Young little tree had problems recently with spindly new growth I’m hoping food will grow them away. This week I transplanted from an 3g into a 45g box with pretty good soil and O+ it looks better already.
Any advice or pointers to possibly start shaping this tree now or should I just let it grow and deal with that later in a year or two?
I wouldn’t cut any branches, it is too small. Let it grow more, and don’t cut the central leader if you want it to fruit. If you are planning to use it for rootstock then you can cut/graft anytime. I grew out one pomelo seedling tree, it took 7-8 years before it finally had a fruit, it tasted good and now it is one of my better tasting pomelo. I’ll take a photo the fruits on my tree, it fruits regularly every year and since it is a seedling tree, vigorous grower.
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Thanks George. That’s a very nice pomelo. They’re very expensive here. 7-8 years is a bit too long for me if I graft from another older established tree would I get fruit sooner?
ok, then learn to graft and you can get fruits in 2 years.
Here’s some green fruits on the same tree now in my yard.
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Even if you graft a fruiting variety, it will be 3 years before you get real / normal size fruits of that variety. In 2 years, you will get some fruits but will not be as large as the true size, and taste may be off. So even if you graft you will not be picking delicious citrus fruits for 2-3 years for any time of citrus you graft. Only exceptions I found was the Sumo and kumquat, they seemed to have good tasting normal fruits by the second year.
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Very nice George. From the picture that looks like a 7-10g pot. Luckily I’ve been pretty lucky at grafts taking so will give that a shot around March or April.
Here’s my multi-grafted citrus trees. This one has over 20 different verities grafted on it.
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That’s very beautiful work there George. Thanks for sharing that. Any thing that stands out as your champions? So far for mandarins I’ve been a fan of Yosemite Gold over most other big names I’ve tasted.
No, not in a pot, it is grafted to a variegated valencia orange tree. That branch is just hanging down near the pot since the weight of the fruits bends the branches. That branch is about a 10ft long graft with many other fruits.
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Yes, for the best mandarins (and I have most of them), the Yosemite Gold and Gold Nugget are the best tasting to me. They are very sweet and a slight tart flavor but mostly super sweet and juicy.
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If you like grapefruit hybrids or pomelo, you can’t go wrong with Valentine pomelo, Cocktail grapefruit, Melogold grapefruit, Thong Dee pomelo. These are all excellent. Don’t waste your time on the Chandler, just average taste.
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Thanks for that! My friend grows one he just calls it Vietnamese Pomelo. It’s large and yellow with very good flavor. It was the first pomlelo I tasted last year and the only one around large enough to get some scion from.
I also got a Ruby pomelo at an Asian grocery store that might have tasted better. I’m wondering if that is a Ruby Thai pomelo.
George I looked up those recommendations thank you. That Valentine looks very good! Do you know anyplace that sells cuttings in California? Or if it’s even allowed?
You can buy all the varietes (300) from UCR/CCPP budwood program online.
Free to register.
Purchase Budwood, Rootstocks, Seedlings | Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at UCR
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Thanks George good to know. I’ve seen that program before but it’s a bit too many hoops. I may try them someday though as they do have some wonderful cultivars to choose from.
I only have 6-7 citrus trees with only 1 in ground so will probably just graft a piece of my friends tree for now.