How long does it take to get fruit from a kumquat seedling?

My friend just sent me a couple of seedlings about 1 to 2 feet tall, and i was wondering whether i should plant them into the ground, or keep them in pots, or plant them close together to make a hedge. I am just starting to add edibles into our landscape and could use alot of advice.

Thanks for any help.

A.

I'll try to answer with a question.

How old are you? And, can you wait?

Kumquat trees can get very large. Mine is 8 feet high and about ten feet in diameter. It bears a copious quantity of fruit. If you intend eating them, stick to one with round fruit -- they're sweet. (The fruit shaped like a dirigible are sour.)

I don't have much space, but I have a couple of pomegranates (gorgeous blossoms and much fruit.) Mine are in bush shape -- but can also be trained as trees.

Figs are fantastic -- they are around in a multitude of varieties. (And, easy to start from cuttings.)

Good luck

: )

lololol... I'm 52 .. can only wait for about 5 years.. I'll go get a 15 gallon pot, I've seen fruit on them before, actually, they sell them with fruit on them. Thanks for the info. I've been meaning to get some pomegranates too. This weekend will a hunting I will go.

Get a "Wonderful"

Here is mine, after one year.

I live about 10 miles inland from Flyboy and 2nd his recommendation of ‘Wonderful’ Pomegranate and Figs.

I wanted more varieties of citrus than I had room for and decided to keep several in large terracotta pots (50 gallon or so). Many citrus plants do well in containers and this naturally dwarfs the plants but still produces enough fruit for our family of four. I have Meyers Lemon, Variegated Pink Lemon, Marumi Kumquat, Centennial (Variegated) Kumquat, Sunquat (Kumquat & Meyer Lemon hybrid) and Limequat (Kumquat & Key (Mexican) Lime hybrid). The Variegated Pink Lemon is small (18” or so) and still has set a couple of lemons. The rest are larger 3’ – 5’ with the Meyer’s Lemon being the 2nd largest at 4’ with 30+ fruit on it and still blooming. The Sunquat is the largest at 5’ and has just gone into bloom. I want one more plant and plan on purchasing a Tangerine on Flying Dragon rootstock at the Manatee Rare Fruit Council annual tree sale at the Manatee Civic Center on May 21st.

Good Luck

Dale

Dwallace~

Dale:

My problem is that I am really here only seven months. That nixes fruit that ripens in the mid-summer.

I have, in addition, a Meyers lemon, a Key Lime, a Persian lime, a Navel orange, a Pink seedless grapefruit. They are. of course, all in the ground..

Question on the Meyers. It has a bounteous supply of ripening fruit, but I notived that the two largest have changed from a bright greeen to a dull, dustu green on their bottoms. I frankly don't remember if this is normal. ???

Luckily I have neighbors who relish the figs -- and try to beat the squirrels to the ripe ones.

Good luck to you.

: )

Oh you all are making me green with envy here..

This is what we got here...

2 tangerine (about 2 years old)
1 lime (getting big 4 years old)
4 navel orange (2 are 2 years old and 2 are new)
1 peach
1 plum years old
2 apricot
1 apple


1 almond tree that does NOTHING but flower, no fruits/full grown was on the property when we moved along with a couple of other plum, apricot, peach that are all in need of attention. I need to figure out how to get these either pruned down or taken out completely, they look like they are spliting. They are too far from the house and don't get the water they need.

THis is probably too big a place for me to handle// lol.. and I want more fruit trees, I must be nuts.. the ones above, are in and around my house close to the water..

Unless the almond is an All-in-One, you need another almond tree to act as a pollinizer. I like to use semi-dwarf or dwarf trees. They are so much easier to keep under control.

Gourd~

I'd love real fruit -- like apples, peaches, etcetera. But not here -- except at the supermarket.

: )

While they do grow tropical apples here I haven't grown any yet. I do have three peach trees though. A ‘Floriprince’ which is loaded with fruit but the bark has split and I have mushrooms from the trunk. I think this is its last hurray. I bought a “Floridking’ to replace the other sick tree but after I bought it I found out it requires 500 hours chill time. I plan keep in a large plastic pot for now until I see how it does. I then bought a “Tropic Beauty’ to plant in the ground and even though I haven’t planted it is loaded with peaches. I have heard that peaches do not last very long here and you should plan to replant every seven years or so. So far this seems to be holding true but I do not know this to always be the case. I won’t be putting any Georgia/SC growers out of business that’s for sure.

Flyboy I do not have any Meyer’s Lemons bigger than a quarter to check out but from memory the change in color is normal before it turns yellow and ripens.

It is true any fruit which requires 250+ hours chill time, where I live is a shot in the dark. But many cultivars have been developed of peaches, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries etc. that will grow and fruit here. Also there are equivalent fruits such as Grumichama, Cherries of the Rio Grande and Barbados cherries that while not the same as Northern cherries they are still similar and very good in their own right.

The list of tropical and sub-tropical fruit we can grow here is in the 100’s. I have over 20 different types of fruiting plants, trees and vines with many cultivars of some such as guavas (4), passion fruit (3), Mangoes (3), Bananas (4), Blueberries (3), blackberry (2) and Papaya (4).

If you want to protect from cold there are many true tropical fruit plants and trees you grow down here as well.

Good Fruiting

Dale


This message was edited Apr 23, 2006 4:54 PM

dwallace59~

Yes. They gotcha by the "chill time."

I tried cherimaya. The problem was that it fruited when I was up North.

: )

Are these kumquats seedlings or are they just small? I dunno whether you can count on them to breed true from seed. You might be waiting for fruit that isn't particularly good. This, of course, is why most citrus is grafted (one notable exception being the etrog, because for the fruit to meet rabbinical approval the trees must be grown from seed). I don't know whether rootstocks influence the plant as much as they do with some other fruits: I do know that e.g. trifoliate orange rootstock is supposed to provide a bit more cold-tolerance in places like here where citrus is marginal.

Mark., shamefaced inadvertant killer of citrus trees

I have heard that kumquats and key limes come true from seed. My Marumi Kumquat is grafted and has set fruit since it was about 2 foot tall. I have planted some seeds from it so I guess in a couple years I will know personally. I also had been to some grafting classes and I want to start learning how to do that.

I think it is the University of Florida that has done a lot of work with different root stocks. I know many of the dwarf citrus trees you see are grafted on ‘Flying Dragon’ root stock.

Dale

You are not going to believe this, she sent me Loquats and she insists they are kumquats.. the leaves are not shiny like the citrus, but kind of wooly or have a fuzz on them.. will take pictures this week so you can all take a look. They are smaller than I thought too. I planted them already and they look fine and hopefully they will do well.

I did not find a kumquat or pom tree, but did get my persimmon tree that was on order.

This persimmon (fuju) has great tasting fruit, this same friend has a couple of trees and gives me fruit every year. Well, this year I found out that you can freeze the fruit when it is ripe by spooning out the fruit and just sticking it into containers, without any preservatives. I did that and we have one container left. It still tastes as good as it did from a fresh fruit. (good for baking also)..

getting back to the persimmon tree received in the mail, this is how it came and I don't know whether to be concerned or mad. The roots are all black, hard, and looks like they dug it up from the ground and cut the tip off the main tree branch because it was too tall to ship. The tree roots were placed soiless, in a grocery plastic sack with some shredded paper, It appeared to be dry as anything. I soaked the tree roots in superthrive, then used a big sack of potting soil to put around the roots in the hole. It did have two leaves budding already, but those roots sure did look black, like it was growing in black soil, it came from swamp soil.. Now the grapes Muscadine (three types arrived looking great in contianers).

Well I guess time will tell..

BAck to the drawing board for me.

Good to hear all of your ideas and neat trees you all are growing.

A.

This will be tomorrow's appetizer, with prosciutto

And part of next October's pomegranate juice.

Nice fruit Flyboy.

I picked my first fig of the season and it was huge 2 1/2 inches diameter. I would take a picture of it but my camera is buried in the car. I also have pomegranates growing now. You just gotta love west central Florida.

I have many other fruit trees/plants flowering and fruiting now. I planted Red Heritage Raspberries in January and they have flowered and fruited already. Plus all my guavas, Grumichama, Macadamia tree, passion fruit, blackberries, blueberries, papaya, bananas, lemon trees, Limequat, Sunquat and Peach trees have flowered and set fruit. Even my kuquat is flowering now.

Happy growing

Dale

Gourd

It is hard to believe that someone who sell plants could confuse a kumquat and loquat plant. The shapes, sizes and textures of the leaves are completely different. The fruits are some what similar in size but that’s where it ends. My loquat seedlings have leaves up to 8’ long and they are only 3 feet high.

I enjoy both. But loquat is still too small to fruit so rely on friends and other Rare Fruit Club members. That is one of the benefits of the clubs is that many members have fruit than they can eat and often bring it to meetings. I also have had a fellow member invite us to her house to pick carambolas since once the start they just keep on blooming and fruiting. Our ‘Sri Kambangan’ carambola started fruiting in the fall and fruited all winter until we had very cold spell in February which slowed it down.

I also planted a Fuyu Persimmon tree in February and it has leafed out and flowered. The club memeber I bought it from said we should even get a couple fruit this season.

Good growing

Dale

I enjoy seeing and reading about your fruits.

I also grow bananas, oranges, lemon, lime, kumquat, macadamia, guava, pomegranate, mango, lychee...in a greenhouse of course. Fruit so far only on the citrus trees. The mango and lychee flowered this year but failed to set fruit.

Question: when someone who grows tropicals refers to "persimmon," exactly what species of plant are they talking about? I would guess it is not the Diospyrus virginiana that I have growing in my yard.

Thanks. SB

Stressbaby

It is my understanding that my persimmon is a Japanese Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) Fuyu’ (Fuyugaki). I do not know a lot about this tree but got it because my wife fell in love with the fruit at one of our meetings.

Dale

I hate to leave all this behind and return to the frozen tundra.

There is a feeling of hedonism in picking your own fruit and eating it. (Especially limes with rum and vodka.)

: )