HI Josh!
I can't believe how much growth you've had and how much you cut off! I can't wait for it to bloom for you! Oh the fragrance is amazing!

How did the cutting do that you were trying to root?

JoJo

Thanks, JoJo!
I'd love to see the progress of yours.
I know there are others who have variegated Lemons, too.
I'd love to see progress pics of them all.

The cuttings that I had in water stayed nice and green, but started to attract ants.
So I tossed 'em.

This was the third time that I've pruned this tree, although this was the largest
piece yet. The other times I pruned, I took off about 8 inches from all sides.

By the way, couldn't wait...had to remove more of the tree...

{{gwi:626339}}

Josh

Another "hair cut" ROFL!
It still looks beautiful, so I guess it could spare a little. ;-)

That's a shame about your cuttings, mine were done indoors in a jar of water. Took forever though.

Well,
As far as my tree, no you don't really want to see it's progress. I'd hate to see a grown man cry!

Let's just say it's downhill right now and not looking too good. Don't know if it's savable. :-(

JoJo!

I'm sorry to hear about your Lemon! :(
Do you have any guesses as to what happened? Arizona heat?

My cuttings were indoors on a window-sill and the ants still found them.
For a while, I would take the cuttings outdoors and hose the ants off when changing the water.
That became tedious, however, because the ants kept returning. I might try again sometime...
as you can see, I have lots of material ;-)

Josh

Hey Guys and Gals!

Lot's of action around here these days, right?lol

I have been in much pain, so sorry for the absence! Look at what I almost missed.
I just love your tree Josh and the idea you have about shaping it. You are VERY gusty and it is obvious you are focused on the shape more so that the amount of blossoms you get. I would be scared to death to loose much growth for fear of less blooms.lol No wonder mine all could use a few haircuts.

Jojo. I am so sorry about yours too. What did happen? Was it the heat? You can grow just about anything.:-(

Mu cuttings never start in any kind of water. I have never had success, that is until the only few cuttings I did trim were thrown into a still pond/body of water and they all rooted..lol

I hope you are all well and ready for some exciting times here just as soon as we are all on the same relaxed page!

MIke

Josh, your Lemon is gorgeous. I can't believe how compact it is even after pruning.

What happened to the citrus you found or was given some time ago? Is it still around?

How I wish the FL ban would end. It's about time!! One of the nurseries I used to order from has a variegated Calamondin. I have two Var Pink Lemons, but would like to add a Citron or Buddha's Hand and the Var Calamondin. Toni

Hey, Mike!
I'm hoping you have full use of your feet again soon!
I know you're dying to get some pics of your trees....and be able to interact with them as you love to do.
Yeah, you know me pretty well...I'm willing to wait a few years for blooms/fruit in order to have the shape
that I want.

Toni, thanks and welcome!
It's good to see you in Citrus! This tree has stayed relatively compact because I've
been pruning periodically, which encourages branching and back-budding. However, it is vigorous!

The other citrus must be my Ponderosa Lemon. It's doing very well now, with another flush of growth.
I'll have to take a pic and update the Thread.

Josh

Greetings!

I thought it was about time for an update.... ;-)

Much has happened with the variegated Lemon since the last update, including a full re-potting.
Let me hasten to add that the re-potting was done out of season, and I wouldn't recommend that anyone
else do the same. I fully *intended* to re-pot in Summer, between growth flushes, but the darn Lemon
just kept on growing! Long story short, it wasn't until the temps dropped below 30F overnight that I
said to myself, Wow, I really don't want that lemon spending another Winter in nursery soil.

So let's back up a step to the beginning of November, when the tree was looking like this:

{{gwi:626341}}


In mid-November, I went out one morning to find that my tree had blown over in a storm.
A lot of soil was missing from the pot, and several branches had broken when it fell...
so I jumped at the opportunity to finally do the re-potting (and some pruning).
Here it is at a lean:

{{gwi:626342}}


A shot of new growth at the time, a bit haggard from the cold and battered by the storm:

{{gwi:626343}}


Therefore, I promptly removed the new growth to make things manageable again.
Here I am holding the severed top of the tree. Quite a vigorous grower, this one!

{{gwi:626344}}


Then I unceremoniously dumped the tree out of its pot to reveal crappy soil and what I consider
to be a somewhat paltry root-mass. Nevertheless, the roots, though few, were healthy.

{{gwi:626345}}


Before removing the tree from its pot, I made sure to have my mix at the ready. This is a gritty mix
using screened Fir bark, screened Turface MVP, screened coarse Perlite, and screened Quartz gravel.
I have a mound of mix in the bottom of the pot, and the remainder of the mix ready in a pond-basket.

{{gwi:626346}}


Here's a close-up shot of the mix, showing the texture and the relative particle sizes.

{{gwi:626347}}


Finally, after removing all the old soil, I arranged the roots in the new container and began slowly
filling in all the spaces between the roots. When I finished, I moved the tree back into a sheltered
location - out of direct sun and wind - and watered the roots and new mix with some lukewarm
water from the kitchen sink. Lastly, I used a stake to hold the tree stable so that the roots would
re-establish themselves in the mix in the shortest time possible.

{{gwi:626348}}


Josh

That's it?!!

I was enjoying the read until it abruptly stopped buddy! I love what you did and how the tree looks.

Now, I must say that you were awefully BRAVE to take off such a huge cutting since I would of never done that! And then to see the finished product after the fact proves that you know what you are doing and can see beauty in what ever you trim, chop!

Now, I did notice a very white leaf on your chopped portion! Those leaves are so beautiful Josh.
I would of probably tried rooting a few of those cuttings since I am confident you could of done it.

I LOVE the mix, the shape, and the colors of everything. I in particular I notice how burgundy your new growth starts. Amazing and thanks so much for the update and fun.

It's been awefully boring around here lately, so much appreciated for reserecting this forum a bit.!

Question? I did notice how the roots were all woven throughout the old mix. How did you remove the mix to expose all the roots without tearing any away?

Mike:-)))

Hehe...! Hey, Mike, sorry to leave you hanging! ;-)

I do have more to share, but I'll need to take a pic first....
Just yesterday I *think* I noticed the first bloom forming on my tree! How cool is that?!

Thanks for the compliments on the pruning. If you look up-Thread, you'll see that I've chopped off
some significant amounts of foliage several times already. Each time, it gets easier....because I know
that the branches and foliage will grow right back!

As far as rooting cuttings....I will try to root some more in the future. Space is so limited in Winter.
Yeah, that white leaf was really nice, but alas! it had to go ;-)

To remove the old soil, I honestly just shook the whole root-mass. The soil came away easily,
and saved me the headache.

Josh

Hi Josh!!

Thoroughly enjoyed the transformation on your beautiful Varigated Pink Lemon Tree.

Like Mike, i wanted more...LOL I was really into the pruning and felt like i was right there watching, great job!!!

You really like to prune those trees : )

Thanks for givng me the push to prune my trees this spring. I would probably take less than you, but it gives me a boost of confidence to see how much you did prune.

Wonderful thread...

Thank you!!!

Laura

Thank you, Laura!
By the way, I'm looking forward to pics of "Rosa" ;-)

I haven't taken any citrus pics since I re-potted, back on November 15th.
But I will climb into the cold-frame tomorrow and snap some current pics......
hopefully the new camera will co-operate. I'll take my tripod just in case.....

Yeah, I like to prune! My problem is that I procrastinate, and then the plants put on
a ton of growth.....and I have to prune off even larger pieces. If I would just prune consistently,
the shaping wouldn't be so drastic. Before I embarked on this citrus journey, I made a promise to
myself that *I* would dictate the keeping of these trees - and that means I'm not going to let them
outgrow their winter shelter, even if I have to wait a few years longer to harvest fruit.

Josh

Despite my late-season unorthodox re-potting, it looks as though I'll soon have my first bloom....

{{gwi:626349}}

Josh

Hi Josh,

What a wonderful surprise for you!!!

Happy New Year!!!

That just makes us aware that you can still prune and see results rather quickly!!!

Pictures speak louder than words!!!

Thanks for the new pictures of you tree.

I will take some pics of the "Rosa" and post tonight!!!

I do have a seedpod on the Mock Orange that Mike gave to me, so im really excited about that!!

Have a great evening!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Laura

Thank you, Laura.
Happy New Year to you, as well!
That little bud is a rather nice surprise, especially since I'd put my hopes aside when
I decided to re-pot in November. I'm glad that the work is done....now I can focus on getting
this tree back up to speed!

There are several thin branch-tips that were frozen in the weeks after re-potting,
but I'll wait until Spring to formally prune them off. I'm sure the freeze-pruning
will encourage even more bushiness to the tree.

Now I'm just waiting for the bud to bloom....!

Josh

Hey Josh! Just stopping by to say hello!

Boy your plants sure did well even after the frost tip damage! Good work.

Oh, it will bloom sooner than you think:-)

Mike

Thanks, Mike!

You were right, the re-potting didn't affect the blooms! ;-)

So......at 1:00am I remembered that my trees were still outside! As soon as I remembered,
I ran outside to carry my trees back into the cold-frame. I hosed them off this morning and
then treated them to some nice winter sun all day. The temps were only 35F when I moved
the trees, so that shouldn't be too bad of a shock.

Anyhow, it's a little after 2:00am now.... Good Night!

Josh

LOL Josh!

The things we do for our plants, right!? I have done the very same thing. I wonder if they thought they were doomed until you showed up? lol

Good catch and they should all be fine.

Mike:-)

Totally having tree-envy over here Josh! My pink lemon will get there one day...hopefully.

It'll get there, Redecorating!
How big is your tree now, and how often do you fertilize?

Hey, Mike!

Josh

My tree is about 4 yrs old and is 2ft tall. How often do I fertilize...well this is embarrassing...um...never. I mean not yet. I've only had her for about 3-4 months, not sure if that makes it better. I went to HD today looking for some citrus fertilizer but found nothing except the in ground spikes. I'm gonna have to order some, thinking Foliage Pro. Is that what you should use?

Well, that's the fertilizer that I use ;-)
Meyer Mike and several others use Foliage Pro, too.

But there are other fertilizers that will fit the bill. The thing to remember is that citrus are
heavy feeders and the fertilizer you choose should supply all the macro and micro nutrients.
Most fertilizers, however, do not include the micro nutrients.

Josh

Sorry, Josh that last sentence should have read "Is that what you use?" not "should use". Multitasking doesn't always work out ;-). I think I will go with the foliage pro since so many are getting good results. I've also heard good things about Dynamite. My tree is currently planted in bad old potting soil (will repot in spring using one of Al's mixes), how often do I need to fertilize?

You could fertilize at every watering, 1/4 strentgh, or once a week a stronger amount.
I use 1 tbs once a week on many occasions.

The reason why I like to give a small steady dose at every watering is because I never know which plants I would miss fertilizing that week if they didn't dry out by the time.
When I fertilize a weak solution at EVERY watering, I know I am not missing any at all.

Mike:-)

Great advice Mike!!!

I like you and Josh, like to use Foliage pro and use it at every watering as well!!! Usually use the 1/4 tsp per gallon.

All of the trees and plants really like it and respond in a positive way!!!

Love that Varigated Lemon Josh!!!

Take care everyone!!!

Hi MIke!!!

Laura

Thanks Laura!

You are always so kind and a very important parts of these forums for sure!

Yes. Josh's variegated tree is awesome and if I lived near a nursery where he got his from, I would be spending an aweful lot money.

Mike

Hello!

Been off burning underbrush on a friend's acreage, and I'm heading back out today....
but I wanted to respond before leaving! ;-)

Redecorating, the amount of Foliage Pro you use per dose will depend on how often you
fertilize, how well the plant is growing, and time of the year (which is closely tied to
how well the plant is growing). If your plants are in one of Al's mixes, you can utilize
a couple different fertilizer strategies. If you fertilize with every watering like Laura,
you can use a 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. This keeps the tree supplied with nutrients,
without overloading the mix with fertilizer residue (salts). Or you can fertilize with
a full strength dose every week (1 teaspoon per gallon). During the Summer, I fertilize once
a week.

Now, because of the slow-release fertilizer that was in the nursery soil, I fertilized
this variegated Lemon much, much more lightly than my other citrus. Now that it's in
a mix that has no nutrients (other than a small charge of Osmocote), I will fertilize more
heavily starting in early Spring.

Last year, my Moro Blood Orange was showing some yellowing leaves on the interior.
Although it is natural for older and shaded interior leaves to yellow and drop, I suspected
that I simply wasn't fertilizing enough to keep up with the tree's growth. So I fertilized
with over a TABLESPOON of Foliage Pro per gallon. That turned the tree around.

Citrus are heavy feeders, we need to keep in mind, and there will be some tailoring required
to arrive at the proper seasonal fertilizer regimen.

Josh

Josh, you're a night owl, too.. :)
I can picture you running out at 2am, not to mention 35F degrees, carrying plants from location A to location B. lol.
Do you have neighbors???

Some of my citrus bud earlier than others. By mid-December some trees had several buds/flowers, others nary-a-one.

Your Lemon looks great.

Hey Mike.. Toni

Thanks Mike, Laura, and Josh! I just ordered the FP. Since my tree is in Miracle gro I'll go lightly on the fertilizer. Thanks guys for your patience with a newbie.

Hello, Mike, Laura, Toni! ;-)

It was a long burn the past two days. The pines were roaring beneath the waxing Moon....
My skin feels dry and leathery, like I've been dressed in smoke. Hands and back are sore
from swinging the double-bitted axe.

Redecorating, that's a good plan to go light on the fertilizer. When you are going to
fertilize, pre-wet the soil a few hours earlier (at least). Then, add the fertilizer dose.
Let the fertilizer soak into the mix for a few minutes, then finish with a light watering.

Josh