Celestek
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Just having a hard time getting fruit

We have citrus trees, pomegranite tree, fig, banana and avocado. And growing wolf berries from seed....

The citrus have been planted for 4 years and we are still getting very little fruit. We get some amount of fertilization through hand pollination, but a lot of the fuits turn black and hard when they are very small. There is a rather difficult scale issue that we are having a hard time controlling... but not all citrus are affected. In fact the lime tree has the worst scale and made the most fruits last summer.

THe fig tree is new, but we did get a few figs this year, although many more fell off prematurely.

Avacodo is new, and we hope for a few avocado's next year.

Pomegranite has produced a few pomegranites for the lest two years, just not very many. The tree is now 12 feet tall and we probably only got 15 fruits.

We grow lots of tomates and peppers all year (the fruits get smaller though the winter).

At this point I'd really like some help getitng the citrus to not have so much fruit die on us. ANd how to get the pomegranite to make more fruit.

THanks!
Celeste

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Wow nice list :D

Although I don't have a greenhouse and most of mine were started from seeds just for fun, I also have various citruses, pomegranates, one fig, bananas and avocados. Mine get hauled inside for the cold months (October to April/May) and are either stored in dormant state or are situated in various parts of the house with supplemental lights according to temperature and light requirements.

I just finished harvesting figs (Petit Negri) and my little Meyer lemon tree has two baby green fruits. Both of these were purchased grafted and are not the seed grown. A purchased grafted Avocado 'Day' is blooming.

My Super Dwarf Cavendish banana is spending it's third winter inside (having spawned numerous pups in the mean time) and I'm hopeful that it will fruit this summer after it goes back outside. I have a pup cluster that I divided off and potted up that is as big as the mother plant was last winter, so I expect this one will fruit next. Each container of course has successor pups growing as well.

(I also have seed grown mangos, one seed grown coffee, and pineapple plants frown from pineapple tops.)

So, do your plants stay in the greenhouse all year round? How do you adjust for the different temp requirements of these trees when they are in the greenhouse? Most of my citruses are unidentified since I didn't keep track -- I have some of them tentatively ID'd based on leaf structure and temperature sensitivity.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Celestek. Where are you located? Most of those fruits do fine if you do not go too far below freezing. If you are zone 9-13 they should be good to go in the ground. Otherwise they will need to be in containers and have winter protection.

Most citrus will flower in the cooler months. Most of mine did in November and December and have put on fruit. Remember 99% of the flowers drop anyway and the tree size determines how many fruit it can support. My Satsuma still has fruit but is starting to leaf out so it should be blooming soon after that.

I feed my citrus trees when they leaf out and flower. I give them citrus food that contains micros. In fact I use citrus food for most of my plants except my vegetable garden that only needs nitrogen based on the soil test. The Satsuma and Bear's lime only fruit once a year so they get feed when they start to leaf out and again when the fruit is half grown. The other citrus, calamondin, and meyer lemon can have more than one flowering a year so they get fed more often. Calamondin is probably the easiest one to grow and set fruit and for me, it fruits nearly year round. The Bears' lime produces one crop and it takes months to mature.

If you are growing citrus in containers they will dwarf. Aggie horticulture had a good publication on keeping patio trees.

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/pati ... iners.html

I get scale, citrus aphids and thrips on my citrus trees. It is hard to keep them off. I do put out ant bait and that helps a lot in controlling the aphids and scale, but the thrips do damage the skins of the fruit. They are still edible and I tolerate them since anything I use on them will also kill their predators. My main weapons are a blast of water to wash off the aphids and sooty mold, alcohol, and occasionally a sponge dipped in insecticidal soap or horticultural oil.

Figs are easily grown from cutting and will fruit from a cutting from a mature tree. They do tend to drop leaves during the cooler months. The Brown Turkey that I have has really never stopped fruiting although the fruit takes longer to ripen in the cooler weather.

Pomegranates are also easy to grow from seed. They produce within three years. However, most people here grow the dwarf pomegranate and they are popular bonsai specimens because they take to containers very well.

Celestek
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Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 4:24 pm

I am in Wyoming, Zone 4 I think, but verging on 5. Our greenhouse is heated all winter. We never let it freeze. We have in ground water heat (heated from a coal boiler) in a sidewalk that runs around the whole inside of the greenhouse, and on really cold winter nights we supplement with a wood burning stove. All of our plants are planted in the dirt in the greenhouse.

I will definetely try some "feeding" for the citrus when they flower - one of the oranges is flowering right now. Is the black dead fruit a sign that they need food?

Any advice on pruning a pomegranite?

Why so many figs dropping off prematurely?

Thanks again!

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Sounds like a great set up! Would love to see some pictures if you get the chance to post them. 8)

I'm wondering how the humidity is in there? As the winter deepens and the central heat cranks up, humidity in my house plummets all the way to under 40%. As soon as I bring them inside in the fall! I thoroughly mist them every morning and local humidity goes up about 30%. So in the beginning with general humidity at 50-60% misting beings it up to near 90% but now with humidity down to 40-50%, misting beings up the local humidity to about 70% then drops back down in approximately 3-4 hrs.

Also, I think temperature and watering needs of these trees are somewhat different, especially during the winter months? If they are all in the ground, it might be difficult to accommodate their varying requirements. Do you have thermometers in different areas of the greenhouse (high up/near the ground, near door, closest/farthest from stove, etc.) to monitor max/min temperatures?

I had another thought -- with the ground frozen all *around* the greenhouse outside, is the soil drainage affected?

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I rarely get dead black fruit unless they are not getting enough water. Usually the fruit is small and mummified in that case.



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