Good news and bad news. The good - - My Meyer lemon is bursting its bud in new growth. The bad - - None of the buds are flower buds. These two Meyers are the only citrus trees of mine that are of breeding age. The small Meyer lemon is behind the better an I am unable to pick it out. Steve

Kent, there are many studies out there that show a 5 gal tree will establish better and faster than a 15 gal tree. Most of my trees are 5 gal, a few 15 gal. If you cannot find a large, well developed tree in the 5 gal size, then as a backup I would select a 15 gal specimen. A 5 gal hole is a heck of a lot easier to dig, than a 15 gal hole, too :-) All your cultivars are excellent choices. I would opt for the Cocktail if you want to make everyone happy, but I am one of those folks who doesn't like the sour/bitter taste of a true grapefruit, and I LOVE both my Melogold and my Oroblancos. But, the Cocktail will be a no-brainer - it tastes exactly like what it is - a cross between a sweet pummelo and a very sweet mandarin. Outstanding. Yes, I would definitely opt for the Seedless Kishu over the Satsuma. If you are in S. California coastal area (like myself), it will do better and be more consistent for you. Seedless Kishu is in my "Top 5" of citrus cultivars, and my top mandarin choice. And, that's saying a lot to beat our Gold Nugget, which is probably #2 for me. I agree with Evan - try to find your trees on C35 (except your Meyer, of course). And, if you're in San Diego county, you can check Walter Andersen for Seedless Kishu, they usually have it in stock. Let us know how you do, and be sure to share photos of your yard, it sounds like it's quite the project :-) Patty S.

I've checked 5 costcos in in the last week (SD County), all trees are Franz nursery. Lots of lemons and limes, most oranges are Owari satuma or Clementine, dwarf and regular found but not both at the same store, with the odd washington navel, one tango didn't look so good. Only one out of four costcos had any grapefruit, star ruby and oroblanco I think (palamar airport) and some budda hand (escondido). I think I saw a Minneola Tangelo in one store. Several Calamondin and Mandarinquat in several stores. I grabbed an owari satsuma on unknown with a lot of young growth as I had no orange trees yet, haven't planted in ground yet, likes my cheap greenhouse enough to bud out in the week I've had it. I think the old pictures of W&N trees look a lot nicer for a cheaper tree, as the price was $21 before tax, but I still think what I got was worth the price. Was hoping for a Tarocco blood orange this year, but Franz has none assuming this is accurate (http://www.frantznursery.com/pdf/Frantz-Availability.pdf), and would explain why I haven't found any blood oranges. Then again, there's this page which has blood oranges (http://www.frantznursery.com/products/citrus/) so might be later this year or supply problems

**Update at the end.** Good evening Mike, thanks for stopping by! I'll have no idea of what the PH of my water supply is. How do I go about finding that out, and in what way does it affect how I care for my trees? I won't fertilize if you think I shouldn't, but ... will it cost me my 5 lemons? I know it's silly, but we've been watching them grow since the beginning of the summer, and I would hate hate HATE for them to drop now. If I don't fertilize, won't my tree get rid of them? Yes, you are remembering correctly, when I repotted my trees they had HUGE root rot damage and there were really not a lot of roots left and almost no capillaries. Now, I know that they grew a big amount of the small ones during the summer, but it's pretty safe to say that these pots aren't full of roots, yet. Do you think it's one of the reasons it took so long to my pots to dry out? Or was it simply because the pots were not above the saucers like they are now? I haven't notices a big difference in my leaves since the watering, but to be honest I've been so busy today that I haven't had much time to watch my trees. I'll take a good look at them tomorrow morning, and I'll tell you if I notice a difference. Thanks for watching that small video! I'm glad you think that they drain well enough for 511 filled pots. It's not complicated to post a video, there is a "video" button right next to the link button when you make a post. The only thing I had to do is upload my video to Youtube first, because it asks you for an html link. Quote: "If I have just the couple of trees that you have, I would water them in the bathtub with the shower head every time they need water. A nice handheld shower head is so awesome for spraying the leaves down every time too..Just constant water on your leaves during the early a.m while watering can keeps mites away for sure.. " Now, Mike, DON'T YOU START! I am NOT carrying these trees up one floor and through my whole house all the way to a bathtub to water them! Absolutely NOT, and I don't care what they whisper in my ear when I'm close to them, LOL! i'll post pictures of the trees tomorrow morning :) Thank you for all your help, Mike, you are always so positive and uplifting, and your posts always make me smile :) . Atheen 10/8/2015 Update: Frankly, I didn't see my trees perk up like they used to when it rained outside. I was expecting a bigger response from that long awaited watering. I still have a few leaves that are slightly curved upwards on the smaller tree. They don't feel as supple as the other flat open leaves. I hope I didn't irrevocably screw up again by waiting to water to long... Fingers crossed that they don't turn yellow or fall down.