catfish, where do you live?

I'm near Panama City, FL, still in the low 90's with a lot of rain lately. When I bought it in April it had 10 kumquats on it, the last one was pulled off 2 weeks ago.

I would plant it now.

Why the hesitation?

When I bought the tree it had 10 kumquats on it, since I never tried a kumquat and they were so far along I figured I would let them continue to ripen before planting. Unfortunately they never did truly ripen and before I knew it they were flowering and producing new ones at this moment. if I plant it and they all drop off I won't have any kumquats for next year since I cannot buy these in the store.

Plant it in the evening when you have clouds/rain forecast

You may as well plant. If you're concerned about the harsh sun, you might fashion a shade over it. You'd probably want to remove the fruit at this point anyway. You want it to concentrate on growing roots and leaves. Or plant it and likely the fruit will fall off. It takes a citrus a year or two to get established so the sooner you plant it the sooner it will size up and bear you some fruit.

I was wondering if the fruit would be ready by the time the tree goes dormant in December? I could then pull off any remaining fruit and plant it dormant?

All my citrus are potted so I'm no inground expert, but why would you plant it when it goes dormant? Seems counter productive. I would want it to grow some roots right after I planted it.

So are you saying it would be better to wait until spring to plant it after it fruits? I thought it was always best to plant trees in dormancy like bare roots. mine would have the dirt still but I didn't see where it would make a difference.

I'd just plant it wherever you want ---- huge pot or in-ground. If you don't disturb the roots a lot you shouldn't lose any fruit or blossoms.

Why does your Kumquat go dormant in winter if you live in Florida? My in-ground - here in CA - never goes dormant. Also, Kumquats can have ripening fruit and flowers at the same time. I get a few fruit all year with the biggest crop in December/January.

Ken, in areas where the ground stays warm in winter, it is the best time to plant perennials because the plant concentrates on the roots and not the top plant.

First year I've lived in Florida I'm not familiar with kumquats just assumed it would go dormant but I'm not for sure I think we get 400-600 chill hours here since I'm in North Florida.

Do you have a Extension Service Office through your County that could off some local-specific advice? We have an excellent one here in Fresno County through the University. I think I have almost every booklet they print in my files. 😄

You could plant now but watering will be a little tricky. You will need to water the same as you have been for the first week or 2 then slowly water less. One problem I see is the tree is top heavy. I know because I did the same thing last year. I thought over time the trunk would strengthen but they never did. I had 4 trees. The winter blast we had in Texas pruned them back.

This year I pruned about 40% of the branches off my new fruit trees, until the trunks was straight without any support. It was hard to do but better in the long term.

If you want to keep the fruit it would be best to up pot into a 5 gallon Lowes or HD bucket. Then you can plant it in the ground early next spring. Plant after all danger of freezing is over. And if it drops below freezing bring it into the garage or even into the house until it warms up in a day or two. A plant in a pot is much more freeze prone than one in the ground.

Catfishhoward, I hope you are OK after Elsa swept by.

Thanks, it was definitely east of me since I'm just north of Panama I've been seeing the rain though