Do prolonged shipping times cause blooming

5 years ago

Not really a problem, but I thought I'd toss it out there for discussion since I can't find much information online, and I'm curious. In my own experience, I've only ever purchased two trees from online nurseries (my Nagami came from a local nursery, and the other trees I've worked with over the years came from home and garden shows, other nurseries, or were grown from seed.) My first online purchase, a fukushu, shipped in 2 days at the end of spring in nice weather. It came out of the box healthy and didn't have a long recovery time, it grew quite a bit for a few months, then set blooms and fruit. My second online purchase, (got it less than 8 weeks ago), a makrut lime, took more than a week to ship and sat outside in sub 40 degree temperatures for at least 4 hours if not longer. When I removed it from the box, the tree was clearly stressed with mottled leaves and slight curling from the cold. I spent a few weeks giving it some TLC and the issues all disappeared, but instead of putting on new vegetative growth it has started blooming like crazy. Since it's a small and rather young tree, I think this is due to the stress it endured from shipping and then being left outside, upside down, in near freezing weather. So, I guess my topic for discussion is this: was it the prolonged shipping times? The cold? A combination? What do you think? (just kind of a for-fun discussion as it seems like there hasn't been much on the forum recently).

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Comments (5)

Silica
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Shipping time does not increase bloom, but cold/cool temperatures certainly do increase flower bloom. The state of Florida keeps track of cool hours (below 55.2 F) and weekly reports the accumulation of cool hours to the Florida growers. This is done so the growers can pre-determine the size of the coming crop. Rootstock has no effect on chill unit requirements. Each bud on the scion collects its own chill unites and doesn't even share information up or down the stem to the next note.
bonsai_citrus_and_indoor_gardening
Original Author
5 years ago
Silica, thanks for the response. I was aware that cold might have had an effect, as it was shipped ground. My question with the shipping time had less to do with shipping and more to do with hours in the dark of the thick box it was in. The tree took about 12 days to ship, so spent 12 days in the dark. Then sat in sub 40 degrees on the porch. I had heard from some that swear by placing their orchids in the dark for 1-2 weeks to make them bloom, (not sure if this applies to citrus). So I was curious if it is one or the other or a combination of the two that encourages more blooms. Just a thought experiment, as I wouldn't likely test it with my own trees, but curious nonetheless.
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Ken "Fruity Paws" (N-Va 7a)
5 years ago
Some stressors are known to induce bloom/fruiting cycle. Commonly, cutting back on irrigation has been used. Low 40's (even mid 30s) isn't in itself going to cause wilt, so I suspect, the tree was suffering some hydration issue. Perhaps your long shipment if it arrive dry, might have had some impact.
bonsai_citrus_and_indoor_gardening
Original Author
5 years ago
Drought was my first thought upon opening it, but the soil was still moist. Though now that you mention it, it may have stayed too wet in shipping. It was shipped ground right before we had some inclement weather in the PNW, (which may have impacted shipping times), which is why I think it may have experienced colder temps longer than the minimum 4 hours it was outside. (When I brought it in the temp outside was 34.)
Meyermike(Zone 6a Ma.)
5 years ago
Yes, I don't think the darkness in the box caused flowering, in fact it would cause in my thoughts leaf drop.

The colder temps would as Silica says. You should see what the colder temps did for my trees...Just stuck them outside yesterday and even the cold nights are doing something.