I would let it do it thing. It will branch when it is ready. When it is about 5 feet tall you will need to take a bud from the top and graft it to the bottom of the tree if you ever want fruit. wood maturity is messured by the tree as the number of leaves that bud is from the roots. At 5 feet you may have a leaf node count of 100.. the leaf node count will start at 100 even though the bud has been moved to the base of the tree.

Watering 3 times per day is... odd. Unless they are seriously root bound that shouldn't be necessary. Anyway, I am not sure there is really a problem, citrus tend to develop s-l-o-w-l-y. If they flower in the winter expect fruit to form in the spring, grow in the summer and ripen in the fall/winter. Some may be a bit faster, but they take their sweet time, even the ones that are sour ;)

I think they are fascinating trees--Poncirus. The first time I ever the tree was in Longwood Gardens in Pa.. They are hardy were I am but no one seems to grow them and I never see them being sold at garden centers. As I understand it, botanists classify them either as true Citrus or a very close relative. Their leaves remind me of the Kaffir lime (though the Ponciris has an additional third lobe). I As I said, I have mine containerized because I tread the thought of what I'd have to go through if I ever wanted it removed--those thorns are NASTY. Then again, I'd imagine they make for great security fences--and they're deer resistant I believe. Keep in mind though that the tree is deciduous.

I have had good results with cuttings from lemon, about 2 months ago i cut back branches on one of my trees, took all the bits and tryed to root them, 90+% of the lemon cuttings are growing, i have also tried mandarin and calamondin since, none rooted I used a small plastic frame they sell as a greenhouse..., shelves with a plastic bag over it in reality, it was in the house in a bay window for the sun to heat the air, a piece of tissue paper to shield the sun from the plants The cuttings were all about a foot tall, i just cut the bottom off each just below a leaf node, left all the leaves on,i dabbed rooting gel on the end and pushed it into a pot of perlite, watered it, then left it in the greenhouse (tent shelf) it was at 25 deg C for about a month , i sprayed the leaves everyday to keep them wet, after a month i looked and they had rooted 2 inch around and new growth was starting Out of 30 about 28 rooted from the lemon, none from the mandarin or calamondin The cuttings i used were fairly new growth, it was green color but hard, not brand new soft growth