Hi all, This might be a really dumb question but I just bought a small grafted limequat only to find that it had a small developing fruit. Would it be a good/bad/indifferent idea to leave the fruit on the plant? It's still a small plant and I don't want the tree to put all of its energy into making a fruit and kill itself in the process. Is this likely to happen or will producing fruit really not stress this little guy out all that much? Aside from that has anyone had good luck growing limequats before? Also, below the graft it's growing two small (but healthy) branches is it a good idea to cut those off so that the tree is forced to focus on growing healty branches above the graft? Thank you! Ryan
I would remove the fruit. While keeping it won't kill the tree it would deprive it of the energy it could otherwise use to develop its other parts. In general any growth below the graft should be removed since it is the cultivar that you really want to grow and not the rootstock. I have a Eustis limequat on its own roots. It has no problem flowering and producing fruit. Too bad the flowers have little or no fragrance.
Whether you remove the single fruit or not will not effect the health of your tree in any way. A citrus tree will only retain the amount of fruit that the tree is capable of maturing. The chances of the fruit remaining on your little tree until maturity, or being dropped by the tree is 50/50. All that said, most growers remove all fruit for the first three years, in order to achieve maximum growth. However, one fruit will not require much energy form a tree. If you leave the single fruit on your tree, the fruit does not drain energy from the entire tree. The energy required to grow and mature the fruit comes only from the leaves attached to the branch directly above the fruit. In fact a leaf growing on the left side of the branch directly above the fruit, supplies energy to the left side of the fruit. The same is true to the leaves on the right side, or half way in between the two. A limequat fruit growing on a containerized tree will only get to the size of a golf ball, when mature. It is up to you whether you would like to retain the fruit or not. Either way no damage will occur to your tree. A few words of caution. Over watering is CERTAINLY THE NUMBER ONE KILLER OF CONTAINERIZED CITRUS TREES. When you water the tree, water the tree well so that some of the water drains out the holes at the containers bottom, then do not water again until approximately 50 percent of the water in the container is used up by the tree. Citrus trees are heavy feeders, and require regular fertilization a minimum of once a month. Once ever 2-3 weeks during the spring and summer. Congratulation on your new tree, they are fun to grow. - Millet
Ryan, as Canadian sources for citrus are rather limited, may I ask where you bought your tree from? I'd also be interested in knowing which grower produced it. Perhaps the information on the label gives clues to its origin. Also, which variety of limequat is it?
Hi Junglekeeper, When I moved to Edmonton I found a small greenhouse called "Ellerslie gift and garden" on the south side of the city. They got a bunch of grafted citrus earlier this year and had everything from Budda's fingers (I wish I had bought one :( ) to blood oranges to caladmondins and such (spelling?) it was amazing. I had two other plants (a flame grapefruit I think but I can't recall) this summer but lost them when I asked my sister to babysit them for six weeks :(. If you like, I can ask the people where they got their shipment from the next time I'm in the area? I know for their other rare plants they have a lady who grows them all from seed somewhere offsite and ships them to the greehouse to be put on display (everything from a coral tree to a whole whack of Maleleuca and coffee plants). I'm not sure if she's responsible for the citrus though seeing as they're grafted. The tag reads Eustis Limequat/Carrizo CDFA # 1018909 Ri TRSC 5/09/06. There doesn't seem to be any nursery tags on it though/ I hope that that helps :), Ryan
Thanks for the info, Ryan. It was helpful. Ellerslie Gift and Garden Centre sounds like an interesting place to visit. Their single web page didn't include an email address but it can be found here. Please report back if you find out anything about the tree's origin and I'll do the same. I'm guessing CDFA stands for California Department of Food and Agriculture and 1018909 is the nursery's registration number with them.
Rats, good to know though about the email. I hadn't even thought of the acronym CDFA. You're more than likely right! I might not be able to get down to that part of the city for another week or so because I have to go up north for a little while but I'll be sure to find out :). Cheers, Ryan
Hi Junglekeeper, Still no luck getting down to the greenhouse. Haven't forgotten though, just been going crazy with school. I should be down there again in a week or so to find out where they got the trees from. Sorry for the delay! Ryan
Thanks for letting me know, Ryan. Don't go out of your way to get the information. The next time you're there would be fine.
Hi Junglekeeper, I am so sorry for taking so long to get the information for you. I went to the greenhouse today and when I asked about their citrus suppliers they looked at me like I was insane and said that most of their citrus comes from vancouver. She told me two greenhouses, one called "westcoast" (probably not that helpful of a name) and one called "Monroeville" (but I'm not 100% sure if I remembered this name right). I hope that this can be of some use to you. If they say anything different the next time that I'm there (which won't be so long this time I hope!) I'll besure to pass it on. Again, sorry for the long delay. Regards, Ryan
Thanks for the info. No idea about "Westcoast" but "Monroeville" sounds very close to Monrovia. However that grower is in the States and Buddha's Hand is not a variety that is available from them so Ellerslie must get their trees from more than one source. It gives me hope if indeed the trees originated from a plant broker somewhere in Vancouver. This is most interesting. Please let me know if you find out anything more! Thanks very much for your help.
