Hi Everyone, I have been 'offline' after a major computer crash...but like a weed, I'm back! The weather is 'iffy' for Sunday. Looks like rain but Sat looks good....I am hoping the weather does what it has been doing to date - not following the forecasts!!! Calagary has sun all week and quite often we get their weather by the weekend - so I am not giving up hope. What do folk want to do? We need to make a firm decision on FRIDAY EVENING - I WILL POST ON FRIDAY for the weekend. All of those attending - please email me through my members page - I would like to make a distribution email to everyone for Friday evening so people know exactly what is going on. I will also supply my phone number via email only to registered members so you can call me if you are not sure what is going on. RAIN OPTION WOULD BE TO HAVE THIS ON SATURDAY IF THERE ARE ENOUGH PEOPLE INTERESTED. (You would have to go on without me! Sniff....) Please email me this week so I can ensure everyone knows the details. Cheers, McPeg

Here some more: J-26 - I knew I should not have gone for it but I had to. Zills described it as "like a Van Dyke"...pretty spot on but a little more tart than a Van Dyke (as most of Zills' late season fruit have been. next was "80" (not sure what happened to the picture I took of the uncut fruit but here it is cut). creamy, taste of citrus, and again, overly tart. next was one that I have no ID for, I believe it was a 40-33. This creamy mango had good flavors or peach and citrus, moderately sweet but again more tart than I believ it should be. and last, but of course, this is not least. Actually, saving the best for last. Also, this was NOT from Zills...it was the last Maha Chanook of the season. This again, one of my top mangoes, was amazing but not as great as the ones from the heart of the harvest. This was very sweet, creamy and juicy, with tropical flavors found in Thai varieties. All in all, Zills' mangoes I have had in August have had an issue with excessive tartness. I know some feel it is due to their lack of fertilization but I don't think I buy that as the mangoes from June and July were not fertilized either and those, for the most part, were not like this. Any thought on this anyone, Sheehan, Harry, Jeff ?

I am now one month post-surgery! Wow, hard to believe. I had two PT sessions last week. I have 3 per week scheduled for the next three weeks. I'm also working on my own at home on the days I don't have PT. I'm keeping a log/journal. Mostly I'm just logging dates and times, but if there's anything of note, like my arm hurting or such, I note that, too. Yesterday, with help from DH, I put on a T shirt for the first time! It was so nice to wear a soft, stretchy shirt! This morning I put on a T shirt by myself. :) I see the doctor again on the 15th. My phys, therapist will give me a progress report for him. Hopefully he will be happy! Donna

Here it is the beginning of April and thought I would give you all an update on how my trees fared. I know it's long and wordy which I despise, but had to give details so others can learn. I have 3 trees in a bedroom which has a southern exposure with the window having mini blinds on it. On top portion of the window is also a half moon window which has louvered wood blinds. This bedroom gets natural bright light and can get uncomfortably warm because of the sun hitting the brick veneer of the house. The trees are a one year old New Zealand Lemonade, a Eureka lemon which had root rot 2 years ago and a 3 gallon W. Murcott which I received in November and is still in the original potting medium from Four Winds Growers. So now you know the environment the trees have been in since October. These trees have bloomed, set and dropped fruit, and grew new foliage. I watered sparingly and included Foliage Pro fertilizer at half strength. The only light given was from the window by manipulating the blinds to allow as much sun/light as possible to hit the leaves. The trees are still inside because they have been mite free all winter and see no point in them joining the other trees which do have red spider mites. I did not spray these trees with water for extra humidity throughout the winter. In the foyer, I have a Eureka lemon, 2 variegated minneola and a pink variegated Eureka. The room has the same sun exposure and the same type windows as the bedroom, but more of them. I watered them the same as the trees in the bedroom. Now these trees I have been putting outside as much as possible when the temps were above 50* because they are right next to the front door. I have been having a problem with spider mites with this group since February and did spray with Neem oil twice in early fall. I need to spray with Neem oil again, but there is no shade on this side of the house so I have been using the hose and spraying the trees with water when the weather is nice for the past few weeks. It temporarily solves the problem. The trees are currently in bloom and some have set fruit as well. Spray with Neem anyway? While the trees were inside, I did not spritz the trees for extra humidity. I only have been hosing the trees down outside only to control the spider mites. The last group of trees were kept in my sunroom. No grow lights used. They all did well with minimum watering which included Foliage Pro. I have a really big problem with red spider mites with this group and couldn't spray with water because the sunroom has very poor ventilation and I was afraid the humidity would encourage mold to grow on the walls if the trees had to be brought in. While in the sunroom, they all grew flower buds over the winter and started blooming in February/March. In the sunroom, I had a Meyer lemon tree. I kept this tree inside from October right next to the window and have been bringing it in and outside lately depending on the temps as to not shock it. It only goes outside if the temps are comfortable for me and brought in at night. It currently has bloomed and set fruit. It is inside right now and will go outside when I think it is right. I did hand pollinate the Meyer this year to see if it made a difference. I have lots of fruit thus far. We'll see how they fare with moving the tree in and out and bumping into the door frame. lol. Overall, I find it very interesting the trees did as well as they did. The sunroom windows only are on one wall and is full length. All of the them are now outside, except the lemon, and doing beautifully. The trees are blooming and setting fruit. I have not sprayed for the mites yet but have seen ladybugs, a lizard and a tree frog in the trees so hopefully, they are doing a good job with the pests. In conclusion, I have learned you DO NOT NEED GROW LIGHTS to overwinter your trees inside. You don't have to spritz them for humidity either. If you acclimate your trees earlier in the season to indoor temps/light than you have to, your trees won't drop their leaves. I learned that If the environment is the same indoors and outdoors, there is no leaf drop. My Meyer lemon proved that theory to be correct. My indoor temps of the house was kept 68* but periodically bumped up the heat depending on how cold I was. I did encounter a small problem with the mandarins though. I had to put them back outside in December to get the chilling hours they needed to increase the sugars in the fruit. While the trees were nice inside, the fruit was very bland tasting. They were juicy, but no flavor. So back outside they went until the fruit was harvested and then they all came back inside when the temps got close to freezing. I didn't anticipate dealing with that issue. I had very little leaf drop with them as well as I am assuming they are much hardier all around than the Meyer. Next year, another learning curve and more citrus tree shuffling in late fall/early winter as more trees will be fruit bearing age. Last year all my trees were in the sunroom, but I had less trees to contend with which is why I had to put a few in different rooms this winter. I had trees with a northern and southern exposure and they all did well with the exception of spider mites. What they all received since October/November was natural light, damp soil, liquid fertilizer at half strength, and temps moderately warm. I did temp the pots in the sunroom on very cold days and they ranged in the 50s. The room temps were in the same range as the pots with a few degrees difference. The temps in my bedroom and foyer never got below 65* so I know the pots were in the same range. I do live in middle GA so I don't know if my location made a difference or not, but figured I would throw that information in. I hope what I learned and shared will help others with their trees next winter. I am going to copy and paste all this information and put it into my citrus journal so if something happens to me, the recipient of the trees, will know what to do.