Recent thread got me thinking
link
Local people use beer for leaf shine although that is not recomended by local experts. I gave it a try, using a few days old beer I sprayed poted Meyer lemon. I did that under morning sun.
I wonder is the sun reason of astonishing result: Tree (foliage...) coating very, very glossy... and sticky.
Not knowing how that affects breath/ventilation process I sprayed the tree with water next day.
These days I'm experimenting using diluted beer and spray other poted tree(s) in afternoon hours.

Thinking about results and raised questions:
Leaf shine - very effective
Pest control - I'm sure that any creature under sticky coating had a very bad time
Beer coating as frost protection - ?
Foliage food source - ?
How new growth & flower buds are affected ?
How that affects breath/ventilation process ?
How often the same tree could be sprayed, a few times per season, every month, more ?

I think that beer deserves own topic so I put it here.

Can't risk doing that this fall season when the season is just comfortably cool, with intermittent clouds and rains are starting to fall and the slugs and snail becoming very active. I might try it next summer.

Is this a good candidate for test?
It's inground Non-standard Poncirus Trifoliata, photos taken today:
Twig A


Twig B


Next week we could get our 1st frost.
I could spray one twig but not the other and after a month or so put new photos to compare them.

Possible problem, after above average summer temps we had below average temps in September and October so far. Plant, if not dormant already, is in a 'spare' mode. Buds didn't changed much in the last 6 weeks.

Something strange with that Poncirus. It is October & it looks as though there are buds ready to break on that plant...

Most Poncirus is getting ready to go dormant about now...

What beer you used?
Did you have diluted or used it pure....?

I use the typical 'Pilsener' beer, which is high in hop and has a bottom fermentation yeast.
But I prefer dark beers, which less hop and a surface fermantation yeast....

Tha sticky film is because of the malt. Malt is barley seeds. They let the barley seed germinate, but not much. After germination, they stop the process by hot steam and dry the germinated barley seeds. Now they grind the germinated seeds, and you got malt.
Depending on germination time, germination process, drying process and time, and grinding you get different malt types. Also some malts get not dried, they get roasted and after that were cooked, and so the indegreeds get to a liquid form, and because of the high sugar contant, if will harden off during cooling down so a brown hard mass. Like a kind of candy, and: Severaly malt companys sell that malt as candy to the people, but usually the block malt is used for special beer types, because of the high volume of flavour, color and easy useable form of malt for the brewery.
So malt is a type of sugar, and in beer the yeast will not transform all the sugar from the malt to alcfohol, so sugar is left in beer, making it a very valuable form of carbohydrates.
So the sticky film is simply sugar, or a type of it...
So a dilution seems to be very recommended...

But the components of minerals, vitamins and especially phytohormones from the barley and the hop will be still present. So in the germination process auxines are formed and other growth stimulation phytohormones are developed and can be found in the beer...
so these are also sprayed to the plant, and not only alcohol, vitamines, sugar and water....

Beer used: Local beer, Ozujsko (1st on the list):
http://www.ozujsko.com/index.php/static/page/brandovi?PHPSESSID=55d80ebdb8964400a16a81f1b0d9911c
That is pilsner, lager light, bottom fermentation, bitternes 21 BU.
Choosed accidentaly but I'll stick with it for a while.

Used is pure beer and also diluted (20-30 % added water).
Citrus under test: a few poted and 1 inground.

Inground PT is used for "frost test".
This morning is 3rd in a row with frost.
http://www.meteorologica.info/Eurodewpoint.htm
I spray a few branches with pure beer every afternoon...

Well,
your beer is very high in hop, so very much of the phytohormones from the barley and the hop should be inside the beer....
Benefical or not, I have only the guess that beer is not only enjoyed by humans.

October was bad timing for "beer" test, Poncirus droped it's leaves, and I had no results to share.
Meanwhile, something else happened with buds on previously given photos. Here are few more:

Buds_20071209


Buds_20080405


And today


Seedling is about 6 years old and that is 1st flowering.

2 fruits are result of (it's very first) flowering in April.

Unusual buds on that seedling noticed yesterday:
(photos taken today)







???

That remainds me on Mike's report:
link

Those are unusal, what do the fruits look like?

Hello Skeet,
I'm watching...
Plant try setting up 2nd bloom....
Unfortunately I have no other citrus blooming these days...
stay tuned...
regards
--ivica

Skeeter,
Photos taken 2009-11-21:
Only 2nd crop still on the tree.


Only upper two (the biggest fruit) are from the 1st crop.


Second crop rippened as well, fruits are smaller, lot of seeds, drier, off-taste almost absent.

About deformed flowers, something similar happened to summer bloom this year too, must be some sort of zone7b bud mites...