I live in zone 8 and last year I decided for some stupid reason to plant my Meyer Lemon. It had been in a pot the last three years. So over the winter it froze really badly and I figured it was dead. The top didn't have any green inside the branches or anything. The thing is I didn't get a chance to pull it and when we came back from vacation last week there was an eight inch shoot coming from the roots. The question is, is this still the meyer lemon (it looks like it) or are these grafted to root stock and it's no longer a meyer lemon. I've potted it up and I'll winter it over through from now on but am wondering if it's the plant it was.
Meyer Lemon
If this was bought as a dwarf/patio tree then it's grafted, but if it wasn't a dwarf tree then it's possible it's on its own roots. Take a close look at the trunk, if it's grafted you can usually see where the graft was--if you're not sure then post some pictures of the trunk here and someone else will probably be able to tell you if it's grafted or not.
Great idea. I'm hoping someone can tell from this picture if it's a graft.
I don't see a bud union in this picture, although it's possible it's higher up.
Did you purchase this online? I know if you got it from Logee's it's not grafted, but if you got it somewhere else online, you can also email them and see if they do graft.
No, I bought it at the local home improvement store. It's not a national chain and it's been three or four years so they probably wouldn't know where they got it. Oh well, maybe what I'll do it encourage growth and when it blooms if I don't like it I'll get rid of it then.
Typically, they graft onto a sour orange anyway, so the blooms are likely to be fairly similar to the meyer lemon's anyway.
Of course, if you were planning on getting meyer lemon and you get sour orange, you can always make marmelade!
If it has a nice bloom that smells good I'll be happy. For the most part I can't eat citrus fruit. Pink Grapefruit is about all and not in large quantity. I do love the smell though and in my zone being able to coax fruit is fun.
Dwarfing stock is usually Flying Dragon rootstock. The leaves are trifoliate. I couldn't see much of the few leaves in the photo, but what does appear doesn't like Flying Dragon.
The leaves look very much like the meyer lemon but I know so little about citrus I didn't know if they all kind of looked the same. I potted it up and it's doing well. I'm going to move it inside this week. We'll see what it does this winter and into the spring.
I'm not allergic although I do have some allergies this isn't one of them. Citric acid in my tummy is not a good thing. To much acid there already.
I bought a cumquat from HD last year because I had been told it was cold hardy in zone 8a. It wasn't. I, too, noticed new growth from below a visible graft line. It is probably a sour orange (cold hardy in zone 8a), but I'm not certain. The growth rate is rapid - 6ft since April. My GH and back sunporch are clogged with tropicals, so I'm going to plant this citrus thang and hope for the best. Good luck with yours!
Kumquats are generally hardy to 14-16 degrees "once established". That usually means after it has been in the ground 1 or 2 winters. The first year in the ground, I baby mine to death and cover with blankets when it hits upper twenties. Also, if you bought it near the end of the season, it could have had fertilizer in it still. Fertilizing citrus after Sept 1st is bad juju. Any of that new green growth is much more susceptable to freeze.
I have a navel orange that I babied for a few years and it took 21 degrees no problem last year. It survived the mid-teens a few years ago with a blanket.
I would let your rootstock grow and graft on to it as it gets bigger. You could have grapefruit, lemons, orange, satsuma and calamondins all on one plant.
Did you have it planted in a pot or in the ground? Being in a pot tends to knock a bit off the hardiness, so in order to have the best chance of surviving winter in 8a in a pot, you would want something that was hardy to zone 7 (which is not the case for kumquats)
You raise a good point that I forgot to mention. It wasn't planted because I had been bringing my citrus in and out, conditions allowing. I neglected to bring it in during a small snow event last February. It was 23 f outside and very windy. I had spent an hour outside that morning uprighting and securing a recenly transplanted 12' wax myrtle that had succumbed to the viciously cold wind gusts. I remember passing by the cumquat on the way indoors, ears frozen numb, and thinking lotsa luck. It was definitely freeze dried by the next day. I will try another early next April, plant immediately and protect the first 3 winters.
This message was edited Oct 25, 2009 4:55 PM
What I notice on my citrus, which are all grafted, when a sucker takes over unnoticed, it has huge thorns, way bigger than the citrus variety is supposed to get.
So if you wait a while, and notice big long thorns, then you might have rootstock growth.
Don't be surprised to see thorns on a lot of new growth of many citrus though, it will "outgrow" thorny branches later in life, when some grazing might not eat it up more than it can survive.
Have patience my friend! :-)
Christie