To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Potted culture; dwarf citrus
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 18:22:55 -0500
Your citrus dwarfing rootstock is flying dragon trifoliate. It is only
slightly dwarfing. You can see pictures of a pink grapefruit on
trifoliate(25feet) and flying dragon trifoliate(8 feet) on my web site. Both
trees are about 10 years old. I haven't found flying dragon to be very
dwarfing. I have 4 satsuma trees that are 4 years old. The one on flying
dragon is as big as the 3 others on trifoliate. All are about 6 feet tall.
They are in the ground outside. Flying dragon rootstock bears excellent
fruit and bears early.
I would recommend for your potted citrus a potting mix of 50% washed sand and
the rest can be store bought potting mix. I have killed many potted citrus
in 100% commercial potting mix because it doesn't drain well enough. But it
sometimes rains here 6 inches in a day and 24" in a week!
SE Texas near Houston z8b/9a but 9b since 1989
DATE: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 14:01:53
From: "gorgon zolla" <lazolla@hotmail.com>
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Cc:
>We do have three dwarf citrus potted up: a clementine, a Meyers Improved
>lemon, and a Kieffer lime. We have had these for a couple of years now, and
>bring them inside during the winter months. These are grafted on
>proprietary dwarfing rootstocks, and we bought them as whips from Northwind
>Growers in California. All have bloomed, while only the lime has set fruit.
> The fruit fell off shortly afterwards, probably just as well given the
>small size of the tree.
>
>We have had to spray for scaly bugs a number of times.
>
>Maintaining the proper level of soil moisture has been an ongoing problem,
>in part because we started the plants out in fairly large pots. Rainy
>weather would overwater the plants at first.
>
>Overall, I find that they are rather fussy as houseplants go, but the
>foliage and flowers are attractive, and I'm hoping for fruit set one of
>these days. The trees readily go into a sort of state of shock when their
>cultural needs are not met, and then they drop leaves and lose vigor. In
>most cases they seem to come out of this.
>
>Steve Dunlop
>Nerstrand, MN
>USDA Zone 4
>
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