Ripe fukushu kumquats

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.

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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.

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Nice Steve! Just in time for Chinese New Year!

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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. :wink:

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Give it lots of light and warmth over winter


lamp with 1600 daylight lumen CFL bulb

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Doesn’t look like fukushu to me, too small.

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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.

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marumi sour roune kumquat grown outside near Houston

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Fukushu/changshu kumquat grown near Houston, they are ready!

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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 sprin

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I do that in 7b my calmansi 3 winters in ground

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I 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

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@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.

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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.

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