Okay, I read everything posted even went to the sites recommended by Newt. But still begs the answer how does one prune a citris tree? I have several trees that we have started from seed. They are about 4 years old now.... One tree in particular is doing extremely well, but I feel it is getting a little out of hand. It is now in a 10 gallon pot. We have to use a hand cart to move it around... We move it indoors in the winter time and out in the spring summer and fall. We have given it Citris fetilizer. I understand not to top it. But what about those lower branches and yes the thorns hurt when moving it. I believe you said we could trim the thorns off with out damaging it. Thank You anyone that responds
Mary: It is customary in the groves to use a large truck mounted trimmer. It has arms that correspond to the semi-folded wings of a diving hawk. The arms have a series of 3 foot circular saw blades lined up (as many as 5 blades) along each arm, and because of the angle of the arms, it can trim the trees from the lowest level to the top of the tree. It will run down the rows in an 'East/West' direction, back and forth until two sides of all the trees are cut square. Then it runs 'North/South', back and forth between the rows until, viewed from above, the orchard looks like a brown background with green squares. To finish, a different saw blade arrangement is used to cut the tops off (square) to make the trees look, in reality, like green cubes. The reason for this is so that a standard series of ladders can reach the fruit at harvest. Blossoms (thus fruit) will only appear on the new growth, never the old, so it makes sense to just keep whacking away the old growth to encourage fruiting. I presume that you are aware that your seeds will generally not come true, but will be a throw-back to one of the original kinds that was a precurser citrus to that which the seed came from. For example, you speak of thorns. This tells me you have propagated a sour orange(Wild) from the seed of whatever it was out of. It reverted. You can use the trunk of that which you have grown and have a knowledgeable horticulturist graft something useful to the stalk of what it is that you have grown from the seed. You may top it if you wish in that doing that will only make it fuller.
Dear Chuck: Thank you for replying. My husband and I planted both Grapefruit and Lemon seeds. So it is anyone's guess about what it might be. My guess is that all of the grapefruit seeds took and none of the lemon seeds. But yes, I think I read something about the seeds reverting back. I also have already read that my seed plant will take somewhere between 12 to 18 years to bloom. My husband is not thrilled about this.. Sorry I have not ever been to Florida, Texas or CA to see the groves, but okay on the pruning I think I understand make it look like a square. We think our trees are about 5 years old, so we have another 7 or more before we get blooms. We already have one or two of them in big clay pots. We have geodesic dome greenhouse that we kept them in except for about the coldest 6 to eight weeks in the winter here. Then brought them into the house. We just did not have the resources to keep the greenhouse warm enough when the temp dipped below 15 to 10 degrees. They are of course outside now enjoying the warm Arkansas sun. Thanks for explaining the pruning process to a yankee.
Mary: For a home gardener, a square is not necessarily what you want. In a grove, the 'cutter' can't turn the corners, so they cut squares. In your case, you would just trim it to suit you. Since the leaves would also like to be exposed to as much sunlight as possible, internal trimming would also be advantageous. I once read that an appropriately trimmed tree(or shrub) should be thinned internally so that, and I quote,"a robin could fly through it". Enjoy your plant, and don't fret with it.
You may have to trim your tree to keep it inbounds, but you should be aware that for a seedling tree to fruit it needs to reach an unknown but predetermined node count (a node is where a leaf is or was attached). When you purne, you remove nodes and the tree subtracts that number of nodes from the existing count. Grapefruit have the highest node count of all citrus, if you prune, you may never reach the required count. You can usually tell a grapefruit from lemons by the wide petiole wings on the grapefruit and the bronze colored new leaves on lemons. I do believe that most true lemons and grapefruit will grow true from seed (meyer is not a true lemon). You can graft the tree yourself--it is actually very easy to T-bud if you have a source of budwood. Mature wood grafted to the tree will already have reached the required node count and can fruit within a year. Skeet
