They all look great Steve! Bucket lights did the job. :-D

The bucket lights are responsible for over 1/2 to 2/3 of the years growth

Looking good. Nice growth for 1 year.

They look nice and bushy. What is the expected time to bloom?

I don't know. I have seen some pictures of Meiwa trees blooming around 24 inches tall. My guess is a 4 foot tree with a leaf node count of 100+/- should flower regularly.

Thanks to all of you that have looked and commented on my trees.

Simply amazing idea to grow your trees, especially Meiwa, the laziest citrus :))

Great work, Steve!

Happy 1st birthday Meiwa trees!

Well done Steve very inspiring. Looking forward to watching them continue to grow and flower and fruit.

Some very rare keraji seedlings:

Steve, they're very close to the level of cold hardiness as your Meiwa saplings. From what I've read, apparently the flavor can vary depending on the seedling strain. Some taste sour like lemonade, others are flavorless and watery, some taste kind of like sweet mandarin, and a few have a little hint of tangelo flavor.

If these Keraji seedling do well on their own root then any kejai sedling that produces a desirable tasting fruit could be a use able source of bud wood for a new variety that could be grafted to seedlings of its own variety. On own roots.

I've looked at DNA studies in Japanese publications and it looks like keraji is a (kunenbo x sour citrus) x kunenbo backcross.

Satsuma mandarin is also a Kunenbo x Kishu cross.

I looked up pictures and that "sour citrus" has very similar appearance to Sudachi (which we know is very cold hardy). Kunenbo is probably very cold hardy too, it looks like a tangor but is said to have a special aromatic fragrance, and probably has pumelo ancestry two or three generations back. (I said Kunenbo is probably cold hardy because it's one of the parents to both Satsuma mandarin and Bloomsweet grapefruit) If you want to see what one of these tangor-type fruits look like, look up Kara mandarin, that should give you some idea.

Pictures of my best seed grown meiwa kumquat tree.

Steve

That's awesome Steve. It looks great. Really healthy. Can't believe its only a yesr old

You fertlilze 3x, every day?

What is the procedure for pruning, and maintaining the node count?

Compared to my year old meiwa and 2yr old nagamis, yours is incredible.

No pruning. I keep the light about 2 inches from the top growth so that the tree's main trunk grows with compact leaf node count. The side limbs always have tight leaf node count as they grow much slower. One tree sent up 2 water sprouts. I broke them over without killing them. This forced lower buds to grow and the tree kept the leaves and stem of the broken branch to continue to provide food for the tree.

That is what dedication and consistency gives you, wonderful job, Steve!

Great job, Steve! I have a question - When you mean count leaf nodes, you count every single node on the entire tree? Or closest ones to the trunk, etc? I'm not experienced in node counting or what it means. Also, what is the a stage node number when reaching blooming age?

Your trees look great.

I count from the roots up to the top of the longest trunk. the top of each branch/trunk is determined from the roots to the tip of that trunk in question. Counting thorns where leaves are missing may be necessary.

Steve.

Stage node. No one seems to know that answer. My Sweetlee tangerine tree hit Node 110 when it stoped growing thorns. i didn't find out whether it would flower befor cold killed it back by 5 feet. My fukushu kumquat put out 1 flower and a tree with a leaf node count of 79 but on a stem with a leaf node count probably under 40. I believe it was a panic flower. I grafted a bud from my seed grown Fukushu kumquat to C35 rootstock that was bud node 53 and it now has a node number around 90. We will see if it flowers this summer.

Oh, I see what you mean about the light making compact growth.

I thought you pruned them at some point to induce side branch and keep height down. But also not messing up the node count?

One year 5 months 1 week 2 days after seed sprout I have 4 of 5 seed grown Meiwa kumquat trees. I took one Meiwa to a plant exchange party.

On the roof 45 feet above the street from left to right. All Meiwa trees are seed grown

The Meiwa tree farthest to the right has produced 5 flowered.

Steve

Wow, it is amazing Steve! I am going to make supersonic-fast-citrus-growing-bucket-machines :)) and grow my seedlings this coming winter.

Congrats on the fruitlets Steve! Crossing fingers they hang on so you can enjoy the "fruits" of your labor! :-D

I wish you luck on your t bud.

Steve, Nice illustration of your Meiwa experiment with your setup. They look very healthy. I made a 3 shelf fixture with lights that I use during winter for propagation experiments and as an ICU for stressed plants. Obviously for small plants. It is covered in reflective material. Works really well and similarly I can see why your bucket setup works very well too.

All 5 Meiwa trees are 1 year 7 months 3 weeks old

my smallest seed grown Meiwa put out a 6th flower.

My largest Meiwa kumquat has just put out it's first flower bud.

My second smallest Meiwa kumquat has a bud I think is a flower.

Steve

That's great Steve! Your closeups are showing some killer thorns though. lol

The proof is in the pictures, well done Steve! It gives me hope for my kumquat and key lime seedlings :)

I like the close up pictures!

Jenny, my key lime seedling is viciously thorny with too many branches.

Fantastic, Steve! Looking good! Dave, the Keraji is looking good too!

9-15-2018

Seed grown Meiwa flowers. A total of 11 buds flowered across 3 of 4 trees.

New growth on the largest Meiwa

Steve

new growth on largest seed grown meiwa has stop with a total linear length of 51 inches.

51 inches on growth from this one branch.

this branch will probably put on 3-4 feet of twig growth. The other meiwa seedlings are growing but much slower.

Steve

Nice growth, Steve! How the weather has been for you ? For us it has been pouring all day, gloomy dark days.

yesterday we got 1.5-2 inches rain. It has been cooler than 2 weeks ago. The trees seem to like the cooler weather and grow better. I have 6 citrus trees on the roof. The roof is 9 degrees cooler than the ground so i have to monitor for frost possibilities. Frost occurs at 37F rooftop and 28F on ground level overall. My ground level is safe to end of October till mid November. Frost can occur any time at this time of the year so I watch long term forecasts.

My largest seed grown meiwa kumquat tree is up potted to a 10 gallon

Meiwa kumquat tree

Steve

Steve - the shape of that tree looks great! Hope it does okay over the winter!

would a Meiwa kumquat grow better on its own roots or grafted to Flying dragon

The whole tree with rootbase cirdled

Flying dragon seedling in that cirdle

Hi Steve. Every tree of yours always looks so green and healthy. And I just find it amazing that your seed grown trees flower so soon. Do you think it's totally due to node count? Or could there something else at play too, like coming from an enclosed growing bucket space to wide open all the sudden may trigger a reaction?

Also, what node count did your meiwa's start blooming?

Thanks...

I think it was about 80. All 3 out of the 4 trees that bloomed did so before up potting. I lost count on my Meiwa trees. The Fukushu trees are much easier to count. My biggest Meiwa has not flowered

You is the “ King “,Steve, no doubt!

One of 4 Seed grown meiwa is putting on new growth. another is ripening a fruit. The 2 largest Meiwa trees are holding their own with near 0 leaf drop

Fruitless Meiwa under a trash can light. Up and Down. lots of new shoots

Seed grown Meiwa tree with fruit sitting under the other trash can light. No growth

The 2 open Meiwa trees in window under Lights that has no changes over the last 2 months but are doing well.

This will be the last entry for this thread from Me and I will continue this discussion in "4 seed grown 2 year old Meiwa kumquat tree for year 2019". I will leave a link to the new thread when I start it.

Steve

The fruitless under the can light Meiwa has finished its growth spurt with a total of 44 linear inches of new twigs with fresh leaves. It is now tied for the second biggest of seed grown Meiwa kumquat trees

I picked the fruit off the other Meiwa tree at half ripe and the skin was sweet and the flesh was very juicy but not much flavor in sweet or sour. I was afraid a mouse would get it and it was the only fruit from a seed grown tree. I also picked all the much ripper fruit from my grafted meiwa and the fruit was sweet skinned with semi sweet tart flesh. very much worth eating.

This will actually be the last entry for this thread from Me and I will continue this discussion in "4 seed grown 2 year old Meiwa kumquat tree for year 2019". I will leave a link to the new thread when I start it. forget what I said above. I did not expect this much change in one of the trees.

Steve

continues

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4-seed-grown-2-year-old-meiwa-kumquat-trees-dsvw-vd~5574351