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  • From: "kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] citrus seedlings need help
  • Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 22:20:14 -0500

To get these
citrus to produce fruit is going to take some work since Seattle doesn't
get much heat.

Mark, You said a mouthful there! But it's even worse than you imagine.
Are you aware that Yuzu can take 15 years from seed to fruiting? Do you
know what "prolonged juvenility" means in regard to citrus? It means that
seedling citrus spend a long time growing tall and thorny, and take forever
to start blooming. If you can get those trees out of their present funk,
you need to graft them from the tops or lateral fruiting branches of mature
trees. Over the next 10 years, I'd say you would get at least 10X as much
fruit if you will bud them from bearing trees. And they will be MUCH easier
to deal with because the older budline will make far fewer thorns. I think
the calamondin is the only one with a reputation for doing well from seed.
As for the funk, I too would suspect overwatering. Unless you are having a
big heatwave, you should only water about once a week, or at least wait for
the soil to dry out between waterings. Citrus are not delicate creatures,
they can take a bit of drought.

kaffir lime, meyer lemon, yuzu, and US119 vs Thomasville citranequat,
calamondin, and keraji mandarin
Yes, this is a puzzling list. I cannot see any grouping variety wise,
root-rot susc wise, favored temp wise that would separate these two groups.
Are you sure that one group doesn't simply have bigger holes in the bottoms
of their pots? Is one group recieving a bit more evaporation because their
pots are on the south side of the other group and getting directly warmed by
the sun?
I think of the list you have here, if you have to cut back I would save
the Meyer, the calamondin and the Yuzu. To my knowlege, none of the others
are proven in your northern conditions. (Please enlighten me if I am wrong
about this.) Citrus with trifoliate in it tends to have a nasty whang till
the fruit are fully ripe, which isn't too likely to happen in your climate.
Thomasville and US 119 would be most likely to do this, but I haven't tasted
enough of them to know. Does anyone have these, to advise? (For others
who are likely to be eating slightly underripe greenhouse citrus, I have
always thought that Wekiwa tangelo would be ideal, as it is very unusual and
pretty and gives the most delightful grapefruit tingle on the tongue when
bit underripe. Dead ripe, Wekiwa is boring.) I am assuming you have seen
some of these trees fruiting in Seattle somewhere and that's where you got
the seeds? Because you will need a source of budwood. Oh, and cut the
taproot. Someone said it turned off the straight-up growth and induced
earlier fruiting.
Donna Hudson, NAFEX hardy citrus consultant





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