Sam, please post your photos in your message. Just upload your photos to www.photobucket.com. Then, copy the .html code (NOT the .jpg, the .html) and paste that code right into the body of your message. Your photos will then be displayed directly in the body of your message. Please try to get photos of the leaves, one of the entire tree, and then the fruit.

Patty S

pics of #4 and 5 looks like a trifolate (root stock) tree.

have any of them every flowered or fruited? if the flowers have some purple color to them then lemon. if pure white then any of the other types of citrus like orange, lime, grapefruit, etc.

the tree with no leaves and lots of thorns could be lime, mandarine, rootstock, etc.

None of them has flowered. What is a root stock.

There are 3 trees - 2 PICS of tree with dark color leaves and tree is about 8 feet tall

1 PIC of tree with just thorns

Last 3 pics with light green leaves turning yellowish. This is planted close to a apple tree which is a cause for concern and thinking whether it would be possible to transplant to another location.

What is a rootstock and how long before these trees fruit assuming mandarin / lemon / rootstock?

A rootstock is a plant onto which another variety is grafted. Citrus are often grafted to trifoliate orange or hybrids of trifoliate orange because their roots are in many ways superior to other citrus roots. Grafting is also done because it takes most citrus many, many years to give fruit if grown from seed. If you graft a mature branch from a citrus tree onto a rootstock you get a fruiting tree without having to wait years and years and at a much more manageable size.

Grafting (basically) means you grow a rootstock tree, lop the top off, and stick the top half of a different kind of tree on top. There's more too it than that but that's the important bit. The good variety gets the strong roots of the rootstock and you end up with a stronger tree. Unfortunately, the rootstock will sometimes try to take over by sending up suckers, which are branches from the original tree. If they aren't trimmed off they can suck the energy away from the "good" variety, killing it and leaving you with a rootstock tree. This is what probably happened to your rootstock tree.

Trifoliate orange and its hybrids are (unfortunately) inedible and really rather nasty, so this is not what you want.

Assuming they're grafted, the trees that haven't been taken over by their rootstock could bloom and give you fruit this year if all their needs are met (light, water, soil, nutrients, etc) because any grafted citrus tree should be all mature wood that can give you fruit.

Let's be realistic... these trees, whatever they are, are lost. If you are desperate to keep them, contact a local nurseryman and ask him to "top work" these lost souls to whatever variety of citrus you want; otherwise, they look like grafted citrus that have been frosted and returned from the rootstock. In my world I would pull them out, put some new soil with amendments and soil insecticide like Furadan or Vydate... wait a few weeks, then plant new citrus that is tolerant to your cold Winters.

Thanks all for your posts. I suspected that there was no point keeping these trees. I moved from overseas so did not have a clue what variety these are and the type of care required.

I will try and do better with the variety i plant once i have got rid of them. Just painful removing a fully grown plant