Some critter is chomping my little limes/lemons and devastated my
Calamondins!!! I'm soooo mad! It happened sometime today (the calamondins), but a few little lemons and limes I noticed yesterday. The is very annoying. Those calamondins were almost ripe and the got all of them! Im going to have to put some type of netting over the trees. They don't seem to bother the big lemons....at least not yet! Any ideas on what this could be? Bird or squirrel?
Comments (85)
poncirusguy6b452xx
7 years ago
jbclem
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Chipmunks are devastating my garden. Help
Comments (11)I was very successful in controlling them in both 2008 and 2009 using snap-style rat traps baited with a combination of peanut butter and birdseed. Sent 9 to chipmunk heaven in '08 and 13 in '09 -- all were caught in my 10 x 32 greenhouse. Alas, they still did considerable damage to many of my seeds and some other plants, and I had a couple damage things in the late summer/fall after I had quit trapping. This year, I'm going to start setting out the traps this week, BEFORE I start planting. One other thing I have found TEMPORARILY discourages them -- dusting the top of the seed flats with Gold Bond Powder -- I think they must find their food by scent, and either the scent of the menthol and eucalyptus oils in the powder hides the scent of the tasty seeds (corn, beans, etc) in the flats, or they just don't like the scent or flavor of the Gold Bond. Anyway, it does work, as long as you keep reapplying it every day or so until the seeds are well germinated....See MoreLemon/lime tree - store bought - will it bear fuits??
Comments (24)Key Limes would be one of the quickest to bear fruits from seeds. There are others trifoliate types which can also bear much fruits even earlier than key limes but they are used as rootstocks or ornamentals but not for palatable fruit use. Fortunella hybrids that include hybrids of kumquats such as Calamondins, limequats, lemonquats, mandarinquats, sunquats would often come true to type from seeds and they also bear fruit early. Perhaps the longest to bear fruit from seeds are the pummelos and their hybrids like the grapefruits. The oranges come intermediate when it comes to bearing fruits from seeds. Grafted or not, but very often, the first few fruits from your citrus tree would be lousy tasting and of poor quality. It usually improves with tree age, with the quality starting to peak and stabilize after about three to four seasons from first fruiting. So don't chop off your tree when the first fruits do not compare with the ones you buy from the stores. The vigorous sour orange most probably came from rootstocks used way back in 1872. Here's short history: Before 1880's, most of California Citrus groves were composed of seedling trees. Most popular are lemons and oranges planted in the missions and haciendas of Southern California. Around 1872, the almost seedless Washington navels became so popular that there were not enough seeds to plant more navel trees, and so rootstocks became a necessity. First rootstock used was sweet orange (C. sinensis) and used until the 1940's. The next more popular rootstock starting around 1890's was the sour orange (C. aurantium) which tolerated phyhtopthora gummoosis and produced high-quality fruit. Then the rough lemon (C. jambhiri) was introduced around 1900's as rootstock for lemons and grapefruits where it achieved high yields even in sandy desert areas, but alas, due to poor fruit quality and susceptibility to cold limited its use. Then Cleopatra mandarin (C. reticulata) was used when trying to find tristeza-tolerant rootstocks. Its value was discovered in saline soils. It produced excellent quality grapefruits, but alas, it is susceptible to foot rot and also lost its popularity. All the above rootstocks were popularly used in commercial citrus industry of California until the 1940's. Around the 1940's a big event happened in California. Tristeza virus was discovered to be causing devastation of most citrus groves on sour orange rootstocks. This has lead to various works on rootstock development and changed the rootstock usage in California todate. Thus it ended the use of sour oranges and the hybrids of Sweet x Trifoliate oranges (Troyer and Carrizo) were introduced. Lately, there is a resurgence Citrus Tristeza Virus in Southern California which could mean that citruses on sour orange rootstocks and the sour oranges themselves would face another bout of devastation. As to the ultimate multi-grafted citrus, I currently have a 61-n-1 citrus tree. Tomorrow, I'm grafting 4 more cultivars unto it. Here's the tree when it was still 50-n-1: Fruits from 50-n-1 citrus tree And here's the best technique to add a cultivar when your tree is already mature. Budding is good for younger trees, but bark grafting have better success rates when multi-grafting to a mature tree. Citrus Bark Grafting Demo Here is a link that might be useful: Citrus Rootstock History...See MoreLemons, Blooms, Spider Mites...Oh MY!
Comments (31)Hey Patty.. I have been putting 15 to 20 little drops to a 32 ounce hand help spray bottle. Do you have Pro-Tek from Dyno-gro? That is a great emulsifyer. I have also use just a few drops of natural soap . http://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Gro-Pro-tekt-Tek-032-Silicon-Supplement/dp/B000E1VZHC I also use Coco Wet, not to emulsify, but to help the water stick to the leaves, so it just does'nt drip off so rapidly. The entire leaves get covered with a thin layer of water evenly. Great stuff! I could not live without Coco Wet:-) http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com/Coco-Wet-8-oz/productinfo/CCW/ Hoping this helps you:-) Mike...See MoreMeyer Lemon not looking so hot in some spots. Look!
Comments (9)This issue was hotly debated here about a year ago. If I remember correctly (I'm on another computer so access is limited) the stock that was destroyed as carriers were from two of the three major CA nurseries. The third was certified virus-free. Stock from other states, such as Texas and Florida, was unaffected. Where I live there are a lot of the original Meyers still around. The East Bay was still mostly small homes (on what is today large urban lots) and rural farms until the late 1960's; the Warren Freeway section of Hwy 580 was not completed until the mid-1970's. I don't see any reason why a Meyer wouldn't live 50-75 yrs if properly fed (and that's a big IF, most people don't feed their Meyers as much as they should). The older citrus trees in our area were all planted in the 1930's and 1940's, and are still going like gangbusters today. One of my co-workers who lived in Concord in the mid-1990's had a home in a former orchard-turned-development, and said there were Meyer trees all over her area. The trees bore great big gorgeous lemons year-round. A neighbor across the street from her, who was born and raised in one of the original tiny cottages circa 1920, said she remembered when the Meyer orchard was planted in the 1930's, and watched as the owner sold off the land to developers in the 1970's and most of the trees were bulldozed....See MoreLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years ago
hobbyartisan (Saskatoon, SK Canada, 2b)
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoThat's a great idea Hobby. It certainly will not hurt! I'm going to go out and try it now! Oh, and here are pics of my calamondin....it is not big, but growing like a weed. The other pic shows my not-perfect netting and sticky traps. I can't get them to stick together around the trunk.
Up close...
Not great, but better than nothing. The biggest problem is that some of the trees have young, soft shoots. That netting will get caught on it and break the sprouts. I did not lay it on Jane (third from left), because she is recovering and sprouting all over. I did not want to break off all the new growth.
User
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
Christen Genova
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoThanks Vladimir and John! I will note all of that and hopefully someday I will be able to make that marmalade!! Since it has been on the picnic table, there has been no damage, but there are no fruits left either. My Key lime that was also hit, I moved next to my house and that one has also been untouched. Christen, I think you may be right. Last night, my dog was going crazy sniffing in that area and even jumped up into the garden bed above to sniff very excitedly....she was obviously after something. I need to go through and clear out some plants there...too much stuff growing there all together. Here is the critter hunter ;-)
Laura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoUser
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoUser
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoUser
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoDtunesgw
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoponcirusguy6b452xx
7 years agosuzuchan
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agosuzuchan
7 years agoI tried to upload a photo from the web. And will try again. This is how grapes are grown here. That is netting all around and over the top.
Laura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agojbclem
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agosuzuchan, I'm impressed that anyone would pay $50 for a cantaloupe. At those prices a backyard grower could make some extra money growing melons, small clusters would be easy to protect. But I'm not sure which are worse, crows or squirrels. At least crows let you know when they are around. I have squirrels to deal with and have been growing most everything inside of cages of various kinds.
Laura, here's a photo of what I've done with stucco wire (higher grade chicken wire) to protect corn in containers. You could do the same with individual (or groups) citrus trees. I make a cylinder around the plants, 36" high, and extend it upwards with additional 36" high cylinders. And put a stucco wire lid over the top, held in place with clothespins. The photo of the corn is hard to see because of the light, but the lid is off the top since the corn kept growing up. When there is actual corn on the cob growing, I'll add another extension, or make a domed lid.
The advantage of stucco wire/chicken wire is that it doesn't stick to the branches like plastic netting, it's very easy to remove (just lift it up and off) and probably cheaper. Stucco wire is 36" high and sold at Home Depot type places in 150' rolls for about $45. I use the type with the 1" holes, just like chicken wire, and because it's make for the construction industry it's stiffer, cheaper, and longer lasting than the chinese chicken wire that most people use. I use this and aviary wire to protect everything edible that I grow. I guess the only disadvantage is storage, you can't squeeze it into a paper bag.Laura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agosuzuchan
7 years agocory (Zone 7a, NJ)
7 years agoWell, the critter has struck again.
I found this fruit 100 ft. from my trees at the base of my Sugar Maple where the squirrels have a nest and I also see the chipmunks running up and down the trunk. Whoever it was got it that far, but maybe couldn't get it up the trunk? The critters never bothered my citrus fruit other years. There are plenty of vegetables growing that they could eat and plenty of nut trees. I don't know why they keep going after the citrus.
Cory
Laura LaRosa (7b)
7 years ago
calamondindave
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agoUser
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years ago
User
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years ago
myermike_1micha
7 years agoponcirusguy6b452xx
7 years agoMonyet
7 years ago
devsense
7 years agohobbyartisan (Saskatoon, SK Canada, 2b)
7 years agomattcolq
7 years agoI've had a similar issue with squirrels biting my calamondins and my single grapefruit. But the worst thing they're doing is digging into my 5-1-1 mix. I bought bags to place over my pots. I just received and put them on today. Hopefully it stops them.
Laura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agocalamondindave
7 years agoLaura LaRosa (7b)
7 years agomyermike_1micha
7 years agoUser
7 years agoponcirusguy6b452xx
7 years agoUser
7 years agomyermike_1micha
7 years ago
johnmerr