Wow that is awesome! I would love to learn how to propagate plants like that. I can root blueberry cuttings and know when to split my pothos but grafting like that is true skill! Hopefully one day I will have the time to study up on that.

i want to try xie Shan! so far I have failed at grafting. CCPP also took it off their list. I bought an owari satsuma from costco for my next shiruini grafting attempt.

The thing I like is learning more about keeping my trees and plants alive. It's fun to see other peoples trees and fruit, but I am mostly here to learn more about plants through other people's experience. I have been pretty good at keeping stuff alive but I want them to do their best and thrive. Another aspect is the people (and peoples plant pictures) which make forums interesting. You can learn a lot through reading books but hearing about experiences is fun.

These forums are wealth of information: instructions, interactions, advices and sometimes humor. I love it :))

Personally for me it's a much easier format to digest information, when I read people talking about their tree's and how to grow them its in a simple enough way that its easy to see and learn from, pictures certainly help but most of all the ability to ask questions and get responses. If I'm reading a book and don't understand I have to search for someone else's explanation of it, within books or online and I may or may not find a better answer because they didn't think to present it a different way. It's not as easy as having a collective that can chime in with their real life growing experience not just the text book this is how it should work, which oftentimes for me never happens. I appreciate everyone on GW in various forums for sharing their growing experiences. I learn so much just from watching and I owe my success to it.

100% agree John, its how I try and live my life.

A lot of information you get from members is not allways correct, there is a lot to learn ofcourse especially when you are a zone pusher like i am, which means container growing in this case: Citrus.

I consider myself as a fruittree explorer which covers a lot more than inground and therefor a lot depends on your self how you progress in fertilizing,pruning for optimum growth and beeing rewarded with a lot of fruits.

First of all most tree's that you buy are grown totally wrong. When a nursery grow hundred of tree's they bunch them up as close as possible so that they grow straight up. People like to buy taller tree's. Container tree's should be more bushy,here is where good pruning tech comes in, not much written here.

As far as grafting is concern there is much available from forum members to make your own tree's. I have tons of tree's to prove that i grafted and it is most rewarding. First find-out what rootstock you need, then obtain them this year for next year grafting. The list goes on. Please don't scold me as i am very sensitive.

Bob, I am so grateful for not only all I've learned from so many here, but for the friendships I've formed. I honestly feel I have made friends here. If any of us are ever near the others, we should definitely make it a point to get together. Bob, I have two sprouts from your persimmon seeds :-). The paw paw did not sprout for some reason, but that's fine I'm interested in the persimmon. Also, if you want any cuttings from my many varieties and I have suitable limbs, I would be happy to send some to you!

Laura, nice offer, can always depend on you. I have the best tasting manderins growing just need a couple more of the same.Page, xi-shan, dekopon that sit.

Lemons, lime's have enough. Will have 4 tree's. 2 Meyer's producing pretty good.

About persimmon, Laura would you like a plate of these? This coming season might send you some.

Ditto johnmerr's point that it's best to benefit from the experience others have learned the hard way. Someone else pointed out that these forums can be personalized to our own particular zone, species, time period, and all of the other variables they can include as specifics in other resources. I get frustrated trying to parse reliable specifics from we resources. There is a LOT of information out there and it's very useful to add to our information bank but there are sooo many different climates, soils, fertilizers, pests, and even different reasons to grow citrus that it's impossible for most resources to tell us what we should do. That's where the forums come in. We can share our circumstances and even a photo of our tree in it's environment and solicit input from lots of members and then we can take action that may be a tempered mixture from several ideas.

Forums are also a great place to share our successes and failures and other members enjoy seeing what we share...to learn from and to take as encouragement and inspiration.

The citrus forum is one of the best forums I have participated in. Thanks to all of you who make it what it is!

Persimonbob.....here, let me give you Laura's address.....:>P

Sorry John, she might not like them. Citrus for her, got to pull her chain of and on.

persimmonbob...Oh! LOL! I was going to "inadvertently" give you MY address so the persimmons would wind up on MY doorstep!

Oooh...I also have "Laura's" address....

Lol. You guys crack me up!! Bob, how many varieties are on that plate?

Bob, what do they taste like? Not only have I never heard of that fruit, but never had one in my life. Are they addictive? I think I am going to be sorry I asked that? lol

I love these forums because I love to see the experiences of others and love to see how many grow in their knowledge..I have been here for years and as Laura says. made many great friends..Some I have visited, ate breakfast with, shared many types of plants, products and even had at my home for dinner...Many that have even helped me fix my home. Some have even sent me home made food. Some in who I have attended funerals..Laura is right, you do make lasting friendships..

Too, to see one grow from not knowing much at all about citrus, especially in pots, to see grow into pros, as I can name a few right here on this forum! It's a great feeling to see others benefit from the experience of others. Makes my heart rejoice to not only hear of their success, but to see their pics!

I have many finds here, and I am not afraid to say that I care and love them all, many right here on this thread and some yet to stop by.

I should also thank all those that know me well enough to ask where I have been that miss me around, and that post pics to make me smile. Evan posted a few the other day and I know Hobby, Brian, Laura, Josh, and many others always do.

Mike

Well i use to grow about 15 or more varieties at one time but with time i only keep the ones that my wife, neighbors and friends like a lot. Now i probably have between 20 and 30 persimmon tree's.

Mine are seedless, very sweet, juicy but they are not as strong tasting as the natives ones. Japan,Korea, Israel, Rusia, Spain and who knows where. What you see here is just a small pick. 90% need to be soft to eat.

All of the above and eveyone very nicely stated . I really love the camaraderie we all have here for each other . Let's face it we can all go to a pro's website or look up a video to find a certain technique on grafting , rooting cuttings growing seedlings ,fertilizing etc but where is the fun in that ? There are many knowledgeable friends among us I would go to in a flash for advice . I definitely love all the pics and recipes and of course all the laughs we have shared with each other, this site is definitely a winner to me .

Brian

Yes, I love this site and all the people. Where else can we find others as fanatical as ourselves about citrus trees and growing them. I haven't been posting pictures because I think there has been a software upgrade for my phone's camera and it will no longer use the SD card. The internal storage is full and the upgrade also prevents me from transferring them to another device :>( I haven't been able to figure out what I need to do to fix things. I up-potted many of my citrus the past few days and would have liked to have posted pictures. I can't go much larger as the pots will not fit through the greenhouse door. Brian, you were smart to put double doors on your greenhouse.

Cory