Citrus Growers Forum

JoeReal · Posted: Mon 30 Mar, 2009 7:09 pm

Millet wrote:

New growth on citrus leaves are reddish year around, spring, summer and fall. - Millet (1,395-)

All of my navels and sweet oranges do not have the reddish leaves on juvenile flushes nor on flowers. Same with all of my kumquats, blood oranges, mandarins, clementines, grapefruits and pummelos. Perhaps, at the very tiniest budswell is the purplish hue found in these types of citruses, and not when the buds have sprouted more than 5 mm long.

I have observed the purplish hues of the growth flush tips only on the lemons and citrons year round, except during the hot summer period when we exceed 60 deg F as our minimum temperature, and in those instances, they are darker colored instead of having purplish hue, or simply perhaps my color blind eyes cannot pick up the subtle color differences.

Amongst my lemons, the meyer lemon would be an exception, where most times of the year, there are no purplish hues on growth flushes, only on the flowers. The flowers of the Meyer, most times of the year, they have purplish hues, but then again during the hot summer nights, those flower buds come out as green or light green. Will try to post pictures this year if I come across it on my Meyer.

Millet · Posted: Mon 30 Mar, 2009 8:48 pm

Joe, your absolutely correct. I went back and re-looked at my post, and corrected it. I meant to say "lemon leaves" instead of "citrus leaves", as you can probably see from the previous discussion. - Millet (1,391-)

JoeReal · Posted: Tue 31 Mar, 2009 12:55 am

Yes Millet! It always happens to the bet of us. Our fingers type differently than what our minds have dictated.

bastrees · Posted: Sat 04 Apr, 2009 10:31 am

I have an unknown lemon that was given to me by a woman who no longer wanted to care for it. It was one of those 6-8 inch trees that you get in Florida, and she has had it for 7-8 years, as best as she can remember. I suspect it may be a meyer, but it had never flowered for her. I am judging by the leaves mostly. It was riddled with scale and sooty mold when I picked it up last fall, and went through a three week aggressive "the scale has got to go, or the tree will" treatment.

Anyway, it has been indoors all winter until the last couple of days when we have had mild weather with showers and wind, and so it went outside for a bath. I left it out overnight last night because it was only going down into the mid 40's. The spring growth flush, which was very green (so somewhat confusing considering this thread) gained a redish hue overnight. Not as dark as the pictures in this thread, but definately much different than yesterday. They are still very healthy looking and so I do not think I am seeing signs of damage. Just very curious that the change was so immediate and dramatic with one cool night. On a side note, the tree that never flowered for this woman has three flower buds on it this spring. Barbara