Sunday morning we made a post in the UBC BG
Citrus forum in regards to the proposed 80-100
year old Duncan Grapefruit that has some issues.
Have not been able to get back into the UBC BG
web site at all since our reply to that thread. Just
wondering if it is just us from our two locations
that cannot access their web site?

Snickles

Looks like the entire site is down at the moment.

Thanks Laaz. I thought it was not just us but
one never knows for sure until we ask around.
I hope for them it was not a server crash or a
hard drive failure as even some of our other
UBC BG CPR links to that server away from
the UBC BG forum are not responsive either.

Snickles

The forum is back up, for the moment at least. Daniel posted this response to the down time,

Quote:

At this point, we're not sure. Before things crashed completely, I noticed that the CPU on the web server was being pushed to 130x its capacity (i.e., 130x more requests were being placed on the processor than it could process). Possibly a denial-of-service attack, possibly a hardware issue, possibly a memory leak caused from a recent operating system update on the server... We're looking through the logs now. One issue that has been identified is that something has gone a bit wonky with the local networking stuff, as the server is not cycling back on after a restart (and has to be restarted manually).

Thanks Junglekeeper. I see the UBC BG forum is back up and running now. Even made a couple of posts in there a short while ago.

Did you ever get an answer about how long variegated leaves live in comparison to green leaves in this forum?

All things being equal they can last about the same amount of time but variegated leaves can be much more susceptible to nutrient issues than green leaves of the same plant can be and weakened variegated leaves can break down faster than the same weakness seen on a green leaf can.

Compare a green Calamondin to a variegated Calamondin and tell me which leaves will be affected quicker with hastened leaf drop from a Manganese or a Zinc deficiency. A serious net webbing or a severe chlorosis on a variegated Calamondin can lead to a denuded tree pretty quick. Saw a few last year in a mass merchandiser nursery and could not pull the trigger to buy one as they were all showing the effects of Zinc deficiency and felt that no one in their right mind would buy one of them compared to the same grower nurseries green Calamondin that did not have as severe a problem.

Jim

Jim,

I find that most of my variegated citruses have significantly lower yield than the regular ones. Mine have less than half the yield of the regular ones. The local nursery folks have argued that the yield should be the same. What have you observed?

The variegated plants are to be expected to have lower yield because they have less normal green chlorophyll than their regular counterparts. But my observations included that they also have fewer blooms to start with.

Only the Pink lemon (variegated eureka) have the highest yield amongst the variegated types that I have, but then again, it has only 2/3 the yield of the regular Eureka. My variegated Calamondin has disappointingly low yields, yet it has many good healthy leaves.


But of course, these variegated citruses look lovelier to most people.

Joe

The plant looked healthy at the end of the last growing season which leads me to think it's not a nutritional issue. The leaf loss seemed normal in the sense the petioles were still attached. However I can see how it can be more sensitive overall because of its variegation. This spring it produced many flowers but no new leafy growth. (There may have been a tiny shoot or two but long since aborted.) I'll keep an eye on it now that it's been moved to an area with more light.

When it got high temperature, windy and very dry, some of my normal colored citruses got tip dessication (the tender leaves dessicated), but none of those that are variegated. The same I have observed with my variegated vs regular bougainvilleas. The variegation have helped offload some of the heat from sunlight and may have helped dealing with scorching sun, high temp, bone dry air and windy conditions.

Yes, I've seen reduced yields from the variegated Citrus in comparison to their green counterparts as well. In some instances such as variegated Limes of the past, I've seen no crops at all in a given year when the same type all green Lime tree right next to it may have flourished. I have not seen any production acreage devoted to the variegates, only home garden and collector plants.

Lack of light does seem to affect the viability of the variegated leaves. We have a semi-dwarf Variegated Pink Eureka that where the leaves get more shade seem to have more potential of having wind and heat caused problems than the leaves do that are more exposed to direct sunlight have. Not sure at this time why that is other than the more exposed leaves seem to have a thicker cuticle with more gloss to the leaf which can serve as better protection for the leaves.

Jim

Interesting you say that. Most all of my variegated citrus does much better in semi shade to almost full shade. My mandarins, oranges, lemons seem to far out produce the same variegated trees in full sun. My citrons do not like full sun at all & the white of the leaves burn badly in full sun, but are in excellent condition on the same trees that get only morning sun or no direct sun at all...