Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was just researching what fertilizer to buy. Seems granules are recommended over stakes. Jobes organic citrus comes heavily recommended but it has a terrible smell everyone says so not recommended for indoors. Yes it arrived in 2 days. You can actually order directly from the company who fills the amazon order. I will go shopping locally tomorrow for a citrus fertilizer. I wanted to upload pic of tree but doesn't seem to work from iPad.
Thanks for letting me know about the Jobes stinking because I wouldn't want that in my living room since I'm so sensitive to chemicals. Gonna have to research this, maybe the directions they said would be sent with it will give recommendations. I just thought I have a friend in Florida which is where I think the plant originated, so I will see if he has experience with them.
Thanks for letting me know about the Jobes stinking because I wouldn't want that in my living room since I'm so sensitive to chemicals. Gonna have to research this, maybe the directions they said would be sent with it will give recommendations. I just thought I have a friend in Florida which is where I think the plant originated, so I will see if he has experience with them.
I did some research and bought EB Stone Organic Citrus and & Fruit Tree Food. Will see how it goes.
Think I may have successfully uploaded the pic.
I'm trying. Mine is still WAY too small to produce any fruit.
I've had mixed luck with citrus in containers:
yuzu - thriving, getting to be big and spiny. tall as i am. no fruit yet. (grafted)
calamondin - bloomed, set fruit, and then promptly died. (grafted)
pummelo - thriving, loving life, but no fruit. getting tall. (seed grown)
I'm not giving up. I want another lemon tree. I had a eureka lemon that lived for about 3 years before it gave up the ghost. I have a few other things (3 different guava varietals) that are doing very well.
I did some research and bought EB Stone Organic Citrus and & Fruit Tree Food. Will see how it goes.
Think I may have successfully uploaded the pic.
Thanks for the fertilizer info. Will look that one up. That's a nice size tree. Is that a bloom on the lower left? Does the tree smell? I remember my grandmother's tree smelled great, but I don't know if it was only because it had a lemon growing on it or if it was like that all the time.
I'm trying. Mine is still WAY too small to produce any fruit.
I've had mixed luck with citrus in containers:
yuzu - thriving, getting to be big and spiny. tall as i am. no fruit yet. (grafted)
calamondin - bloomed, set fruit, and then promptly died. (grafted)
pummelo - thriving, loving life, but no fruit. getting tall. (seed grown)
I'm not giving up. I want another lemon tree. I had a eureka lemon that lived for about 3 years before giving up the ghost. I have a few other things (3 different guava varietals) that are doing very well.
You have guava growing indoors? Tell me about this! How big do the plants get?
The guavas haven't set fruit, and honestly it's kind of an experiment - I took the seeds from some supermarket fruit, and lo and behold, 3 years later I have shrubby little guavas trees in the sunroom. They haven't bloomed or fruited yet, but they are attractive plants. They seem to grow out as much as up, so I don't know how big they will get - in containers, they look a bit like small crepe myrtles - they start branching at the ground, tend towards shrubbiness, and have the same kind of flaky, cinnamon-colored bark that you see on crepe myrtles. And I'd note that guavas, feijoas, crepe myrtles, myrtles, eucalyptus, pomegranates all belong to the same order of plants, so there's some degree of similarity in appearance.
Even without fruit, they are lovely, and pests don't seem to care for them very much.
They do like light, but they aren't quite as demanding as citrus is, and their range of water tolerance - from drought to being waterlogged is higher than citrus, so they can IMO make good indoor-outdoor plants. To keep the growth vigorous, and maintain shape, they do require fairly regular pruning, because mine seem to want to sprawl if they aren't shaped up nicely. If they are grown from seed, the seed takes about a month to germinate, and for the first 6-9 months of life, they grow VERY slowly, and then - sometime between 6 and 9 months - the rate of growth speeds up very dramatically: it will take them 7 or 8 months to hit an inch, and then they will double that in only another month or so.
Thanks for the fertilizer info. Will look that one up. That's a nice size tree. Is that a bloom on the lower left? Does the tree smell? I remember my grandmother's tree smelled great, but I don't know if it was only because it had a lemon growing on it or if it was like that all the time.
Yes it came with three blooms....no fragrance yet. I am wondering if that comes when the blooms open up.
The guavas haven't set fruit, and honestly it's kind of an experiment - I took the seeds from some supermarket fruit, and lo and behold, 3 years later I have shrubby little guavas trees in the sunroom. They haven't bloomed or fruited yet, but they are attractive plants. They seem to grow out as much as up, so I don't know how big they will get - in containers, they look a bit like small crepe myrtles - they start branching at the ground, tend towards shrubbiness, and have the same kind of flaky, cinnamon-colored bark that you see on crepe myrtles. And I'd note that guavas, feijoas, crepe myrtles, myrtles, eucalyptus, pomegranates all belong to the same order of plants, so there's some degree of similarity in appearance.
.
I am really surprised you got them to grow from fruit seed. I've always thought everything in the supermarket was so hybridized that there is no way the seeds from produce could actually grow another plant. I may have to start experimenting ... I have some fresh limes here now... hmmm.
I am really surprised you got them to grow from fruit seed. I've always thought everything in the supermarket was so hybridized that there is no way the seeds from produce could actually grow another plant. I may have to start experimenting ... I have some fresh limes here now... hmmm.
Most supermarket fruit seeds will sprout. Hybridization has an effect on whether or not it will grow true to seed - as everything from tomoatoes to apples to oranges to strawberries - in their most common, commercialized forms is very hybridized and selected for longevity and appearance, sometimes for those qualities above flavor.
Citrus is especially hybridized - pummelos, key limes, tangerines, kumquats, citrons, and some wild citrus like papedas and trifolate (bitter) oranges are considered to be the only true, pure (at the DNA level), un-hybridized citrus - ornages, lemons, grapefruits, and the lemon-sized standard persian limes are all thought to likely be wild hybrids that were domesticated when it was found that the hybrids would sometimes grow true to seed, and sometimes not - 50/50 shot that they might revert back to an ancestor.
So most commercial citrus is grown from grafted or rooted plants, over seed-grown, which also cuts time to maturity (and fruit) in half. Grown from seed, kumquats and key limes can produce in as little as 4 years with IDEAL care, where grapefruits and pummelos can sometimes take as many as 20, with all other citrus falling somewhere in between.
The same is generally true, to varying degrees of other fruit trees. There are dozens and dozens of fig varietals - some variety can be grown out of doors in at least one location in all 50 states, but none of the varietals will grow in all of them. Likewise, peaches, apples, apricots, quince, pears, cherries are - in orchards at least - usually grown from grafted stock. Even some more exotic tings like pawpaws and cherimoyas and guavas are increasingly grown from grafted plants.
Seed-growing for me is more of an experiment, and a chance to maybe nurture something into life or (even better) beauty, with or without fruit, as some of those plants - some citrus, and most guavas for instance - do take to container growth well, though there's a lot of trial and error, and a lot of research into proper care that has to be done.
With citrus, the general hardiness range is limes (mostly tropical, and will start looking unhappy @ 45 or 40 degrees), down to kumquats (mature plants have been known to survive drops into the upper teens with little or no damage); and other citrus somewhere in between, usually around 30 degrees. Tangerines tend to be hardier than other sweet citrus, and have been known to survive conditions that would kill lemons and limes, and seriously injure oranges and grapefruits. Meyer lemons are a tangerine-eureka lemon hybrid, and - due to the tangerine half of their ancestry - have slightly more cold tolerance than other lemons, though only by a few degrees. Some highly ornamental but unpalatable citrus (ichang papedas and bitter oranges/trifolate oranges) are actually hardy well below 0F, but the fruit they produce is highly unpleasant tasting, though the plants are quite ornamental.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
