Grapefruit Tree

[LemonBonsai]

So I thought I would make a thread for my grapefruit tree. Its still a ways to being a bonsai so I figured I would start this while its still a nursery stock.

I found this tree at my nursery on sale for 11$ (8.30$ USD) and it was the only one there that had a grapefruit already growing on it so I bought it. I have attached two pictures. The 1st one is when I bought the tree and the second one is all the shoots it got so far this year. I counted 34! Hopefully I will be able to keep this tree alive for many years!

 

[Kadebe]

I guess with plastic bird repellers?

 

[LemonBonsai]

I guess with plastic bird repellers?

Lol yes they were getting curious. Its worked so far!

 

[LemonBonsai]

First, and probably single flower on the grapefruit for this year. ☺

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I love the smell of citrus blossoms.

It will take time, but citrus will eventually develop really nice bark, usually around 25 years old, or older.

 

[LemonBonsai]

I love the smell of citrus blossoms.

It will take time, but citrus will eventually develop really nice bark, usually around 25 years old, or older.

I have seen some mature citrus trees with some very nice looking bark on them so here's to trying to keep it alive for 25 years in Canada LOL

 

[LemonBonsai]

So im thinking about the future with the tree. And I was thinking of removing some lower branches and bending the bottom trunk. However the trunk is very hard so I was wondering if anyone have any suggestions on which direction I should go?

I thought about leaving it be to make a straight trunk

I thought about splitting the trunk so I can bend it easier

And I thought about cutting the branches off one side and when I repot, to change the angle at which its planted so its not straight up, but at an angle.

Anyways let me know your guys opinions on which one would look better

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

To make any style suggestions, I need better photos,. First a light colored, neutral background, with no confusing busy stuff in the background. No other plants in the background.

The lens of the camera should be roughly on the same plane as the upper rim of the pot, so the tree is at eye level. And be far enough back the whole tree is in the photo. One shot like that for each side of the tree.

But in general, I can tell you forget bending the trunk. Any trunk or branch older than 2 years is too stiff and brittle. It will break before it bends. Okay, this is not an absolute statement, but it is brittle. Highly likely to break if you try to bend it. So easier to give up on bending the main trunk.

Tilting the trunk a few degrees off vertical is an excellent idea.

You don't have a lot of branches, rather than taking off any, how about wiring them into new positions?

 

[LemonBonsai]

To make any style suggestions, I need better photos,. First a light colored, neutral background, with no confusing busy stuff in the background. No other plants in the background.

The lens of the camera should be roughly on the same plane as the upper rim of the pot, so the tree is at eye level. And be far enough back the whole tree is in the photo. One shot like that for each side of the tree.

But in general, I can tell you forget bending the trunk. Any trunk or branch older than 2 years is too stiff and brittle. It will break before it bends. Okay, this is not an absolute statement, but it is brittle. Highly likely to break if you try to bend it. So easier to give up on bending the main trunk.

Tilting the trunk a few degrees off vertical is an excellent idea.

You don't have a lot of branches, rather than taking off any, how about wiring them into new positions?

Noted for bending. However the reason I would want to take off a couple branches is because if I tilted the tree a couple of branches are already at a low angle so tilting it would make them almost growing downwards which I wouldnt want. But any suggestions will help

So on based on this first picture I was thinking to lean the tree to the right and removing that lowest branch, possibly bending the one right above it to a different position so the trunk line follows the thicker branch that would be growing straight up.

 

[sorce]

I came here to kinda jokingly see if there were any fruits yet.....and whadya know!

Nice flower! Let it become a fruit!

I wouldn't want to ruin that!

As far as styling, Besides "baby bending" new shoots, there isn't really much wireability. Clip and grow bit let that flower show!

Sorce

 

[LemonBonsai]

I came here to kinda jokingly see if there were any fruits yet.....and whadya know!

Nice flower! Let it become a fruit!

I wouldn't want to ruin that!

As far as styling, Besides "baby bending" new shoots, there isn't really much wireability. Clip and grow bit let that flower show!

Sorce

I was suprised but when I bought the thing there was already a grapefruit growing on it haha. As for the flower I let it put on its show but once it withered I cut it. Didn't want to drain the trees resources just yet.

And yes I will need to make the decision of those two branches when I re-pot

 

[LemonBonsai]

Welp its getting colder here and canada and so here goes my first winter growing trees. Here is my set up.


Still a little bit that needs to be done. Need to get a timer of some sort and tie up the wires nice. Lets see if it survives along with the rest of my seedlings haha.

 

[LittleDingus]

Welp its getting colder here and canada and so here goes my first winter growing trees. Here is my set up.
View attachment 328168
View attachment 328169
Still a little bit that needs to be done. Need to get a timer of some sort and tie up the wires nice. Lets see if it survives along with the rest of my seedlings haha.

I find a small fan to move some air helps quite a bit when I move everything inside for the winter.

What light are you using? I have trouble with my phals when they flower near lights like that. The flowers twist and the inflourescens bend towards the light...ruins the nice pretty rows!

I have a key lime that I winter indoors. I keep it in a south east facing window. It's cool enough there that the darn thing does nothing but flower all winter! I had 3 large flushes of flowers between October and March this past winter! My understanding is cool growth flushes tend to be flowers while warm flushes tend to be foliage. The tree is less than 2' tall and I pulled over 70 fruits off it this summer so far! It looks more like a weeping key lime with all its weighted down branches. I still have a couple dozen fruit to pick in the next week or two. Citrus doesn't need to be large to grow fruit but they fo need to be large to support fruit! Otherwise it's basically a guy wire

Anyway...lots of random there. Good luck with your setup!

 

[LemonBonsai]

I find a small fan to move some air helps quite a bit when I move everything inside for the winter.

What light are you using? I have trouble with my phals when they flower near lights like that. The flowers twist and the inflourescens bend towards the light...ruins the nice pretty rows!

I have a key lime that I winter indoors. I keep it in a south east facing window. It's cool enough there that the darn thing does nothing but flower all winter! I had 3 large flushes of flowers between October and March this past winter! My understanding is cool growth flushes tend to be flowers while warm flushes tend to be foliage. The tree is less than 2' tall and I pulled over 70 fruits off it this summer so far! It looks more like a weeping key lime with all its weighted down branches. I still have a couple dozen fruit to pick in the next week or two. Citrus doesn't need to be large to grow fruit but they fo need to be large to support fruit! Otherwise it's basically a guy wire

Anyway...lots of random there. Good luck with your setup!

Ah yes I want to get a little plug in fan that I can have on an hour or two a day. As for the light its a feit electric LED full spectrum grow light.

Thats very interesting and good to know about temperature when its flushing. For now I would like to get more foliage on the tree anyways however I will keep that in mind when I want it to flower during my winter months! Thanks for the info

 

[LittleDingus]

Ah yes I want to get a little plug in fan that I can have on an hour or two a day. As for the light its a feit electric LED full spectrum grow light.

Thats very interesting and good to know about temperature when its flushing. For now I would like to get more foliage on the tree anyways however I will keep that in mind when I want it to flower during my winter months! Thanks for the info

The fans I have are Honeywell "mini-tower". They can be set to run for 2-4-6-8 hours at a time and auto shut off...plus they oscillate. I think I paid $25 for them from Amazon. Whenever I water or check on the plants, I set them to oscillate and run for 8 hours. The air movement is good for the plants...especially in the winter. I don't run the fan very high...just high enough to rustle the leaves a bit.

My temperature problem is just the opposite! I've had this lime for 5ish years now. It was on a slow downward spiral of losing more foliage than it grew but flowering like crazy! I used to pick off the buds constantly to try and encourage more energy into foliage. Before last summer I was starting to get worried I'd lose the tree The past two years I paid more attention to keeping it warmer in the spring and the growth flush I usually get in April/May is now more foliar than flower. I also fertilize _much_ more in the summer. I've been getting 2 flushes of growth in the summers now and both are much more vigorous. The latest flush is just finishing now...just in time for the tree to come back inside for the winter.

Here's a picture of my lime...sorry about the low quality. It's raining and I didn't feel like digging it out to get a better pic.



For whatever reason, the first flush from this season had yellow discoloring It looks like a mineral deficiency except that I had already started applying a citrus specific fertilizer a month or so before that growth broke. It's possible I had some imbalance issues that were preventing uptake, though. The latest flush looks normal.

Full disclosure: I _am not_ attempting to grow this particular tree as any sort of bonsai. I grow it for the fruit If you look close, you can see a few still on that I'll probably pick this weekend.

 

[LemonBonsai]

The fans I have are Honeywell "mini-tower". They can be set to run for 2-4-6-8 hours at a time and auto shut off...plus they oscillate. I think I paid $25 for them from Amazon. Whenever I water or check on the plants, I set them to oscillate and run for 8 hours. The air movement is good for the plants...especially in the winter. I don't run the fan very high...just high enough to rustle the leaves a bit.

My temperature problem is just the opposite! I've had this lime for 5ish years now. It was on a slow downward spiral of losing more foliage than it grew but flowering like crazy! I used to pick off the buds constantly to try and encourage more energy into foliage. Before last summer I was starting to get worried I'd lose the tree The past two years I paid more attention to keeping it warmer in the spring and the growth flush I usually get in April/May is now more foliar than flower. I also fertilize _much_ more in the summer. I've been getting 2 flushes of growth in the summers now and both are much more vigorous. The latest flush is just finishing now...just in time for the tree to come back inside for the winter.

Here's a picture of my lime...sorry about the low quality. It's raining and I didn't feel like digging it out to get a better pic.

View attachment 328289

For whatever reason, the first flush from this season had yellow discoloring It looks like a mineral deficiency except that I had already started applying a citrus specific fertilizer a month or so before that growth broke. It's possible I had some imbalance issues that were preventing uptake, though. The latest flush looks normal.

Full disclosure: I _am not_ attempting to grow this particular tree as any sort of bonsai. I grow it for the fruit If you look close, you can see a few still on that I'll probably pick this weekend.

Thanks for the tip on the fan. Ill check that one out. Love the little tree one question how many flushes do you tend to get a year? And how ling inbetween flushes does it usually take?

 

[LittleDingus]

Thanks for the tip on the fan. Ill check that one out. Love the little tree one question how many flushes do you tend to get a year? And how ling inbetween flushes does it usually take?

I brought it inside early October last fall. Since then, I have had 3 flushes that were flower only while it was inside in a bright south-east facing window. I brought it back outside during the 3rd flush...Aprilish...to catch some wind and insects and hopefully pollinate better. I don't typically have a fan on this tree where it's at when inside. Very few of the flowers were setting fruit Once outside, a more generous amount of them set Since being outside, it has had 2 flushes of folliage only. The second flush just ended a week or two ago. I expect the next flush to be in November...we'll see. I'm going to bring it inside a little earlier this year and hopefully keep it warmer in hopes that the next flush is more foliar. The winter flowers don't set well in the house anyway.

Keep in mind that mine is a key lime...a fairly small citrus as far as citrus go. Many citrus behave similarly, but grapefruit are typically a much larger tree than mine will ever hope to be!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I keep fans running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year running in my lights set ups. It really helps with the health of the plants, some trees, some orchids and other houseplants. Good air movement keeps pests down and results in healthier root growth too. Air moving over the soil in the pots gets oxygen down into the roots. It does not have to be a strong breeze, enough so grassy leaves would waive a little is all the breeze you need.

I like the new set of photos of your grapefruit. If I get time I might draw up a virtual if an idea comes to me.

 

[LemonBonsai]

I keep fans running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year running in my lights set ups. It really helps with the health of the plants, some trees, some orchids and other houseplants. Good air movement keeps pests down and results in healthier root growth too. Air moving over the soil in the pots gets oxygen down into the roots. It does not have to be a strong breeze, enough so grassy leaves would waive a little is all the breeze you need.

I like the new set of photos of your grapefruit. If I get time I might draw up a virtual if an idea comes to me.

Thanks for the tip I definatly want to get a fan and if you get around to that when you got time it would be much appreciated!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Don't forget to treat your succulents differently from your citrus. Bonk me if this is obvious, but succulents like it dry, and are extremely unhappy with wet roots. Citrus, on the other hand, love humidity, and wet (but not saturated) soil.