Lately I have been looking at the $10 citrus trees at Wal-Mart and Lowes. I think the grapefruit is grafted onto swingle, as the rootstock is grey/white. The others are grafted onto a rootstock that is the same color as the rest of the tree, and all suckers coming out are thornless. I've noticed that oranges, tangerines, and all other citrus I saw besides grapefruit was grafted onto it. What might it be? I looked around online, and I didn't see anything about rootstocks that were thornless. What are your opinions?

Ok, so no one seems to know based on description. I went ahead and bought one, along with a variegated kumquat. The kumquat appears to be on it's own roots, and neither of them have a phone number for the nursery, just a picture of a deer. Here's a picture of the sucker off of the ponkan tangerine. Most of them had multiple, but the one I got had the most growth and only one sucker, here it is:

Any idea what it might be?

I cannot believe any nursery would sell Kumquat on its own root. Your Kumquat must be a grafted tree, and probably grafted upon Flying Dragon. The Dear on the tag is a nursery called Record Buck Farms, Inc. located in Honey-In-The-Hills, Lake County, Florida. You can call them for any information you wish to know about your tree. - Millet (1,261-)

Sounds like your trees came from Record Buck Farms. A few photos of the entire trees may be helpful.

Here's a picture of one of the tags. I don't want to call the nursery if they didn't actually grow the tree.

I'll take some pictures of the trees when the sun comes back up.

That is the same tag that my Centennial came with back in 2004. It is indeed on its own roots or should I say a rooted cutting. It has done well and is about 8 ft tall now.

I suspected so... I'll grow it. It looks like it's doing well, it has multiple fruit on it.

I called the nursery and no one was there, so I'll call tomorrow and ask what the tangerine is grafted onto.

Lazz, that is amazing. I have never ever seen a Kumquat sold by a nursery growing on its own roots. I guess there is a first time for everything. It is quite common to here and read, that Kumquats do not do good on their own roots. - Millet (1,261-)

Centennial is a variegated kumquat hybrid. I believe it is a cross with some sort of orange, but I don't think anyone knows for sure. They do ok on their own roots. As Lazz and Millet say that is Record Bucks tag.

I like the sweet/sour fruit Centennial produces and it makes a good ornamental. I have had one in a pot, just like the one Zeeth describes for years.

Even though kumquats are not generally thought to do well on their own roots, I know of a number of seedlings that are doing fine. Also, the kumquat hybrids, such as Centennial, Nippon KQ, Lemonquat, etc. all seem to do ok on their own roots. That said I am sure they are best on an appropriate rootstock.


Ned

http://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/centennial.html

Here are some pictures:

Tangerine with kumquat visible on the left:



Tangerine rootstock:



Kumquat:



Base of kumquat trunk:

Well, I called the nursery today. I told them the variety of citrus it is and the size of the tree and after checking through the records the woman on the phone reported that it is on swingle. This is good news, as that is what I had hoped it was grafted onto. Thanks for telling me the name of the nursery, or I wouldn't have been able to find out,
Keith

That is definitely not swingle. Are you sure this was growing below the graft line ? Swingle has three leaves.

Zeeth wrote:

Ok, so no one seems to know based on description. I went ahead and bought one, along with a variegated kumquat. The kumquat appears to be on it's own roots, and neither of them have a phone number for the nursery, just a picture of a deer. Here's a picture of the sucker off of the ponkan tangerine. Most of them had multiple, but the one I got had the most growth and only one sucker, here it is: Any idea what it might be?

Yup, it was growing out of the rootstock, very close to the ground.

If it's not swingle, I wonder why they would have it as swingle in their records... What do you think it might be? On the trees I saw where the rootstock was taking over, there were no thorns until the branch had been grown for 2-3 growing seasons. After that point there started to be thorns. I'm not sure if the leaves started growing in groups of three. Might it be possible that they don't start looking like swingle for a couple of growing seasons?

Swingle ALWAYS has tri leaves, it is a hybrid of Trifoliata & grapefruit. Swingle also has a light grey colored bark and very easy to identify. More than likely it is grafted to another type of mandarin looking at your photo of the leaves.

I'll have to take some photos when I get home tonight.

Here is a good example of swingle. The rootstock is a grey / white in color, much lighter than other roostocks.



Leaves are always trifoliate with the center leaf quite a bit longer than the side leaves.