I have a sumo tree just wondering how his seedling where doing. They say after u pick them to let them set 15 to 40 days for the acid to go down. So the sugar goes up that's what it was saying on web site. I don't know about that when they rippen on my tree I will try one and see.
Trace

Tcamp, probably around March or later they would be ripening. Ive herd about the leaving the fruit out. Be careful when doing this for that long because it might rot unless dipped in a fungicide and stored correctly. Ill just pick mine when they are ready,

Same here lol don't plan to leave them out like that lol.
Trace

RyanLo, I may have to try one!

I have 'Early Armstrong' in a pot and I do enjoy that the fruits ripen in late Fall / early winter.

I don't have a greenhouse, so I wonder if late-bearing fruit could hang on most of the winter in my garage and still ripen properly.

hi guys am in uganda and i have the big fertile land to grow dekopon but i dont ve seeds and idont know where to find them

so anyone whith help thx in advance

Erisa, you would have to check from within your own country. Citrus seeds, cuttings, plants are illegal to ship outside of the USA and between countries due to the spread of diseases. Most especially the serious concern right now with Citrus Greening, which can spread through seeds as well. So, check your country. See if anyone is growing this cultivar. If not, see if the fruit is being sold in stores and save the seeds.

Patty S.

It is not accurate to say hlb spreads through seed. I fully respect why seeds should not be sent but that is no excuse to lie to people.

The truth:

HLB can be graft transmitted but transmission rates are variable because of irregular distribution of bacteria within the host plant. Seed transmission may be possible but studies are not yet conclusive and if it occurs it is only at very low levels and the disease does not seem to persist beyond early seedling stages.

Or in plain English, it's not yet known for sure if there is a risk in seeds. Not only that but it may be proven one day that seeds can be safely traded even with areas severely affected.

If it's safe, I'd be willing to send seeds or such if someone's in need.

Hello,

how are your dekopon seeds coming along? I had the craziest night a while ago and got 4 precious seeds from a Sumo. I split it with my fiance, he had zero seeds, I had all 4. large hefty seeds. into little pots they went and I've been coddling them for the last 2-3 months. one didn't do anything and died, one got bit into and that one grew first, and then didn't do so well, and then the other 2 have sprouts. so really only 2 seeds made it. it's been SOOOO slow. they do not look sturdy enough to separate yet. I'm really worried about them. they are growing all crazy and tangled and there were a couple of tiny leaves which then shriveled and fell off!! although they are still growing and new leaves a growing. I don't know why mine seem to be taking way longer than yours. first of all it took easily 1.5 months to sprout. I did the whole keeping in a moist napkin between folded plastic thing for the first few weeks, too.

thanks!

julia

Julia, ive had a similar experience as you have had with the sumo seedling. I found one seed in a sumo mandarin which sprouted 3 seedlings, 2 stopped growing and died. i have 1 seedling left, it took mine about 1 month to germinate and send up a set of leaves. It is SOOOOOOO slow growing at 3 months my sumo seedling stopped sending up new growth i repotted it and it had fresh active root growth, and since being repotted it lost some chlorophyll i assume from "shock". Ive found my sumo mandarin to be very picky with what i water it with the pH has to be right i use distilled water and mix up my nutrients in that gives the water a pH of about 5.8-6. it does not like water from my garden hose/tap, but mine is very very slow growing compared to ANY other seedlings i have grown, my orange seedlings by 3 months were almost a foot tall with secondary branches.

-Josh

"It is not accurate to say hlb spreads through seed. I fully respect why
seeds should not be sent but that is no excuse to lie to people."

Pip, I do not appreciate being called a liar. That is uncalled for. As you mentioned, the research jury is still out on whether or not HLB is definitively transmitted through seeds. But the concern is high enough, that states (and countries) quarantined for HLB and other citrus diseases are not allowed to ship out any part of a citrus plant without inspection. And, citrus products may not be shipped into the USA from other countries without inspection, either. So, theniceguy, it was a kind offer, but it is illegal to mail citrus seeds from Japan to the USA unless your products are inspected. The USA is very protective about its agricultural livelihood.

Patty S.

I planted 12 seeds a few weeks and one just sprouted. I've placed a plastic bottle over it for protection from the elements. I'm on the East Coast of Australia (Sydney). Is this OK to do?

No If your tree gets bright sun it may cook your plant. Bring your tree in to a north window on bad windy day so it can get the high summer sun an put it back outside for the lower wind days. The tree will need the aerobic exercise provided by the wind to do well.

Please post a picture and make sure the plant does not dry out

Then don't lie. It shouldn't take being called out for that to happen.

its not that seeds spread disease it's the fear that seeds might, In a extremely rare case, spread disease. It has never, never been proven that seeds spread disease. In fact growing seeds is a method to clean a variety of disease. Truth

Id worry about damping off.

Thanks Steve

My seedling

Awe twins

I'm a very proud mum!

im updating my sumo mandarin seedling growth its still very slow going slow steady

Can you graft?

i will pick up a donor rootstock from my local lowes or HD and attempt to graft onto it but although its 8 months old it is still very small and slow growing it just got its first thorns this week, i will give it another 2 or 3 weeks and then attempt to force it to send out a secondary branch by bending the top over and forcing the lower buds to sprout a new branch once this branch has matured a little i will cut it and graft it onto the donor rootstock. i think i should have the first grafting done within the next two months. i have a small indoor greenhouse i will move it into to keep it growing new flushes throughout the winter months. its been over 100 degrees the past two weeks and is prolonging this growing season. any advice is welcomed.

-Josh

Buy whatever is on as vigorous of a rootstock as possible. If that is a 8 month old tree then it so wouldn't be a wast of time to grow it on a real vigorous stock.

me personally I'd buy s tree from Harris if you can they use us802 a lot and it's known to be very vigorous. No semidwarf stuff. My giant key limes (all 3) are on that stock

hmmm good advice most of the stuff at my lowes or hd are on semidwarf rootstock if not ALL of their trees are semidwarf. i was just concerned that if i chopped it right now before forcing a new branch that if the graft didnt take then i would have killed off the most matured buds being at the top. then i would have to wait a while for it to grow new buds.

True. But the term most mature buds doesn't mean much does it? There's what a dozen buds? You will need thousands before it flowers.

Keep with your idea to get it to branch then graft it to something that will bring it to flowering size. Unless your cool with waiting to 2025 because if that tree is 8 months old it's fully possible it will take 10 years to become big enough. This is why growing from seed is avoided except in cases like this where there are no other options.

are you in California? If so Harris is not an option. But you should be able to find good standard size rootstocks. me personally I'm just a fan of the us series.

there is maybe a dozen buds currently maybe... and you are correct i do not want to wait until 2025 for a flowering tree lol. i am located in southern california so harris is not an option, i will keep with my plan to make it branch off and use those to graft i will just have to go troll through some local nurseries and look for some decent standard rootstocks. when it comes to grafting onto rootstocks in this situation would bigger be better?? should i get a 2-3 year old tree on standard for the donor or should i try and find something bigger and older??

Hello Josh,

Can you provide me an update on your progress (pics too if possible)?

I was lucky to find seeds in my Dekopons purchased earlier this month 02-16, and they have germinated.

From the Dekopon purchased on 02-01-16 :

Nucellar Seedllings (1st Vigorous Group) Update as of 02-17-16

Zygotic Seedlings (2nd Vigorous Group) Update as of 02-17-16

Zygotic Seedllings (3rd Vigorous Group) Update as of 02-17-16

Thank you,

Rodney

My baby Sumo

Very nice. Great job

They are looking great Josh, they look real healthy! It's great to see what the seedlings look like for about a years growth. Which zone are you in and I am assuming the seedlings are full time outdoors?

im in southern california and the seedling is in full sun outdoors all day all night sometimes if there is a heat wave and it is like almost 100+ for a few days i out it under the patio in indirect sunlight just so the fresh young leaves dont burn but most the time i just let it sit out there 24/7 in full sun all day.

This morning I read this thread and googled it and went directly to a store that carries them in NY and bougth 3... Oh my, this is among the best citrus I have ever tasted! I bougth three hoping to get a seed... Not even one :(

Yea it is very conflicting in its "seediness" one season i bought probably 40 fruit in total and found 1 seed out of the entire 40 fruit and i know others who bought only a handful of fruit and found multiple seeds in multiple fruit. but i think me trying so hard to find that one seed made it all the more special when i did find it and made me take better care of that 1 seedling i got, eve though it was the last and smallest of the seedlings to emerge from that one seed and probably is a zygotic or "sexually reproduced" seedling it is still most likely a SumoXsumo cross rather than any other type of SumoX??? cross it will be years and years before this thing ever flowers or fruits for me to find out, but i still enjoy it. dont get discouraged the seed i found in mine was towards the end of feburary and the end of the sumo season. Good luck in your quest!!

Will Dekopons do well in Florida 9B? If so anyone know who has grafted trees for sale in Florida?

Harris has shiranui. The other name for dekopon. Same plant

Also josh, grafting now is pointless and illegal.

you can only legally graft ccpp budwood in California and they now have dekopon that is mature and won't require the juvenile stage.

grow the seedlings for fun but be smart and buy budwood and get fruit in a couple years.

Josh If you grow it in ground outside you will get fruit in less time than you might think. That fruit will also be coming off a well developed tree. give it a try

Mandarins are not always fast fruiters. It's not like key limes.

Souther California has superior citrus growing parameters to any of us northerners. In 2 .5 years my tangerine trees top 6 & 7 feet and stopped growing thorns. Flowering was just down the road had I lived in So.Cal. I was unable to cover my tangerine trees this past winter and 2 died one died back to 2 feet and is doing well. He can still get a grafted tree and still plant the seedlings outside with high hopes.

High hopes sure. But when people say citrus can take ten years or more to flower from seed they are talking about in ground plants in areas like California.

people say and rightfully so that growing from seed in containers is pretty much pointless for most varities. Remember the 40 year old tree that's never fruited from that thread last week?

Here is a little update current growth, I do plan on planting in ground someday but for now it will remain in the container I have ordered the budwood from the cop just waiting for it to be "in stock" for now I just enjoy my little mandarin tree it gets lots of sun and some good wind/breeze and has a nice trunk diameter

Wow!! Congratulations!! So very exciting! I have a sumo plant from Harris. It had a very weak trunk when I got it, but after some cropping and TLC, it is growing well now.

Congratulations. We now know that the leaf node count for sumos is around 10-15. LOL

How is you sumo seedling doing?

Really well! Hasn't flowered since last photo but I'm patient. I can wait...

I'm expecting next flowering end of August