My Calamondin Orange is just enjoying the last few days of outdoor life for this year. Time to bring it inside soon. There's one nice big orange though. I think I'll be picking it soon.........

Is that a single tree or multiple trees planted in the container? Anyway, nice leaf color, and very full. - Millet

It's a single tree, Millet. It seemd to me that it was planted pretty deep when I bought it from the nursery this past spring. It was also in a small pot so I transplanted it, but I was carefull not to plant it any deeper. Anyway, it has thrived on our deck this summer, and is twice the size it was when I got it in March.

As I couldn't find any 5-1-3, I fed it 24-8-16 up until about mid September. And because I haven't been able to locate any 8-8-8, 7-7-7, or 6-6-6, I thought I'd give it 8-7-6 once every 6 weeks indoors over winter and then the same fertilizer every 2 weeks once the flowers appear in March, when it goes outside again, going back to the 24-8-16 from May through September. What do you think?

thats a neat pot!

My cal has much smaller fruits, regular marble size, but the first one was pretty tasty. Youre definately doing something right

For us, Benny and I, perhaps other Filipinos who love to use the calamondin in thousands of recipes and other uses, and most of all for juice, the best tine to harvest the Calamondin fruits is when they are starting to turn color. The timing is when coming from dark green color to becoming plump and shiny green or like when they have a hint of yellowing (or yellow green) in their skin. That is the time when the taste of Calamondin is the best for our palate.

When the Calamondin fruit has turned completely yellow or orange and darker, it would have lost its zest and tartness and the only thing good for it is marmalade.

So why not try to enjoy it better by harvesting the fruits when the color starts to change from dark green to shiny yellow green. It is almost the same way that Bearss limes are good when they are green and not when they have turned yellow.

I agree. I like the taste when they are not quite orange. Here is one of my Cals today... BTW they taste great in a Corona...





Owari's are just starting to turn...

leapfrog being your in BC you may be able to grow your Cal inground. What zone are you in ? Cals can take cold very well, mine once saw 17 degrees for a few hours with no damage at all.

garnetmoth:

Yeah, we like the pot too. It's cubic in shape and the black colour compliments the greens and oranges of the tree nicely. This particular orange is the granddaddy of the current crop and is 3 or 4 times the size of the other ripening fruit. I would say the others are the size of a large marble, about as big as a penny, but this one is about half way between a quarter and a silver dolar in diameter.


JoeReal:

Thanks for the tip! I had no idea. I just assumed I should be waiting till the fruit was completely orange. I have several that are just turning from green to yellow as I mentioned above. I'll give them a try.

I had another interesting experience yesterday. I have a small in-ground Meyer Lemon tree with a couple of dozen lemons about half way to maturity. They range in size from about an inch to nearly 2 inches in diameter and a few are just beginning to show the slightest hint of yellow.

Anyway, I knocked one of the mid-sized ones (1 1/2 inched in diameter) off one of the lower branches when I bumped up against it with the lawnmower. My son and wife convinced me to cut it into quarters.

Of course the skin was quite thick, but there was a fair bit of flesh. I had read that the fruit of the Meyer, being a cross between a lemon and an orange, was sweeter than most lemons. I had expected this one to be quite bitter, but I was very surprised to find that it tasted exactly as I has assumed a ripe one would taste!

Again, I really appreciate the advice, JoeReal.

Laaz:

Wow! Nice trees! I didn't know they got that big.

I'm in Zone 8b but pockets of my back garden, which is south facing, are Zone 9. Unfortuantely I don't have much planting space left in the Zone 9 areas though.

I thought that the Cal was less cold hardy than the Meyer? I'm trying to winter my Meyer for the first time this year. If I'm successful, I might just need to make room for the Cal.

The Cal is probably 8-10 degrees more cold hardy than a Meyer lemon. You shouldn't have a problem with it in your area inground.

Laaz:

One more thing, on the question of climate and minimum temperatures. Here on the West Coast of Canada, while we're in Zone 8, it doesn't tell the whole story.

I live very near the ocean, which has a significant moderating effect on temperatures. For example, my back garden is in AHS Heat Zone 1 bordering on 2: we only get 7 or 8 days a year where the temperature goes above 86 F. So the high temperatures up here are lower than inland regions, as well as the low temperatures being quite a bit higher.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was 4 F in 1968, but that was away from the ocean. It has never been below about 18 F in the 28 years I've lived here, and it hasn't dipped below 28 F in the past two years.

BUT (and this is a huge but) at 48 degrees plus in latitude, we are about 250 miles closer to the North Pole than we are to the Equator. In mid winter the day is only 8 hours long. With the low angle of sunlight and the 16 hour nights, we have a distinct disadvantage in growing citrus outside over those of you living below 40 degrees latitude. On those rare occasions when it does get cold we don't get much day time heating, so it can stay below freezing for two or three days. This is why growing citrus at this latitude is such a risky business, even in Zone 8 or 9.

See that!!!! Your never to old to learn. Joe, I almost never pick any of my Calamondin fruit as I don't like the taste of them, plus they are too small. I did not realize that there taste is actually considered to be better when picked green before they mature. The few that I have eaten were completely orange/yellow (100% mature). I'll take you good advice and give it a try. Thanks for the information. - Millet

Same here Joe. I think I will try a slightly green one too.

Leapfrog. I am in zone 9 (formly 8b). Calamondins do fine here. There are several seedlings at a neighbors house, behind our nursery, that are about 25' tall. There is nothing dwarf about them! I guess you could put them on Flying dragon and restrict their size.

Ned