Citrus and Peach trees

[PeakOiler]

Today I picked my very first homegrown orange.

It weighed 222 grams (~1/2 lb).

The skin had split wide open. Why did it do that? The skin was still green, but was starting to turn orange. The inside is orange and looks very well developed and no bug damage. I put it in the frig. I'll have it for breakfast tomorrow morning. If the net weight is about 200 grams, then the carbs (sugars) will be about 25 grams.

I paid $29.99 for that navel orange tree on March 2nd, 2009. That's one expensive orange fruit! Was it worth it? Hell yes!

[papa moose]

The skin had split wide open. Why did it do that? The skin was still green, but was starting to turn orange.

I'm no expert but i think this implies that the amount of water the tree was recieving increased later in the season compared to the early period when the fruit was first developing.
Having said that you're in the middle of the Texas drought? so perhaps my guess is way off.
We occassionally have oranges that split as you describe but not a % that causes concern.

Is yours a washington navel?

[PeakOiler]

The skin had split wide open. Why did it do that? The skin was still green, but was starting to turn orange.

I'm no expert but i think this implies that the amount of water the tree was recieving increased later in the season compared to the early period when the fruit was first developing.
Having said that you're in the middle of the Texas drought? so perhaps my guess is way off.
We occassionally have oranges that split as you describe but not a % that causes concern.

Is yours a washington navel?

One of my orange trees is a Valencia Navel and the other is a blood orange, purchased from the Home Depot but from a citrus grower in South Texas.

Since the orange that split was one of two fruits, that was 50%. It was edible, but not too sweet. It was still immature. The remaining fruit looks OK. I agree the reason it split was due to intense heat and a sudden change in the amount of water. The fruit just popped open!

Meanwhile, 13 pink grapefruit, about 10 lemons, and nearly two dozen satsuma are still forming.

[papa moose]

Since the orange that split was one of two fruits, that was 50%.

Yeah, that is sucky, i follow your posts and see how emotionally connected it is possible to become with a single piece of fruit when your crop yields are still so low.
I would be very sad too to lose 50% of my yield, i really don't want to tell you how big our yield is tho, perhaps it would encourage you, perhaps discourage. Judging from the age of our house and the size of our three citrus trees i would guess their age is closer to 30 years than not, we certainly get more fruit than even a family of 5 can eat (hence my curiosity regarding freezing OJ).

Hope the big dry ends for you soon.

[PeakOiler]

The second and final orange is still green and over 3.5" in diameter now.

Meanwhile the satsuma mandarins are turning yellow-orange. One was really ripe so I picked it yesterday evening and ate it this morning. Yum!
It wasn't too big. It weighed 114 grams, (82 grams edible). (12 grams of carbs, of which 79% of the carbs were sugars.)

The dozen grapefruits and dozen lemons are still getting bigger too.

[JJ]

P.O., did you lose a bunch more weight?

[PeakOiler]

P.O., did you lose a bunch more weight?

Hi JJ. (I went by the store where JJ works to pick up a few things and stopped by to say hello.) No, I've actually gained some weight since the last time I saw you. I'm back up to about 161-165 pounds. Being 5'11", that's a still somewhat underweight.

JJ, how much are tangerines (satsuma) per pound at your store? And not those real little mandarins in a bag from Peru, but satsuma mandarins (if y'all have any right now). The couple dozen or so still on my little trees are about 2" to 2-3/4" in diameter. A few have turned nearly all yellow-orange now.

btw, would you like a pineapple plant? I have too many.

[PeakOiler]

Some of the satsuma:



They're getting there...

Two of the dozen pink grapefruit:



They'll be ready in December.

[JJ]

no, we have way too many pineapples. I'll get back to you on the price... regards, Jay

[JJ]

2/1.00

[PeakOiler]

2/1.00

Thanks JJ. How much do two HEB satsuma tangerines weigh?

The first satsuma I harvested this season weighed 114 grams or about 0.18 lb or about 5 per pound. I'm trying to determine my payback vs. the local grocery store, i.e. HEB.

I'll be stopping by the HEB in Georgetown soon (to pick up a prescription) and while I'm there, I'll see if they have any satsuma in stock and if so, I'll weigh some on the scale. (HEB's scales still measure in pounds, not kilos, if I'm not mistaken, btw. They need to change that, or have digital displays that could also show metric units.

Perhaps I just didn't see the metric units on the spring-scale in the produce section at the store...?)

The peach trees (over the years) have yielded enough fruit to more than offset the cost of the trees. A lot more! But not this year.

The drought essentially nullified my peach and pecan yields this year:



I haven't shelled the couple dozen pecans yet. They should be about dry enough now.

The satsuma total is still incomplete for 2011 since I haven't harvested the rest of them yet of course.

[jdmartin]

Can I grow a pineapple in the house?

[PeakOiler]

The other night the overnight low got down to 32F briefly, but I had brought the avocado tree into the house. Yesterday I brought the recovering lime tree into the house by the dining room windows. The tallest lime tree branch is now six ft. tall.


The two grapefruit trees will get moved into the dining room too. Note the two 5-gal bottles of distilled water in the foreground. (I have over 30 gallons of distilled rainwater at this time.)

Some of the citrus on the deck will get moved into the greenhouse soon:

I picked two more satsuma mandarins yesterday. The ramps temporarily set up on the deck enable me to cart the potted trees to the greenhouse.




Meanwhile the last orange is beginning to turn. It's now as big as some of the grapefruit!


The pink grapefruit are beginning to turn yellow:


I need to reset the date stamp on my camera. Somehow it is off by a day.

[PeakOiler]

They sure are getting orange now:



I counted 31 satsuma tangerines this morning. At least six more are ready to be harvested today. I've already harvested eight. If I get 39 for the season, that would be the best year so far!

P.S. There are no freezing temperatures forecast for the next ten days. All the tangerines will probably be picked in that time before the trees get put into their hoophouse for the winter.

[JJ]

we grew some mandarins that were on the tree when I bought it at Home Depot. They were so pretty we left them on the tree all winter. When we picked them in the spring, they were bland. No sweetness at all.

[PeakOiler]

we grew some mandarins that were on the tree when I bought it at Home Depot. They were so pretty we left them on the tree all winter. When we picked them in the spring, they were bland. No sweetness at all.

You probably left them on the tree too long after they ripened. Mine have all been very sweet.

[PeakOiler]

Yesterday I harvested the second (and last) navel orange of the season from the young tree:



432 grams! That's a 0.95 pound orange...as big as a grapefruit...

I haven't eaten it yet since I'm still working on the satsuma tangerines.

This was the first year that the little tree produced some fruit. I bought the tree on March 2, 2009.

[PeakOiler]

Some of the lemons were ready to be harvested. I'm only getting 11 this year. Shown are the first six and one of the tangerines on top:



The six lemons weighed in at 1420 grams (3.1 lb). I like big lemons. Easier to juice. At times I have measured 92 ml/lemon.

I harvested my first pink grapefruit of the season today. The fridge is getting full of citrus fruits!

[PeakOiler]

Shown below are three of my young citrus trees on the front porch, two satsuma and one navel orange. I pulled the sheet plastic up and over the PVC framework (seen tucked up behind the pots) since no freezing temperatures are forecast for at least a week.



I temporarily connected some 3/4" PVC pipe (just dry-fitted) to one of the outside water spigots from the rainwater tank plumbing, which you can see draped across the pots. Using gravity flow only, the unfiltered rainwater flowed very well into each pot. (The 2,500 gallon tank behind the house was nearly full, and it's water level was well above the level of the pots on the front porch.)

When the forecast calls for freezing temperatures again, I'll disconnect and remove the irrigation pipe, re-wrap the plastic around the framework, and plug in the drop-lights to provide a little warmth for the citrus.

We've only seen below-freezing temperatures seven nights so far this season.

When I have the drop lights on for the citrus, I don't turn on the porch lights. I also tend to have the wood stove operating on those nights too, so the central electric heater is usually not operating, and the amount of electricity I actually use is less.

[Shaved Monkey]

We just had some good rains a few weeks back and all the citrus has put a second blush of flowers.
Unfortunately for the lemon and the peach it knocked of the existing flowers at a crucial time.
No peaches at all this summer, but the lemon has fruit in varying sizes.
Might get to see my first pomellos this year too.
The tropical Apple has blossomed 3 times this year and its got some tiny fruit the first ever.