I got one last year very good trees very healthy. This is the picture of my tree goes outside in 2 weeks.

Trace

hey mike, Been around just not posting much. Forum seems to be slowing down so i dont post much. thats great yours are doing good. Not that I would expect any of yours to not do well. Greenhouse is doing well. Lots of flowers and little fruits. this fall i am building a larger one at the new house. Probably 10x20. My plan is to put a couple tree permanently in the ground.

This was the first citrus I have bought in years. Took me a year to talk myself into ordering it. I have spent the last year or so planting fruits that I dont have to protect each winter. I have 4 peaches, 3 plums, 3 apples, 2 grape vines and some blackberry and raspberry plants. Now that they are established I hope to really push my citrus to get bigger and better.

Mike.

Mike, that is so exciting! I would love to be able to grow in a bigger greenhouse like that. Think of all the things you could do with that much space..When do you move into the new house? I'll bet you can't wait! I miss seeing pics of your trees and miss you around...I have been a bit lazy posting here excpet on the same thread, but I plan on reaching out to others once again..I have forgotten there are so many great people here I have known for quite a while such as you)
Did I ever tell you that I have a Kaffir lime that flowers all the time? I wish I could find a Kumquat like yours that grows that bushy..Is it still doing good? I wish I had spring temps like you now..It's won't be for another two monts or so before I get temps as warms as yours..My growing seasons are so much shorter now that it is depressing.

Lol, I hear what you mean about talking yourself into getting another tree. I have been doing that for 2 years and salavate over 4Winds site every time...I just don't know what to get next. I hear Tangelos are great.

That can be a blast loading up the yard with all those kinds of fruit trees! I have seen weird ones I would like to try and even NUT trees....I would plant so much edibles if I could..Man, let me know how those trees do...What about Squirrels that steal those fruit? Have you figured a way to make sure they don't take your pot of gold? Goodness, they use to steal everyone of my huge peaches...Arg

Hi Mksmith. I bought both the Dekopon and the Xie Shan from Harris too last year. Millet wrote how good the Xie Shan was so I had to try one. It is a fine little tree so far. My Dekopon looks a lot like Trace's. The Xie Shan has a pencil width trunk yet and seems to be growing slowly but it has flowered often and set small fruit which it keeps shedding as it is so small yet. It is a very healthy tree, but just slow growing I guess and maybe smaller in stature naturally. That is good for me as I grow in containers. But the flowers are very nice in the meantime. The dekapon flowers too, but has shed it's tiny fruit too. But at least they other are blooming so that is a good sign they will someday bear fruit. The trees come very well packaged from Harris, and the people are very nice there. I see they have a few trees on dwarf rootstock this year, but not the Dekopon/Shiranui or the Xie Shan. I have admired your trees for several years. That new large greenhouse you intend to build at your new house will be awesome. I would love to grow all those fruit and nut trees you will have in your yard too, but I do not have the room or climate for many of them. I already have about 35 citrus trees in my greenhouse plus hundreds of orchids. Can't wait to see your new tree and what it will soon look like under your care. Your other citrus trees look so beautiful with nice thick trunks and nice shape.

Cory

I was just checking the greenhouse for the night and noticed I still have fruit on my Dekopon and Xie Shan trees. I didn't have my phone with me to take a picture. I will try tomorrow, but not sure I will be able to get near enough for a good picture as everything is pretty squished together in the greebhouse. There has been a lot of new growth the past few days, and the trees all seem to be undergoing a second flowering cycle since January.

Cory

mike

Im already at the new place. just havent had time to build a new greenhouse so I just took my stuff to my parents house to overwinter. they had plenty of room. My Fukushu is doing great. I tried my hardest to root a cutting for you but failed. I since have learned that they are hard to root.

Squirrels we have plenty of here for sure. Ill see how greedy they are.

Cory

thanks for the kind words. Your trees sound like they are doing well.

So does anyone know about how long it take Harris to actually process the order and ship them out? I emailed ruth and told her that we have a cold front coming friday night and it could be right at freezing overnight. I have gotten a reply. I imagine they are busy.

Mike

They held my trees until it was warm enough to ship. You could call them to track the status to make sure they haven't shipped yet. I think there is also a tracking area on their site. The trees are very well packaged. They bolt them to the box someway so they don't slide around at all.

Cory

I would leave them alone and do their job. Their reputation is all you need. There is a slogan writen my Samual Clemons that goes

The wheel that squeaks the most gets shipped the worst citrus tree

Steve

Mike, boy, whom ever got to own your last home is as lucky as can be, unless they tore your old greenhouse down...? That was one fine greenhouse you had there doing a very good job..You must miss the whole thing about it..When you build again, will it be this spring and will it be easy? I love the fact that you will be building a good size one for all your pretty trees..You know, I can't believe how fast time as gone by since we spoke of rooting a piece of your tre Mike...It scares me how fast time is marching on..It's ok, it's the thought that counts my friend.
When and if you get a chance, I would love to see what they look like still..I know they were perfect when you have the time and space for them outside and in the greenhouse..I hope they have held up right over this long winter.
By the way, Harris Nursery has the nicest poeople..They sent my trees out almost into the end of April to be safe..They don't take any chances..Cory is right, they pack them beyond well..They are very slim and tall when they araive..I mean TALL and very green..I think you will be very pleases to get what you get for the price...Mine took a while to fill out and is still trying, but with all these cloudy cool days and such short summers, who can blame them?
Now, I think they will explode with growth as soon as I can get them outside into much warmer sunnier days..Keep your fingers crossed for me, will ya?
I'm gld your Fukishu is doing good..That's great

Cory, hello)))) See you soon. Steve hello.

Mike

Are you designing your own greenhouse. I am curious because I have seen some very impressive home design GH. It also seems to me that the standard store greenhouses don't quite conform to real gardening needs.

Steve

Mike. Well actually the greenhouse you have seen is at my parents place. I built it for them and me when I had to live there for awhile. I'll get some new pics next time I go by there. Time has for sure flown by.

Steve. I have a barn with a 20' long 9'high south facing wall. My plan is to build a lean-to on that wall. Wood framed and plastic covered. I may use old windows on the walls if I can find some cheap or free.

Mike I have found that the trees I planted against my south wall loose a lot of sunlight in the summer . The sun rises and sets north of the east west line and I only get about 5 hours during the summer solstice. My house is 25 feet tall and your 9 foot tall barn would interfere much less. From my experience I would suggest planting about 4 feet from your wall for good light. I would need 15 feet but I am farther north than you with a larger obstacle. My Hardy Chicago fig against the south wall would quadruple its output if it had been 15 feet away. Best of luck. Your tree that go in ground will really move upward for you. Choose your favorite tree.

Steve

I see what you are saying about the sun in the summer. last summer and past winter I paid attention to the angle of the shadows and the roof only cast about 6" or less out from the bottom of the wall mid summer. I may do a half hoop house instead of wood but i still havent decided. I have until about mid october to get it done so no hurry.

Does Harris state what rootstock they ship the xie Shan and shiranui on? I know they can't ship to ca.

Cebury, I think some of the trees showed the rootstock on the label. I'll check in the morning.

Cory

Harris uses c35 most of the time that's what my tree was on.

Trace

Cebury,

I thought it would say on the labels but I can't tell by the code.

Here is a picture of the labels. I bet Millet would know. He got his trees from Harris. Maybe Brian in PA also. The bottom label is Shiranui/Dekopon. It is starting to fade.

Cory

well it arrived! Iwasnt expecting it today. i never received any notification of it shipping or tracking info so it was a surprise. I so used to companies sending an email notification on an item shipping that I just assumed they were waiting until it warmed up a little. Funny though its 85 right now.

ok so here is the box. Very sturdy and a screw holding the pot to the cardboard

here is the tree inside. I was really blown away at the size. $25 dollars and $13 to ship for a tree this size is awesome! It is about 4' from the bottom of the pot to the top. I do wish the branching started about 6" lower but I can live with it.

and here is the tag.

I will be potting it up after work.

Mike

Got it potted up. Trimmed the long branch to balance it and try to force some lower branching.

very nice tree Mike. If I had known about Harris I would not have seed grown citrus trees now.

Steve.

I bought a shiranui and xie Shan from harris last spring. The shiranui started growing right away and really has not stopped growing. It is flowering heavily with new leaf growth right now. one large fruit is still ripening on it from last spring. Great tree and not needy, indoors or outside.The xie Shan has been a slow grower but the leaves are a beautiful dark green. It has just recently started a growth flush, so we will see. No flower buds yet. Both trees did very well indoors with no problems to report. They are outside as of April 5th here in zone 7. I will say that the shiranui has become my favorite citrus tree. The size of the fruit is amazing. I use dyna grow foliage pro to fertilize my plants with nice results. Have a great growing season everyone. Kev.

A gift from Cory

I have a Harris Citrus meiwa kumquat tree grafted on Kuharske rootstock.

I put her in a 7 gallon bucket with plenty of drainage holes.

I use a mix comparable to Al's gritty mix. I drains fast and is not soggy. It also take on water even when totally dry. I got the soil from my seed grown meiwa kumquat tree that froze.

There was no root rot and the roots were still alive 2 inches deep and below but had no buds to grow.

Happy in her new home.

Mike hows your greenhous coming. We are only 17 days before are days start getting shorter. Winter will be on its way before you can say Jack frost.

Steve

looks like a nice tree and what a nice thing for cory to do. Still havent started building the new greenhouse. I wont really need it until late october so i got some time. My dekopon has put out a ton of growth since i got it.

mike

Steve, so you finally get a grafted tree....interesting. :)Its good there is a lot of talk about the dekopan and Xie, both are very good but, Harris also carries the sugarbelle, a new very promising variety I would suggest is also part of the "new must have varities" conversation.

Ryan, Xie is next on my list. Harris says sugarbelle cannot be shipped out of florida :(

Here is my Dekopon last night. sorry its a night shot. They are more green than the photo shows. It has flushed a ton of growth. Not only at the top but down low on the trunk. I can tell I will like the shape of this one.

bonus key lime photo

mike

Mike, those are beauties!! Your doing a great job depsite all the rainy days...I love this tree too..Mine is just starting to push growth..I wonder if root stock has anything to do with such massive growth?
Thank you buddy for sharing and I hope all is well with ya)

MIke

Thanks Mike. This weather is crazy. May we had 18" of rain and temps barely in the 70's. this week not a drop of rain and it is 92 outside with mid 90's all this weekend. Im so ready to move somewhere that is more predictable.

I have a good feeling about Dekopon. I have some trifoliate seedlings that I plan to graft this onto and see how well I do.

Hope you are doing well also.

mike

mksmth, what temps do you wait for before they go outside?

Mike very nice . Looks like a massive flush going there on your Dekopan. The Key lime has such a beautiful shape Good job buddy . Mike imagine how fast they are going to grow with consistently hot weather . The weather has been crazy Mike when I was on holidays two weeks ago 4 days were in the 90's then the last 3 or 4 were in the 40's with snow showers.

Cory and Steve awesome . Cory your so kind we soo love you here. Steve there isn't a more deserving person , now you will have your own kumquats buddy . Very nice Cory! !!.

Brian

Ryan. I take mine out when the nights are above 45. Now if they have been out for awhile and we are predicted to have 40 degrees i leave them out. I only get concerned when we start to see 30's. Mine have all been outside since April 1st.

Thanks Brian. i am hoping to really push the growth this summer.

mike

Mike real nice tree. The secret is to plant them in ground inside the future greenhouse area and they will grow twice as much as a container citrus and then you will have to build it and you will set aside the time. Year 1 I failed Year 2 I failed year 3 I planted in ground and I found the time to built the greenhouse.

Brian Thanks

Steve

At the citrus tasting held during the Citrus Expo in Alabama. They had a large selection of citrus varieties, and the attendees were ask to cast their vote for what they considered to be the best tasting variety. The winner (and by a rather large measure) was Xie Shan. Dekopon was not in the contest. - Silica.

Looking forward to tasting the xie Shan . I have a half dozen small oranges growing on my tree. hoping they hold. It really is a pretty tree. I had one dekopan orange in early spring from one of my trees and it was amazing. So juicy! This year my two dekopan are growing like weeds with fruit and flowers galore. Seeing Ryan's trees last year inspired me.

kev122 Most all Satsuma's do not start producing their best fruit until the tree attains an age of at least 5 years So do not raise your expectations to high. - Silica

Here are some day shots

Dekopon

Fukushu kumquat

Washington naval

Armstrong satsuma. Might top work this with dekopon. I also have a new Miho

And red grapes!! Just hope I get some before the wildlife does

Mike

Mike, my God! It is pretty obvious that you have a much longer growing period than I...I wish I had grapes clusters like that! Mine have not even started yet..What a joke..
I must say abosolutely amazing buddy...You have a gift with growing just about anything.I just love how you keep the outsides of your pots white too...I wish they cold white pots. All I ever see is any color but white.
They are growing so big. Is that your new place? How's the greenhouse these days? I'll bet you just love finally getting a break from all that rain with that blue sky.
This spring summer is strange for me too. I wish I could move to more stable temp region....It got really warm last month and cold this month. NO rain except for one day and temps into the 40's teh whole time...Nothing to benefit my trees I tell you..I wish I could pull in some wamer temps that stick around so that my grapes will start and my trees grow..Every thing in the greenhouse is happy though. The frogs have been no where to be found the past few days..I think they went into hybernation again(
Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Sunday...How are your fragrant flowering plants doing to?
My Dekopan is finally doing something..lol I love it...I love how they send them nice and tall
Get some very thin chicken wire, or the plastic kind that keeps critters out, from Lowe's or Home Depot and encage those grapes before they get stolen on yah..My brother-in-law has to do that every year.

Don't be jealous Mike. I fall half way between both Mikes and my grapes and kiwis are half that size. Nice farmin OK mike nice farmin.

Steve

Hey mike. Thanks!! These leafed out probably back in early march. I dont really remember when. We usually have warm spells in late february and march that gets things going early. Only problem is we have late freezes that can kill off flowers on fruiting plants. This year we lucked out and didnt have any late freezes. Yes this is the new place and I still have to build a new greenhouse. Leaning towards either a 20' lean to on the south side of our barn or a long hoop house. Just depends on how motivated I am to build something. I saw on youtube were a guy put 2 of harbor freights 10x12 end to end that looked like a good setup.

One thing Im not having much luck with is the fragrant stuff or even flowering stuff for that matter. With the cooler and wetter May we had most of my plumeria have hardly even leafed out. My citrus are flowering again though so thats nice.

Steve. thanks for the words. I have always wanted to try kiwi. Are they easy to grow?

They are extremely easy to grow. Mine are issai self fertile female

http://wellspringgardens.com/kiwi-actinidia-arguta-issai-self-fertile-hardy

This company does a great job. These plants grow very fast and will produce in the second full summer as mine are now.

Issai kiwi

Grapes Concord antique seeded

Adding a picture of my seasons first red sweet peppers. There are a lot more green and a few turning.

Mike of OK

How is your greenhouse coming. We are exactly half way between USDA spring last frost and autumn first frost. I have taken buds off of my tallest sweetlee at node 102 and 103 and grafted them on to the bases of sweetlee.s #3 and #4. If these buds take I will have a tree at 6 inches and near maturity. Then I can use a lot smaller and longer greenhouse 6 foot by 6 ft by 35 feet long. I wish you well on your design and labors.

Steve.

Mike,

What kind of grapes are those? Seedless? Seedful? lol!

I grew four varieties in my rented garden plot for a number of years. They just got going and I had to give up the plat (baby in the family makes a huge difference in the amount of spare time!).

Anyway, just curious about the variety. I may try grapes again, but need time to build a trellis of sorts. I think Canadice were fair. But they are creating new heat-tolerant seedless ones all the time. I also had Jupiter, and can't remember the other two.

I hope to get some Asian persimmons this year if the squirrels will leave them alone. These are the non-astrigents.

Steve. I have it all planned out in my head. Just have to do build it. LoL. I've been working on a house I'm selling. Re painted everything, re did cabinets and putting in carpet. It's taken all my time but it goes on the market next week so I hope to sell it quick and have the money to build the greenhouse.

Hey Dave. How have you been. Haven't talked to you in a while. You got any plans to head this way. I have to vines. A Candice and himrod. Sadly it looks like the bird or squirrels have gotten all of them. I tell you one thing that vines are vigorous. Here is a recent pic of dekopon. It seems to be happy in our 100 degree heat and high humidity.

peaches and plums are loving all the rain and heat too.

mike

MIke, looking AWESOME!! I wish I had all that heat and humidity and rain...I have no rain at all, not a drop for weeks and coolish temps and the hot, taking a toll on all my potted citrus and figs..I am so tired of it..I would give my right arm for the thunder storms to come back in plenty agai n and consistent hot temps...It's a thing of the past and I guess I will have to make due with faucet water and vinegar....YOur DEkpoan has grown 4 times fsater and bigger than mine because of my weather..I love yours! Hope you are well by the way. YOu must be getting some bad storms down your way. Don't be afraid to take soem cloud pics of thunder storms..I love those too..

Mike, I wish you would stop complaining about your weather all the time. We all could complain about something. Do us all a favor, either do something about it or stop your whining.

Meyermike The reason your trees don't grow is because you are using rootstocks ment to dormantize the trees at first signs of cold. While that is great for zone8 up to 9, it doen't do us justice. We need rootstocks that grow far south so that our trees grow well into deep fall. We are going to take our trees inside anyway. My seed grown tangerine trees grow very well in cold weather. My meyer lemon tree from cuttings also grows well through the entire cold season. Some citrus trees do well in low light like my tangerine and kumquats enabling them to grow well in the cold. Meyer lemon do not handle low light as well and therefore grow slower. Get some tangerines and plant the seeds and use these for rootstock to grow your favorites on and you will be much happier with your citrus endeavor. I realize I live a full zone south of yours but my trees grow so well and fast because of the variety chosen,

2 years 6 months 3 weeks from seed sprouting. She is 8 feet tall and has over 150 feet of total trunk, bran, and twig growth. It does most of its growing from October through April. The white at he bottom is Teflon tape over a grafting of bud from leaf node 102. This is where the thorns stop and flower may begin. All you need to do is cut your own scion and graft it your seedling tangerines. It will take 9 months to grow your stock to grafting size. Then you can brag that cold weather has no affect on your trees.

My grapes are ripe, my figs are streaming in. My largest water melon is over 60 pounds and growing. It is a Carolina cross watermelon. Goose berries are done. Grape tomatoes are almost, sink is choked with chard and kale. My pears will start in a week or 2 and flow to September. My 6 foot diameter rhubarb plant keeled over this week. I'll replace it with a blue berry. If temperature stay above 0 F this winter I'll be swimming in peaches next year. My kiwis have now settle in and have main trunks to 10 feet to build a scaffold producing plat form.

My citrus collection consists of 3 Sweetlee tangerine trees from seed, 2 Meyer lemon trees from cutting, 2 fukushu kumquats from seed, One Meiwa kumquat tree on Kuharske citrange rootstock and a New Zealand lemonade tree that originated at 4 winds and I have contacted them with question of its rootstock.

Steve, let me know if you find out about the New Zealand lemon rootstock. I have one from them also.

Cory

one year update on my dekopon. It bloomed its head off and set a lot of fruit. Its doing a good job self thinning.

mike

I have planted my tree in the ground two years back and it held really well. This thing doubles in size every year so constant trimming helps build a good canopy. Also the fruit comes in clusters and becuase of the weight of the fruit the tree limbs snap very easily.

Btw. The photos are from july 2015.