Thanks for this. As I'm not in a country with HLB your last couple of videos didn't really teach me anything. This one however gave me quite a few things to think about. For instance I've decided not to graft onto Flying Dragon (FD) rootstock any more and instead prune for size control like I used to. I find that FD is less tolerant of wet or cold weather (and the climate isn't as predictable as it once was). Also it takes a lot longer to get a tree of reasonable size on FD stock, it doesn't just reduce the trees ultimate size, instead it reduces the trees vigour. That makes it not only slower growing but also more susceptible to periods of inclement weather (in my experience).
You're welcome! I am glad that you got something out of it. For non-HLB countries, I hope there will be some benefit of the other videos in that people will understand how important it is to keep exotic diseases out.
As an adjunct to my post above I should say that some very vigourous scions (such as Washington navel and some grapefruits) seem to do just fine for me on FD stock, they seem to supply the stock with so much energy that it grows better than it would with a lower-vigour scion. However in the last couple of years I've been replacing my dwarf Satsuma mandarins, kumquats and certain slower-growing oranges such as Fukumoto with trees on non-dwarfing stock as the trees on FD are TOO small and slow-growing - and I grow my citrus in (quite large) containers.
@@Fruitmentor I consider myself very lucky to live in a non-HLB country (New Zealand). Fortunately out bio-security team is very vigilant and we are surrounded by oceans and seas so hopefully we'll stay free of it. That said we sometimes get small insects blown across the Tasman sea from Australia on the prevailing winds but so far Australia is free of HLB too so fingers crossed!
I also only plant trees on the Standard root-stock, they have vigorous robust root system. As discussed @ 9:52 . In the past I planted some Semi-Dwarf and Dwarf citrus, these require so much more attention and frequent watering compared to citrus on the Standard rootstock. I am much happier pruning a vigorous tree to keep it down to a size I like instead of a weak sickly tree never getting big enough to survive a week without lots of watering.
Excellent video. I didn't understand about the advice to prune cut at 45 degrees. 45 degrees to vertical? or to the direction of the branch? what if you are cutting a horizontally directed branch? then the cut should be angled to what direction? This might be useful to show in a future video.
Hi Paul, Thanks for the feedback! I believe the idea is to prune at a 45 degree angle to the direction of the branch and angled away from the next bud underneath the cut. We shot more video on pruning and I have enough material that I should be able to make a very good video dedicated only to pruning. I will be sure to incorporate your feedback to make it clearer!
@@Fruitmentor you're very welcome. I hope you give us an update on how to control HLB through any means that some researchers have tried either with Zinc or other compounds too. You can also show us multi grafted Citrus trees if possible. Thank You.
Great video, We have a Cara Cara orange tree and every year it gets hundreds, and hundreds of blossoms maybe more they all start turning into the little green tiny fruits about 1/4 inch some make it to about a 1/2 inch, then they all start dropping. What am I doing wrong? Thanks
That's a very complicated question. It really depends upon what one is trying to do. Here's a nice 236 page book on the topic: citrusvariety.ucr.edu/sites/default/files/2022-08/citrus-rootstocks-their-characters-and-reactions-bitters.pdf
Most citrus trees are grafted. If you plant a sweet orange seed you can end up with a tree that is sterile (no flowers therefore no fruit) or a tree in the citrus family like lime, sour orange etc.
Hello Dan, can we do micro budding if we use kinnow mandarin as Scion(bud) and rough lemon as rootstock.. Please provide any research work on it.. I really need of it...
Assuming that you mean chip budding to a small diameter rootstock, it should work fine. I suspect that other rootstocks than rough lemon may give better kinnow mandarin fruit.
I did not learn anything new here. Most of the questions are general and guru gives general answers . you did not recommend any specific fertilizer except contact your state local ccpp for answers. My lemons and pro blonco used to produce large fruits for the past 10 years and now 14 years it produce very small and unhealthy fruits as each year past by. I have given the same amount of water and fertilizer in the past & recent years.
didnt learn anything new... most are googled or learned from you already.. also this guru doesnt go into details on most questions.. doesnt give away name of products etc... btw dan.. you sound out of breath when talking..
Thank you! I appreciate the honest feedback. I am working on a new batch of videos covering some new topics that have not been on the channel so far. Are there any specific topics that you would like to learn more about? Are there any questions that you would like me to address?
Thanks for the constructive feedback! I hope that you enjoyed the other videos in the series. I did the best I could with this one. Without the jump cuts the video would have been too long and slow.