RE: now grapefruit was: back to oranges

I wrote:

>My guess would be that the trees are getting more water now than they were
when the fruits were formed, causing them to swell and burst their skins.<

You replied:

<I think you may be right, altho our rain seems to be fairly normal this
year and out tangelo tree isn't suffering the same problem.>

I don't think tangelos are very susceptible to this problem, as they are
usually pretty loose-skinned, and the more so the longer they hang on the
tree.  By the way, in my garden, at least, the Minneola tangelo is one of
those fruits that holds very well on the tree and usually improves in
quality the longer it stays on the tree, requiring many "heat units" to
sweeten up well.  Still, I usually pick the entire crop every year for
eating out-of-hand and juicing, and the tree continues to bear huge crops
annually.  I think it is my most prolific citrus tree.  By way of contrast,
my Moro blood orange seems to produce well only every other year.  I had a
lot of the Moro's crack this year, and I think it was due to the spotty
nature of the rains we had this winter.  Moro has an unusually thick and
somewhat stiff rind, anyway, and I think that makes it especially
susceptible.  There was a huge crop, and they were beautifully colored, but
our short freeze ruined them completely.  I was so disappointed. 
 

And for another problem..........

<The tangelo tree has area of its trunk where the bark has pulled away and 
the wound is weeping. Several years ago at the trunk's base it appeared 
that an animal had gnawed the bark from an area about 1/3 of the way 
around the trunk. I treated w/ Subdue and it seemed to deal w/ it and 
I'll try again, but any other ideas?>

The first or second year after I planted my Moro blood orange was the year
we had our devastating freeze here in California (1989?  I don't remember,
now.)  The tree was small, of course, and the freeze completely defoliated
it.  It also froze the bark almost completely around the trunk down to
ground level.  I would have given it up, but in the late spring, it was
apparent that there was still a very thin strip of green bark, perhaps only
1/4" wide, that was still living on one side of the trunk, so I decided to
give it a chance.  Well, to make a long story short, I guess that freeze
scared the living (fill in the blank with your favorite expletive) out of
it, because it came back with a vengeance and is now overtopping my house
and has to be cut back every year to keep from outgrowing its space.  There
is no trace whatsoever on the trunk that it was ever damaged.  The new
growth completely recovered the "dead" portion.  So, my advice is simply to
give it some time.  Good Luck.

Kurt Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index