Woodrok, While I have never tried that experiment on Citrus and this could be comparing Blueberries and oranges lol but.... I am a bit of a blueberry fanatic. I grow 131 bushes of 15 different varieties. Two years ago I did an experiment with 9 freshly purchased 1 gallon pots of sunshine blue blueberries. With 6 plants I pruned off all the flowers and did not let them fruit the first year. With the other 3 I let them do as they wanted. The differences are quite remarkable. The 6 fruit removed plants are now 4 feet tall, well branched and wide. The 3 plants I let fruit are still only 2 feet tall and are just not as vigorous. The plants are all together in the same bed......are on an automated watering system and received the same fertilizer type and amount. Not saying blueberries are oranges of course and while a BB will fruit itself to death citrus are smart enough to drop the excess fruit. I still think it is a wise practice to remove the fruit that first year....especially if the little tree thinks it can keep multiple fruit. If a person is so impatient they can't wait a year just limit it to a single fruit left on the tree. Just my two cents.

Oh jeepers, Mike! I did not know you were allergic to some citrus, that's downright unfair :-( But, glad you can enjoy Oro Blanco. You should be able to tolerate Cocktail, too, then. It's even sweeter than Oro Blanco. And maybe?? even Cara Cara navel? Have you tried that? Very sweet and sub-acid. Some folks who like navels might not like that degree of sweetness in a navel, but I love it. Plus, it's very pretty. As to the rain, that's us, too down in San Diego county - horrendous amounts of rain. This last rain that came through Sunday through early this morning left us with 1 1/2" per my rain gauge. We're expecting more rain today, and again on Wednesday. And maybe Friday. This winter/spring is looking to be even wetter than last season. The good news: Lake Hodges, our local north San Diego county reservoir is full for the first time in I think 10 years. So that's good. Plus, a LOT of snow pack in the local and N. California mountains. And, since it's been cold, no CLM so far. Bad news: I'm dealing with a lot of fungal stuff on my roses, hibiscus and other ornamentals, as well as aphids and mites due to the excessive moisture. And, since it has been quite cold for us (all northern storms, no Pineapple Express stuff), a lot of my citrus are sort of in a state of suspended animation with no flush or greening up. Some have, some haven't. No rhyme or reason. The stuff up on my backyard hill where it's a little more protected mostly have flushed, but the Bearrs lime, Pixie tangerine and Moro have not. Nor has my Oro Blanco in the front yard, but in pots right next to it, my Meiwa kumquats and Sangueinelli have. Odd stuff. I know the citrus that are more cold hardy may flush later, but some of those ARE flushing, while more cold-sensitive citrus haven't. Patty S.

Betty: I know how you feel Betty. It took me three years before I actually did it last year. And I did not do it with all of my plants. I did not do this with my calamondin trees because I need all the fruits that I can have for my cooking. I even advice my friends here that forget what the experts said. We are just hobbyist and what we want is to see beauty of our plants and not growth. Besides I want to taste first the fruits of my plants. Now that I satisfy my 'hunger' I did what the experts said. And this is the result. So actually you have two choices and both of them are right. If you want growth, remove the fruits but if you want fruits then leave the fruits on the tree and the tree will take care of itself. Nature did not ask for humans to intervine with their natural growth. And thank you for a very nice compliment. Benny

One winter when it got down into the upper teens/low 20's I had a huge one in the ground that totally died. Now I keep them all in large pots that I sink into the ground (the pots have holes on the sides and the bottom) after frost is over. They go into the greenhouse in the winter. They grow up a wood post that is in the pots. It isn't the greatest thing because I am always having pieces breaking off when I move them which limits the flowering. I have had some fruits but not as many as if I could just leave them all in one spot all the time. I don't keep my greenhouse up all year long or I might just leave them in there permanently. This year I was thinking about building something over just the dragon fruit: like planting it all in one long raised bed and make a huge trellis over it all and then I could cover it all up with some type of small removable greenhouse and run a heater in there if it freezes. I could take it off the rest of the year. One of the other problems I have with them is fire ants. The ants get on the ends of the limbs and eat them. I have used NEEM, DE, all kinds of stuff they just come back again. I can't use anything too toxic due to free ranging chickens, ducks, etc.