Citrus - 2021
 

We didn't think we were going to do all that well with the citrus this year, but things actually turned out better than we thought they would. Connie's Meyer lemon trees didn't look like they did all that well looking at them from the front porch of the house, but when I walked in back of them, well, different story there!

Then the Poncan tangerine trees, especially the larger of the bunch in that particular spot, really went all out this year. It's going to be a struggle to eat them all before they go past their prime. But we are sure going to give it a try, since those are about the best tasting tangerines around. At least in our opinion. Since we haven't been buying much fresh fruit lately, these are a real treat for us.

And btw, these aren't those little miniature lemons and tangerines that you normally see in the grocery stores. :hehehe:

We have those big lemons too.

Are yours the Meyer or the Ponderosa? Ponderosas seem to be more cold sensitive, but the Meyer seem to be pretty hardy. Both tend to get pretty big. We had one Ponderosa but the cold finally got to it one Winter.

Do you have other citrus growing?

I would guess it's a Meyer. They look like the one Connie's holding and it survived whatever cold that killed the Satsuma last January, but that's just a guess.

That is surprising that your Satumas got killed off from the cold, yet the lemon tree survived. In the past we had some leaf damage on the Meyer lemon trees on some really cold nights (low 20s), but the Satumas had no damage at all.

Every tree died in my hood starting in 05 from greening sickness. Can't grow any now. They are stunted and just don't grow.

That is the main reason why we stopped buying more trees. We don't want to take the risk of bringing in something that might wind up killing our existing trees. From what think I understand there is now only a single source for wholesale purchases of citrus trees in Florida, and they are heavily inspected and treated, but there is always a chance of something getting through.

We have a place nearby that used to do their own citrus trees for sale, including grafting and the lot, but that got shut down, and now they get their trees from the same place everyone else does.

Really? You're talking about the nursery on 98?

Yeah. Just Fruits & Exotics (https://justfruitsandexotics.com/). Used to be run by Brandy, but they sold the place.

We met the guy who now owns it, but haven't there much lately. We only bought some fertilizer for the citrus trees last time we were there.