The return to the Florida Garden after being away for 12 weeks creates some anxiety as to how the CITRUS trees have fared. We still have no sign of Citrus greening, though some is in the neighborhood. The trees were lightly pruned and fertilized in June, and the grapefruit trees had numerous small fruit which were thinned to allow production of larger fruit. Three new citrus trees were planted in May, a Navel orange and a Red Navel orange to replace peach trees irreparably damaged by deer, and a Sugar Belle, which is a new orange variety resistant to citrus greening. All three were watered daily and given monthly fertilizer, until our June departure. All three have fared well with new growth in their protective cages. Two trees planted last year have also shown good growth; the Finger Lime bloomed and grew to six feet tall, and the Meiwa kumquat also has pushed up. The Valencia orange bloomed this year but produced no fruit, nor did the Persian lime. We have nice crops of limequat and Key limes, as well as Meyer lemons and Hamlin juice oranges, with one blood orange appearing. The Satsuma tangerine, tangelo, honey Murcott mandarin orange, Ponkan Chinese Honey Orange, and Nagami kumquat trees have fair fruit, after last year’s heavy crops. Finally, the grapefruit again appear to be producing giant pink grapefruit and more numerous small red grapefruit. We look forward to their ripening in the late fall and winter, providing the freshest fruits and juices for family and friends.
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