Flowering on trees with fruit

[Derald]

"David Hare-Scott" <secret@nospam.com> wrote:

See questions 9 and 10 on page 4 of this document:
<http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]/datastore/391-272.pdf>;

see, also, the fifth paragraph in the section, "PRODUCTION, MATURITY AND USE" in
this document:
<http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/oranges.htm>.

The experts say, "Don't do it" but I've lived all of my life in Florida,
U.S.A., where -- on the peninsula, at least -- citrus is ubiquitous. and holding
citrus on homeowners' "dooryard" [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] tree is common practice. On the tree is
the only way to store citrus and exposure to winter chill makes the fruit
sweeter, although, freezing temperatures will cause much of it to fall. For the
home grower, I don't think the effect, if any, on subsequent cropping is
significant. More commonly, it seems to result in smaller fruit but thinning the
new crop might be corrective. Of course, the fruit will eventually become
overripe and fall and too little water will cause it to become dry and "ricy".
There is no general rule of thumb: Tangerines and murcott start tasting old
fairly quickly while most oranges and grapefruit retain their flavor well.
--
Derald
FL USDA zone 9a
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[Derald]

"David Hare-Scott" <secret@nospam.com> wrote:

No doubt, it is, but the consequences are not likely to be drastic. If you
leave fruit on the tree, I don't believe you'll have a "Lordy, what have I done"
moment when the new crop sets. If you have several specimens, you can always
test and draw your own conclusions. Remember, if you test, that you'll want to
do so over several seasons because many varieties don't bear consistently season
over season. They'll have heavy years followed by light years regardless of what
you do.

Curious:
What varieties do you have? How do you protect [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] from cold, if
necessary?
--
Derald
FL USDA zone 9a
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[David Hare-Scott]

Derald wrote:

I have about 50 fruit [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] of different kinds. The citrus are oranges,
lemons, cumquats, mandarins, tangelos with different cultivars of each.
They ripened about 1 to 4 months ago and I have been working through them;
eating, freezing, marmalading etc. Right now I have a tangelo and cumquat
still bearing. I have a customer for the cumquats who wants them in a month
but not now.

Only the citrus are frost sensitive here. They all had black plastic
"nightshirts" through winter for their first 3 years. The last few years
they have been naked and done well. The only frost problem that I have with
them is late fruiting in autumn (or even winter) can be damaged, the
immature fruit die and fall off after heavy frost. Mature fruit don't. I
tried Tahitian limes and grapefruit but the cultivars I could get were too
frost tender and died. I have a kaffir lime in a tub that goes under
shelter in winter.

David