Citrus and Peach trees

[Ludi]

Aww, thanks!


I have some satsuma seeds, will these grow true from seed?

[mercurygirl]

Among those that grow true are: Most sweet oranges (with exception of Pineapple and some navels, which can make some variation in seedlings, though technically nucellar), most grapefruit, most lemons, most mandarins, key lime, calamondin.

Among those that do not: Persian lime (mostly seedless anyway), pummelos, Temple 'orange' (actually a tangor), and Meyer lemon.

Found this info on Gardenweb whilst I was looking around, Ludi. I love that site.

Ooh, here's a whole forum for citrus growers! Hope y'all enjoy it.
Link

[frankthetank]

Mercury-

Thats my favorite citrus site! Lots of smart people on there.

PO-Nice peaches...distant warm blooded cousins of mine Cold in Texas today. I saw earlier even Brownsville was in the upper 40's. Brrr... We didn't even hit 0F here today! Gorgeous deep blue sky, however. I really want to get some snowshoes...today would have been an awesome day to go out on the lake snowshoeing.

I have 6 Kumquat seedlings right now.

[mercurygirl]

Frank, yeah, and I spotted posts from you on Gardenweb, too. What great resources.

I got so worked up about everyone's nice trees that I ordered a Meyer lemon and a Trovita orange today.
Very excited!

[PeakOiler]

Gotta love the size of some of these Meyer's lemons. Below is the lemon that was shown above. It weighed in at 346 grams, 0.76 lb.



Did you get your lemon tree, mercurygirl?

Edited a second time for typo.

[mercurygirl]

Did you get your lemon tree, mercurygirl?

Not yet, I think they will ship in about a month to avoid freezes. We've had more than our share of quite cold weather this winter. I bought from a great nursery in my region. Pretty expensive, but they are 2-3 year trees and I figure they will pay for themselves quickly if I can keep them alive. I need advice on repotting and such, guess I will look on that citrus forum. I also purchased some special citrus fertilizer for a good start.

Off-topic, I'm looking into growing ginger in a pot. It's tropical and needs hot weather to sprout. A little fussy, but can be done. My family is suffering from an intestinal virus right now and ginger tea is the best!

[mercurygirl]

OK, I got my citrus trees and need to pot them. I got some good organic soil with compost and castings. I plan to mix with perlite, sand, and a little dolomite. Does that sound like a good recipe?

[nocar]

m-girl, make sure dolomite is good for them first. Is it not a Ca, lime, source? My orange trees (tiny, indoor, like houseplants) came with instruction that lime was a no-no. But I guess there can be varieties of citrus too.

nocar

[mercurygirl]

Yes, nocar. The sources I accessed seemed to agree that a little dolomite when repotting is good, since it will be in a container forever and most fertilizers lack this. However, I did spring for some special citrus fertilizer and I will check to see if it's included.

Off-topic, I picked up the supplies at a chain store and when poking around in their indoor plant section, came across a beautiful big aloe heeling over in a tiny pot, on the sale rack for two bucks. I've been wanting one and it needed a home, yay!

[PeakOiler]

OK, I got my citrus trees and need to pot them. I got some good organic soil with compost and castings. I plan to mix with perlite, sand, and a little dolomite. Does that sound like a good recipe?

I can't answer to that recipe but I wish you success with your citrus!

I read that sphagnum peat moss is good for limes. I used some in the satsuma potting mixture too.

[frankthetank]

Checked my seeds stratifying in the refrigerator after someone on Nafex mentioned they had sproutage... Well... heres what my 6 Reliance peach seeds looked like!



Potted them up, will plant them out wheneve i can get them in the soil.

[PeakOiler]

Good luck with those sprouts, FTT.

Here's what I spotted today:



Hundreds...

[PeakOiler]

Five of 13 peach trees have blossomed so far. The other eight have lots of buds , but no blossoms yet.




Not all bees are dead:

[Ferretlover]

Oh, look! A bee!
That's one...

[PeakOiler]

Oh, look! A bee!
That's one...

lol

By afternoon, there will be dozens. There's a beekeeper about a mile from here.

There are wasps too.

I think the very fragrant lemon blossoms attract them.

I haven't seen the hummingbirds yet. I'll try and get a pic of the hummingbirds if they show up.

[mercurygirl]

Help!!

I got my citrus trees a couple weeks ago and potted them nicely. They're in a sunny spot and have a bunch of new growth. So far, so good.

However, I just noticed a trail of ants going up one pot. I've been having trouble with them in my kitchen, but this is another area. It looks like they may be coming in a door. Why is this happening and what should I do? Set them in a dish of water is my best guess.

[frankthetank]

Nice peach blooms. HOPEFULLY mine will do that in about 45 days or so.


What do you think PO'er? Think they are ready to go!!!

Little guys are really growing...


Was browsing Flickr last night and noticed the trees around Fresno, CA are all blooming right now (peaches)... They look beautiful.

edit:
I like pouring maple syrup on sausage links...mmmm...We have a local guy right in town that taps trees in his "backyard". Its pretty good size, but they always seem to run an article in the paper about him. I could probably tap trees up north of here (family land), but no motivation and a baby

[PeakOiler]

Wow Frank! Those sprouts are looking great!

I haven't tried growing peaches from the pits. Young fruit trees are still pretty cheap. I'm going to plant one or two more peach trees next week. Problem is, we're in a drought. My rainwater is nearly gone. (<200 gallons.) I still have access to city water, but was hoping I wouldn't need it.

Sunday morning I had pancakes with maple syrup, butter, and chopped pecans. Yum! I hope my strawberries start going...

[frankthetank]

PO'er...

I don't remember, but do you have a variety of peaches? I've done some research and found you can grow a different varieities to really stretch your peach eating season. The difference lies in how long the pit takes to "harden" or something like that. I guess some can take only 2 weeks while some can take 4. I noticed last summer that mine grew to a certain size and just stopped...no growth. Then they just took off after a few weeks. That period was the pit hardening. For me i've found out that i probably want to not extend my season with different varieities too much. With winter showing up by November, my trees need to get put to sleep earlier then southern trees. I know a lot of leaves were still on my trees even after several hard freezes. I guess there are tricks (bending down branches) to get them to "turn off".

Its been a cold, long winter and am really looking forward to seeing some pink flowers.

Revi- Reliance peaches? What kind of low temps do you get around there? I'm scared if it gets much below -25F, i could be in some real trouble. I know Reliance is from the northeast (i think Maine).

[seahorse2]

Who is a good reputable source for buying peach trees online?