I have a large collection of bonsai. Below is a 6" Hong Kong Kumquat and 8" Chinotto both with fruit developing. Both are still in training but when transplanting in the early spring will put in bonsai pots.

The Chinotto orange always blooms heavily in the spring with lots of fruit and a few blooms in the late summer which normally don't set. This year as you can see (with good eye sight) that the chinotto has about 18 fruit developing on it. I don't know if the tree will abort fruit in its dormancy or if fruit will take longer to develop or if tree will not bloom heavily in the spring.
Am looking forward to see what will happen. The Hong Kong Kumquat has scale developing on the fruit but am waiting to spray with malathion until the tree stops blooming.

My bonsai collection is mostly fruiting trees....citrus, cherries, mulberries, guava, pears, crab apples, quince...most under 6 inches. I live in zone 10.



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Wow! those are adorable!!!!!

Gina *BabyBlue*

Awesome!

Very cute. Hard to believe they are 6" to 8" only. Have lots of fruit and so healthy looking. Great job.

Anthony

gorgeous little trees... fascinating, great job!

igor

Cool threes @shohinken do you root prune your citrus like traditionel bonsai?

Thanks for all the great comments. There is a great deal of interest in Europe and Asia in citrus bonsai. The trend has not caught on here in the USA.

Mikkel, Yes I root prune them in the early spring when I repot them. They are growing in Turface with some charcol and pine fines. I fertilize every two weeks. Am presently growing Key Lime, Meiwa Kumquat, Hong Kong Kumquat, Calamondin, Chinotto Orange as bonsai. All have been grown from seeds.
I am hoping to come across some Australian finger lime seeds. The leaves and fruit are small on finger limes and I think they would make great bonsai specimens.

How old are the plants in the photos?
As you say they are all grown from seed, do you allow them to grow initially to fruiting age without any top pruning?

The Chinotto is about 7 years old (fruiting at age 4)and the Hong Kong Kumquat is about six years old (fruiting at age 3). I don't prune them as drastically as I do my regular bonsai initially. Both trees bloom early at about two to three years in tropical climates. The Hong Kong Kumquat doesn't seem to follow the leaf count for blooming. It blooms on small seedlings with seemingly few leaves. The Chinotto first bloomed when it was about 18" tall and well branched but at that height it had probably more than the needed leaf count. Both trees bloom on new and old growth. Often my pruning on young trees is just to cut off tip leaves to keep the tree branching and from getting out of control or to remove water sprouts. The first leaf pinch on tips causes lateral branching.

My Calamondin and Key Lime are much more into leaf counting...the leaves are not as dense on the branches. Any major trimming stalls blooming. My Key Lime is seven years old and hasn't bloomed yet but I expect it to probably in the spring. The tree is short, well branched and the leaf internodes are about a pinky finger aoart.

I start my citrus from seed initially because of the difficulty in obtaining trees in Florida because of all the bans. For years no citrus trees were available. It is also often hard to find ungrafted trees in my area. After I get a mother tree growing, I then prefer to air layer. I noticed this year finally that Home Depot and Lowes had small ungrafted citrus trees under 3 feet in bloom or with fruit. I presume they were air layered. We still can't import citrus trees from other states. I purchased a beautiful small ungrafted blooming Centennial Kumquat and a small ungrafted fruiting Meiwa Kumquatat Home Depot this year.

Enclosed are pics of 2 chinotto seedlings at about 1 1/2 yrs of age. You can see how dense the leaves are. The third pic is of a Hong Kong Kumquat off the web showing how small the tree can be when it blooms (about two years of age in tropical climates).