Flame grapefruit tree, anyone have one?

Hi everyone this is my first post. I live in zone 5b I’ve had this young tree for about 4 years now. it gave me one fruit last year which was incredibly sweet! this year It’s giving me two…here are some pics
2015 harvest


2016 fruit set

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Congratulations! Can you give us more specifics about your cultivation; e.g., months indoors/outdoors, pot size, watering frequency, fertilizer details and frequency?

I have sweet red grapefruit in my yard grown from a seed most likely not flame but still very good. It is 15ft tall and fruit over out front deck. Took 15 years to start fruit from a seed.

This is of course grafted, thank god. But wow 15 years you have some patience. know I couldn’t do that. do you prune or just let it go?

Thanks Richard! it’s currently in the house because I have no space in the greenhouse. normally It stays outside from march- April until Nov-Dec. It flowers twice a year once in (March and again in July) when there’s no fruit through out the year I can water less and still have it grow well. when fruit comes I am watering a lot more. this year was hot so I was watering every 3 or 4 days. in the winter months once every 2 or 3 weeks and the current pot size is 15 gallon and will repot after winter. Fruit should be ripe by February ish. lastly for fertilizing all purpose 20-20-20 3 times a year

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They’re supposed to be great fruit and not ridiculously large like some of the other varieties. I’ve got one that’s about 2 years old, so it’s still pretty small, but it seems very happy where I planted it. It’s doing the best out of all my citrus, set some fruit last year, but I thinned it to encourage more growth. Yours looks great.

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Sounds about right.

For ridiculously large, try pomelo :smiley:

You’re right about the pomelo…I’d first seen one at a local nursery…fruit was ugly but I enjoyed the taste…looks are deceiving because the peel is so thick…

really! honestly I’ve never seen a pomelo cut open. no interest to I guess hahaha but thanks for setting it straight! they make some massive fruits. There is this guy on youtube check it out the channel is DMC DMC he has a zone 10 greenhouse in zone 4 or 5. It’s just amazing. He grows pomelo like you’ve never seen it and a dozen other tropical fruit trees. Can’t imagine the times it takes to grow them.

In the native near tropic environment it is 5-7 months from flowers to ripe fruit.

I live in the Arizona desert, so may not be relevant to the direction this conversation is going, but thought I woild chime in anyway. Had a Ruby Red grapefruit at our last home for 4 years, and was very good producer of large, sweet fruit. Currently have a Flame grapefruit in ground for just under 3 years. Loaded with fruit again this year. Last years fruit was just as good or better than the Ruby Red. Hard pressed to tell the difference. I definitely prefer red varieties to the lighter color varieties.

I say well if ya can grow em hey power to yo. doesn’t matter where. The fruit turn out will vary but it’s still relevant. This fruit was quite sweet. how do you find yours?
Here’s a question, I have seen pictures on the internet and the fruit on those are much darker. if I had left the fruit on the tree for another 1/2 month to a month would that have helped?

I pruned all of the lower limbs off and beat the trunk to get it to fruit started as a seedling that never got mowed over so it has never been transplanted.

Mine are ready usually in early January, but definitely get sweeter the longer left on the tree. I try to wait until the end of March or better yet April, but hard to hold off when that lucious fruit is calling to me.

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The skin of the bigger fruit is changing color . It couldn’t be ripening could it? Anyone know what’s going on? It flowered in July 2016

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It looks to me like the green is starting to get lighter & beginning to ripen.

I have two ripe ones sitting here on the coffee table in front of me. One has has a slight pink blush. They did take less time than I expected to go from bloom to ripe. It was only late May or early June that these fruit set. They got as ripe as they could get on the tree. I say that because one fell off when I was lugging the tree back outside on Tuesday, and the other fell yesterday. My plan had been to leave them until Jan. or Feb. when I didn’t have an abundance of other citrus ripe at the time. Their timetable differed from my plan. :wink: Their timing was perfect, though. My girls are home for the holiday and they are the ones I grew the Flames for.

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