BRAVO - what a wonderful demonstration of the fascinating things you can do in the garden!

Thats not a current picture is it? Do you have one showing all these fruits? Wow 50 now is it.

Thanks susi!

bfreeman, that pic was taken 12-03-06, and others were taken on 12-01-06.

Right now it has about 25 kinds of fruits. It is quite not possible to have 50 fruits at the same time for now as they have different maturity dates and about a third of those are newly grafted, but at different times yes it is possible!

Click the link below to trace the earliest pictorial beginnings of this tree.

Here is a link that might be useful: 50-n-1 citrus tree exists!

That's insane (in a very good way)!!! So amazing, Joe. Can't wait to show all my friends and family. :)

Brenda

Fascinating! So there is always something happening on that tree. Will any one type dominate and crowd out the others? What months do you not have any mature fruit? How do you keep track of all the different fruit types as the tree matures?

HD:
1) Thanks!
2) what's happening is the continuous regrafting to keep the tree balanced.
3) Definitely one type may crowd out all the others, that's why I do number 2)
4) I have mature fruits all year round, counting the lemons and limes. The leanest months would be summer to fall and now I am trying to collect varieties that will mature on those dates aside from lemons and limes.
5) I label the branches with aluminum tags, sometimes those fall off due to tree rats, birds, pruning by wife, and mostly kids. If labels are lost, I try to back track by waiting for the fruit and then process of elimination as to what types they are. I consider my tree to be mature already. For the fruits, I sample them after they develop deep colors.

Where do you get all those varieties? Here in Atwater, all I can find are Valencia, Clementine, Eureka, Meyer, Bearss, and Oro Blanco. (Pretty slim pickens)

I would love to have a continual harvest of the sweetest, least tart varieties possible. What would you recommend, and where might I find them?

Thank you,
boballi

Learn how to graft.
Then order budwoods from UCR from the link below this post.

As to the varieties: Miho Wase Satsuma, Miyagawa, Page, Algerian clementine, Vainiglia Sanguigno, Lima Acidless, Gold nugget, Seedless Kishu, ... are just one of the sweetest samples.

Oro Blano, Wekiwa Tangelos are grapefruit hybrids that are very sweet...

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Riverside budwood program

Thank you for the tip! I look forward to placing my first order!

boballi

ps
Do you have any recommendations for Apricots? CA z9/SS8
Thanks Again!

Harcot apricots are very good tasting and some disease resistant but you need a pollenizer to have good yields. Royal Rosa would also be good producer but are very early types of apricots.

You can attend the Sacramento Scionwood exchange this coming 1/21/2007 to be held at Kieffer Blvd in the Sacramento County Ag Extension center (but my details could be wrong), but better yet, just like me, I am going over to Santa Clara to attend the annual scionwood exchange and get loads of different apricots to graft to my trees and find out what works best.

Harcots produced modestly last year for me even when we had the greatest diseases pressure due to heavy rains during bloom time.

Thanks very much for the recommendations and info!

The scionwood exchanges sound interesting. How do I find out more about them? Is their a link?

Thanks again,
boballi

I found your Santa Clara Scionwood Exchange post and the bark graft pictures. Excellent directions!

boballi

Joe: thanks so much for the posting your tree success story and the links to the other pix. Absolutely fascinating. I'm just at the beginning of growing citrus. I had no idea what could be done. Grafting is probably a ways away but your labor of citrus love is truly an inspiration. Kristine

Hi Joe,

That is one fabulous tree.

Cheers,

Angelique

thanks Kristine, Angelique and others. Truly appreciate it.

Angelique, how's the budded Lisbon tree doing?

Hi Joe,

I haven't seen any ripe fruit off of the tree. In the summer there were lots off very small baby fruits on the tree. They quickly turned black. I assume from the heat. Recently, I had the same problem in the last couple of months. There were lots of flowers/small fruits until the weather got cold. I am hoping for a better year.

Additionally, when Genio and I transported the tree from your house, a couple of the tags slipped off. Luckily, I was able to save them so that I could identify the fruit.

I had planned on following your feeding instructions starting next month. (Amonium sulfate 1 c, Triple 16 1c
and Epson Salt ¼ cup mixed together. Apply 1 tablespoon biweekly. (1 tablespoon per inch diameter of tree).

I did veer from your instruction. For part of the year, I used E.B. Stone (7-3-3) or Dr. Earth (5-7-3). Sorry. I feel really guilty.

Any advice?

Cheers,

Angelique

Angelique, don't feel guilty. You will find that citrus can tolerate a wide range of mixes. Potted plants usually seem to demand more nutrients due to the continuous leaching. If the plant respond well to your other regimen, you should follow that well. As to the browning fruits and falling off, the citrus is not yet ready to bear a lot of fruits for you. It will retain them someday and you will be surprised. Citruses usually will shed or abort majority of the blooms and fruits, something like 1-2% retention, but of course, I also had citruses with few blooms and had 100% retention.

Regards,

Joe

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the encouragement.

Angelique