Drtreelove

[soidog2]

A few years ago, drtreelove sent me some orange trees.

I thought he would be pleased to see them now.

best regards !

[David48]

If all the white dots are presumably flowers ... you are in for a bumper crop ...

Were they 'grafted' on a Thai root stock?

If so, do you know what they used for the graft?

[soidog2]

You are correct about the flowers ; they were grafted: "som keaw wan"

I do not know the root stock, came from Chang Mai Area.

[xen]

Citrus has such a wonderful scent too . All those flowers and all that natural perfume.

[drtreelove]

That's great!! Thanks for posting the pics. Good plants is only half of the picture, good culture is the other half. You obviously are doing it right.

I don't get to check in on the forum too often now, I'm busy with my business in the San Francisco area. But my buddy ForeverFord alerted me that there was a post for me, so thanks.

By the way, I bought those orange trees at Kamtieng plant market in Chiang Mai, at a shop that specializes in fruit trees. Going out the back of Lotus/Tesco, straight down the center road past a big truck and taxi parking lot on the left, to the first left turn (at least it was a parking lot a couple of years ago; I hear CM is getting built up fast), the shop is on the opposite/south-west corner of that intersection. The owner, and his daughter I believe, are very good for information and always have good plant stock. I shipped them to Buriram by Nikhonchai Air bus service.

For citrus, keeping them watered is important, deeply and infrequently, but not daily and not over-wet at the base; they are subject to crown rot (aka Phytophthora Foot Rot and Root Rot) if not allowed to dry out between waterings. My father managed citrus orchards in Arizona where I grew up, I remember him flood irrigating with about 10 inches of water in burmed sections, every 10 days. (This was a hot desert climate and they did well with this frequency and amount) He allowed the foliar crowns to develop a full skirt all the way to the ground to shade the trunk and soil out to the dripline, and allowed the leaf litter to remain as mulch and nutrient replenishment. - - Healthy orange and grapefruit groves and delicious fruit. My friends and I played in the groves, took shade under the canopies in the hot summer sun, climbed and gorged ourselves on fruit, and sometimes had ripe grapefruit throwing fights, running and hiding behind trees, the predecessor to paint ball gun warfare; you knew when you'd been hit.

And Xen, yeah, the fragrance is intoxicating.

David, I don't know what root stock is used for grafting citrus in Thailand. In Arizona I know for oranges they used sour orange (Seville orange) because it produced more hardy and alkaline tolerant trees.

Citrus are vulnerable to several pest and disease conditions and require good management. If I were growing citrus in Thailand I probably would be doing scheduled 7 to 14 day pest suppression treatments with neem oil extract or other botanical spray to prevent pest infestations, and especially for asian citrus psyllid, the vector for the HLB bacterial disease (citrus greening disease). don