North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kieran <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

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