My first 3 Fukushu kumquats from my outside in ground seed grown kumquat tree. The smallest fruit had no pulp and was sweet with a slight bitter after taste. The next size up has a sweet peel with no aftertaste and a slightly sour pulp. My wife will have to report on the large one after eating.
Good show Steve! I just ate part of a Valentine pomelo, not supposed to pick till February 14. Juicy, not a lot of taste but sweet. My Thong Dee I ate last week was better. Most citrus gurus feel the other way.
Nice Steve! Just in time for Chinese New Year!
my 12in kumquat is just setting its first fruit right now. its had a hard time getting going unlike my calamondin which is 3xs bigger. and has 20 fruit on it. love to squeeze them in my water or make a whisky sour with them.
Impressed that you could grow citrus outdoors in zone 6!!! Could you tell me how you grew/protected it? I’m in zone 7 and I would love to have an outdoor citrus tree. I have an indoor potted kalamansi, but it’s not very productive.
not getting as much light as your setup but has a south facing window to itself and the warmest room in the house that stays 75-78.
4 layers of glass both greenhouses.
Meiwa kumquat to left and Fukushu kumquat to the right.
New Zealand lenonade left, valentine pomelo right.
I don’t have the space (or spousal approval) for a greenhouse, so I’m super jealous of your setup! Haha, I guess I was hoping you were making do with like Christmas lights and blankets, and that I could do something similar🤦‍♀️. Alas!
Where do you find Kumquat seeds?
I have a Mandarinquat, but it’s slow growing.
It would be easier to get your kumquat tree from…Kumquat – Rooted Cutting/Bush | Brite Leaf Citrus Nursery than to row from seed. I was given my kumquat trees. One green world sells kumquat tees on flying dragon rootstock That is very good rootstock.
Doesn’t look like fukushu to me, too small.
These were picked from a seed grown Fukushu kumquat tree growing outside in ground micro zone 6b Cincinnati Ohio, behind 4 sheets of glass in a lean-to greenhouse that I just started heating 1 week ago to get though cloudy days with temperatures dropping to between 9F-15F… This is what I would call very poor growing conditions for growing large fruit. I do have an unripe same tree kumquat between the size of a nickle and a quarter.
My 8 year old in ground nordman seedless kumquat froze at 14F even though mulched this year in February
grew these in 7 gallon pots for 8 years, chanshu and marumi planted in ground this sprinI wish I could teach my kumquat trees how to flower and fruit. My 30 gallon Fukushu on C35 has 2 flowers
Flower spent and stem is still green and looking strong.
The other flower.
The tree is just over 5 feet tall
@GeorgiaGent , I am so so so jealous! This is my kalamansi, in front of my best south facing window. It’s about 4.5’ tall. Not a single flower or fruit right now. It’ll flower up a storm when I put it outside in the spring/summer, but then it’s done fruiting by like August/September and I get nothing more until the next spring.
We had a potted kalamansi when I was growing up in NJ, and you could always grab at least a few ripe fruit off of it, but the one I have now just flowers/bears all at once. And then I end up giving most of them to my mom (who’s from the Philippines and can’t live without them), so I’m left craving them until the next year.
@poncirusguy, I feel your pain about the lack of fruit. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong! I wish I could get it to fruit more! I give it fertilizer, and I root-prune it and add new soil every two years or so, and water it deeply only when the soil is dry. But still no luck.
@GeorgiaGent, I’m in zone 7a, so slightly colder than you, and I’m too scared to plant it outside and risk losing the whole plant (it’s about 9 is 10 years old at this point). Can you give me more details about your setup? Maybe I’ll get a new one to try planting outside.
Don’t feed them high nitrogen fertilizer, something like 5-15-15. You could also tip the tops to keep the tree from growing taller, pushing the tree in blooming.
This is what I did, Osmocote plus and a little bit of Fox Farm citrus/avocado fertilizer.
This is only for the winter months. When they go outside, spring/summer they go back to Peters 25-5-15 hp with Micro’s. If you only grow one or two trees you can stay with Osmocote plus.