Atheen they look great!! Good job on wining the scale battle, they're nasty tough little creatures. I've been lurking a bit but have also been busy.

You're a good daughter. I understand the time it takes, I took care of my mom too at that age, on the days her caregiver had off. It's very tiring.

I think it harder because it's your parent, it's hard for the caregiver too, but mostly physically. For me, the emotional part of seeing my mom, who was always so strong and independent, now failing and weak, and seeing her frustration from not being able to do all she used to do, was very hard. It's tough.

Gardening for me was a wonderful stress reliever at that time. I can see your trees have certainly been benefiting from all the attention! Good job!

Hey Atheen, thanks for the update, I was wondering how your lemons were getting on. Your trees look great!

Hi again, everybody! Sorry it's so long between posts, but my mom's still here until the 31st, so that's another 10 days (not that anyone's counting, lol). I hope you all had a great summer and that your trees are flourishing. I haven't had time to even lurk much, each time I sit down it seems my attention is needed elsewhere, lol.

My trees are doing rather well, I think. I take care of them before anyone's awake, which gives me time to water and feed and check for pests before the light is too bright to see anything. So far, so good, knocking on wood.

The stronger one of the two is doing really well. The lemons are growing and I've had TONS of new leaves and growth. Sadly, I'm probably going to have to cut back most of that new growth because it makes the tree uneven, but I'm waiting for those two lemons at the top to be harvested first :)

The other one is also doing good, considering all it went through this year with the transplant, the loss of all the leaves and the scales... Has not re bloomed as of yet, but it's been really busy making leaves. I wish it would fill in the middle. Hopefully once mikerno tells me it's time and how to trim it, we'll get it back on track. This one has also made new growth, but unfortunately it's all towards the end of the branches, and not the center where I need them to be, lol.

I think the weather is starting to change already. It's still beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the temperatures have started to come down a bit. It's now in the mid/high 70s to low 80's most of the days. We've also had quite a bit of rain the last couple days, which the trees and my lawn absolutely loved.

What's the protocol when it rains all night, do I still water to renew the oxigen towards the roots or do I leave them be, btw, I never know what I'm supposed to do?

I'm still fertilizing every other day after watering, and I've upgraded them to 1/2 tsp each in half a gallon about 3 weeks ago. They seem to be doing well on it. I probably could go higher, but I'm very cautious with augmenting the dosage since it's the first year. I guess I could try to see how they do at 3/4 tsp? Not sure.

Once they come back inside and don't get watered every day like they do out on the deck, I suppose I'm going to have to water and fertilize them differently, too, which worries me a tad. But I'll tackle that particular issue when we'll come to it and it's time to take them in for the winter:)

Come and wave hello, tell me how y'all doing and give me pics of your trees! I really can't spend hours browsing through the boards to see how everyone's doing while mom's here, but that doesn't mean I don't hope for everyone to be doing great :)

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Atheen

Awesome! My plants are doing well. My key lime, which is maybe 18" tall, is holding two fruits which are the size of "shooter" marbles (about an inch across). key limes are pretty small so its almost halfway to ripe! Shockingly its trying to hold even more fruit. I'm struggling with the decision to cut off new fruits that are now forming. I know I should but I don't wanna! I truly thought that the two fruits I have would have dropped off by now! ha! In other news I recently potted up to a 6" pot.

My tiny calamondin, which endured ennumerable shocks in its short life, has thrown up a ton of leaves which is great. No sign of flowers but considering what its been through (knocked out of its pot, gnawed by the cat, then weed-wacked by the lawn mowing guy...) I'm very happy with its development and think it has a very attractive bushy habit.

My dwarf fig has been flourishing with foliage but no sign of fruit. It was shocked for a bit after I did a full root-pruning and bare-root repotting in May, but it rebounded after a month just like Al (tapla) said it would :). It is forming new leaves almost daily. I'm optimistic that I might get figs in September or October. My neighbor who has a full size fig has fruits forming, making me jealous. :)

pics to follow :)

OMG, Steve and limequeen, I am sooo sorry, I somehow didn't get the email letting me know they were new replies on this thread! I need to check my spam folder again. Each time they upgrade my email app, that kind of crapola happens :(

Better late than never, I guess, but limequeen that calamondin is so friggin cute! :) And, O-M-G, Steve, that is a BIG watermelon, lol. You don't want to drop that on the way down (btw, have you lost your mind, carrying this canoe from your rooftop on a LADDER?)

You have more courage than I, starting trees from seed. Doesn't it take, like, 7 years for them to start producing fruit?

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Atheen

Wow. Like I said, you have wayyy more patience and courage than I. That lemon tree made me sweat so much this year, it better pay it's dividends in lemonade before 2 years! :P)

Gorgeous tree, though. Y'all always amaze me with the beautiful trees you are growing. It's very humbling.

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Atheen

There's a shocking development: the Calamondin is setting blossom buds!! And in other news I had to pinch off a fruit from my lime. *sob* two fruits is already pushing it... but *sob*. And in other other news I have a fig! One fig!

Yay for the Calamondin buds! :) I know what you mean about pinching out fruits... I had to remove about 8 lemons off my tree this summer, broke my heart.? :(

Limequeesn that's great!! Love those figs by the way..I have lots of them, especially early sweet rivers.. Why did you pinch off the fruit? You really don't have to unless you want more energy to grow into the growing stage. But left alone, your tree would do just fine)

Congrats on the blossoms...They smell so good

Yeah, that's why I removed them, I figured with the repotting and having to grow more roots (remember I had bad root rot when I repotted), and all the new limbs and leaves it was already growing, I figured I needed to help the tree keep its energy for the important stuff and not carrying 15 lemons. Hopefully it will pay back next spring :)

Thanks, I pinched off because my lime is just a tiny wee baby under 1 year old, only maybe 18" tall ... many people pinch off ALL fruit the first year, and I have two limes going already.

youre correct in that it's to promote the development of the plant.