My ponkan mandarin that was near death last year is now flushing and I noticed some tiny flower buds developing on some of the sprouts. This tree was the tree that got me onto these forums--Mr Shep on the UBC forum was the one that identified the problem-- Hendersonula wilt-- also called sooty canker. I had to cut the center stem off at less than a foot above the ground to stop the wilt-- a lot of the webpages on the disease said that once it gets into the main branches it often kill the tree-- I think it was close-- if I had not gotten the information I did -- when I did --it would probably be dead now.

As it was coming back last summer, I had continued leaf drops due to 2 other problems --too much water and oil applied while the temperature was too high--This forum helped me fix both of those problems and now I have hope of finally getting some fruit-- that is if we don't have another hurricane-- I had fruit a little bigger than a golf ball on it when Ivan hit over 2 years ago.

How does the Ponkan taste? Is it juicy? I was going to order some budwood of this until Florida cancelled budwood to homeowners.

I have had Ponkan mandarins twice while I was in So. LA--The first time they were awesome-- sweet, juicy with great flavor, but the ones this year were OK-- they were juicy, but a little weak in the flavor -- may have been due to a wet winter.

I will be glad to send you some budwood later in the year-- right now it is flushing from every leaf! I also have a lisbon lemon that I can cut some budwood from and when the buds I put on it last year have developed enough you can get some of those.

I would greatly appreciate that! You will be certainly welcome to any of mine. I have:
Duncan Grapefruit
Pineapple Orange
Cara Cara Navel
Owari Satsuma
Minneolla tangelo
Australian Finger Lime
Sunburst Tangerine
Ruby Red Grapefruit
Budd Blood Orange
Meyer Lemon
Eustis Limequat
Page Mandarin
Finea Sodea Mandarin
Hamlin Orange


Mine are all flushing out right now but let me know if any of these interest you. Of note, something happened to my sunburst this winter and it looks like it will make it but it had a large dieback. I think it was because I had to perform an emergency repot in the fall and it must be extremely sensitive to root disturbance.

Thanks-- I will take you up on that later when I get some FDs or lemons up to size. I have some of those-- the Minneola, Owari, Ruby Red, Hamlin and Sunburst.

I also have a Moro Blood orange tree that I bought last year fom BriteLeaf-- I could cut budwood from it later this year-- it is flushing strong now.


If my bud grafts come on out, in a year or so, I should also have:
Daisy Mandarin
Murcott
Calamondin
Star Ruby Gft
Honey Tan (I don't know if this is the same as Minneola)
Valencia
Meyer Lemon
Ambersweet
Royal Gft
Mandarin

Maybe by the time our FDs get big enough to graft we can get some buds from these.

I had a Dancy bud that slowly turned brown on the bottom half over the winter.

I am also getting ready to graft:

Kimborough Satsuma
Persian Lime
Ponderosa Lemon
Sanbonkan Lemon

So hopefully if they take, I will have them available at the end of the summer. It is certainly nice to have someone in the state to trade with.

Did you have any fruit on the moro? I have heard they don't redden up that good in Florida. My Budd blood orange had two large fruit that ripened this past winter. They were extremely juicy and had real nice red flecks with a pink juice when squeezed. However, I found them quite flavorless. Not really that sweet nor no acid tang to them. I am hoping this is because it is a young tree and we have had an extremely mild winter here in Jacksonville. I had no freezes at my house this past winter. So, between it being young, not cold and the fact that I harvested them the minute I thought they were ripe (I absolutely couldn't wait to look inside any longer so I plucked one of Feb 1 and 1 on Feb 14). No change in any characteristics between the two dates. Beautiful oranges, just disapointing taste. We'll see what happens next year. It has set about 100 small fruit already and I will knock that down to about 4 for it to grow. I want more vegetation out of it this year. It is on swingle. I am going to graft a bud onto flying dragon in a few days to see if that will help improve the flavor and to have a backup tree.

My Moro does not have any blossoms on it-- I don't know when it should bloom, but none of the new flush has any sign of buds forming. I just got it last summer in July from Brite Leaf-- it is only about 3 ft high. It will have lots of budwood ready by early to mid summer if you want some. The moro blood oranges I got from So LA in mid Jan were good, so unless it is soil, I don't think our climate is that different.

The ponkan will have lots of budwood also-- I swear it is sprouting from every leaf node!

I can send you Lisbon Lemon budwood anytime.