I have a calamondin that I grew from a seed about 17 years ago. I put it outside each summer and bring it into the house for the winter. It has steadily grown and is now 4 ft. high and 2.5 ft across. it is in a large pot 18" high and 24" across. It has never produced flower or fruit. Watering has not been regular, especially in the winter months. In the summer outside it does very well and puts on serious growth, generally losing leaves over the winter. After reading a bit on the Calamondin I decided to test the soil. I was very alkaline and also very poor in nutrients. It thought I would attempt to have it produce some fruit. When I brought it in this autumn, I pruned it back, have now watered it every week with fertilizer 24-8-16. I have yet been able to get to the store to find something appropriate to increase the acidity, but I have been adding white vinegar to the waterings to help the situation. (I read that can help in the short term) Result: The plant took off and new shoots began appearing immediatley. The few yellow leaves dropped off and all leaves are green and healthy. Now the interesting part is that on all the new shoots, that appeared from many parts of the plant, the leaves are at least twice the size of the previous leaves. Now about 3 months into the regular watering and fertilizing, the leaves are starting to drop off this week. Not really turning yellow and dropping, but dropping when they are green. I now feel I am moving backwards on this. What am I doing wrong? Is it ok that this plant is now producing branches with huge leaves? and HOW do I get this tree to produce flowers and fruit. Any insights would be so very welcome.
If you are still fertilizing it every week, you could be over-fertilizing and making the soil too salty. The plant won't take up much fertilizer during the winter.
I would not follow a weekly fertilization schedule unless the recommended concentration has been diluted proportionally. You should be aware that the alkaline condition of the soil would have inhibited the tree's uptake of nutrients even if they had been present and in the proper amounts. You may want to consider changing the soil to a standard peat-based indoor potting soil, amending it with bark chips, perlite, and/or similar material to increase its porosity. The peat will provide for a naturally acidic medium while the high-nitrogen fertilizer you're using will contribute to keep it in that state. Determine the pH of your water source in order to eliminate it as the cause of the alkalinity. It's normal to have larger sized leaves given the proper conditions, healthy green leaves being shed is not; it is a sign that the tree is stressed. The pruning of the tree may be preventing it from reaching maturity. According to one theory, a tree will not reach maturity until it has acquired a particular node count. Node count, as explained by Dr. Manners in his own words, can be found in this thread in an external forum. Dr. Manners has also suggested a calamondin seedling will mature in 1-3 years under ideal conditions outdoors. The tree should not be watered on a schedule but rather as required, allowing the soil to dry somewhat between applications.
Thank you, yes I feel I might be making things worse in my ignorance. I have never seen fruit or flower on this tree. This is really my objective. When I did research on the internet about this, it was offered up that soil acidity, fertilizer and pruning back were all possible solutions to coxing the blooms. Pruning back I suppose is to make the plant feel it needs to propagate? It seems odd that after all these years, that the tree has never bloomed.
I would not prune the tree any further and see what happens. In the event that your tree has reached maturity, [post=270449]here[/post] is an old post I made on the subject of encouraging it to flower.
Thank you. I will look over the post. Any idea why all of a sudden it would create such large leaves? Would it be simply the fertilizer and watering?
Citrus trees seem to produce much growth given sufficient fertilizer and soil in which the root system can expand into. So I'm not surprised by the increase in leaf size.
