Growing citrus in north Florida

So the next time you go to the grocery store, check out the tangerines they are selling and compare them to this Poncan variety.



And how is this for a pomelo variety of grapefruit? Connie got four of these this year on her tree she has been growing.

My son drove down to visit me two years ago and said he noticed I had no citrus, so he brought me a really small orange tree. This year it is about 2 foot tall and has 30 small oranges on it. They are only an inch to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I peeled a couple very slowly and ate them and they were as bitter as a lemon. I asked him the name of them and he said they are Chinese oranges, Calamondin, or as I've since found out, better known as Philippine limes. No wonder they aren't sweet. LOL.

If you want REALLY good tangerines, plant some Poncans. They are really scrumptious. You will probably never eat store bought tangerines again.

If you are into lemons, everyone raves about the Meyer lemons that Connie produces.

I wish I could keep citrus alive at my house. It just gets too cold to get a baby tree going.

I'll check out the Poncans. I have been reluctant to plant citrus because of the Citrus Greening disease. I hate to have to use pesticides on my small lot. I have read about a guy using metalized mulch that's working for him. The other problem I have is that there's a salt water canal behind my house and most things don't grow well in the back yard. I have to plant salt tolerant plants. How in the heck can the branches on your trees hold up to the weight of the tangerines and grapefruit? Do you have to use supports?

Nanci said:

I wish I could keep citrus alive at my house. It just gets too cold to get a baby tree going.

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Try some Satsuma (https://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/JFE/product/owari-satsuma-tangerine-tree/) and Changsha (https://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/JFE/product/changsha-tangerine-tree/). They are very cold hardy and should do fine where you are located. Actually, anything we can grow here should do even better in your locale, temperature wise.

If you are interested, remind me late Fall next year and I can send you some seeds. It's one of the few tangerines that grows true from seeds. We have a bunch of them growing up here and there on our property from seeds we spit out over the years while eating the fruit during walks around the property. Been getting fruit off a couple of the second generation trees already. But bear in mind that seed grown citrus takes a good 8 to 10 years to produce fruit. The ones you buy are normally grafted which stunts them, but trades that off with earlier production.

Twolunger said:

I'll check out the Poncans. I have been reluctant to plant citrus because of the Citrus Greening disease. I hate to have to use pesticides on my small lot. I have read about a guy using metalized mulch that's working for him. The other problem I have is that there's a salt water canal behind my house and most things don't grow well in the back yard. I have to plant salt tolerant plants. How in the heck can the branches on your trees hold up to the weight of the tangerines and grapefruit? Do you have to use supports?

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*Knocking on wood*... We haven't had any of that particular problem here. At least not yet. Biggest problem we have had with the citrus are the white flies. They leave a black residue on the leaves which starves the plant out because of the reduced photosynthesis. The oddball cure for that is to spray the trees with sour milk (any time except when the flowers are blooming), and that seems to chase the white flies away. I didn't believe it would work either, but it sure enough does.

We tied up a couple of branches on the pomelo that looked a bit spindly and fragile. I image if the tree produces a lot of fruit in the future, that could be a problem. The poncans tend to produce the fruit at the ends of long branches, which will gradually bend down to almost ground level as the fruit gets ripe. Never had a problem with any of the branches snapping, so they must be quite flexible. He have put supports on some of them when it appeared that they were headed towards having the fruits laying on the ground, however.

So far haven't had any bears getting into the citrus, but have had to trap a few possums that got a taste for the tangerines and were being a nuisance. Had to run them out into the national forest to relocate them. Bears would likely destroy the trees climbing up into them, so I hope we don't have to deal with that.

Yeah, from what I have read, citrus isn't real fond of salt in the soil, but perhaps some varieties are better than others, depending on what root stock is used for grafting. It appears that most of the citrus trees you buy are grafted. The stuff we got earlier was grafted onto trifoliata stock, which is supposed to help a LOT with cold and pest resistance. We have one citrus that the graft died off and just the root stock remains. It became one wicked looked thorn bush. It produces fruit but you can't eat them. Smells sweet, but don't try to eat them. LOTS of seeds and they sprout readily when put into the ground, so would make a killer (literally) hedge.

When we moved here my sister-in-law wanted to give us a housewarming gift. Knowing that I love flowers and flowering bushes she said she would buy us a citrus tree since we could have the flowers and the fruit. I told her I wouldn't mind a tangerine, so she bought me one and I planted it in the back yard. After looking at the tree more closely it didn't appear to be any citrus that I've seen at the local nurseries. I asked her what kind of tangerine it's supposed to be, as I was thinking it wasn't labeled properly. The leaves looked like peach leaves to me. She found the tag and told me it was a nectarine. So much for my citrus tree. The nectarine did produce some fruit, but just
before the fruit got ripe the raccoons would take it. The salt finally did it in.

Talk about some wicked looking thorns, I'd hate to fall into that mess. I have several Crown of Thorns plants and they don't look that formidable.

Twolunger said:

She found the tag and told me it was a nectarine. So much for my citrus tree.

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Reminds me of the time I did a secret santa, posting on my info that I like to crochet. I got an instructional book for knitting in the round... :face_palm_02:

I can't say I never goofed up. Years back I drove down to visit my son and see his snake collection. He had over 600 breeders, lots of varieties, and some really fine snakes, except in Corns he only had very dark looking anerys. Since he sold thousands of snake hatchlings yearly I got the bright idea to purchase some brightly colored Corns for his collection. I bought some Candy Canes from SerpenCo, a name familiar to us, and maybe some other morphs that I can't remember now. I raised them for 3 years and then gave them to him right out of brumation, ready to breed. At the end of the year I visited again hoping to see what Candy Canes, and other morphs he had produced. He didn't have any of the Corns I gave him. He apologized and said he sold them because he likes the anerys best of all. I guess it was my fault for not discussing my plan, but I sure wish he would have told me, as I loved those morphs.