tried to explain it to Sherwood Akin, who was selling rooted cuttings of seedlings of Thomasville citrangequat, and his customers couldn't understand why their trees weren't cropping. A few years later Sherwood called me up and wanted me to run that theory by him again. Someone had given him starts of an old budline of Thomasville, and they were cropping in the nursery pots. Seeing the difference between an old and a new budline was a revelation for Sherwood. For me, growing up in Florida with thorny wild sour oranges in the woods, I didn't find it hard to believe at all. I wrote an amusing story about this for Pomona about 15 years ago, if anyone could put their hands on it and scan it for the citrus nuts, it might be helpful. Donna, TN




On 2/17/2013 4:29 PM, Road's End Farm wrote:
Hi,

I've no advice to give you on the lemon tree; but, as I noticed nobody
else seems to have answered this and you seemed concerned as to
whether this was OK to post, wanted to reassure you that your post
looks perfectly fine to me.

Occasionally it's just that nobody has a good answer.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale


On Feb 15, 2013, at 12:10 PM, Dave Moulton wrote:

Hi,

I've been getting NAFEX now for years, but never participated, so
forgive
me if I am not doing it right, like spamming everyone needlessly.
(If I
am, it's just because I don't know how not to, so sorry in advance).

I am looking for advice about my Galgal lemon tree. I got it from my
father, who planted it from a seed that I believe he received from a
NAFEX
member in India. On his property in a colder region of Texas, the
tree
never had trunks/shoots that survived the winters. After several
years
(10?), however, the root ball was enormous (50 lbs?). I dug it up and
planted it in my backyard in Houston. I think it's been there now
about
3-4 years and I now have some trunks that have survived 2-3 winters
and are
about 3" thick. It produces beautiful, large leaves, and looks
healthy,
but It has never blossomed. All my other citrus blossom profusely
(Washington navel, Mexican lime and Mandarin).

My citrus-growing Portuguese in-laws and their friends said lemons
sometimes have to be pruned and topped to make them blossom. So, my
Galgal, which was making a mess of my yard, covered in thorns that
could
probably kill you if you ran into them, and over 10 feet tall, got
topped
and pruned last weekend down to 3 sturdy trunks, for better or worse.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to make it bloom? I figure it only
gets
another couple of seasons to perform before it meets the Grim
Woodchipper.

I did an internet search for NAFEX and Galgal, and got a post from Dr.
Chiranjit Parmar (posted below). I'm thinking he might even be the
man my
father got the seeds from and even if he isn't, he might know what
to do.
If you know how to contact him, please let me know or forward this
email
to him. (I'm copying this email to the email he listed, but since
the post
is old, I'm not getting my hopes up).

Thanks!

Dave Moulton
Lemonless in Houston






  • Re: [nafex] Galgal Lemon Tree - No blossoms for years, Kieran, 03/03/2013

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page