I am interested in their concept and would be tempted to buy one if they had a variety on my wish list .Many folks in TX can't get citrus so this would be a resource to get trees. If the trees perform as claimed, the price may be worth it. Hard to believe a tree would fruit at age 2.

lucky_cloud, thanks for bringing this to our attention. Very interesting. How did you learn of this company?

A member of a citrus FB page I am on has purchased 3 trees from them. I would say pretty recent too because a photo has been posted and trees are tiny.

I was googling for kaffir lime trees for sale. I saw that they sell on Amazon, but that you can only get trees in packs of 2 through Amazon. Then their regular website came up on the google search as well. The pricing is higher than usual for something small, but that includes shipping (an odd marketing decision).

I was talking to Hershell Boyd who grows citrus in GA about this company and asked what he thought about the claims made. His response was this :

"I can claim that my trees will produce fruit in 6 months and a few do but it’s not practical. Regardless of the scion to stock method the results are the same.

A scion from a mature tree remains mature with node count so it’s capable of producing fruit very early but in most cases is misleading. We don’t want fruit set for three years."

I usually disregard most marketing claims. I'm basically looking at plant condition, price, and availability. FW and Logee's have finger limes, but the prices are higher. I can get a Thai lime seedling on Etsy for about the same price or a grafted one from Logee's that will probably be the same size. Think I might just order and see how it is, I'm willing to spend $60 to find out as long as the trees arrive alive.

Oooh, wait, their "Kumquat Tree" (unnamed in the listing) has a pic with a tag that says meiwa...Hmmm, might have to switch that finger lime or go up to 3 trees. o_0

I saw one unnamed on etsy that I almost pulled the string on, dealbreaker was no info on rootstock, If rootstock was hardy at that price I would have put in ground and protected

I intend to overwinter one citrus (probably a meyer cutting) in my public hallway which has a northeast exposure and a window, water once a month, no heat but never below 60

I just emailed them to ask if they're really selling Meiwa. In the comments on the product page they say they are not settled on a Kumquat variety.

I'm going the dormant route with at least one of them......just get them through winter as a test

jenny I have kept many of my trees in an unheated garage for winter with very little light for many years as I had no place to put them at the time. As you know, I live in GA so I did take them out periodically for some sun and water. We use the garage to go in and out of house exclusively so my trees did get some light 5 minutes at a time plus the light from the opener. The trees looked horrible by springtime though, but it was only for 3.5 months. Those living in the northern states probably shouldn't do it even though the nursery says it's possible. For the prices charged for any citrus tree, I wouldn't test my trees' ability to survive in complete darkness.

Thanks for that experience Denise. It seems it's that balance of light and root temp. Wish I had a garage!

I do have a section of my basement that is "unfinished" (with a door separating it from the finished part), where the temp ranges from 59F (lowest in winter) - 67F (highest in summer). I overwintered a plumeria, fig, and salvia "black and blue" there in the dark (all on short plant stands that kept them off the concrete floor). I covered the latter 2 with a large green trash bag to keep them asleep and only watered a bit once a month. The temp in there did generally keep them dormant although by February they started to wake up and grow (which I've noticed over many years, is a trigger point for many overwintering plants) . There's no window in there and the only light is a bare incandescent bulb on the ceiling that gets turned on if I go in there.

Am thinking I could test overwintering a citrus there with some type of minimal grow light although there's no power outlet in there either (would have to run an extension cord). I had overwintered a few citrus in the finished part of the basement under quite a few lights (which kept the temp range a bit warmer from ~67F - 74F night/day respectively) and although they had good growth, they were sharing quarters with other plants and the aphids became a nuisance.

I did forget to mention the leaves were quite yellow and many did drop off during the storage time in the garage. I never acclimated my trees to the sunlight after being stored in the garage. Some time in March, I just pull them out into the sunlight and never worry about burning. The sun is not hot enough to do any damage. If the weather gets cold or have lots of rain spurts, they would go right back into the garage. I do abuse my plants don't I? lol.

I got a very quick response to my query about kumquat varieties, They have both meiwa and nagami, FYI.

I don't remember if their trees were grafted onto a standard or dwarf rootstock. Does anybody remember? I may be tempted to give it a shot depending on what they use. That little green fingerlime is calling my name. lol.

It says sour orange or trifoliate. I'm sure they'd answer an email quickly. They answered mine this morning!

When I asked the etsy "IM assistant" she said they could give no rootstock confirmation, this was last week

How big does sour orange or trifoliate get? I really like the size that is planted in the little barrels.

Sour orange - large, trifoliate - small

http://www.crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/citrus_rootstock/templates/guide/explore.html

Thanks lucky. I book marked the chart.

My PT is 8 feet now

I received an answer today as well. Very surprised as it is a Sunday.

"Thank you for your interest in citrus!

We grow the afl (Australian Finger Lime) on standard stalks and we only sell small trees about ~15 inches (including root system) for 39.95 on our website with a 10% discount on your entire order if you sign up for our newsletter!"

I don't want a standard. Sooner or later, I will find one on a smaller rootstock.

I ordered a few (!) trees. My husband enabled me by saying "buy them!" when I mentioned I was considering getting some. The forecast for this week is for not-as-terrible heat so hopefully they will be OK in shipping. Will report back.

lucky_cloud, how many is a few? lol. Which varieties did you order? Inquiring minds want to know. lol.

Ha! Kaffir lime, Finger lime, Meiwa kumquat. All varieties I've been curious about. I don't mind much if they're small to begin with.

Fantastic. They look better than the plug in their videos. Would you keep us updated with their growth? I am really curious if the claims of shorter growing times to produce fruit is true.

Will do!

Those are some nice healthy-looking plants! Good luck with them!!! :-D

Very interesting new source of citrus trees. I don't mind smaller plugs since smaller trees are supposed to endure transplant shock better and quicker than larger mature ones. The trees you received look really healthy too. I'll be keeping this site in mind :) Nice find and thanks for sharing your photos with us!

Looking for an update. How are these trees doing?

I potted them in ~1 gal pots. They all look happy so far. Not much new growth yet, though I did pinch a couple of rootstock suckers.

lucky_cloud, which city are you in? I have to move my daughter to Raleigh NC to start school at the state university . Are you nearby?

I read the instructions that accompany the trees. Do you really have to water as often as recommended?

Those instructions were mostly great, but the bit about watering, and the bit about repotting into a 15gal pot, were crazy and I disregarded them!

Update: I just checked on them - the Meiwa has 4 flower buds!

That's exciting. Are you going to leave them on?

Probably they will drop on their own. But if they don't - I don't know. I did some googling earlier this summer and the consensus among citrus-knowledgable people was that it was not necessary to remove fruits, that the tree would know what it could handle.

lucky_cloud, could we have regular updates on your trees? I find the micrografting very interesting and would love to follow their growth. I am dying to know if their claims are true about maturing and fruiting sooner than the conventional methods of growing citrus. If there was a citrus variety that I wanted, I would be tempted to order one myself.

So far, so good. The kaffir put on 3-4 inches of growth that already is mature. The finger lime looks good, has new growth as well. The meiwa has been constantly putting out little flower buds that don't really mature, and tons of rootstock suckers. That seems a little odd to me, but supposedly meiwa is a bit odd?

Are you following the directions the company sent you or are you caring for it like the regular citrus? I have read about the frequent recommended watering and large pots which just don't make sense to me. Why would you put a plug in a 15 gallon pot?

Meiwa trees are very difficult to grow. I have huge callous from multiple suckering from the same spots. The callouses are big enough to affect the flow of sap upwards. What rootstock is yours on. Mine is on Kuharske citrange.

Steve

I put them in sensible sized pots and am watering them as I do my other trees (ie not at all, as we've had regular rains). Not sure of the Meiwa rootstock, I mean to write them and ask.

Nice

Is it normal for a tree that young to bear fruit? I was just wondering if the claims the company has been making is true. I don't know anything about this variety.

I'm really interested in knowing how fast they will grow. The CEO of US Citrus is one of the pioneers of micro chip budding citrus from what I have read, a really novel way of grafting citrus at a very early rootstock age. The concept is similar to how younger organisms often have a better ability to heal and cope with stress or damage - makes sense! The micro chip buds I've tried to do myself have all failed so far but I might get some success eventually.

I had a few rootstock questions and they responded very promptly via email, and to my surprise not only do they have sour orange rootstock but a rep is checking to see what varieties may be available on C-22 stock...yet to hear back on that, though

Kumquat power to you.

Steve

One advantage to smaller plants is you can shape them to meet your needs at a younger age. Harris Nursery sells really tall plants. Fortunately I am seeing new growth on the limbed-up trunk of my Harris Citrus 'Shiranui'. I'll encourage that growth as I want a more bushy plant rather than a tall tree.