Andrew

My dwarf key lime has also had much more growth than my Meyer, mandarin and ponderosa and lemon drop trees. It will be interesting to see what the fastest growers are for others on the forum.
Kim

Hi Andrew, I'll be the first to bite!!lol

My "Oro Blanco"...That is the trooper in my group! Then I would say my "Ponderosa Lemon" trees, then my "Lime", then my "Washington Navel", then my "Lemon Meyer", etc....

I can't believe that you are getting that Mango! Where will you fit all these plants when they come in after the fall, especially once the ones you already have that have doubled in size due to the FP...?lol

Mike..:-)

Wait, I thought you asked in a way which was the most hardiest, or hardest to kill..lol

My most "VIGOROUS", meaning which grows the fastest, especially when conditions are ripe would be my "key lime", although my "Meyer Lemon" I think kind of ties...That tree has a few flushes of new growth every year.

Mike

I'll also go with the key lime. I've only had it for a week or two, but it is filling out its pot with a lot of fresh white roots. The other tree I got with it (variegated eureka) hasn't done anything.

My calamondin wasn't as vigorous a grower as it was a fruit producer.

My oroblanco went from having 0 leaves to having around 50 medium sized leaves in around 3 months. Seems fairly vigorous.

My ponderosa hasn't put on any new growth. It is taking care of 5 fruit so that is to be expected.

My othaheite red lime did absolutely nothing besides fill out its roots (slowly) from March - June, before finally putting out some new leaves & flowers. No branching. Doesn't seem that vigorous.

My meyer has been having a non-stop fit since I got it about a month and a half ago. It finally stopped throwing leaves and is now putting out 4 branches. Seems vigorous, albeit slightly unstable.

They are all different in subtle ways.

grafted yuzu - Very steady, un-dramatic growth. A few long branches have appeared over the last few months.

seedling yuzu & sudachi - Very slow but steady. I am guessing that papeda-type citrus have a slower growth rate than other citrus, starting out, but the seedlings also have much thicker, dense foliage. The sudachi is gradually starting to speed up. We've had an unusually hot and dry summer here, and these guys seem a tiny bit cranky about that - no significant problems, but they certainly aren't as lively as the others. Rub the leaves, and they both have a faint mix of limey and muskiness (the same kind of smell that yuzu rinds have, but not as strong); I guess this is characteristic of papedas. Even if the fruit is inedible, I'd love to get another papeda: yuku, ichang, khasi, biasong.

grafted calamondin - Did nothing for the first 6-7 months I had it. I guess it was just getting acclimated; it really exploded in late March, and has grown more than a foot since, with several new branches as well. Even though the growth has been in flushes, with short breaks in between, it has grown in size much faster than most of the others.

seedling eureka lemon - Steady, fairly strong growth. 14 months old, and I think I may have to go up a pot size soon. This one hasn't been the most vigorous, but it has been the most steady (Are lemons the James Brown of citrus?: they just keep on keepin' on, it seems!), and this has otherwise been the toughest plant of the lot. Rub the leaves, and the smell is incredible.

seedling tangelo - This one has the most troubles early on, and seemed to take forever to just get its' bearings. It has become considerably more vigorous over the last few months, and I've had to transplant up one pot size. Rub the leaves, and they have an interesting (in a good way) smell - kind of like a tangerine rind, with a slightly spicy, very vaguely clove-ish undertone.

seedling nagami kumquat - Started out very vigorous. Then a squirrel wandered onto the porch, flipped the pot over and completely uprooted the seedling. I didn't find this until the next morning, and by then the plant had gone into shock, but wasn't dead. I repotted, but due to shock or an induced, short-lived period of dormancy, it's development was arrested, and it has JUST now begun to start growing again. Looks like it's trying to stage a comeback, though not completely out of the woods yet.

seedling pummelo - Very vigorous. 6 months old, and robust. I worry about ultimate size with this, but the seedling is beautiful. The fragrance of the rubbed leaves is memorable - a lot like the flavor of a really sweet pummelo, with a slightly flowery undertone.

Hi Davecito,
Please keep us posted on your seedlings. I am especially excited about your tangelo. I know these are grafted trees so I will be curiuos if you can get it to bloom in a few years and if the fruits are of any quality or not.

Mike,
LMAO!! I told ya I got that mango!! There are probobly around a dozen or a few more in the country and I had to have it. As far as room for them all, I don't know what I am going to do yet. Most will stay upstairs and that is why I am looking into the supplemental lighting. Thanks for that link. I have been there before but I never saw your lights. I will probobly order from them though. I will post pics of my new mango tomorrow when it arrives. Though its total travel time will only be about 2 days, I still worry with it coming bare root all the way from Hawaii. Fruits are supposed to be the cream of the crop! For that reason, it will be worth finding the much needed space. I am also going to be selling and trading most of my cherimoya seedlings. I don't know of too many people who don't like the cherimoya fruit. I think I need to send you a seedling. You can expect fruits from even a seedling in as little as two years!!

I do wish the meyer grew more vegetation but I have at least 75 lemons now. I am going to have to figure out a solution to supporting the fruits so I don't risk the limbs snapping from the heay weight of all those fruits. I cannot believe how large the biggest fruits are!! I will get some upclose pics so you can see what I mean.

The Oro shocked me. The one that came back from the brink of death actually was wilting even when the soil was still moist. I watered right away but I still had a lot of bud drop:( Fine with me since I really want both of my Oro's to grow larger so I can try these extra sweet grapefruits. Many thanks to you man for intoducing me to them and Four Winds.

Keylime unfortunetly will require myself to pollinate it. I don't like it but it is needed. I only got one fruit on a hundred flowers!!

Zecowsay,
Your reports also mean a lot to me considering we both garden in NY. I had the identical situation with my ORo that you did. This tree is the stangest citrus I grow. The new growth is nothing like my other citrus. You think you have buds that are going to grow more branches and it seems like they have just stopped growing for a few weeks and then PRESTO!! They start to grow. DId you allow any fruit to hold yet?
I know this isn't the forum for this but can you give me advice on caring for an adenium in the winter? Email me if you like.

Thank you everyone for your responses. It is very interesting to hear your reports. Did I mention that my keylime is growing in MG citrus and cactus soil? I have not done anything to improve drainage. I wonder if the rootstock could be used for grafting producing a tree that would be more resistant to root rot. What do you guys think about that?
Andrew

Andrew, I just got done talking about MG citrus and cactus soil, lol. It works fine in the summer but man... not so much in the winter.

My oro had about... I don't even know how many flowers. Most of the new growth turned out to be flowers. Even though I got a lot of new leaves the tree still looks kinda bare because over 50% of the new growth was flowers. It started flowering in May and just got done a couple of weeks ago. I felt like it would be a giant waste to pluck all the fruit off, but out of all those flowers I only had two fruit stay on the tree. They haven't really grown at all, so I'm not sure if they are good or just held on the tree by all the spider webs. I'm going to let it fruit if they're good. I'm pretty nervous about this winter. I hope I can ripen them to maturity.

My calamondin blows away all other citrus. It grows and grows and grows virtually without pause. It's also as healthy as a horse. Great plant.

-Brett

I will, andrew.

This has been an enormous learning experience for me, and honestly my motives and tactics are slightly different with seedling VS grafted plants. I am trying to keep my expectations low (or reasonable), and goals semi-modest with the grafted plants, but fruit would be nice, and if I can keep them happy...well, anyone growing anything needs some success to boost your confidence!

With seed-grown plants, I'm aware of what they may and may not do, so it's a one-day-at-a-time kinda thing. I get to play mad scientist - carefully - trying and refining techniques, since I'm an inexperienced gardener. If your only cost is the cost of fresh fruit, then its' easier to afford to learn via experimentation or an occasional mistake. I think my success ratio is quite debatable, but I've done better with citrus than with other subtropicals (I've kept guavas happy without much effort, have killed a multitude of annonas, sent one highly lamented cinnamon tree to the great spice rack in the sky, and am about 50/50 with various edible solanums)...

I'll post some periodic pics or updates.

my store bought lemon seedlings have been growning the most. they are almost 2 years old and seem to always have new growth.
My 6 month old naval orange, mexican lime, and meyer have had 2 growth flushes this summer.

out of my 4 year old meyer key and satsuma, only the satsuma has put on new growth this year. They all got bare rooted into 5:1:1 so I imagine they are putting down tons of new roots. we still have about 2.5 months of growing season left so maybe they will do something before the winter hibernation, lol

hey Andrew what is a cherimoya seedlings i'm in southern IL never heard of it.an what does it taste like LOL .thx

My most vigorous is the Moro blood orange. It grows an inch a day, I swear. The next is the Kishu mandarin. Then comes Oro Blanco. The rest of the trees behave "normally".

Hey busylady.

Re: cherimoya - it's not a citrus. The wikipedia page is a good primer on them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya

They're a subtropical fruit tree, part of the Annonaceae order, which also includes pawpaws, custard apple, sugar apple, soursop, and several other fruits. All those fruits are fairly large, fleshy, variably sweet, many of 'em are delicious, though the seed kernels are toxic, so the seeds (which have a hard shell, and can be extracted from the very soft flesh quite easily) shouldn't be ingested. To me, the flavor of cherimoya reminds me of a very sweet but very complex mix of banana, melon, pineapple, with a somewhat creamy aftertaste. The flesh is very soft, white, almost custard-like, but very juicy and succulent at the same time. At least in North Carolina, I can find the fruit in the supermarket without too much effort, but they tend to be very expensive.

There are several folks here on various forums who have great success with them, and the trees are quite striking looking (as is the fruit). My personal experience has been that they have temperature requirements similar to citrus (a bit less tolerant of heat, and they aren't as demanding of light), but that they are otherwise a good bit more fragile and delicate. They are native to parts of the Andes, and there's a South American saying about them: "Cherimoyas can't stand contact with snow, but like being grown where they can see it in the distance."

None of mine have succeeded so far (with seedlings, I think the root system develops much faster than the rest of the seedling, so I think you need to watch out for pot size early on, moreso than citrus), though I continue to try them.

Hi Busylady,
Cherimoya flavor is so hard to describe for me but the only thing I can say is delicious?!!!! I was so surprised by the flavor of the fruits but the cost of the fruit is VERY high. They are very perishavle and only good fruits are in U.S. and as far as I know, from California. I have seedling and grafted trees. Both have been VERY easy to grow and one nice feature is that they go dormant in the winter for a month or two. I highly recommend trying the fruits when they are in season between end of November and April to May. I recommend cherimoya.com
Andrew

I think I would have to say that it is probably a draw between my oldest MIHO Satsuma and my biggest Lime. Both grow like crazy. This would be followed by my little Buddahs Hand It has almost doubled it's size in the last month.

Charles