Looking good as usual!! I would love to see an overhead shot of your whole yard, I bet it is fantastic.

I planned to take some photos today, but it is raining so maybe tomorrow. I do however have some pics of a project I worked on over the labor day weekend.

A nice winter home for my trees and hopefully some veggies next spring. Its 5'x8' on the south side of my house.

Im not 100% done, still have much to do but for now it is water tight. I need to put another layer of plastic on the inside, work on the vents, shelving, trim boards on the seams, and get pavers on the floor.

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and my other little fun project
store bought mango seedling and avocado to the right. I plan to get a grafted mango this winter. I also rooted a pineapple crown, so I guess eventually I have to split my time between here and the tropical forum. lol
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OMG MIKEEEEEE i gonna send you my babies while i go on vac. next yr..LOLOLOL...ok here they are or at least some of them cant post all 30 LOL...paper is on these to protect them on my ramp from the CATS..
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this is what it looked like a mth or so
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this is what it looks like now if i hadn't gotten way w/my shadow

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a month ago this had no leaves at all just 3 sticks LOL

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this one is Questionable have no idea what it is any body no it has very large leaves it got a littel sun burned but doin very well

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hope you can see these it has 5 blooms on it grapefruit

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this one still has or is getting all yellow leaves??Y???

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hate to see summer go boo hoo!!!!

Sorry for the blurry on so many of these photos. I borrowed my dad's camera because his has more features than mine, but apparently I don't know how to work it because when I looked at the pics there was a lot of blur.

My Minneola Tangelo:

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I decided this week to graduate this tree from the support stake. It is not apparent in this pic, or in any other pic of the tree that I have found on my hd, but this tree came to me with a trunk that was about the thickness of my pointer finger. The graft mark is waaay way down on the trunk, like 5 inches above the ground, and the tree was 5 feet tall when I got it. I believe the scion was a long whip of a branch that was applied to the rootstock, a branch that was nowhere near thick enough to hold up the weight of the canopy. I have had this tree staked now for 4 years, and I've been slowly weaning it off the stake, and now I think it's ready to stand on its own!

Kind of weird how green it looks in this pic. It looks kind of grubby in real life. And this is the reason why:

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Blurry pic of the scale that are all over this tree. You can see the lovely sooty mold on the leaves there, too. All of these scale are dead, but I found a live one on another leaf earlier this week, so I pesticided the tree again.

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Despite its tribulation - or perhaps because of it - the tree is still trying to grow. Maybe it thinks it can grow out of the scale. Worth a try anyway.

Here is my Washington Navel:

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This tree always looks good without even trying.

The Eureka Lemon:

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We had a little storm yesterday and a wind came and knocked this tree over. I may need to reconsider my staking strategy. This weekend I plan to repot it, because as you can see that pot is getting kind of cruddy after being out in the weather and everything for 4 years. Time to retire that one to the trash can!

I repotted the Meyer this past weekend and took a couple of nice pics of it:

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But when I went out today, what did I find?

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Hmmm. I don't like the look of that.

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I am really not digging that at all. I gave this tree a copper bath right after I took these pics. I think it may have rolled in blight while I was repotting it, without my realizing it. Our back yard is so minuscule that the blight that caused our tomatopocalypse this year is probably everywhere on the grass. In retrospect, I should have protected the tree with a plastic bag. :/

@Displacer:

I need to check my citrus and non-citrus then. Had a bit of a tomatocalypse here as well - extremely hot, dry summer, and most of my nightshades are toast, though I think my problem was pests - tomatoes, tomatillos, pepinos, cape gooseberries are all SO attractive to various pests that they were lured away from all of my other plants, for better or worse.

I need to take some newer citrus pics. They are all doing well. The grafted ones are growing and growing. Some of the seedlings are as well - the sudachi has started to branch, and the eureka lemon is the rock star of the bunch.

@ Mike
Awesome awesome pics. Always an inspiration. I note your blueberries - very envious! I'm a renter not an owner, so I can't go putting perennials into the ground. Or maybe I can!: some previous resident here planted a wild passionfruit vine, a mulberry, and an apricot tree, all in the back acreage behind my apartment, so I have been able to get fruit from those, whatever the wildlife didn't get first!

@Busylady
I love the closeups of new growth, and the grapefruit blooms too! My grafted trees haven't bloomed yet - lots and lots of foliage. Hopefully I'll see some blooms within the next year or so.

I have a cat too - he's not done any damage at all; he's mostly been indifferent to the plants, though he likes being out there and walking among them when I'm watering. Maybe he's keeping the wildlife away!

Davecito:

I think there is a reservoir of alternaria in the neighborhood somewhere, and it is a rather cosmopolitan species. Our tomatoes were destroyed this year by what was, in retrospect, obviously early blight, and this same lemon tree was attacked last year by a fungus that I believe was also alternaria despite it not looking =exactly= the way citrus alternaria looks in pictures. I believe this because one of my tangelos had a core of corruption inside it which is, I understand, a hallmark of alternaria infection.

I let the fungus go last year for far too long because I wasn't paying attention to my trees, and the tomatoes weren't mine so I didn't even look at them until my attention was drawn to how, uh, blighted they looked. :D So I am trying to be vigilant now. I've found that if you catch these yellow spots before they start to turn brown, you can often totally reverse the damage by killing the fungus before it kills too many leaf cells.

well i managed to get a few pics in between the 3-4 inches of rain we have had in the last day that tropical storm hermine left us.

i got these little guys back in may, photo was taken on 5-19, the following photo was taken today. they have really grown a lot and already been repotted since.
meyer lemon, mexican lime, washington naval.
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here is my larger meyer lemon. It finally put on some lower branches to make it not look so top heavy. My key lime and satsuma this size have also done very well.

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Mksmth...You are truly amzing in quite a few things! Being able to grow your citrus so nics and from small to almost triple in size, build that sun room which is a great and fun idea for many I am sure, to avoid drowning in all that rain, not get struck by lightning and post some nice pictures! Thank you so much for being a big part of this forum..I love everything you post.

What kind of mix as a reminder are you using and what is the ferilizer you use and your regimend? Fantastic..:-)

Buylady!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the difference in your plants as to just a few weeks ago...Great job at listening and applying....Beautiful. I did see the blooms and all the new growth...Someone might have an idea about the yellow leaves..

Dicplacer, I am in love with your Washington navel and the Lemon Meyer..GREAT looking trees they are...Is that the ree that lost all it's leaves in the winter??? If so, WOW..Did you get nervous about that, or just hold back on watering and knew it would bloom out again? I lov ethe shapes to..Gotta love the falling over pots I tell you!
Sheesh I hope you get those issues under control though.:-(
Let us know how it goes, ok..

Mike..:-)

Hi Jojo..:-)

Mike

thanks for the comments mike, I enjoy hanging around here and seeing everyone elses progress and of course learning as much as I can. I guess I have really got the citrus bug now, lol.

Im using the 5:1:1 in everything, the only thing missing is the lime. The bigger trees have a bit of turface in theirs to hold a bit more water.
Im using plain ole all purpose MG at about 1/4-1/2 the recommended strength. I have controlled release in the mix that has micros. And when I remember to do so, I add a little vinegar

The easy part is over. This will be my first winter with more than 2 citrus, so we'll see how everything looks come spring.

Mike well its all due U an others.. i sure have learned a lot i can tell you that but some still have some yellow leaves yours all look so plush an GREEN..i need nother 2 mths out side LOL...now they been in slow drizzle rain all day hope they don't drown,...
Davecito...my out side cats are wild not very tame they are barn cats an caught one digging in my plant i had heart attack LOL..
yea i wish some one could tell me why the yellowing i got one on the deck where cats can't go so its not that and one on my ramp..

Buylady:

It looks like that tree has something going on in the pot. I would knock it out of the pot, check the roots and make sure they are healthy, trim any unhealthy ones but leave all the white ones intact, and repot it into totally clean potting medium with a proper pH. I would give it a very, very small dose of fertilizer and then leave it alone for a while.

It seems like that plant isn't getting a good uptake of nutrients. Rather than worry about what the problem is, I would start over with fresh medium and fertilize very gently until it starts to recover.

Too much fertilizer always causes more problems than not enough.

Mike:

I knew the Meyer lemon would recover. It was healthy other than the alternaria in the leaves. Plus, Meyer lemons are made of titanium.

these were taken in August.

plumies and two angel red poms on the right
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mango seedlings, orchid and plumie
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dwarf meyer lemon
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ewok
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cara cara navel
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N33 navel orange
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OK thx Displacer i'll do that asap.....hey i asked if any one new what the heck my pic of plant #5 down is some how its gotten lost tag..lol got really big leaves

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Great pics! Thanks for sharing. Here's a few of mines.
I visited Sacramento, CA in late August and picked up a 5 gallon Oroblanco & Nagami Kumkuat for $22 bucks. I was thrilled to find them at this fantastic price! Also, there's a one gallon improved lemon meyer, dwarf singapore pink plumeria, Zebda Mango, Cherimoya seedlings and another pic of my Nagami Kumkuat. That's all Folks.... Have a great weekend everyone!
Bo

Bo, Bo...! So happy to see you here..:-):-):-)
Look at you grabbing citrus trees..Who had that influence on you? They look great...Nice pick too..You will not be disappointed with the Oro...:-)

Hi Buylady...Are the cats staying out of your pots? Great idea!

Houstontexas: What a cute nemesis and great looking trees..Thank you..Let's hope for a forgiving winter...:-)
No deep freezes for you I hope...Of course you could always just carry them indoors...
You are lucky though, to keep them out so much longer than us...Man, I wish I could live in a zone8..:-)
Nice plumie too..

Mike

LOL Ewok. What a cutie!

Hi Mike yep sure are darn buggers..every thing seems to be growing good cept the two yellowish ones and i did what she told me to do on one and it did have some dark brn roots...gonna do the other monday wonder what cause that???
..PLEASE some one i've asked 3 times does any no my plant the 5th pic down???????

Buylady:

If you had dark brown roots you probably have a fungal infection. I hope you cut off all the brown and washed the roots well! After giving the plant an initial (very small) dose of fertilizer, don't add any more at all until the plant starts to recover and you begin to see growth. And go light on the water. It probably doesn't need as much water as you think right now.

I can't really tell one citrus or citrus-related plant from another by looks lol. I think your best bet is to let it grow a fruit and then eat it. :D

Hi Buylady!!!!!!!!!Yeehaaaa..Are you having a fun time tonight? I am not...All I have been thinking about ALL DAY is how the heck am I going to fit all my tropicals and citrus in one room?...lol. I always keep that room unheated all winter, down to about 55 in the winter..I hope and pray my tropicals don't mind those temps since my Citrus flourish in those temps and pest stay completely away...

I FOUND MEALY BUG ON ONE OF MY PLANTS! THE ONLY PLANT I FORGOT TO SPRAY WITH FE ALL SUMMER! That thing was hiding in amounst the bushes and I never saw it..How it survived summer I'll never know though...Do you think I should bring that one in even after I treat it?

I tried to identify that 5th plant down too, and I will agree with Displacer..Pray for a fruit, then try it..You will really know..I am proud of all the hard work you have been doing and don't forget to read what AL has posted about water retentive soils...We could really use a good dose of that info..It will make it possible for us to keep our trees very healthy this winter...

Hoping you are well..;-)

Mike..:-)

Mike:

Speaking of FE, I gave my trees their first dose today. You didn't warn me that this would make my back yard smell like a lake. LOL

Watch out for the cats...lolololololol

Sort of reminds you of a walk along the beach doesn't it? lol

It is no wonder bugs don't like the feel of it, let alone the smell..lol

Take care man.

Mike

Cats are definitely the biggest pest of plants, lol.

On a less amusing note, check out what I found on my Meyer when I went out to look at my trees this morning:

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Obviously I missed a spot with the copper.

Displacer,

What in the heck is that spot? Is that fungus of some sort that would of taken over your tree ?

What does copper do? Is it safe for all plants? Do you only use it when a problem arises? Is it to be used at a certain time of the year? Is it easily available?
Do you always keep a supply of it on hand? How often have you had to use it? Can it be used on other plants?

I know, lot's of questions..lol...But I am interested in it.

Thanks a lot..:-)

Mike

Yes, that's the Alternaria that was all over my Meyer lemon last fall. That was the reason why I cut all the leaves off it. Sulfur sprays prevent the spores from germinating, and copper sprays kill it if it's already germinated.

Copper is pretty safe for most plants, but some react poorly to it. There are some varieties of rose, for instance, that will drop every leaf that has so much as smelled copper. I always test a branch before spraying it onto the whole plant, whenever I'm using it on a new plant or using a different kind of copper. Mark a branch with a bit of twine, spray the branch, and wait a week to see if the plant reacts badly.

If you overdo it, even a plant that isn't sensitive to copper can have a toxic reaction, so I only use it once I see a problem starting. You can use it prophylactically, but I usually don't. I probably will start using it prophylactically with this plant, though, since it seems to be so vulnerable.

I usually have copper on-hand, but I've run out so I ordered more from Amazon. I generally use the Bonide copper spray (which has either 3 or 4 different copper compounds, I can't recall how many) but on sensitive plants I use Concern (which only contains copper octanoate). Concern is considerably more expensive than Bonide, so I try to save it for the finicky ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bonide copper concentrate - you can sometimes find this local, which would cost less than getting it from Amazon

Thank you!! I am going to post a picture of the stuff I just bought and ask opinion on another thread...It is suppose to be the best on the market for diseases...

Thank you again:-)

Mike

Hey, Mike. I was searching for something else and found the report I've linked. The upshot is that they did a test to see what kills mealy, and the two winners were acetamiprid and thiomethoxam. If you don't have luck with anything else, you could try a pesticide with one of these two compounds. If the plant is an ornamental, it shouldn't be an issue to spray it with a pesticide.

Here is a link that might be useful: click for Rutger's Uni report

Ok, here are my septembers (sorry had to sneak a few non citrus pics)

Parson Brown
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Meyer starting to turn

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Marsh Grapefruit
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Bee on limequat

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Limequat

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Weimers on Patrol for Squirrels (morning glories)
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Nagami

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Plummeria

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Variegated Eureka Baby
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Variegated Centennial Kumquat

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jaybird3316 - Nice pics! I love your Nagami Kumquat and patrol dogs. Do you live in Florida? How do you keep the leaves a very healthy and lush green? Do you use foliage pro? What kind of mix do you use?
Thanks,
Bo

Hi Bo,
I bet these pics make you want your trees to be at your house now huh!
Hey jaybird,
That is the gritty mix right? I was wondering, I know your Centennial kumquat is still really small but have you tasted a fruit from it yet? I bought one as a gift for my dad this year. I so wanted to get him the Meiwa but I found a really nice Centennial locally. It was about twice the size of the one you have pictured , it was loaded with flowers and fruits and was only $20.00. That was why I decided to just go with that tree and not waste my money on all the shipping fees. I do enjoy the quality of Four Winds citrus. I was originally going to go thru them but I was satisfied with the one I picked up.
I also wanted to kno0w if your Meyer lemons have to be completely yellow for them to be ripe. This year is the first year for me and my Improved Meyer. It was absolutely loaded with fruits until about 2 weekends ago when we had bad windstorms that knocked out about 1/3 of the total fruit from the tree. I am ripening some of the green fruits by keeping them in sunlight. I also have had some that were yellow but not bright yellow that have fallen off. I tried a few of them and was really impressed with there flavor. You cna really taste the mandarin cross in it!
Andrew

Bo and Andrew,

Thanks for the nice comments.

Bo, I think I am playing the role of "blind hog" as I haven't used anything on the leaves. I put all the potted citrus in Al's 5:1:1 mix and all of them seem to be thriving in it. I am a believer (although I would like to try one in the gritty mix, but it seemed to be harder to create).

I live in Northwest Florida, right on the border of where you still have to worry about freezes. Our weather can get really chilly with the high humidity.

Andrew, I actually have about 4 of those small centennials, they were like $8 at Home Depot. I like them mostly for the look and haven't had fruit from them as of yet. Will let you know how it goes. I probably should pull some off so the tree can grow faster.

FANTASTIC jaybird!!!

So beautiful, full, luscious, healthy and big!!! Just what I work so hard for, for mine to look like here in New England...Now I am jealous that yours get to stay outside for the next few months, while mine have to come in, in a month..:-((((

Oh, your plants look so pretty and such a great job you are doing considering they are not even in the ground some of them..That plumeria looks awfully happy too...Can my plants take a vacation at your house?

Thank you for posting and for being around to add flavor here..

If you can get all the ingredients together, you will like the gritty mix even better and so will your plants!! Trust me on that...

Take care

Mike

Hi ya Mikeeeeeeee, oh my what does a mealy bug look like oh dear...oh my i wish you could see the two plants i sent pics of long time ago how yellow they where they are so green now they are on my ramp been sparying w/FE and OIL boy that stuff stinks too...WOW you got a lovely addition there Mke guess you could always use a small heater for short time to keep temps up some when its terribly cold out or does it get that bad where your at?...Ok guess i'll have to baby that plant to fruit so i can tell every one what it is LOL...

Howdy, everyone!
Great pics and plants!

Josh

I am posting the same photos I posted in anohter thread but are sept pics. The first is actually a July 4 pic of a sick meyer that I put into an unscreened 5.1.1 mix (I didn't know at the time). The second is the same tree the first week of Sept. The next two are an oroblanco that got the same treatmen with a slightly altered 5.1.1 mix. What they look like come next spring will be the real test but they shot out tons of new growth. Sorry the older vs. newer pics got reversed but you get the story anyway.
Dave
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Mike,

Thanks for the compliments. I love your enthusiasm for the subject matter. I appreciate you encouraging these picture topics. I really enjoy seeing everyone's pictures.

I'll have to try and get some pictures of my citrus trees on here. I have a Florida Grapefruit, a Mexican Key Lime, and a California Navel Orange Tree that all look very healthy. I live in zone five, and it's kind of challenging to get citrus to grow here. I also have a California Lemon tree, but it's not doing very well. I will also post a picture of my strawberry papaya tree.

Now, everyone....Absolutely beautiful you all..Such a great job and than God for the summer. right?

Bigmaro, I am very proud of you!

Rdj1234, what are you waiting for? I can't wait to see..:-)

Nite

Mike..:-)

Thanks Mike. Those are a couple weeks old now.Yu should see the oroblanco sprouts. FP and not too much water is a big part of it. I put a satsuma in gritty mix. Was that ever a lot of work. The pot wich is about 10 gallons weighs a ton. I screened everything in that mix so I hope it has a strong spring. Time will tell if the unscreened 5.1.1 mix comes out of winter ok. My winter project will be to screen as much bark as I can so I am ready to repot a couple more trees come spring. I will take another photo of the oroblanco and one of my new Meyer that is still in its original mix and #5 fourwinds container. It looks super healthy and is full of flowers and growth again thanks to careful watering and FP and I think the FE showers are helping too. Great forum..great people...great tips.
thanks again to all,
Dave

Here are the Meyer and the Oroblanco taken this morning. Not sure if you can see all the growth and flowers. Mike, how do you post your big photos?
Dave
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Hey Guys,

Howdy Mike! I've been dealing with health issues the last couple months.. really bad. But I've also been a stay-at-home dad for the last two years (what a change, but I love every minute of it). So those two have been difficult for me to keep up with forums, except when my pain is severe and I'm up all night. My trees even suffered as I lost quite a few blueberries and a couple apples during the past two months.

All my citrus have survived, many are doing excellent. But as I said in another thread my attempt at "acclimating" the container citrus to full sun, on the southern side of my house where it gets 130F, getting all day sunlight with extremely bright light, has not been successful -- but not a complete failure.

All the container roots were protected by various means (otherwise they were definitely toast). Those under shade cloth still had growth spurts, just not as strong. All the mature in-ground trees on that side thrive just fine -- notwithstanding leaf and fruit burn around the canopy edges of course. Recently planted in-ground struggled and needed shade cloth as well as lots of mulch.

The big test: my largest 18g container trees NOT under shade cloth (tho container itself shaded) in such extreme heat and light were clearly stressed. They were in a cyclical growth/death pattern: the excessive light was stimulating growth like CRAZY, everywhere. But the heat was clearly burning off so many leaves and branches, combined with visible branch die back, it became very difficult to nail down nutrients and even watering. The Dynamite 9 month CRF were used up fast -- tons of empty spherical capsules all over the surface after 3.5 months (June-Aug).

Sigh.... I think you're right, it's impossible to do TRUE FULL sun (incl. all afternoon) in our hot dry summers for ANY container plant without shade cloth completely protecting foliage when it's 100+. That's in addition to my normal root protection (cache pot or full shade on container itself). My specific conditions on the south side exacerbate the problem. Humidity and shade should improve once more of my in-ground citrus and nectarines establish.

You should see my "container media degradation" test case citrus tree. It's a Valencia I've had for 4 years in a half-barrel, hanging on to life in the original horrid media mix of MG soil + compost and fine sand. Every spring it flushes, but then loses leaves in the heat and drops it's fruit. It took a serious beating on the south side when not under shade cloth. It's all spindly now, very little interior foliage, and die-back everywhere. It's time to put it in the gritty mix and see how it grows.

Supposedly we've had our last 100s now for the summer. This is the 2nd best time to plant trees in the ground or re-pot, but only if I do it quickly and pray winter doesn't come too quick.

I'll try get some pics up soon... including my failures.

cebury,

Sorry your are dealing with health issues. I pray whatever you are dealing with passes quickly.

Please do post failures, we all have many and of course we all learn by each others failures. I wish I didn't have so many I could help others "learn" by - lol.

Dave: My absolute favorite part of the citrus growing -- seeing all those buds and knowing the fragrance is just days away.

It's funny though, there is a circumstance when a tree is doing very poor that is also buds outrageously -- like buds covering every square inch of the limbs.

Funny how something so beautiful occurs when the tree is both healthy and NOT.

Cebury, I had just enough time to read what you wrote and had to fly..I will be back to respond to your post...Please feel better, k..

Mike

Cebury:

First of all I am sorry to hear you have been in so much pain and your circumstances..No wonder you have not been around..Then to even think that you are worried of who is going to care for your trees when in such pain? :-((
We that know you here, wish you all the best. I guess you can at least enjoy the good company here..:-)

I am sorry to hear how you lost your bluberry and apple trees...What happend to them? I know bluberries require a TON of water to grow well...

Do you have a north, west, or east side of the home you can place your trees in, until the extreme hot weather passes? How about making a cover with two by fours and heavy plastic to cover them during the hottest part of the day to diffuse the sun? Then you can use this to cover them at night to get you through the frosts too..

Please do post your pictures..We are here not to see just the good ones, but to help each other heal the sick ones too...I might be here posting a couple of sick ones at any time..Our plants are finicky and unpredicatable, no matter what we do..

I am glad to see you back once again, and I wish you much happiness these days ahead..:-)

Mike