They must have an open spigot behind the pot/foliage flowing directly into the pot of that second picture... lol. And certainly no wind! I'll have to tally up my fruit quantity when it's light here again.

-Tom

Tom I suspect that there is an in ground tree behind the mandarin seen that accounts for 3/4 of its volume. Even so at 1/4 thats a lot of fruit from a potted citrus.

Cuban Shaddock from cuttings · More Info

6b Steve

That mandarin needs to be repotted in a bigger container, ha ha ha.

It's amazing the tree could get that big with that small of a root size. I'm assuming someone goes out there and waters it everyday, and gives it fertilizer.

"Rootbound" would probably be an understatement.

Haha, yes, there's certainly another tree behind the pot. But it's fun to entertain the idea of it! I just couldn't help but fathom how much water a tree of that size would go through in one day... not that it's achievable. Even roots have their limits!

Until roots invade your sewer pipe out to the street. Then you wonder why/how they can tolerate bleach, detergents, acids, salt, and grease, while our potted trees complain about mere waterlogging (I might be ranting right now).

-Tom

I've seen that second picture before in another post. It is not in the pot, it's an optical illusion, the tree is actually planted in the ground behind the pot giving the effect that it is a potted tree, but it is not.

Evan

I know you are probably looking for results from larger, more mature trees, but here is my Key Lime: I pinched off about 30 fruitlets (4 were nearly mature) while it was stressed back in June. It now has more than twice the amount of buds:

I will update once the fruit matures.

-Kelley 8a

Kelley, anything counts here. We all start somewhere! Yeah, that does seem like an illusion now that you mention it Evan. Now that nagami one is the real deal and I can see that in a tree that size. For the first time yesterday, I actually started to really worry about the size of these trees as they grow. I potted up my big key lime (Kevin), and last night, the Minneola. OMG, the minneola is even bigger. It was root bound and still quite large so I fear what that monster will grow into in the large container. As far as fruit production, I will have lots of key limes/limequats - hard to estimate how many, but perhaps 80+ from all my trees. I know that is nothing for an in-ground tree, but I am happy with it. I will also have lots of kumquats - probably over 100 nagami, and maybe 15+ fukushu. Meyer lemons - I think this year will be an off year. I have several smaller trees that have lemons, but Alexander is just now blooming so it will take while for him to have lemons. From the other trees, I suspect maybe 30 meyers, but they could surprise me. Grapefruits - 5. Tangelos - 7. Calamondin - too many to count - over 100 easily. Sanguinelli - 4. Santa Teresa - 6. Persian limes ~ 30. Kishu - 2. Cara cara - 1. Moro - 1. Nules clementine - 3. Giant key lime - hard to count but ~ 50 including the smaller ones. Xie-Shan - 2. Dekopon - 4 if the smaller ones hold. Sudachi ~ 10. Oro blanco - 5. Lemonquats ~ 25. I'm sure I'm missing someone, but that is about right.

Thanks everyone for sharing. These comments are what I am looking to see and hear. None of us have anything like the kumquat above and I too became aware that the mandarin was to big for its pot. It could have grown through its pot and grown to a size as pictured above, but then it would no longer qualify as potted. My Cuban shaddock would have been worth keeping If it had been a Meiwa or NZL, but Cuban Shaddock's skin was 1.25 inches thick, hard to peal, and yielded a golf ball size fruit with 50+ seeds.

6b Steve

Wow Laura, you can open a citrus fruitstand at the farmers market ;). For me it is just the thrill to grow them in a pot, smell the flowers and any fruit is bonus :)

My 4 year old meyer produced well over 70 lemons last year and my 3 year satsuma 40. I gave away my 6 year old mexican lime that produced well over a 100 a year and replaced it with a Kaffir this year. Its growing like gang busters and I expect it to produce some fruit next spring. I bought it this spring at Costco as a 2 foot tree and transplanted it into a 1/2 wine barrel and its already doubled in size.

Nick, that is impressive. The most my meyer has every produced was 40+ lemons. I think this year will be a good one once he sets fruit. Oh, and I forgot the NZL...no way to know for sure, but I suspect at least 3-4 based on the size of the tree. Susanne...thanks. I really enjoy the trees and love cooking/baking, so it is a treat to have the fruit. Even though I hate the thought of bringing them inside because they are more difficult to maintain and it is a hassle, I love having them green and blooming when everything else is dead outside. It is like having my own little indoor jungle ;-)

I forgot to add - baboon lemon - 4. Lisbon lemon - 7. Rangpur lime - 8-10.

Ha, Steve, I did a double take on that top picture. Lol

Laura, I hope all of that wonderful fruit stay on the trees until they mature. I love the shape of the Baboon Lemon. So pretty. Nick, that sounds like an amazing tree. Kelly, lovely tree, you should have enough for a key lime pie. Susanne. is that your grapefruit tree? It is stunning!

I have around 6 Genoa Lemons, 4 Pomona Sweet Lemon, a number of Seville Sour Orange, 3 Bouquet de Fleurs, a small number of Calamondin and more Marumi Kumquat fruit that keep on producing.. I have taken the fruit off of a few young trees so they can concentrate on growing this year. My only ST lemon fell off but both trees have been flushing out new growth and are budding and blooming so I hope that I end up with a few fruit..

I had some tasty young fruit that I picked off of my Marumi Kumquat. They were just turning orange but were still small and turning soft. The skin is sweet, thin and chewy. The pulp is juicy and tart with a burst of orange flavor. I actually liked it better than the Nagami fruit that I ate last year. As the tree matures the fruit will get larger and tastier..

I went ahead and picked the single Xie Shan Satsuma fruit off of the young tree. It was growing/maturing nicely, but my conscious told me it was better to let the tree put its energy into growing and developing roots, trunk and branches. So...out of curiosity I dissected the fruit . It peeled easily and the sections separated from the membrane well. Since the fruit is still very inmature, the pulp was crunchy and chewy like a pomelo, and the flavor is not as pronounced and sweet as it could be, but it definitely has a hint of that sweet mandarin flavor..

I wonder about the authenticity of the meiwa pic, as well. The relative sizes of everything seems odd.

The kumquat tree picture I believe is real. A well cared for properly root pruned kumquat tree could easily do as well as that picture. I found the owner of that tree.

Meiwa Kumquat tree

6b Steve

Looks like it is at Longwood. Their site says accession date is 1986.

Guess I need to figure out how to properly root prune?

None of us seem to be doing the proper root pruning to produce a tree like that kumquat. I have decided to plant in ground and protect with a glass covering every winter.

6b Steve

I'm planning to do that. Since I saw that big grapefruit tree I'm thinking more of how to keep my trees to a manageable size. Which brings me to the question why should we remove the fruits from a young tree if grown in a container?

Susanne, is that your tree? It is gorgeous! I think we can treat our trees like giant bonsai. Have you ever seen how Oscar Tintori prunes his huge potted trees? I can try to find the video for you. I do really worry about their increasing size though. As it is, I already have been wondering how to do some selective pruning to manage their width.

There we go Steve! My forecasted harvest this season: 5 Meyer lemons, 3 limes, 50+ different types of figs, 30 tomatoes, 30 red, yellow, green peppers, lots of strawberries, herbs and chillies. I think, not bad for an 11th floor open balcony garden :)) No clementines yet, because I am removing any fruit that the young tree is setting.

11th floor open balcony garden

You are doing really good.

6b Steve

While these are not my trees this is the picture that convinced me to grow Meiwa kumquts 6 years ago and got me going with the purchase of PT seeds and Meiwa fruits for taste testing and seeds. I just recently bumped back into this picture.

Steve, does the PT or any other sour citrus rootstock affect the taste of the grafted Meiwa?

Meiwa is incompatible with sour orange rootstock. PT enhances Meiwa flavor the best and lemon rootstock produce more but low grade fruit. More tomorrow after work

I am going to try to graft Meiwa on sweet orange and compare the taste of the fruit to the fruit of my current Meiwa, which is grafted on Volcamer lemon. l also have pomelo seedlings. Which one should I graft Meiwa on to: sweet orange or pomelo? ( To have best tasting Meiwa) My trees are all container trees.