Everything as usual except heavy pruning on some non citrus trees. Hoping for my potted pomegranate to hold on to at least one fruit, last season it bloomed but had no fruit, ants got inside the flowers and and they fell without setting fruit.

When you feel that you have too much of a good think going, planning is much more difficult. Every years end you come up with different ideas and each situation could be different. This fall I came up with a different view of doing things.

The reason i mention fall is because what i plan to do this spring has a lot to do with fall, like positioning of all your tree's first, than doing things more fluid and organized. If you don't have the s...... i have than don't worry, just cruise along.

I don't get a lot of bees in my area for pollinating so I may try the paintbrush thing even though I know the trees are suppose to be self pollinating. I thought that I would give it a try because my Meyer didn't hang onto any fruits this year. The reasons why not could have been caused by being an alternate bearing year, my knocking the fruits off from moving them around, a major root prune and uppotting or a multitude of other things, but thought I would see if it would make a difference. The darn thing is blooming now in my cold sunroom and carrying fruit so we will see how that goes. I have no expectations with the fruit as I think it's too cold, but you just never know what the darn thing will do to confuse you even more. lol. It must be a woman, because it doesn't follow the rules like me.

I am going to try fertilizing earlier around Valentines Day as I have read to fertilize before the trees go into bloom. I usually do it when the weather is warm and the trees are actively growing which is the end of March.

I am soo tempted to try my first Sumos as they are orange as I type this, but I think they are harvested in CA at the end of January so I will wait until then.

Sunshine, if you have a bush rather than a tree, you can use D.E., if you have a tree you can use glue or a piece of fly strip, sticky stuff.. Don’t put glue directly on tree trunck. I use electrical tape at the bottom so those suckers has to go over the glue. The dumb get glued and the smart ones go somewhere else. I use the sticky side out because I don’t know if it hurts the tree. Just 4” or so, flip tape to hold tape in place.

I guess i am planning too far ahead, be back in March. Got to go Christmas "shoppen", stay away from garden stuff for awhile.

We always have a big todo at Christmas Eve.

I am going to install the the roof of the kumquat greenhouse in spring. It will be Low-E glass . This will keep the heat of the sun from baking the trees. Kumquats seem to grow better when the heat on the leaves is not their. When winter time comes i'll just have the end caps to install.

Steve

I think I am going to downsize just a few more trees. Like you Bob, I only want to keep the ones I really like. Now just trying to get them through the winter with minimal damage...

Bob How did you get shafted on the Santa Teresa. I have lost track.

Steve

Steve got sionwood Santa Teresa and Valentine pomelo and neither were right. ST should taste like a lemon but taste like a orange, pomelo is totally screwed up.I got all the info on citrus.

I can easily convert them to something different, no problem, just lost a couple of years and that is what i am not happy about. Sh..... happens. Can’t effort 2 years.

I am going to exploit the Gold series, big time, my choice of mandarins.

Laura, what are you going to do with the trees you would like to dispose of? Post them up on Craigslist? This is a topic that I have never seen discussed.

I have a few that are too young still to produce fruit, but am waiting to see how they turn out. I may not like them and downsize as well. Twenty-five or so trees are really too much for me to handle as I get older.

Denise, I am going to contact the gentleman that took my others and I thought of offering them up here to someone relatively local. I am about to sample (again) both an oroblanco and cocktail grapefruit - side-by-side to really get a feel for the flavors. I will then decide what to do.

Bob, I have ST and can certainly send you budwood - mine is quite large and needs pruning anyways.

Laura, do you want to trade? Do that tree already fruited for you? Do you like it, what is your opinion? Good, super good, to die for?

Bob, no need for trade now. It is a very nice lemon - my favorite with meyer a close second. The meyer is juicier, but the ST is juicy too (more so than lisbon or others like that) and the lemons are huge. I did a taste test a while back and my family voted it #1 in a blind study...lol....The rind is wonderful and very aromatic so for cooking it is a good one all around. It has massive leaves too. Mine is very sprawling and is loaded with buds and fruits of all sizes. I really like it.

Do you want me to send it now? It may be too cold? Or spring?

Bob, I thought of you yesterday because my husband broke a small branch off my calamondin and I thought you may want to try to graft it since you had been considering that variety. The branch may be too thin though. I do have ripe fruit now though that I could send you so you can try them. Not good for eating out of hand, but I LOVE to squeeze one into a glass of water (cold or hot) and drink it. I leave it in there all day and the rind flavors the water, but it is not too overwhelming.

Laura, could you send them in one of those little padded envelope usely $3.80 to ship. Envelope is only $ 0.60 .How about the end of January?

Sounds like a plan Bob!