I bought a 3 gallon Brown Select last winter and planted it in ground in March. It started to flush and then we had a cold snap for a week. The tree stopped growing and I was left with a short growth segment with lots of leaves. The tree then bloomed and set lots of fruit, most dropped but I was left with 38 satsumas that are now bigger than a golf ball. The tree looks healthy but has not flushed since mid March. My bloomsweet flushed 3 times and meiwa kumquat is constantly growing. Is the satsuma overloaded and should I thin, it is getting weighed down pretty heavily, or let it be? Is too much fruit keeping it from growing? The kumquat is aso loaded with fruit but growing nicely.

Personally I would pinch at least half of them (probably all but 2)- they probably won't be anything to talk about anyhow. You have a long term goal with that tree and you don't want to overload it with fruit. The first year goal is to get it established into the ground with strong roots.

It's not to late to remove fruit, better than doing nothing.

The stems with fruit will not flush until the fruit is gone. If all or most of you limbs are holding fruit you wll not see any growth.