I agree! Thanks for the info.

Evan

I have a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad feeling we won't be getting and W&N in NorCal. I hope I am wrong! Come on Frantz, get some good varieties :)

Mine match the list, serge, that would be unfortunate, W&N have nice trees.

Evan

Our first shipment was Frantz too here in southern Nevada. They're selling for $22, and in my opinion aren't as healthy or as developed as the W&N trees we received last year. The varieties aren't nearly as diverse either. I'm not seeing a clear advantage of purchasing a tree at Costco vs. Lowes or Home Depot at this point. There is supposed to be another shipment of 300 trees here next week, hopefully the quality and diversity will be better. The lady I chatted with didn't know if the shipment was Franz or W&N.

I also thought the trees at the Panorama City Costco in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles weren't impressive. All of them had quite thick trunks for the pot size, which is not a bad thing, but all of them had been severely topped not long ago. It looked like old stock that they were trying to get rid of instead of fresh, vigorous young plants. I left Costco and went to Home Depot where I found a really nice Cocktail for $3 more than the Costco trees, more than worth the price difference.

Kentc, that thick trunk typical of the Willits & Newcomb trees has been a huge advantage for me here in northern California. The thick trunk'ed trees generally survived the freezes we've had here last few years while the skinnier, young trees were killed or severely damaged (trunk splits still growing/healing).

The topping / pruning you describe will work itself out as the tree grows. Although citrus does not usually require pruning, most need it so that the shape and size can be managed.

- George

Serge, any luck with costco citrus this weekend? My trees went in the ground today.

the Oro blanco

The seedless kishu

I hope you had some good news at costco this weekend.

Evan

Evan you have a couple of real beauties there nice catch . I wish our costco up here carried citrus . They look very healthy and in good shape and you can't beat the price.

Brian

I did not make it out to Costco but will try and get there tomorrow and see what they have. It's about time for them to be stocking up I think.

Thanks Brian, I picked the biggest healthiest trees out of the lot they had. Serge I'll keep my fingers crossed for you tomorrow.

Evan

Evan, your trees look nice. Good you got them in so they can adapt before the hot weather sets in again. They look great!

Cory

Thanks Cory. Unfortunately it's about a month later than I like to plant trees out here. I am forecast to be at 91F today and in the mid 90's by the weekend. That's ok, I have shade cloth if I need to cover them up this summer.

Evan

Serge - just heard that Willits & Newcomb will not be shipping to Northern CA Costco stores (huge bummer!).

As i indicated in a post above, If you want to push Costco a bit towards W&N (or on anything else), I suggest dropping a nice request in their suggestion box. Make sure to include your contact info.

That is a bummer, I wonder why NorCal isn't getting them but SoCal is? I would think that with W&N being in closer proximity to NorCal they'd be more inclined to stock Costcos up north vs south.

Evan

The Frantz (Franz?) stuff I found in San Leandro yesterday was sparse and not that impressive. I am spoiled, having had robust W&N trees with interesting and varied cultivars. I will try and talk to someone over there. Like George says...huge bummer.

I would not bother with talking to anyone at the local stores. The decisions are made at corporate supply chain. If you want change, the suggestion box is the way to go....

It seems southern California won out this year for the W&N tree. I ended up driving down from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga on a business related trip and picked up Clementine, Moro Blood Orange, and Manderinquat trees. Very nice and healthy and exactly as how I remembered them from last year. I also put in a suggestion into our local Costco to bring back the W&N trees!

Parts of SoCal and NorCal is under citrus Quarantine. Here's the updated list (3/3/2015) http://pi.cdfa.ca.gov/pqm/manual/pdf/420.pdf

http://www.saveourcitrus.org

Most nurseries has a tag stating the citrus shouldn't be moved out of quarantine areas. I noticed my Costco Tango didn't have one.

All of California is under quarantine, as long as it is an area where citrus can be grown outside you can't move plants out of your area. Nurseries have licenses and go through usda inspections before they are allowed to move their trees from one area to another. Where did your tango come from? What nursery? I would be wary of planting an untagged citrus tree without verification that it was inspected, sprayed and ok'd to be moved. Just my .02

Evan

Evan, it may just be the angle of your pictures but the trees appear to be planted too deep. The first one even looks like it's buried in a pit.

Rhizo, Probably just the angle, my trees get planted a little above natural grade and then I build a basin around it to hold water when I irrigate. I make sure the rootstock is set at the exact same height that it is in its pot. On another note, I went to costco again today and they received another load of W&N trees this week, I almost ended up with an Algerian clementine. My conscience got the better of me and I put it back. I'm all out of room for trees unless I go to my front yard. :(

Evan

New growth in the kishu I planted last week.

Nice trees Evan. How great it has burst into growth already! I think trees in the front yard would look great!.

Cory

Evan, - yes, it may be time to start filling the front yard :-) !!!!

It is my understanding that all Costco (or any nursery) citrus tree shipments must be inspected by the local Ag department on-site before they are released for sale.

I've witnessed a number of these inspections at Costco [2012, 2013 & 2014] while waiting to pounce on the freshly arrived pallets. [the shipment is quarantined away from the warehouse sales area until inspected]. The inspectors had always been rather thorough - very serious - certainly no fast walk through the line of pallets!

- George

I just checked my local Costco. They don't have any citrus plants now. I am also looking for kumquat tree...

They just broke ground on our first Costco here in Tulsa. Maybe next spring they will have some citrus for us to drool over.

Boy, nice trees, Evan, you scored. Love W&N trees. They are the nicest folks too, btw.

Patty S.

I just saw a ton of citrus at the San Marcos, CA Costco, about 5 days ago!

My local Costco in Montclair, CA now has lots of W&N Citrus.

I finally got my Santa Teresa Lemon but think it was the only one they had.

Many unusual varieties but not necessarily desirable varieties for this area. Fukushu Kumquat, Eustis Limequat, Mary Ellen Sweet Lime. Not sure why anyone would want any of those in this area.

Lots of Washington Navels along with early & late Navels. Valencia. Sweet Orange that I'm guessing is Trovita, maybe. Tarocco Blood Oranges. Several Kishu Mini, Gold Nugget, Cocktail Grapefruit. I couldn't resist the nicest looking Cocktail, which now gives me 4 but they ARE just fabulous. Guess I'll have to espalier a couple or I'll be drowning in them.

Lots of Lemons including a couple Lisbons. Not sure I'd want to fight the thorns for increased productivity since Eureka make LOTS of lemons anyway.

A bunch of Minneolas. My mature Minneola is some of the very best tasting citrus. They are not bitter in this heat or perhaps they just take a few extra years to get sweet.

I am really disappointed with the Franz (Frantz?) stuff we have had in Sal Leandro. One Moro looked OK, that was about it. I wish we could go back to W&N.

Costco citrus Tree progress update! Oro Blanco and Seedless Kishu

My oro blanco tree has grown about 3'-4' since being planted in March this year.

This tree is extremely vigorous, it survived my scorching heat this summer with no protection at all.

It has held onto 3 fruit about 6" in diameter.

The foliage is large and very dark green.

For some reason the grasshoppers love this tree and have been munching on it as evidenced by the leaves.

Classic CLM damage.

None the less, the oro blanco keeps pushing new growth.

The seedless Kishu just had a growth flush and is still holding on to 1 fruit.

Kishu

Nice to see the trees update Evan. They are looking good. Mine are back in the greenhouse. We had two nights of freezing temperatures already the past two nights. Supposed to warm up again this week but I have brought them in and out 3 times already and I'm not up to doing it again.

Cory

Thanks Cory, I don't blame you for not wanting to drag your trees in and out of the greenhouse. I probably won't see freezing temps until the last week of December. It is starting to cool down finally in the desert, we've been hovering around the 90 degree mark for the last week with lows in the mid 70's at night.

Evan

Nice work with the trees Evan! Keep updating us from time to time please. I am interested in following how they do in your locale.... I thought the S. Kishu may have issues in the heat. But, it looks terrific - ...all are doing great!

- George

Thanks george, to be honest I didn't think the Kishu would make it either. I planted it near an East facing wall so that it would only get full sun until mid day in the summer and is protected from the cold easterly winds we receive during the winter. I wanted to give it the best chance possible to survive and fruit. I will post updates occasionally to show their progress.

Evan

Do any of you know how old roughly these tree are when they get shipped to Costco to be sold? More specifically the kumquat trees?

I'd say 2-3 years.

Costco currently has citrus in stock in the Phoenix, AZ and Tucson, AZ. Shipments were received and placed on the floor today.

I saw a new pallet of citrus last week in the Bay Area. Luckily I didn't see anything I was interested in...

Antioch Costco had a nice selection of healthy looking trees a week ago. I got a beautiful Fukushu, about 4 feet, dark green leaves but no flowers.

I went to Costco today and they have all kinds of citrus trees. I pick up a lisbon lemon. Does anyone know how old the citrus trees at Costco?

My Costco has just 10-12 trees, nothing interesting. They mostly sell plums, nectarines and apricots at this point.

I've checked 5 costcos in in the last week (SD County), all trees are Franz nursery.

Lots of lemons and limes, most oranges are Owari satuma or Clementine, dwarf and regular found but not both at the same store, with the odd washington navel, one tango didn't look so good. Only one out of four costcos had any grapefruit, star ruby and oroblanco I think (palamar airport) and some budda hand (escondido). I think I saw a Minneola Tangelo in one store. Several Calamondin and Mandarinquat in several stores.

I grabbed an owari satsuma on unknown with a lot of young growth as I had no orange trees yet, haven't planted in ground yet, likes my cheap greenhouse enough to bud out in the week I've had it. I think the old pictures of W&N trees look a lot nicer for a cheaper tree, as the price was $21 before tax, but I still think what I got was worth the price.

Was hoping for a Tarocco blood orange this year, but Franz has none
assuming this is accurate
(http://www.frantznursery.com/pdf/Frantz-Availability.pdf), and would
explain why I haven't found any blood oranges. Then again, there's this
page which has blood oranges (http://www.frantznursery.com/products/citrus/) so might be later this year or supply problems

They had a better selection last year, at least here, in the Bay.

I contacted Franz 1.5 month ago about something but they never responded.

The varieties change with every shipment and are at different quantities to every store. I'd check back every other week or so. Happy hunting!

BTW i remember seeing a bunch of taroccos last May.

I just saw 3 Gold Nuggets on C35 at the Costco in Danville, CA ! - you have to check the bottom tag as one of them had the big color tag missing -- "GNGC35"

Wow, I cannot believe what jumped into my cart! I have never seen this variety before and do not see the budwood available from CCPP either (at this time).

The big color tag said "Newhall" - - I have one of those. But it pays off to be nosey and check the small tags.. a Beck Early !!!!! : - )

Score! That is a nice looking tree, mole! I read that it is an early navel and that the fruit hang a bit longer on the tree, compared to the Washington..plus the fruit store well.

How do you like the Newhall? I came close to acquiring one last year but I have been on the fence about it.

Not bad at all for $18.99 !

I love my Newhall. Its about 3 weeks earlier than my Washington's, about 6ft. tall and very productive. I expect this Beck to beat the Newhall (and Fukumoto's) someday. We will see. - George

I hope the Beck does very well for you, George. Are you going to grow it in a pot or in ground?

After your glowing review, I am still considering the Newhall. I like the fact that it is productive, has excellent flavor and ripens earlier than the Washington. Decisions, decisions! :)

If I ever see a guy checking every tag at my local Costco, I will say "Hi George!"

I haven't been on the citrus hunt this year. I need to replace 1 gold nugget. My LxN almost died. There is one branch recovering and new growth above the graft.