I have done me that before Bob and this year have been a bit more aggressive about shaping to keep them as manageable as possible. Even if it reduces fruit yield some, I need them to have a manageable shape.

I gave up on directing trees to my needs. It doesn't work.

Steve, don't what to say, my tree's are looking good and they do produce. I am kind of surprise to hear that from you. What is wrong with this tree? Get plenty stuff from them.

Maybe should reshape my username to a more appropriate name for this forum like Lemonhead or something like that. I have spend more time here and not on a different forum. This forum has a lot of citrus purists. I am a jack of all trades and a.......ne.

Hi Bob

Your trees look great. I am not one on pruning though.

I have had nothing but bad results when I prune my citrus trees. If it works for you and others then prune. I have become to skittish to do anything but very minor cutting on my trees. My trees are just entering a production age. I pruned my NZL that I grafted onto US897 but with disastrous results. I still don't know whether it will live or die. I did get 4 wonderful lemons from it when it was 1.5 years old.

If this NZL dies my grafting success rate drops from 1.5% down to 0.75%.

NZL at 1,5 years old

The valentine pomelo with the spinach is sending up 2 water sprouts a quarter of an inch above the graft. I can break these off or let them grow. The whole tree will grow faster if I leave them on than if I break them off.

Close up of the Valentine Pomelo water sprouts.

I plan on a triple trunk tree that stays in its pot and comes in for the winter. My last successful graft came from a bud that was cut from the leader twig in place. I taped up the wound and it continued to grow upward. No scions were removed from the donor tree.