Is anyone interested in a citrus thread similar to my big pepper thread?

[edebill@wandering.shop]

@jblue yes! Down here we’re just on the edge of being able to plant some outside, but the thought of having to move big heavy pots in and out has daunted me.

[dch@bsd.network]

@jblue definitely! Need a nice plant based stress cleanser

[thriftstorebarbie@pagan.plus]

@jblue you ask but you know

[bramblebearsnoring@mastodon.ie]

@jblue yes!

[beandreams@friendhole.social]

@jblue I would read the heck out of a big citrus thread :)

[wavesculptor@climatejustice.social]

@clew @jblue

This is amongst my most sought-after garden knowledge! Their growth seems attuned to something unclear compared to most plants I try to grow here. [usda 10a up to 42 deg C so far, 400 m altitude, with many microclimate-compromise niches] I've attempted grafts -- esp of mandarins, and never got any to take. I've got cuttings of mandarin to root and survive for year+ but never thrive. Fire killed the last one. Reluctant to try again till I know more. Several root-stocks waiting. 10 km up the road, there's mature and neglected ones everywhere...

[queenofthecroneage@beige.party]

@jblue

Yep Meyer lemon tree. Growing like crazy. I'd be interested. 🍋

[dasgrueneblatt@wien.rocks]

@jblue yes please

[noah@twit.social]

@jblue
Yes please! I have a mystery citrus tree that has never flowered and I'm very curious!

[mizblueprint@mastodon.online]

@jblue
Yes! We grew citrus trees on our deck in Napa. I covered them when temps. got to freezing, and brought them inside if the cold was prolonged. Other than the old Meyer lemon tree in the ground, they were all exotic.

[colmdonoghue@mastodon.ie]

@hiisikoloart @jblue
I've a lemon tree my daughter planted from lemon pips during COVID
Love to figure out how to help it flower

[brahmabelarusian@regenerate.social]

@jblue very much so, because I find so much of the citrus informationis just focused on sweet juice & fresh eating, and I know with you, it'll be a much more well rounded set of information.

Mostly I'm looking for rinds, zest, and high acid to use for canning other fruits & as a cleaning ingredient.

[jblue@mastodon.world]

2/3 downwards after a certain height with wires similar to bonsais. Then, they let it grow up again until it reaches the leaf node requirements and it starts flowering. Only after the plant has flowered is it ok to trim it to the size you want to keep it and let lateral branches grow outward. This shaves years off of the time it takes to grow from seed to reach maturity.

Alternatively, you can just graft mature stems onto seedlings. To fruit naturally, a lemon will probably be about 7-8ft tall

[jblue@mastodon.world]

@ColmDonoghue @hiisikoloart 1/3 🧵citrus maturity depends on the number of leaf nodes from the base of the plant to its tallest branch. In small fruited varieties (kumquats), maturity arrives early between 40-60 leaf nodes. Larger fruited citrus usually require more 2-4x that. This can take many years.

Citrus breeders cut that time in half by cutting off all side branches of seedlings, forcing the plant to grow only one long stem. They train the long branch to grow

[jblue@mastodon.world]

3/3 I don’t know regular lemons, but yuzus require around 120 leaf nodes and that’s about the height when they start flowering. Just whatever you do, don’t trim it until it flowers (unless you’re doing the one long stem method) because it requires this length for the hormonal triggers to tell the plant to stop producing juvenile growth.

[jblue@mastodon.world]

@wavesculptor @clew 1/2 🧵I really don’t recommend rooted cuttings. They are much more sensitive to drought and climate changes than citrus with taproots. You might also be having trouble with citrus bc you’re in an area where it is cultivated commercially. Southern EU has many citrus diseases that are decimating citrus crops.

You can limit certain diseases (phytophoria) by growing in pots with sterilized soil and growing citrus that is resistant to disease

[jblue@mastodon.world]

2/2 They use different root stocks in Europe than they do here but there are some new promising root stocks.

I suggest you call online support for Oscar Tintori or Agrumi Lenzi (Italian citrus tree sellers) for info about disease resistant EU root stocks.

I think shikuwasa (OT has it), yuzu and certain kumquats are supposedly quite disease resistant. Someone literally just gave me a new mandarin cultivar that is resistant to citrus greening so work is being done about it.

[jblue@mastodon.world]

@edebill are you interested in cold hardy citrus? Thomasville citrangequat can tolerate down to 5F. It’s a compact plant that can be grown in ground or in pots. It doesn’t fully ripen until January so if you grow it outside, you pick the fruit when it’s green and use it like limes. The peel is fully edible.

Other compact plants that are not so heavy and are also pretty cold hardy are Nippon orangequat (lowest temp 14F), meiwa (17F), shikuwasa (14F). The perk of growing

[jblue@mastodon.world]

these in pots moving them in greenhouses in the winter (daytime temp gets to 80-90F at sun’s peak for about 2hrs), is it extends the growing season. Nippon will keep flowering and ripening fruit overwinter even when nights are pretty chilly. The other ones I mentioned will still hold the immature fruit but they ripen much more slowly.

[edebill@wandering.shop]

@jblue there are a couple satsuma varieties recommended locally - I believe Arctic Frost is one? On average we only get down to 20-25, but bad years are frequent enough I’d want hardiness to 10-15. So far this year we’ve only gotten to 25.